Binge eating, can't stop

[Ineedastyleicon]

Please help. I just can't stop binge eating, it's absolutely ridiculous and I don't know why I do it. It's like an addiction, I've had therapy and BWRT and for months I was doing really well but this past week I've just stiffed chocolate, chips, crackers, cheese and I cannot stop.
What can I do?

Part of recovering from bingeing is accepting that it’s a mental health issue and learned behaviour and you aren’t ever cured. There will be times you slip into old habits and this is one of them. You need to forgive yourself and move on.

The all or nothing approach doesn’t work either.

I have been a binge eater for 25 years. It is a daily struggle, like an alcoholic. Sometimes I am fine for years. Other times I am off the wagon for years. Since the pandemic, I’ve been terrible. It is what it is.

I got Saxenda on prescription and it had helped. Can only have it if BMI is obese. When I did binge on it after restricting I was soooo soooo sick, Had a break from it for a few months so I could binge without being sick 😳
Now I’m back on it and listening to that brain over binge podcast and just eating like a normal person, 3 small meals a day, reasonable snacks, dessert if I want it. Don’t normally want much as it massively reduces your appetite but deliberately not restricting so I don’t fall off the wagon and binge. Not calorie counting.

Hi - I struggle with binge eating (often purge) and have done for many years . Have tried therapy a couple of times but the only thing that helps me is to cut out all sugar and processed carbs and eat to satiety protein fats veg . If I count calories it massively triggers me to binge

I’ve had a bad spell since I had Covid actually as could only eat carbs so am today gonna go back to focusing on low carb eating . Take a couple of days but then the craving just goes -don’t try to restrict what you eat in terms of quantity so long as it’s no sugar / processed carbs ! Good luck OP, it’s soul destroying I know ! X

@GeneLovesJezebel

I eat when bored. The trick is to not have it in the house, but my DH and kids want this stuff in, so I can’t avoid it.

Me too, it's like my mouth is bored 😂 I have had some success with low calorie hot choc instead of having a packet of biscuits. It's a nice "treat" with a splash of milk, but I will often find a reason to pop to the shop and buy something later on. I'm certainly only able to stop at the end of the packet.

I am also pre diabetic so I really need to improve and I have it's just hard and smaller steps are easier than stopping everything 😟 I've stopped crisps and I'm having extra chicken or ham or Cheese with lunch instead.

@ExactlyThis when I had my eating under control, my drinking was not. It's as if I need some release. My parents were quite controlling about treats ( for health purposes and money, they would keep them for themselves) but we were unfit podgy children anyway. Just they controlled everything so weren't allowed out to cycle or play. So I know it's a sod it break free rebellion thing but it's hard to stop. Will try the podcasts suggested.

Follow Binge Eating Dietician on Instagram. The worst possible thing you can do is restrict your food, denying yourself the foods your body craves is what leads to bingeing. The important thing is to take the power out of the binging, stop feeling guilty stop being hard on yourself. Instead of cutting certain foods out try adding in more vegetables during the day and in parallel work with a therapist about healing your relationship with food but in order to do that you cannot be dieting. My therapist refused to treat me unless I gave up Dieting.

Can you bribe yourself?

For instance when you think your deserve a nice treat force yourself to do something else first, like long run and or walk, finish the tasks in your house or sort out next weeks shopping or something and then the urge for the treat may have gone or changed ?

I'm using saxenda and I don't even think about food anymore.

The week before I come on I used to be like Pac-Man through the cupboards but with saxenda I literally had a couple of sweets and put the rest away.

It's so nice to just eat at normal times, a normal amount and not have to think about food.

If you used it with the books and podcasts I imagine it would be really helpful.

@Liverpoolkate

Follow Binge Eating Dietician on Instagram. The worst possible thing you can do is restrict your food, denying yourself the foods your body craves is what leads to bingeing. The important thing is to take the power out of the binging, stop feeling guilty stop being hard on yourself. Instead of cutting certain foods out try adding in more vegetables during the day and in parallel work with a therapist about healing your relationship with food but in order to do that you cannot be dieting. My therapist refused to treat me unless I gave up Dieting.

1000% this. It aligns with the book I recommended earlier (The Fuck It Diet). It feels counter intuitive but it is so freeing to not have rules around food and to just eat food when you want to. It was life changing for me. Please look up the book.

Love yourself.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve already had six wagon wheels and a family pack of onion rings.

Go back out and buy a £10 steak you cook with love (and lots of butter).

The worst thing about this is that we tend to doubly-punish ourselves with shit quality food and I think our bodies become even more confused.

I’m nowhere near out of the woods and also need to take my saxenda jag in a minute - but I’ve also got duck breasts I’m going to cook today. My body deserves better.

Another book - “when you eat at the refrigerator- pull up a chair”.

I 1000% agree with this too. When I'm not dieting or thinking about dieting I've been my best self, I regards to weight and mental health.

Sorry my quotes aren't coming up but that I regards to STOP DIETING.

@Liverpoolkate

Follow Binge Eating Dietician on Instagram. The worst possible thing you can do is restrict your food, denying yourself the foods your body craves is what leads to bingeing. The important thing is to take the power out of the binging, stop feeling guilty stop being hard on yourself. Instead of cutting certain foods out try adding in more vegetables during the day and in parallel work with a therapist about healing your relationship with food but in order to do that you cannot be dieting. My therapist refused to treat me unless I gave up Dieting.

Here.

Thank you to everyone posting and giving advice.

I have come to the conclusion that my 'comfort' eating is an eating disorder just as much as my bulimia was as a teenager. I have disordered eating and not diagnosed but I believe a binge eating disorder.

I stopped drinking alcohol a year and a half ago and it has given me the space to address my eating issues too.

I listened to Richard Osman talk about his binge eating disorder and it gave me the impetus to believe I could really do something about it.

I have spent the last year doing various things to support me to stop dieting which is where I think it comes from as well as some other hangups leftover from a mother who also had disordered eating but in a different way.

I feel I am finally understanding it a bit more and what helps and what doesn't.

My triggers are Friday/weekend off, tiredness and feeling overwhelmed with a busy life.

The main breakthrough I have had though is to eat more! Which sounds crazy but it has worked. I kept a food diary and the main aim was to eat.
Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack. No cutting out any of them. If i missed one by accident fine I didn't berate myself but if I over ate at one I still ate at the next food stop, I would just eat a little less. I wouldn't necessarily have them at exact times.

This has had a couple of affects.
One, my body trusts that there is food later if I'm hungry. I'm not in feast or famine mode so I don't over eat as much. I've not got that feeling of "well I must stuff as much in as it may be some time til I'll 'allow' myself to eat again"

And, sometimes now I miss ones out. Because I genuinely am not hungry. And that's quite a revelation. Of course, i know, or more, my body now knows that if I'm hungry later I can eat. I am listening to hunger triggers rather than emotional ones.

It also helped me to see when I was eating because I was hungry or when I was bored, tired or emotional.

The other thing I did was each meal could be healthier. I was aware of making this meal healthy, if I wanted to eat crap next time I could.

But I wasn't in any way counting calories or limiting each meal. I wasn't eating a meal less than anyone else because I felt I had to. I am enjoying good food.

I've also found other things to fill that gap when I am emotional eating. Baths, walks, hugs, read a book, nap or rest.

It has been a bit of a journey for want of a better word and I have had to let go of the ideal weight i think I should be. But of course, now I'm eating much more normally and more healthily I am naturally losing weight. Slowly but it feels sustainable this time and in no way do I feel I'm dieting or trying to lose weight. It was all about letting go of how I felt around food rather than how I looked.

I feel I've turned a corner actually over the last little while, had some great support on here, but it has taken a while to unravel all the bad habits I had around food and weight.

Things that I feel have supported me to get to this better place...

Hypnotherapy (just the Paul McKenna app - but it helped turn round my thinking a year ago,).

Eating mindfully. Thinking about what I'm eating and more slowly. Trying not to eat standing up at the fridge. Treat myself to a plate at the table.

Adding IN food. I have a thread called "eating our 10 a day" . This helped me change my mindest from limiting to abundance.

And the biggest one that I've just finished, the 3 meals and 3 snacks a day. This has been the biggest winner for me.

Also, not having so much crap in. We used to buy the most ridiculous amount of crisps on a Friday. And eat them all. Me most of all. So, we still have crisps but we don't buy the whole aisle of crisps.

I have been doing a project on discipline this year. Every month I let go of something that i feel is out of control and add in something that is good for me. Some of these have been food, some not. ( last month I gave up mumsnet for instance). It's helping me to believe that I have a level of self control.

I also know that I'm going to have times where I'm more in control of this and times when I wont be. And that is surprisingly okay now.

I've started doing guided meditations I found on youtube. I just sob all the way through them and I don't even know what I'm crying about, but clearly something needs releasing. I haven't binged once since I started doing it.

@BringBackCoffeeCreams

I've started doing guided meditations I found on youtube. I just sob all the way through them and I don't even know what I'm crying about, but clearly something needs releasing. I haven't binged once since I started doing it.

May I ask which ones?

Don't buy the stuff is really the long and short of it. Been there. I have weight to lose, and always quickly dish out sweet treats to all the children so there's deliberately nothing for myself.

May I ask which ones?

I'm using these Christian ones. But there's lots of others available if you google 'guided meditation'.

www.youtube.com/channel/UCYHNCCOgpneMbFBVaNdBYNA/videos

@BusterGonad

I'm the same. Mine is due to boredom and the fact (in my mind) that I've got no reason to look good. I don't really go out, I don't work, I have no social life. My day to day life is being in the house, husband at work, son at school. I used to take great care in my appearance when I worked but now I don't see the point. I'm still buying the clothes and make up in the hope my Outlook will change, but it gets shoved in the wardrobe never to been seen again. I've been making a real effort this week to NOT binge, I tell myself that the biscuits are available to eat whenever I want, I don't need to eat them all today, they are in the cupboard and available in the shops. It's all about knowing you can eat them whenever you want. The biggest thing is to STOP RESTRICTING and stop telling yourself that TOMORROW you will diet. Dieting is the root cause of binge eating. We are so used to restricting and our bodies are binging the food in preparation for the next diet. The book (available online for free) Never Binge Again is very helpful. A win for me is a day where I eat like a normal person! 3 meals and 2 snacks. 😊 Regardless of calories etc. The joy I get when I'm no longer a slave to food is amazing.

Can you get a job or something else to focus on? Even if that thing is not wanting to feel the way you do anymore. Sorry you feel hopeless, it sounds hard.

Reading these responses, it seems like the way you term unhealthy high fat high sugar as "treats" is the problem. How is it a treat? It might taste nice for a minute or two but it ruins your health, your well-being, your confidence, often your life expectancy. That's a punishment not a treat.

I can't really work as I'm living outside of the UK and my husband is the one with the work permit, so to speak. Getting older doesn't help either as things naturally change with your body. I think for me I need to get out in the fresh air more. Move more and ditch my sedentary behavior and its a vicious cycle.

I can't agree more with the recommendations for the Brain Over Binge podcast or book. It honestly changed my life, no exaggeration.

@roarfeckingroarr

Reading these responses, it seems like the way you term unhealthy high fat high sugar as "treats" is the problem. How is it a treat? It might taste nice for a minute or two but it ruins your health, your well-being, your confidence, often your life expectancy. That's a punishment not a treat.

I am 4 stone overweight and completely agree

I actually brain over binge

All I can come up with is that in my family feelings were eaten never voiced