Gain Control Over Binge Eating

How to Stop Overeating and Lose Weight

© Tracy Rose

Mar 8, 2007
Binge Eating, andy Reid
Learn how to gain control over food and overcome binge eating. Develop healthy eating habits to lose weight and better manage stress.

Binge eating is a disorder common among obese adults. Binge eaters feel they can’t stop eating once they start. Often triggered by stress and unwanted emotions, binging is something that can be controlled with the right help and support.

Signs that you are a binge eater:

How to Gain Control Over Binge Eating

  • Recognize that you have a binge eating disorder
  • Realize that it is normal to have a relapse while overcoming your binge eating
  • Enlist support from family, friends and a self-help group
  • Learn to eat naturally by eating only when you are hungry and never eating until you are full.
  • Eat frequent small meals throughout the day so you don’t get overly hungry and eat absentmindedly.
  • Be conscious of the kinds of food you put in your body
  • Practice mindful eating
  • Eat for health and energy rather than cravings
  • Try cognitive-behavior therapy or psychotherapy
  • Try an antidepressant
  • Find the motivation to exercise daily
  • Look for the silver lining – adapt a positive attitude

Benefits of overcoming binge eating:

  • Regain control over food
  • Lose weight
  • Better manage stress
  • Stop feeling like you have to hide your eating habits
  • Feel better about your body
  • Improve you overall health
  • Reduce chances of getting a life-threatening disease
  • Have more energy
  • Increase self-esteem

Talk openly and honestly with your doctor if you have signs of a binge eating disorder. Ask for help and be willing to do what it takes to overcoming binge eating and regain control over food.

It is just as important to avoid dieting as it is to avoid binge eating when trying to overcome this disease. Trying to drastically reduce your calories or omitting food groups while learning to overcome binge eating may send you into a yo-yo dieting pattern where you will gain and lose weight repeatedly, without any benefits to your health.


The copyright of the article Gain Control Over Binge Eating in Weight Loss is owned by Tracy Rose. Permission to republish Gain Control Over Binge Eating in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.




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Comments
Dec 29, 2008 3:33 PM
Guest :
I know i over eat ... Im only 15 and I am overweight but find no way of controling what i put in my mouth .... Im a size 18 and would like to be a size 14 a normal healthy weight. Im very fussy with what i eat and eat rubbish .. ive tried to have a go at trying to eat other food but cant physicaly put it in my mouth or i just cant swollow the food.
I dont feel there is anything i can do, i dont talk about this with my family and dont wish to in the future. I feel i have to lose weight for my self but still dont have the will power to do so..

From Katherine
Jan 27, 2009 12:10 AM
Guest :
Dear Katherine:
You might be overeating to comfort yourself, being a teen is very stressful and emotional and a nice warm bit of snack can help chase the bad feelings away. But it doesn't really, does it? and being overweight makes you feel less confident which adds to the emotional overload. Start keeping a journal and writing down how you feel. Then start taking a walk for 20 minutes every other day. Do those things first without changing anything about what you eat. That will follow.
Good luck!
P.

Feb 2, 2009 6:05 PM
Guest :
Hello, i think i have a binge eating dissorder. Although i am not overweight and am relatively slim i do have regular food binges where i consume a lot of unhealthy food and feel very sick and bloatd afterwards. My way to deal with this binge eating is to go to the gym. However, because the binging is so extreame it has made me gain weight still over these past few months, and although i can deal with my current body shape and size I do fear that I have developed a bad way of coping with anxieties and stress. When i am worried about my college work I eat, or even when I am bored and feeling lonely I eat. It just always seems to take away the worry- well, for that short time anyway. I feel trapped in an endless cycle of 'binge eating'...'going to the gym', 'binge eating'...'going to the gym' and I feel it is giving me a distorted perception of life. I consider myself an emotional, sensitive person and I wonder if this can make you more surceptable to binge eating? I think i am an emotional eater. I am 19 and confused about what direction I want my life to have and who I want to 'be'. Some days I want it all- the graet body, a good job, a nice guy (which i am finding hard to find by the way as I feel this eating dissorder doesnt really allow time for the opposie sex)and then on other days during the week I feel like life doesnt matter or 'who I am'. I know this only natural but during this time I eat uncontrolably then, as I said feel very sick afterwards and whatever I have planned to do with my day (usually college work as I am an Art student) goes 'out of the window' as I feel too sick to do anythinhg and also very lethargic. I'm not sure i'm strong enough to ever stop this behaviour, I feel it has become a part of me and dictates my mood, behaviour and perception of who I am. Everything else in life becomes irrelavent once i've binge eaten, except going to the gym to try and burn off the food, which I am starting to find harder and harder to do- but I have too as I dont want to gain any more weight. Infact I feel I need to loose a few pound in order to feel better about my body and more confident in myself. I was wondering if there is a local self help group I could go too, or people (my age) you could put me in touch with in order to gain support with this problem and help each other through. Thankyou,

From Kelly
Feb 4, 2009 7:56 PM
Guest :
Hi,

I have suffered from Binge eating for about 4 years. I go in and out of stopping and starting, and therefore lose weight, then gain it back. It all dpeepends on my situation at the time. Since October 2008 i lost about 5kg and stopped binge eating, though i admit i did still overeat now and then, which most likely stopped me from losing more weight, as my natural weight is quite petite.

Recently i went on a holiday for 2 weeks, and just ate crap and did no exercise whatsoever. I told myself I have to change this when i get home. Now that im home, Im still eating like a pig, and today I just a binge like old times. this is really upsetting to me. Ive already put on 2kg from my holiday and am scared I'll gain the rest back if I dont stop this. Does anyone have ay advice? I'm really upset and if i gained more weight instead of losing I'll be extremely sad, and not want to leave the house or do anything. This has happened before and has taken a tole on my friendships. I have also just started a new relationship, and I dont want my partner to be turned off by my weightgain. More importantly, I dont want to say to him I dont want to go out in public because of this, as I know this will also affect him.

Please help!

V.
Feb 19, 2009 12:35 AM
Guest :
hey my names sam and i have identified tht i am currently suffering binge eating disorder as in times where my emotions are everywhere i will binge on over 50000 calories usually on sweet carbohydrate foods to satisfied my feelings, however these feeling of being satisfied do not last as i become angry and uptight with guilty feels where i feel worhtless pathetic and FAT!
my binge eating has gone on for about a year now every since i was discharged from an eating disorders unit in stafford for anorexia to which i suffered for 5 years. every since leaving the unit and coming face to face with daily normal life again, boy expectation stress, having to get my own food instead of being given it, work pressure, family life problems and my moms anorexia i have developed this new eating disorder where i binge uncontrolably!
i used to go to cognectic (or however you spell it) therapy and i found it useless, i keep food diarys which as soon as i look at what i have eaten end up feeling more guilty so binge again, i exercise everyday which is an obbsession of mine anyway i have an unhealthy relasionship with exercise as its the only safe space i find where im free from food and exercise!,
ive got to the stadge where i cant stand the way i am anymore, i have become really fat and chunky, which is making it worse as i still have anorexic tendencies it feels lik i have 2 sides to my head one uncontrolable voice allowing me to binge and binge when i feel uneasy and the guilty anorexic side telling me to starve and punishing me by hours of exercise
please help me i dont want to feel like this anymore, therapy is not helping i cant talk to my parents as mom doesnt understand as her eating disorder would never allow her to binge eat
please
thankyou sam
Mar 5, 2009 1:13 AM
Guest :
Hi,Sam! I can totally relate to you. I too, have gained weight and am well headed into the overweight category if I don't stop binging this very minute. My clothes don't fit anymore or they barely do and I can't seem to stop binging. I do it every day. I have finally gotten to exercise again, but no amount of exercise can keep me from gaining weight at the rate that I am eating.

Anyhow, I think salvation comes from two areas. Well, actually one. Our minds. Stop fretting about the result of our disorder- the changes in our bodies, weight gain- and focus on changing our attitude towards food. One step at a time. I refuse to panic anymore. Food is just one aspect of life, and it is something I can overcome. I need to tell myself that every day, every hour, in order to succeed at this.

Good luck getting over this, guys. I know it's tough and it's soooo easy to reach out for that cookie yet again and then keep on eating. And then tell yourself you're starting over tomorrow. But we are KILLING OURSELVES slowly by doing this. And I want to live.
Mar 21, 2009 10:42 PM
Guest :
hey guys:
well i have a similar story to sam's, just i didnt have anorexia as long. Last year i was healthy and fit 5'8" and i weighed 136lbs. For whatever reason i fell hard to anorexia and within two months had lost twenty pounds. My desperate parents put me in therapy and sent me to a nutritionist. i was forced literally FORCED to act happy to have my parents off my back. i quickly gained weight back but not how everyother anorexic does. i binge ate my way back to my normal weight. i was happy for about a month and then realized my eating was out of control. i binge eat every single day. and its so frustrating. i used to love myself and now i have gained TWENTY effin pounds. yeah, twenty pounds in three months. thats rediculous. i told my mom about it, and my dad knows too. and my nutritionist knows, but i feel like they arent really helping me. my nutrtionist doesn't really address me as a "binge-eater". she says my body doesn't know how to act now that I'm getting food.. i just want to scream at her "I NEED HELP!!!!"
i used to be the queen of exercise. i ran and ran and ran because i loved running. now i feel worthless and fat and haven't run in a month. i haven't done any exercise and it's stupid i'm complaining about it. I have both the mindset of a anorexic and a binge eater, like you sam. I either loose complete control, or eat NOTHING all day. I'm destroying my body and i need help and support so badly. i have it i guess, they just dont believe me.
-nicole
Apr 29, 2009 7:18 PM
Guest :
Hi guys,
I currently have a craving for eating all my lunch I brought for work, even though it's only early. Therefore I decided to search the web for inspiration to stop my binge from occuring.
I have been dieting on and off since I was 12 years old, constantly feeling self conscious of the way I look. However, last year I got a new boyfriend who was quite popular among the ladies. Therefore I unconsciously made a few female frenemies. After hearing one comment that because I wasn't "the skinniest of girls" and therefore not good enough for him, I decided to go on a major weight loss expedition.
I was obsessed with losing weight, everything I ate I would burn off later in the gym. I ended up losing 11.5 kg in about 3 months. However, now I suffer from extreme binge eating and dieting. It seems that because I was in that weird state of mind for so long, I no longer knew what and how much I could really eat. So now because of those 3 months of extreme dieting, I've had 12 months of fluctuating and binge eating.
After starving myself and binging, I decided I'd had enough and just want to be healthy and happy. My best advice is to eat a wide variety of foods - if you have toast for breakfast, don't have in for lunch - because it makes eating little amounts of food more exciting.
Now, after writing this note (and if you've gotten this far I applaude you) I no longer have that craving to binge :)
Thank you for listening, and your unintentional help :)
H.
May 22, 2009 3:28 PM
Guest :
I know I have beinge eating disorder I am 14 and I wear 222 ponds I have been trying forever to lose weight but when I tried to go to a program my insurenge said no because they only cover for anerxia and bulemia eating disorder
Aug 14, 2009 10:07 AM
Guest :
I have a binge eating disorder - I either restrict my calorie/fat/carb intake for one or two weeks and then I binge for one week solid . The cycle for me is almost 4 years now....I dont know what to do...its not healthy,,,
10 Comments