Possible Way to Deal W/ Binge Eating?

In My Humble Opinion
21

Do you ever miss those foods, though? I mean, I’ve read about your weight loss success and how much you lost and how long you kept it off and I think that’s great and I’m really happy you found a system that works for you. I think in my ideal world, I’d like to be the type of person who can eat one Oreo on Monday, a couple on Weds, ignore the package (without thinking about it) until I go hog wild on Sat and eat four, and then one again on Tues, you know.

But maybe that is just not possible for me. We’ll see.
I guess I just won’t consider my battle with “trigger foods” won for me if it comes down to avoidance.

This is not quite the extent my binges go to (usually they stop at around 2,000 cals but previously I could go as high as 4,000 cals). I’m sorry to hear you’re going through this,RushGeekGirl. I hope you can improve your situation.

Thanks for those kind words! Unfortunately, they don’t really address these issues in med school . . . pretty sure it’s something they farm out to the psychologists.

What med school has helped really cement in my head is how bad being overweight can be. Yeesh. Diabetes, man. You know, even if I’m overweight, I never want that disease. So, at any size, I try to at least be active (I am lucky in that I love running).

So anyways, knowing how much the wrong foods in too great a quantity can mess you up has really helped. Last night I really wanted to binge so I kept asking myself, “What is that you’re so willing to mortgage your health and happiness for?” and that staved it off for a bit. For a bit. I ended up binging on popcorn cause I had “gone over” my cals for the day (was at 1900 instead of 1500) so I was like, “fuck it.”

Anyways, I’m hoping this technique will help suppress the urge to binge. I’ve taken the plunge and bought two whole bags of tortilla chips, two bags of halloween candy, and a huge carton of Goldfish crackers. I will not throw these packages out until the food in them is gone (I usually binge and throw the remainder away). I will either emerge from this over trigger foods or in a diabetic coma :D.

22

It’s so good to have someone in the same boat! PM me if you ever want to talk about it. I’ll update the thread in a month letting you know how it turned out.

23

I used to binge eat, but I don’t any more. What worked for me was awareness practice, trying to be aware of what was going on in my head before and during a binge (what kind of conversations was I having with myself, who were the players), and also trying to eat mindfully, e.g. what does this really taste like, what’s the texture, how does it feel to eat it, how do I feel afterwards. After a while it became apparent that a) I was eating to fill an emotional need. b) Food was effective as a stopgap, but ultimately didn’t help me feel better and c) Giving myself what I really need is much more satisfying, and takes away the desire to overeat as well.

Sounds to me like there is something pretty powerful driving your eating if it will get you out of the house at 1 a.m. Might be worth exploring what.

24

I know the suggestion posed by Annie X-Mas definitely would not work for me. It’s much easier for me to resist temptation when I’m at the store than when I have it there in front of me. If I’m craving a certain type of food but getting it would require getting dressed, going out, driving somewhere, buying it, and driving back… then it’s a hell of a lot easier to stay away from than a whole cupboard full of it. Also agree that you need to address your underlying psychological issues (which is not easy and something I’m still working on).

25

Things you’ve probably heard and/or tried that may help:

When you eat, EAT. Don’t do anything else. Sit down in a chair at a table and eat. Don’t watch TV, or surf the internet or check the Dope or read a book or shuffle through your mail. Just eat. I get so bored doing that that I decide that I don’t really want any more food, because there might be a thread on the Dope that’s go new posts in it and I need to check it NOW! :smiley:

When you want to eat, drink first. Water, I mean! Lots of us have our hunger and thirst signals all mixed up, and we crave especially fatty foods with some liquid content, like ice cream, when what our bodies are really asking for is water. When I’m hungry between meals now, I drink 2 large glasses of water and wait 20 minutes. If I’m still hungry, I eat, but often I get distracted and don’t remember I’m “hungry” until an hour or more later. The water was what my body needed.

Eat mindfully. When I really took notice of how I was eating, I realized that I had one bite in my mouth, another in my hand and my fork was reaching for a third. I wasn’t even really aware of the bite in my mouth because I had my next two lined up ready to be shoveled in. Now I take a bite, put my fork down and really concentrate on the flavor, odor and texture of what’s in my mouth. This slows me way down and I often end up eating less.

Give yourself permission to unjoin the Clean Plate Club. Even if there’s just one bite left, it’s not “wasting food” to throw it out rather than send it straight to your hips (or pancreas!). If you’ve been binging and don’t catch yourself until there’s two Oreos left, there’s still no reason to eat the last two Oreos. Stop yourself whenever you stop yourself, and that’s okay. Put the box back in the pantry and enjoy the last two tomorrow.

26

Honestly, rarely. Occasionally, my inner three year old stomps around that it’s NOT FAIR I can’t have scones or cookies or whatever sets her off. I usually remind myself that I had that chance in my life to eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted and it didn’t make me happy. I was a fat, depressed, lethargic woman. Yay for scones.

And my life is not horrible deprivation. I cut out the things that were easy to cut out. I don’t LOVE Doritos (as an example). If I started eating Doritos out of an open bag, I would just eat and eat and eat, but eh, it’s Doritos. The foods I love - peanut butter, chocolate, cake, pie, eggnog, I make room for. I just manage it. For example tonight, we’re going out to dinner. I’m going to have a glass of wine, a nice entree and I’m going to split a chocolate soufflee dessert (this restaurant is known for it).

I’m happy, size 6, closet full of cute clothes, no fear of the camera, no bad guilty feelings of eating out of control, no self loathing AND chocolate soufflee dessert. Life is good.

PS - hog wild is 4 Oreos? My hog wild was a package of Oreos with an ice cream chaser.

27

Haha, no, not for me, but for my “ideal” normal-food-relationship-having person it would be :slight_smile:

28

I agree, it’s not about having large stocks of the food right there in your house as much as it is about giving yourself permission to eat whatever you want whenever you want. You need to subtract feeling from food, it isn’t love, or company when you’re lonely or social approval or a place to put rage…it’s just fuel for your body.

If you can really get through to yourself that it’s *your *choice, eventually you’ll start making better choices. It may take a while (that’s ok) but until you are truly eating whatever you like guilt free you’re not in control of your eating, the guilt is.

Let go of the guilt, tell it to F-off and take a hike.

29

Like others, I find myself in the situation that if I eat any trigger foods (and to me, that’s just about anything), I will eat, and eat, and eat. And I don’t feel ill until hours later. It’s made more difficult by the fact that my wife eats pretty much nothing but junk food, most of which I really like and I have to go to the store to buy. I’ve managed to, for the most part, avoid eating the crap at home. It’s much more of an issue when I go out to poker games or parties, where I just let myself go nuts. I usually pay for it on the way home and the next morning.

I’ve managed to lose and keep off ~160 pounds since Jan 2008 through sheer force of will and worrying about appearing a failure if I don’t. Losing the weight hasn’t made me happier at all.

30

One thing to remember: losing weight is like getting yourself out of debt. For a while, you have to live well beneath your means because you were living well above your means for a time. But once you get caught up, you have a lot more disposable income than you ever realized. Once you are maintaining, it’s amazing how much you can eat. This doesn’t mean you can eat mindlessly–you still have to make choices and monitor–but you do have some good options. You can have the things you really like.

31

I had a ballet teacher who taught us that you never really taste a food past the third bite. After that you are just eating fro the texture and because your animal nature encourages you to. She’s really quite correct. If I buy a dessert, eat three bites and leave the rest, I actually leave feeling better than when I scarf the whole thing.

Developing an awareness of this may help you learn to eat these foods sanely.

32

Damn, you had to go and mention peanut butter and chocolate, the two things I’ve been craving most.

And the worst thing about my binging is that it only happens late at night, exactly the wrong time to be eating. And I go through the whole spectrum of tastes. I need something sweet, then something salty, then something sour, then something cold, then something crunchy . . . .

33

This is my stance on the binge/overeating thing, the only method that has worked for me.
Same with booze. I don’t keep any in the house. If I have it around, I drink it 'til it’s all gone and I need to get more. :o

Someone said that eating is not an addiction - but overeating/binging certainly can be.
Eating sugary/high glycemic foods produces a chemical addiction - it spikes your blood sugar, results in release of dopamine, a high of sorts - then follows with a lull - physical, mental, and emotional. If one can get off of the high glycemic kick, even for a few weeks, the cravings for those kind of foods will lessen. Try it… if you can muster getting away from it, it works. Remember though, if you succumb to the sugar again, you’ll be right back on it, it’s just like booze or dope.

You only have one chance to live your life. Being fit, energetic, and in good health will make what seems at first like a sacrifice, well worth it. It’s the only way to become old, being in as good a shape as possible. Find an aerobic workout that you like or at least can stand and do it.

And just say no to the sugary processed garbage.

34

I’d just like to comment on what a few people in this thread have said:

I’ve heard quite a bit of, “I can’t imagine eating so much of a food that I would get sick of it . . . I would never get sick of my trigger foods.” I don’t think the idea behind this diet is keeping tons of food in the house so that you eat tons of it and then finally you’re like, “man, chocolate is gross. Time for celery!” For me at least, it’s addressing the reason behind why I binge on particular foods. Those foods for some reason, are in my brain considered “forbidden” or “scarce.” Even maybe “wrong” or “sinful” (although I’m not religious). I think they’ve been branded that way for me since adolescence. That, I think, is what drives me to want them.

Not keeping them in the house doesn’t work for me because clearly whatever drives me to binge is so strong that I’ll get up at 1 in the morning and go to the grocery store just for these foods. So now, by making them plentiful and open and not shameful, I’m hoping I can rebrand them in my head as just food, like the bananas on the counter, rather than “evil, shameful.”

I think for me a life of avoidance of these foods would only mean they still had that power over me.

Anyways, I’ll see how this goes. If it massively fails, I can always go back to just not buying them.

35

Let us know how it works out for you! You’re already ahead of the game by trying to get a handle on these issues at only 26 years old. Best of luck.

36

Ever notice how you eat on a binge? Shovel in as much as possible as fast as possible. Here’s something to try:

Go out and get lots of M&Ms. Put them all in a bowl. Get your favorite drink to wash them down.

Start eating them one at a time. Eat one slowly and enjoy it fully. Then take a sip of whatever you are drinking. Ask yourself “Have I had enough?”

Keep track of how many you eat before you hit “enough.”

37

Thanks!

38

I just wanted to elaborate on a couple things.

That overwhelming urge to binge? I don’t believe you can just white-knuckle through it or eat mindfully or use smaller plates or drink a large glass of water with your food, or any of that dieting stuff to deal with it. The dieting and nutrition tips are great - but they address different problems from that binge compulsion. And trying to just be “good” and strong-willed enough to resist is asking too much of most human beings, IMHO.

I can only speak to my own experience, but I have come to realize that most of my compulsion to overeat “naughty” foods comes from two sources. One, you are trying to deal with by not declaring any food forbidden - I think rebellion against “them” (whoever you perceive as pressuring you not to eat X, whether it’s your mother, your own superego, or a diffuse sense of society at large doing it) is a big motivator to binge.

The other source of compulsion for me is an underlying, long-unexamined belief that I cannot handle discomfort. Any stress, bad feeling, or psychological pressure MUST be anesthetized immediately. My anesthesia of choice is food. This is where mindfulness really helped me break through my binge eating: you learn to listen to those subconscious ideas that are driving you all day, without you even knowing it; you also learn that discomfort is impermanent, it is OK to just sit with discomfort, and you can trust yourself to handle it without blocking it out.

Also, I’d say do whatever you can to exterminate that “on the wagon/off the wagon” mentality. It is so poisonous! The truth is there’s no reason to arbitrarily pick 24 hours as the minimum time you must be “perfect” with your diet, and that it’s an all-or-nothing proposition. Each choice you make adds to a melange - if the majority of choices are conducive to health, you will be healthy, even if you go crazy one time and eat way more than you planned/hoped. And it is always, always healthier to stop overeating when you notice it, rather than that being a trigger to overeat even more! Even if you abstain from eating just the last Dorito in the bag, that is a step in the right direction.

I hope your experiment works for you. I do think you’re onto something trying to remove the labels of good-allowed and bad-forbidden from food. Let us know how it’s going!

39

I don’t think my problem was binge eating triggered by certain foods (Hell, I’d binge on carrots if that was all that was left!), but rather binging from boredom or stress, so take this for what it’s worth…

The thing that really helped me was throwing away (okay, donating to Goodwill) all my dinner plates and just keeping the salad/side plates. I gave myself permission to eat as much as I wanted, but everything had to be eaten off a plate. I could even go back for seconds (or thirds or fourths or, well…), but those had to fit on a plate, too.

It really helped, I think, to make the realization of what I was eating set in faster. Three salad plates of potato chips is still a lot of calories, but it’s a lot fewer than three bags of chips. This method slowed me down and made me face what I was eating, but without the “Hey, you can’t have chips!” guilt.

40

Maybe you should consult a doctor. Binge eating can be a symptom of something else.

I have suffered from binge eating most of my adult life. I sometimes managed to get it under control for a few months, and lose a lot of weight in the process. But then the cravings for carb laden foods would return. This time last year for example I weighed 26 kg (57 pounds) less than I do now.

I recently consulted a psychiatrist due to my long standing bouts with depression and constant social phobia. His diagnosis was atypical depression, one of the symptoms being binge eating.

3 weeks ago I started medication which has greatly reduced (but so far not eliminated) my food cravings.