Binge eating

[sharrondrugan]

I've been overweight for most of my life. I've always been unhappy about this. I'm aware that the only way to loose weight is to diet and exercise. Despite starting the day with good intentions, I regularly binge eat mainly carbs all day. I almost seem to go into automatic pilot mode, barely aware of what I'm eating.I always feel disgusted in myself by the end of the day, but despite this tend to repeat my actions the following day. how do I get out of this self destruct mode and stick to a healthy eating/exercise plan

[CuteNsweeT]

Do you do any physical exercise? I always find it hardest to stay off binge-amounts of food when I'm not going to the gym regularly. You'd think burning up a load of calories would make me eat more, but for some reason it kick-starts my willpower over food again. Plus, even if you DID binge after a work-out, the damage would be much less to your body than if you hadn't exercised, as your metabolism is revved up for a couple hours after you finish working out, and your self esteem is higher 'coz you're actually doing something good for your body.

Also, like "OytheGreat" mentions above, keeping track of everything in the food tracker is a real help. Sometimes just looking at the sheer amount of calories you just wolfed down, up in black & white on the screen, is enough to make you cringe and start making changes.

I like to have low-cal instant hot chocolate drinks as my chocolate fix, as they're only 40kcal or thereabouts, taste like chocolate, but take ages to drink 'coz they're so hot. So it's pretty hard to binge on them! Lol. Also, go shopping when you're in one of your "good" moods, AFTER you've eaten a decent meal,  and only buy things to have in the house that won't matter too much if you over-indulge or would be hard to eat too much of; low-fat yogurts, crackers, fat-free jelly, fruit, low-fat cheese, meat/fish that needs to be cooked, eggs, etc.  I love love love pizza, and before I started back losing weight again, I'd easily (and happily!) eat a family-sized one on a Friday night in front of the TV. Now I buy WeightWatchers ones, so I don't have to limit myself to a single slice (coz that's not an option for me; if I see pizza I MUST eat it! Lol) as the entire thing is like 400kcal...

And, as a last resort, maybe try hypnotherapy? As you want to stop but just can't, it might be what you need to get over that first hurdle. It's expensive though, and I don't know anyone that's used it, but my mom had it to stop smoking and it worked really well.
Anyway, good luck with whatever you try :)

[OytheGreat]

I understand what it's like to binge eat. I've been overcoming my addiction to food for a long time now (10 years), and I still binge eat on occasion.

What's feeding those binges is feeling guilty about it. I'm hear to tell you to stop feeling guilty. I don't care right now if you stop binging or not. Stop beating yourself up about it.

I've been overweight for as long as I can remember. I don't have a memory of ever being anything but the "fat girl" or "earthquake."

But I could not fix the problem until I stopped hating myself and my body and started embracing my fatness and my tendency to stuff my face whenever food presented itself.

Now I'm tackling my weight by using a lot of different strategies.

First, I have no will power, so I clear my house of foods that are hard for me to resist. Potato chips, cookies, candy bars, ice cream....they are not in my house. This helps me resist them. That doesn't mean I go without all the time, but if I do end up with a candy bar, I hide it in my freezer or put it in a cupboard that's hard to reach.

I still have cravings, but the only sweets I have that are easily accessible are peanut butter (organic) and light whip cream. So if I do have a binge session, it'll only cost me 500 calories as opposed to 1000 or more. That binge does me back, however. But instead of feeling guilty and defeated about it, I record it on my food diary and try to cut back the rest of the day. If I don't manage to cut back, oh well. So I've eaten 500 calories more than I intended. No big deal. I'll do better tomorrow.

Guilt is not an emotion in which I allow myself to indulge. I simply don't think that way anymore. Instead, I tell myself that overeating will increase my metabolism and may help with weight loss later. Or I tell myself that all dieters fail on occasion. A binge-session may stave off a dieter's burn out. My goal is to reroute that path in my brain, so I stop punishing myself for overeating.

Don't get me wrong. I also take responsibility for these failures. That's why I have to log them in my food diary. If I don't, if I try to hide the problem, then there's the added guilt of lying to myself (and my friend, who sees my diary and is there to hold me accountable). This empowers me in so many ways. I'm responsible for my own actions. I have the power to change them. But I'm not an aberration for failing. Rather, I'm a human, and I can accept that.

You are a human as well.

[Dakuka]

Great advice from Brice, but don't forget to occasionally indulge in some of your cravings too, otherwise you can risk setting yourself for that autopilot eating. For instance, if you've got a serious craving for chocolate, do not turn to a rice cakes as an alternative. Has that honestly ever worked for anyone??? For me personally, I'd eat the whole bag of rice cakes and still feel completely unsatisfied. The key (for me at least) is to let myself have a few pieces of dark chocolate. It snaps me out of that autopilot mode and I really just ENJOY it.

Jello chocolate pudding cups and fudgesicles (40 cals each!!) also work like a charm when it comes to taming your inner chocolate/sweet tooth :)

When I've got a craving for savory..I turn to cheese. If snacking from a giant block of cheddar is too tempting, string cheese and babybell cheeses do the trick (with a lot less potential for overeating.

[brice1967]

Welcome to the club!  You sound like the female me.  I know all about the auto pilot thing.

Here's some hints. This works great if you live alone... having others around, you need to pay attention to their dietary needs.  But really, just stock the fridge and cupboards/pantry with the healthiest food available.  
1.  Lean meats and cheese (buy in bulk, package in single serving sizes)
2.  Water... drink a lot of water.  Get used to carrying a water bottle and drink on per hour minimum.  (Hint.... buy those low cost, o carb drink mix packets to mix it up.
3.  Make yourself conscious of every thing you put in your mouth...read labels.
4.  30 minutes of walking is essential every day, just like eating.  It is the minimum daily recommended amount of exercise.  Try taking a 15 minute brisk walk before eating, then again about 30 minutes after eating.
5.  Journal everything!  What food you bought, what you drank, ate, did for exercise.  By doing this, maybe you can see when youre most likely to binge eat.

I'm telling you, it isn't easy... but it is doable.  Track everything, journal it.  If you have to have a snack, eat the healthiest, low carb thing available.