Starving leads to binging
 

Hi chicks!

I am slowly reaching the above conclusion! I often restrict myself from eating certain food or an entire food group - I did not eat meat for several years, then I decided to go low carb and low sugar but I think I went way too low and when i got my hands on refined carb and sugar, I ate a lot, very much, too much.

So I am slowly reaching the conclusion that I might have to eat food from all groups - meaning protein with a lot of veg and bread and a bit of oil/fat and a fruit in my day. And I never do that. As a result I seem to overeat in quantity to make up for it. And by restricting I don't mean restricting huge amounts of fat or sugar to normal, I mean eating to little in calories or too little in food groups.

What is your experience with food? Does restricting it make it more likely to binge?

For me, I know I also should not touch trigger foods because I keep on kidding myself that I can only have one of it and i just can't. And then I finish the packet and think what have i done, might as well start eating something else.

What is it like for you?

That is probably the right conclusion. But I'm not going to admit that I like it. I agree with you, though, when I keep myself from eating something (like, for example, pasta), there will be a point when I say to myself "Well it's pasta night and you haven't had any in a long time, just have some." And then, when everyone else is gone and I'm alone with the pasta I consume it much like a black hole consumes light. Or, other times, I'll say "no cookies," and binge on chocolate, justifying it by saying "Well, it's not cookies."

I've always been told that the proper way to lose weight/be healthy is to eat a balanced diet. A little from all food groups. It's tough, though. I seem to think I'm smarter than all the doctors and trainers.

wednesday morning, I relate sooo much to everything you said. Yeah I think I am smarter and find a way to cheat by restricting food groups or even things - like from normal yoghurt to low fat but the amount of low fat i eat.... omg.

Same with pasta or cookies, the whole pack or just a lot. I have gone cold turkey on some things and it has worked actually but I had hit a real rock bottom and I am talking about really fat fried chips or crisps, then few months down the line when i ate them i thought that is disgusting and i lost desire to eat them. But restricting a normal thing like carb, just normal carb makes me eat it like crazy. Pasta and cookies can scare me exactly because of how much i can eat of them, but when i eat it with people, not alone i don't dare to eat too much. That kind of helps.

Oh goodness, when I'm around other people I undereat! I wouldn't want them to think I have a food addiction (or whatever I have). But I feel like I could eat and never stop sometimes.

You know that feeling you get when you're mind is screaming "Just put it down! Just stop!" and you're just shovelling it in? It's overpowering sometimes.

How can we convince ourselves to try the healthy way?

I have a big problem with this too. I've picked up the Beck diet solution and am trying it again (I've probably started 5 times before). It deals with the mental part of weight loss with exercises everyday.

I cannot restrict myself from whole food groups; it's inevitable that I'll binge on them. It took me many, many diets to learn that, but I think I finally have. (To give you some idea of how powerful the backlash from restriction could be, I once ended an extremely low-fat diet by standing in the kitchen eating Crisco off my fingers. Yecch.)

Instead, I'm trying to learn my limits within types of foods. I can't live with a restrictive plan, but I also can't eat everything I like; some foods are undeniably triggers that I must avoid. That still lets me explore all my other options within that food group.

For example, cheetos are a total gorge food for me. Can't have 'em. But that doesn't mean I can't have any crispy/crunchy carbs; I just have to learn how to work them into my plan without wanting to binge on them. Right now, that means I can add a couple of crispbreads to eat with a bowl of soup. They aren't cheetos, but they satisfy the urge for crunchy, salty carbs without triggering the desire for more of anything.

I empathize with the undereating-in-public thing, too. In retrospect, it's kind of funny; did I think I was fooling anyone into believing I was actually a thin woman trapped somehow in this big body despite subsisting on nothing more than a handful of carrot sticks and a rusk? :D

wednesday morning, I can relate to the painful just stop now, stop eating and unable to do it, that's how i am now i am kind of addicted to food, when it gets to the point of binge eating it is just uncontrollable how much and what i am going to end up eating. How I convince myself to try the new way... pain from binge eating, enough pain to make me think i have to do something different... I don't know whether I am right about what i am doing but at least I am not doing the same thing and expect a different result.

Beaka, thanks for mentioning that diet, I did some research on it just now and I also address my mental state and attitude to food, it is a big part of recovery for me.

Nola, thank you so much for confirming what i think i recently learned from my last binge eat! Thank you, I know I am going to try eating a bit of everything except trigger foods and see what happens.

Sometimes Sylvester the cat had a little angel Sylvester on one shoulder, and a little devil Sylvester on the other. I many times feel like Sylvester. A few nights ago as I was demolishing a fruitcake while the angel and devil went at it. All the while asking myself "Why am I doing this? Just Stop!!" Finally, I jumped up, ran out the house to the edge of the yard and shot-putted the rest of the cake into the woods. The angel finally won out. Unfortunately, the devil won out the next night when I broke into an M&M/nut snack bowl I'd bought as a hostess gift to give on New Years Day. It's always a battle.

I can relate to so much of what has been said here! I always used to not eat out in public, then come home and binge on whatever it is I didn't get to have while out. Now, I allow myself to eat what I want in public (and since I'm in public, I know I won't too much of anything bad), and I'm more able to hold back while at home.

Pasta was always my go-to binge food. There were others, for sure, but pasta was a big one. I knew that I had to watch out with it, because having it around could be dangerous, but cutting it out completely. I now only have whole-wheat pasta in the house, which is okay for me because I don't associate it with binginge behavoir--so mental!

Olive oil is a great way to get in some healthy fats. And avocado, although I sometimes have trouble limiting my intake of it because it's so good!

I use to believe that restriction led to bingeing, but I don't anymore.

I have to restrict because I am diabetic. I finally learned that there are foods I cannot eat and that restriction is healthier for me than the alternative of diabetic complications. And where did my diabetes come from? From my impulse to eat whatever I wanted and the resulting obesity.

I stopped thinking of restriction as a negative, changed it around to be a positive for me. I don't cry anymore because I can't eat everything in sight. I think how wonderful it is that I can control my blood glucose by diet alone.

4xcharm, I can relate to that. No matter what I do, that is it, I still have to fight it every time, it does help to be part of a support group and know that others are doing it too!

paris81, I know what you mean with switching to whole meal, it is a change of attitude for me as well and it works!

martinimouse, what you said is interesting. Can you tell me a bit more about what you restricted that made it better for you.

Also by restriction, I mean actual starving or eliminating food groups to an extent. I also restrict food - my trigger foods and some carbs and refined sugar. But when I go with no fruit and no bread/carb for days and days, then they come in the form of chocolates and cakes and consume me, i can't stop it.

I'd have to say that I agree with martinimouse. For me, eating just one simple carb is like an alcoholic having just one drink. WAY too risky. I just can't have ANY or else I'm heading down a bad road at warp speed.

Sometimes we don't get to choose between bad and good....or even bad and better. Sometimes we only get to choose between bad and worse.
Totally eliminating simple carbs is a huge bummer, yes.....but not doing it results in me being in a much worse place, inevitably.

At least for me, it comes down to having to make a decision....do I want to be able to eat simple carbs on occasion but to have to constantly fight the weight battle or do I want to give them up altogether but get to remain a normal weight?

I'm 58 and have been fighting this battle too darn long. I'm tired of it and I just don't want to go back there again....or ever. For me....it's well worth it to have to make that sacrifice.

I'm just speaking for myself, of course (and I'm a low carber and a carb-addict, I believe). I can only share how things look to me at this time and from this vantage point.

deena :)

I could have wrote this response myself! Doh! :(

I love this! I think this is 100% true for me as well. It's a choice between bad and worse.
For some reason, I am still finding myself choosing "worse" more times than not, but that is because it's not that simple of a choice. I get to have some brief moments of elated indulgence before the worse happens. I wonder how I am able to have so little regard for future-me.

So I apologize in advance, future-me, for any further transgressions, and for choosing "worse" for you!
:hug:

I don't think it's "starving" that causes binging. I've done some water fasting (3 days and 5 days) and it didn't cause me to binge. On the contrary, I felt like eating very healthy foods when I finished. I approached it as cleansing and de-tox rather than diet. I think what causes binging is denying yourself the foods you really love You get a picture of some favorite food in your mind and it grows until you can stand it anymore. That plus (in my case) holidays where everybody pushes food at you. It's like you HAVE TO try these cookies or that strudel. All those ads for drippy, buttery, sugary foods - it's no wonder why so many Americans are obese.

I recently finished a book titled "The End of Overeating" by David Kessler, which describes how the food industry and the advertising industry use psychology to tempt us using sugar, fat and salt. Instead of satisfying hunger, the salt-fat-sugar combination stimulates our brains to crave more. Plus, the advertising always makes it look so much better than it really tastes.

If you haven't seen it yet, Youtube there is an interesting lecture titled "Sugar: The Bitter Truth" which is about sugar addiction, another problem many many people have that makes them gain weight.