to ask how to stop bingeing

Most of the replies must be from people with no experience or understanding of eating disorders.

https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/

Regular meals to prevent feelings of restorations. Monitor your feelings, address the cause of your unhappiness. Beat website has a list of therapists. It’s not about will power or just not buying the food.

I know you have said you would not consider WLI s but I thought my experience might be useful to know. After 40 years of struggling and I really mean struggling to the point I was afraid to eat at times as I could not control the bingeing. I wasn't just morbidly obese, but had also developed severe acid reflux...and was still unable to stop bingeing. I turned to Mounjaro out of desperation. It was a revelation to me. The urge to binge disappeared right away to the point where I'd walk out of the supermarket with no junk food at all... I'd literally lost the urge for it.

I lost 4 stones in 9 months but more importantly, the break from the urge to binge allowed me to build up healthy eating habits.

I stopped taking Mounjaro five months ago and yes, the "food noise", the urge to binge has come back, but I've totally lost my taste for junk food, it makes me feel ill compared to my healthier food choices, so find it easier to take a step back from the urge to binge and look at the emotions triggering the urges.
I am now at a healthy BMI for the first time in 45 years!

I strongly believe binge eating can't be controlled by willpower or habit building. It's soul destroying trying and failing over and over...I endured it for over 40 years. It's a disease not a choice and these new weight loss drugs are the treatment. I'd go back on Mounjaro again if I found myself going back to binge eating, the way I'd go back to taking blood pressure pills if my blood pressure were to get out of control again. Funnily enough, I don't need blood pressure pills any more now my diet and weight are healthy.

Are you overweight OP and have you spent years dieting or thinking about it?

I have done both the above- overweight, spend lots of time sad about my weight and doing diets.

Then the last couple of years I’ve noticed this hoepless feeling as I’ve realised dieting doesn’t work, weight loss jabs have me bad side effects. The cycle of failing diets , restrictiveness and also will power only last so long - is torture.

Then I do the same- eat - really quickly without thinking and feel awful after. To me it’s like a dopamine hit and also oh I’m large anyway so sod it .

I can’t stop when I’m doing it? It’s horrible isn’t it

Well done. 5 days is amazing.

That’s amazing! Well done you! 😊 It’s not an easy thing to do so you should be so proud of yourself!

TBH , what you chose to eat isnt unhealthy , the only thing Id change there would be wholemeal or rye bread instead of granary - more fibre ( fillers )

And yay , well done on the added fruit , a great change

As a life long veg dodger. I now add something to every meal. So maybe in the past Id have a couple of rounds of bacon sandwiches - white bread , brown sauce, now I have a BLT on wholemeal - less bread, more fillings and I cant actually do two rounds and I use pickles instead of sauce , I adore pickled pink onions - but its all down to taste

But well done on the changes you have made in such a short time

I try and really make meals a nice event for myself, even if its just a boring lunch working from home. Make nice salad dressing. Use the good olive oil. Season your food. Use quality ingredients. Take time to make something that tastes delicious. Lay yourself a place setting at the table and drink your water out of a wine glass. Light a candle - make it a nice experience and the whole things feels more satisfying. Bingeing creeps in when (for me) I skimp on eating proper meals. Like if I just quickly grab a piece of toast for lunch eaten stood up in the kitchen then I'll lose control when evening rolls around.

I mix chocolate into things rather than eating it by itself. Rather than eating a whole bar of chocolate, chop up a couple of squares and mix it into a bowl of yoghurt, nuts and blueberries / strawberries and sprinkle a handful of dry coco pops on top - it makes a really nice bowl of dessert that satisfies all my cravings (crunchy, sweet, rich) but it also has loads of healthy things in and I feel genuinely full and satisfied after it; it takes quite a long time to eat. Whereas if I just ate the chocolate bar on its own I'd just be scratching around for the next thing to eat.

I'll give that a go @Changeusernameagainn. Thank you.

Read the Chimp Paradox, and everything will become clear.

Copied and paste from google: " The Chimp Paradox, developed by Professor Steve Peters, explains binge eating as a, "chimp hijack"—a situation where the emotional, impulsive part of the brain (the limbic system or "Chimp") overrides the logical, rational part (the frontal cortex or "Human"). The Chimp is driven by survival instincts to seek high-calorie foods for pleasure and safety, often resulting in impulsive overeating"

Congratulations OP 🎉. You're doing really well and I'm learning a lot from this thread.

I have a similar issue - as an example last night I had a filling tea with plenty of veg and protein, but 10 minutes after finishing it, despite feeling really full, I rushed to the kitchen and scarfed half a loaf of bread with butter and marmalade. No idea what that was about - nothing to do with hunger, clearly. It felt like an overwhelming craving for something sweet and also fatty.

I think alcohol is definitely a trigger for me - I had a big can of Stella as a 'treat' on the train home after a 12 hour day. The evening went downhill after that 🥺

Relationships with food are just really complicated, aren't they? All my life food has been a source of comfort, and I very rarely eat because I'm hungry.

Yay! So that’s 2 days down. You’re doing so well. Every day you are proving to yourself that you can do this.

Maybe try eating some green veg every day? Fibre's great for filling you up, as well as for gut health and all kinds of stuff.

You’re doing really well OP. Once you’ve had your last meal, brush your teeth. It will stop you feeling able to snack as nothing tastes nice after toothpaste! 😊 Also, it puts me off eating later as I don’t want to have to brush my teeth again!

Just want to say OP, really a lot of the strategies here are not from people who have eating disorders or problems. Ways of restricting are not very helpful since we're already stuck in a cycle of stress/ panic about food. Food is both a source of great fear and comfort. The true answer is to make changes to overcome the love/ hate obsession with food altogether. I really recommend the book.

Sounds like a good start but make sure you don’t restrict too much. Maybe add in another small meal or a protein based snack so you aren’t getting too hungry.

If this is any help to you OP, I tend to find it easier to avoid sweet things completely,
than to just have a small portion as I find sugar is a bit addictive so if I have one chocolate I end up eating the whole box. I find that natural yogurt with a blob of nut butter makes a good snack and once I get on the ‘zone’, I can eat like this for a few weeks.

I’m currently psyching myself up to restart,
although the idea of losing food noise with WLIs makes them very tempting.

I agree that not having those triggering foods in the house helps (if I know they are there I will eat them so family sized or multipacks are a def no no!).
Also try and forgive yourself and start a new day with a sensible diet. Dont restrict loads, just try and eat healthy. Ive done so much damage to my diet in the past by getting into a spiral of self hate and telling myself I might as well keep eating....never a good idea!