Binge Eating... I want to stop.

[VimtoPrincess]

I am binge eating and I want to stop. There, I've said it out loud. How can I stop? Is there help available? Has anyone managed to get over binge eating disorder? I am desperate. If anyone can help me please do. TIA

My binge eating got better when I replaced it with smoking many years ago 😬 I do not recommend that approach!

CBT might help
https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/get-information-and-support/about-eating-disorders/types/binge-eating-disorder/treatment/

It's very difficult and I binge too.

I am trying to overcome it by planning my food for the day and sticking to it. I put it all in an app called fat secret.

What could you have today?

The obvious answer is GLP1s, but understand they are not for everyone either because you don’t want to medicalise your weight loss or due to affordability.

If I hadn’t gone down that route, I would have tried slimpod (mixed reviews, but worth a go).

Do you restrict or count calories?

Mounjari has given me such insight into my binge eating.
It's been the single most effective way ever to be cognitively aware if what I am eating.
I have not found a solution to guilt and regret when Ineat something bad but it doesn't derail me now.

Next best thing was journaling. Everytime I wanted to eat or considered opportunity Inwoukd try to write my feelings Inwas clearly trying to feed.
A lot of the time was boredom, habit or just enjoying the taste and sensory feeling of eating.
Always bad food like donuts. More I ate more it called me.
Away from it I have better control.

Sorry no other suggestions. I never felt able to access talking therapy about it.

I was then same, now started Munjaro so I’m probably not qualified to comment but.. I started telling myself healthy snacks were ok.. they weren’t.. for me. I needed to stick to meals. It was boredom and a bad habit. Now I’m on Munjaro I can see that I don’t have to be hungry on 3 reasonable portions a day. I’m on the lowest dose so hopefully will be able to carry on as I’m doing.

I recommend a good podcast called Brain Over Binge.

In the same boat OP, I don’t know what the answer is - it’s like I’m trying to punish myself.

I wouldn’t qualify for WLI and I don’t want them but I wish you could inject willpower.

Mountjaro - only thing that worked after years of binge eating.

Yep you can inject willpower, it's now called mounjaro!
Good noise switch off is so enlightening & made me realise this really is chemically driven and binge eating is nothing to do with morality!

What do you binge on and when?

I am the same. I can usually manage 3-4 days without doing it then I crumble. After having a large portion of pasta bolognese tonight I’ve since had two empires biscuits, two cream eggs and a yoghurt. I’m not even hungry but when I don’t binge, I’m all consumed by thoughts of food. I’m not officially overweight so I don’t qualify for Mounjaro but I wish I could get it to stop the food noise!

I recently did a dbt course with the local mental health trust. There has been a change. It was alot of hard work.
Many people have a poor relationship with food. I imagine the food noise would come back when the WLI ends?
Oh and overeaters annoymous set me right back, the big book went in the bin.

Yes imagine foodnoise will come back when off WLI, but 13months no binging is ground breaking for me as an adult. A real break in habit & now feel achievable to maintain & address. Also removed so much guilt.
I will come off slowly but so happy they are now a real thing & can return to them as needed.

It's so hard. I am always thinking about food I wish I could just eat to live and not live to eat!

I’m always conflicted when people link binge‑eating to a lack of willpower.

For six years, I binged every single night. I ate normally during the day, and then once evening came, it was like a switch flipped. I would go through 6 full‑size Mars bars, 18 chocolate cookies (300 g), a family‑size bag of cheese & onion crisps, a large bar of chocolate (200 g), an entire loaf of bread (800 g), 8 individual yogurts, 4 pears, and a can of kidney beans. Same list every night. If I didn’t have it at home, I would walk to the corner shop in the middle of the night to get it.

Around 10,000 calories a day.

In every other area of my life, I was extremely disciplined. Nobody suspected anything. Nobody ever described me as someone who lacked self‑control or willpower.

All the best OP 💜 It's hell!

@wand3rer
hoe did you stop?
I overeat at night too and eat very little during the day. Once I start with a normal dinner, I then go on and on with no appetite.
Its not huge amounts but it’s definitely disordered eating
.

I’m a binge eater too with a horrible relationship with food all built around guilt and shame but not overweight.

I joined a coaching program I found through Facebook called fat loss fundamentals and it’s really helping.

I really struggle. I am doing better recently as I’m trying to get AI to talk me round when I’m in bingeing mode- usually early evening around kids tea time. It tells me I can have a 200 cal snack on a plate and then hold off until my proper evening meal. It can work if I am happy/busy but if I’m stressed, upset or bored I fall back into bingeing. Not overweight atm so easy to hide….

Like you, I ate without appetite. Without pleasure, either. I’d end up feeling ashamed, full, and sick. I had a traumatic childhood, and I think I was trying to fill a hole or maybe trying to self‑destruct (armchair psychology 😂).

I started smoking. Not as a strategy to stop bingeing, but it turned out to have that side effect.

That was many years ago. If it were happening now, I’d probably be taking the injections, or going to therapy, or both. Probably both 😁

All the best 💜

I have bouts of discipline, where I resist temptation and eat healthily. Then it slips, I eat something not “allowed” and that starts the mindless need to binge. I know I am stuck in disordered eating, probably stemming from a childhood (and adulthood tbh) where my mother has always made me feel less than, particularly in relation to me weight. Paradoxically, growing up like this has skewed food so much in my mind and I feel stuck in this endless cycle.

This sounds utterly bonkers but after trying everything, I'm now on a mindful eating hypnosis app and it's working. May not for everyone I may be particularly susceptible but it's been amazing for me

Genuinely fascinated.
I too have gone through large amount but was extremely overweight (21 stone).
I tended to bind more on bars of chocolate 200g at a time or packs of biscuits or baked goods. I realised as a married adult what was happening when I realised I hid the evidence, I would stuff wrappers in a bag over a week or two, then be mortified and disguise it out the house and down the road to a public bin.
My mother was a binge drinking alcoholic growing up and I recognised the patter of hiding stashes and careful disposal of packaging and it made me so sad as I tried all my life not to be a ‘drinker’ in fear of being like her and didn't realise that food had the same effect on me.

But honestly, really curious how some of you managed these large and regular binges (like 10000 kcal) yet are not overweight. Even if you don't eat much in the day… 10000kcal would surely make anyone out weight on?

You need therapy to work out why you binge. It’s usually to cope with feelings of overwhelm/anxiety (if you’re eating you’re not thinking and/or you’re not overloading on sugar to get a quick mood lift) or because you actually feel lonely and want a hug/to feel looked after, whatever it is. Fix your head, and the binge eating will fix itself. Mine did. Trying to stop binge eating without addressing the root causes is futile in the long term (in my opinion) - you’re not eating because you’re hungry, or because you’re greedy. It’s a coping mechanism, so what are you trying to cope with?

@Reginaphalangeeeee

I did gain 15 kg in the first three months. Then I plateaued. With that ridiculous food intake, I should have kept gaining. I was into sport, but not enough to offset it. I can’t explain it. I’m really grateful I didn’t balloon. The only negative is that when I tried confiding in my best friend, she laughed it off, like it couldn’t possibly be true. I didn’t seek help from a professional. Maybe I would have if I’d had the weight to “prove” the bingeing.

I was mostly living on my own during that time, but I recognise the whole “hidden stash and discreet removal” dance. The shame is huge.

You wrote in the past tense, so it sounds like you’ve left bingeing behind. Very well done! 💜