To ask how to stop binge eating

[coffeeplease16]

I'm really hoping some of you might be able to help, especially those who have overcome binge eating yourselves - how do I stop???

After recovering from a period of severe restrictive eating I have been caught in a cycle of bingeing and restricting varying from a size 8 to a size 14, dropping weight and then rapidly gaining it

My weight is now at its highest and I'm desperate to stop but I just don't seem able to. I binge mainly on sweet things (especially chocolate in huge quantities) Otherwise my diet is very healthy!

Does anyone have any tips/how did they overcome this? Its got to the point where it affects every area of my life

I have tried most obvious things like don't keep junk in the house (I just go out and buy it especially at night)

Also I am not in a position to seek professional help so please don't suggest that.

Rebelfit.co.uk

Read it all.

Go low carb, REALY, properly low carb (20g or less a day). Preferably also grain free (tho you'd struggle to eat many on

Fuelledbybacon, great name, great post!

I recognised my typical binge eating times & went out a walk. I tried to distract myself & break the habit by doing something else. It did work. It took about 3 weeks & a lot of walking but I lost the craving for food & sugar. I can take or leave a sweet thing now but I've lost the need my body had & I don't get the same instant sugar high. In fact sugar makes me feel a bit yuk & bloated now when previously I could happily have eaten 3 whole cheesecakes. I ate beyond the point of enjoyment but I still didn't stop.

Seminormal- in my case "giving up sugar" means reducing ALL carbs, all carbs are sugar. On a typical day I'll have between 50-70g total carbohydrates. Most of that is from non starchy veg and salad. Some berries and nuts, and a small portion of dark chocolate every day! I love chocolate.
I've been low carb for a number of years (and lost a lot of weight).

You could label my diet as lchf, Paleo/primal/ancestral - basically as little processed food as I can managed, lots of green leafy stuff, fish,eggs and meats cooked from scratch.

I have done it on BIWI's bootcamp thread. Very supportive and lots of experienced people on there. Come and join us, we have just finished a bootcamp, but are hanging around. I think the next BC is likely to start mid May.

I agree with Lesley. Exercise exercise exercise. Somehow it helps.

Like fueledbybacon and CaptainBranndPants I to stopped eating sugar and starch over a year ago. Why? Because I was addicted to sugar, sadly. I couldn't stop eating the bloody stuff in all its forms.

It is only now I no longer eat it at all (the only carbs I eat are from some low carb veggies) that I find I don't feel the need to binge. I have a sense of freedom and calmness for the first time in my life.

It took me some months to commit to doing it, mind, because I didn't want to give up my sugary shite. I mean, how would I cope? What would I do if I couldn't use carbs to numb myself when I binged? It wouldn't work, would it? Well it very soon became clear that once I was away from the insanity all things sugar/starch, I calmed down and started feeling great, really improved my moods. I no longer needed to binge to feel better because I just felt good all the time.

I do Low Carb Healthy Fat and, over a year later still love this way of eating. I have also reduced from a size 24 to a 12, halved my body fat % from 60% to 30% so far. Never hungry, can eat butter, bacon, cream, gorgeous steaks, eggs, cheese galore, all sorts of wonderful stuff. Do I miss the sugar? No way, I've swapped it for health, satiety, yummy fat with my food . Have a look at www.dietdoctor.com for some information, do your research, look at the mn boot camp too.

If you don't eat meat is it still possible to low carb?

I know I'm addicted to sugar but worry that if I cut out all carbs it won't leave me with much.

You are my people. The only thing that has worked in the past got me is completely cutting the sugar. Find it impossible to have 'just a bit' as then my cravings kick in again and am back to square one.

Feeling positive for the future and sugar free is nof at all bleak. Just impacts social eating etc.

1. Heal the wounds that cause you to binge eat. Examine the hole/emptiness/depression that causes you to do it.

1. Find something that you like better than binge eating.

(Don't underestimate the power of 2. above).

Do not under any circumstances go on yet another diet!

thank you so much everyone, your response have already helped! good luck to everyone going through the same thing. I am definitely going to try and greatly cut down on my sugar consumption. People that have cut it out - do you still eat fruit or is even that a no go.

I do occasionally now, but not in the beginning. Be warned, you'll feel like actual shit if you go cold turkey on all sugar straight away-I had the fuzziest headache for days and I did it with refined sugar first-but it's worth it. I found cutting out all the refined sugar first was the best thing for me and that actually made me less inclined to want the sweet choices. For example, I think nothing nowadays of having a quarter of a cucumber when I would have had an orange before. Neither can be said to be unhealthy by any means, but I just seem to usually prefer the less sweet options. Good luck!

I only read the first post, so some of this may have already been said.
I think I have a food addiction. I am trying ever do hard to curb the cravings and be better. There are a few things I'm finding to be really helpful.

Ibe started to eat from scratch. Only v healthy stuff. I aim for 10 portions of fruit and veg each day or 70% of my meal being vegetable.
Bananas are my life saver. I go to the cinema a lot. My go to snacks have been grapes in a Tupperware pot, or carrot batons, with a litre bottle of water.
I find the more I drink the better I feel. And less I need to gannit.

I generally eat half the carbs I ate before, and I think it's worth saying, the devils son is bread. I actually find I crave stodgy/sweet rubbish food if I dare to eat bread, slightly better with wholemeal.

Dark chocolate is another that's great. I can't eat much of it, I always have a 200g bar and I can actually help myself with it. Have a few squares and then lose interest.

I have found that allowing myself to recognise the craving but making an active decision to not eat the bad foods I feel empowered... this isn't the usual stance. Most people trying to overcome addiction of some sort of another usually find a different thing to do so they can't concentrate on what they can't have, but it works a different way in my brain.

And whatever you do, do not treat yourself with food. Hard day? Food won't make it better. Your birthday? This shouldn't mean slap up meal and wine. Find another interest. This is all working for me. 2 stone down.another 9 to go!

*the200g bar is in the house. Not for me solely if I fancy chocolate!,

Op, regarding fruit- I tend to stick to the lower carb ones, berries, the occasional apple too, but not much fruit. More green veg...

Sounds quite a bit like me. I want things (ice cream/chocolate/cake/biscuits) purely because I know they taste good. Nothing to do with hunger at all. I never daydream about sprouts for example. Lately I have been obsessed with Haagen Daaz Salted Caramel and eaten tubs and tubs of it. I think I lack the self control that others have.

I cut all fruit apart from a few berries and apples to begin with, maybe 2-3wks, then introduce more but honestly after a few weeks you don't crave the rubbish.

Just wish I would stick to it for longer and not start back on the rubbish because it's Easter, bday etc

Sorry OP, I'm going to post something that will probably get me flamed but it's my experience with a sister who binged, The only thing that worked was being totally honest with herself and admitting she was 'greedy'. She literally ate until she couldn't move.

She made of list of 'rules'

I will only eat until I feel full up
I will have 3/4 of my plate full of veg
I won't have fattening foods until a Friday night - 'treat night'
I will cook from scratch
I will admit that I'm not obese because of some medical problem, but because I'm greedy and love food. I know some people will slate this but this is my sister's issue with food.

She's managed to lose 2st 3lb in 16 weeks sticking to this - so proud of her. It really is luck of the draw how you relate to food - I'm 49 kilos and can eat what I want without putting a pound on - I appreciate that's the exception rather than the rule though

kiki I'm not going to flame you, but I do think you are wrong. I also don't think it's useful to label overweight people as greedy. That's been done for aeons and it just leads to guilt, shame and, often, more overeating.
I do think some people like the taste of food more, especially sweet food, but I now firmly believe that this can lead to addiction and isn't just greed.
Also, binging is slightly different as it is not constant overeating (unless you are in a really bad phase of binging when you are constantly binging, which I have done previously) but is eating normally, and often healthily, with episodes of uncontrollable eating. As someone described up the thread, it is eating passed the point of satiation. I have sometime eaten so much crap that I feel sick, but I have carried on eating because it is there. Now, don't tell me that is greed. It made me feel physically and emotionally like shit.
I'm not "greedy" any more because I'm not eating sugar and I'm free from the addiction. But I need to be really careful, as if I do have sugar it can spark me off again. I also agree with the PP who mentioned bread, it is one of my biggest triggers.
So, maybe a bit more sympathy and understanding rather than labelling people greedy would be nice.

Also the psychology of it - I tell myself I'm greedy all the time and my mum used to call me miss piggy as a child and still does sometimes - that's negative self talk and it's a poor long term motivator to to change behaviour. Telling yourself your body deserves looking after with healthy food is better.

In fact it usually goes I'm a greedy pig so I may as well eat all of that because that's what greedy pigs do.

I am very concerned about the number of posts suggesting giving up carbs completely/almost completely/giving up fruit. OP says that binging is coming about after recovering from a period of severe restrictive eating

For many people recovering from severe restrictive eating such as anorexia binging is a common problem. The answer is not in completely cutting out entire food groups as this just perpetuates the binge/starve cycle. Although some people who have stopped binging have found controlling carbs useful it isn't recommended that people with eating disorders, particularly restrictive ones, cut out entire food groups. The whole anti carb thing is a fad…a recurring fad…and not a healthy one. Carbs help us to produce serotonin, whole grain ones have important vitamins/ minerals, plant inulin which helps with digestion, the contribute to feelings of satiety, and dieticians don't recommend cutting them out if you have an eating disorder.

Danger- I understand what you are saying about eating disorders, but for a lot of people (me amongst them), the carbs themselves are causing the problem, due to the way they affect blood sugar, and mood.

I've had genetic testing done ( 23andme), and before I did, I correctly predicted (based on my issues with appetite control and hunger levels), that I would have a double copy of all the "fat genes" FTO, leptin resistance and so on. About 20% of the population have genetics similar to me, and we are unfortunately not well suited to the modern food environment where very, very high levels of processed carbohydrates are seen as "normal food" - these drive a cycle of blood sugar spikes and crashes, and contributes to development of binge eating.

Even on a restricted carb diet, for example, 50g total carb a day, I can eat a lot of green leafy and non starchy veg, and some berries (usually blueberries or raspberries). Eating this way lowers and levels blood sugar and controls hunger- it really does reduce the urge to binge...

Another sugar addict here. I've successfully given it up in the past but fell off the wagon spectacularly. Currently on day 2 of near-zero carb diet...only another couple days to go then cravings will almost me gone.

My historical stumbling block has been not treating the "addiction" part seriously enough. For me, it is a full blown addiction and it's something I can never enjoy in moderate quantities (unlike most people).

The health, happiness and behavioural impacts are extremely positive for me when I have minimal carb intake. I've done it before so know I can succeed again. So can you, OP