Does it mean just going over your calorie limit for the day, or is there a certain number of calories you consume at one time that you would consider a binge? I am confused when I hear this term used in the forum

People have different definitions of binges. Mine are eating more than a normal meal in an hour, or being unable to stop eating when I am satisfied. It's the feeling of losing control rather than the calorie intake that defines a binge for me.

For me, a binge is quick, mindless eating. It usually does involve a large number of calories because it happens so quickly before I can get a handle on it. It is odd behavior, not something I consider "normal". It's also almost always something I do secretly or alone.

I characterize a "binge" as eating uncontrollably, perhaps to deny or "stuff down" uncomfortable feelings.

If I go out to dinner and decide I'm going to order dessert and then eat it all, going over calories, that's "overeating." If I go out to dinner, sit there fidgeting and thinking about what I am going to eat alone when I get home, that is a "binge" in the making.

For me a binge is willfully eating something. It involves defiance "I know I shouldn't eat this but I'm going to anyway", stuffing down the food quickly before I come to my senses, feeling desperate about the food, or hiding what I'm eating. The "I want more!' feeling. I'm not talking about eating another cookie, more like eating the whole package.

For me, binging is when I know that I'm not hungry and I eat because I'm bored. It usually happens when I have down time and I end up eating a lot of calories.

This...

...and this.

This is me. And in between those 3 stops at the fast food places, I am eating the first meal before I even buy the second. It's frantic eating for me. I can easily consume 4-5,000 calories in one sitting. And then I hide the evidence like it never even happened. Then for the next couple days, I fast.

Then....wash, rinse, repeat.

To me, binging is just as much a disorder as anorexia or bulimia. It is an almost uncontrollable desire to eat. When the urge to binge comes on, it's all you can think about until either you get through it and it passes or you give in. It is almost always done in secret because the person knows they shouldn't be doing it. I wouldn't classify it by how many calories are consumed or even what type of food is consumed. I classify it more by the state of mind you are in when it happens. Most often it is brought on by emotions or feeling out of control. There is a comfort about it. It's like concentrating on eating the food takes your mind away from everything else. And for a brief moment you feel better. Until you're done and the shame and anxiety set in that is.

To me a bingeing is also a disorder. It's not a bad food choice or two. It's a huge consumption of calories, a NEED, not just a craving, to eat compulsively, and doing so as a form of escapism and self-consolation. It's stuffing in food until you feel sick, it's 1000s of calories in a sitting, it's that extreme feeling of self-disgust after you realise all the weird and gross this (and how much effort you put in) to stuff it down your throat.

To be honest, I believe a lot of people talk about a "binge" when they went of plan, or had too big or bad a snack, or succumbed to a craving they regretted. No way - a binge is big and bad and emotional and psychological. It kind of hurts my feelings when people use the word wrong. I feel it devalues the effort the people with real binge problems have to go through to solve this (life-long) problem.

And, sorry guys, that was a bit of a rant

Unlike some other people, i do not binge on healthy food. I binged two days ago, and then yesterday...well i want to say that it was not a binge because the calories weren't ridiculous, but when i think about what a binge really is (to me), that was it. To me, i know it's a binge when i only want sugary or strong tasting food. That's when i know it's not hunger driving me--it's the taste of the food, regardless of how full i am. When i am actually hungry, i can make good choices of food. When it's a binge, healthy food doesn't even sound good; all i want is junk food.

This.

Sometimes when I am eating something the taste and action of putting food in my mouth takes over common sense and becomes something else, an obsession of sorts. I have to make a conscious effort to stop, and for a period of time all I can think about is junk food. I mentally survey what I have in my kitchen, or even have like a slideshow in my mind of tastes and sights and smells of food-like a fast food commercial-until I can barely control myself.

For me it doesn't have to be a huge number of calories, it's more about having to deal with those feelings and giving in and eating things I didn't plan on.

It's interesting to read the responses because it sounds like most people know when they are about to binge. i.e. they have a strong craving and actually go to the store to buy binge foods. I'm not like that at all. For me, a binge just starts with a normal, healthy meal...but i just don't want to stop eating...so the meal begins healthy and gets progressively worse and worse until i'm working on half a bag of chocolate. I never see it coming. I have made trips to the 7-eleven to buy food...but not til i'm already in the middle of a binge.

For me a binge is less about the food or the amount and more about how I feel about the food or what I'm trying to get from the food; nutrition vs comfort.

Today is my Birthday, but its just another day, I'm home alone with the dog and She doesn't care that its my BDay. So while we celebrated early and I've gotten cards, presents, and people have kindly pm'ed and texted me HB, I'm still sitting here alone and feeling like someone should make a big fuss! So if I go into the kitchen and try to make myself feel less lonely by eating, having my own little party, that's a binge to me. Maybe I'm wrong, and that's just emotional eating without being a binge but to me that's what I'm doing. More about my state of mind than how many calories.

I can feel myself going into a binge sometimes; there's a definite shift in gears. My mind shuts off. There's no chatter going on inside anymore. I'm inarticulate & I go someplace that's nearly primal, where a very elemental need is being gratified. Only that need is not hunger; it's comfort. I'm like a baby at the breast; there's nothing else in the world but me & It. I'm fixated, with any thought of the future or anything beyond this very moment receding & unimaginable. There are no consequences. I'm in a free fall. I'm all "the **** with it."

And I'm overly excited, a little bit febrile. Everything speeds up; I eat more quickly, sometimes almost frantically, as if I'm afraid someone's going to take it away from me. I've said it before, if I were a dog, I would be very possessive at this moment, straddle the desired thing & growl at snap at anyone who tried to get at My Food. I also feel outside myself, with part of me looking on & watching. That's the rational part, which momentarily feels paralyzed & unable to stop what is happening. (Which isn't true, actually, as I learned: I could stop it, but at times, I don't let myself do that; part of me is voluntarily ceding control to the binge & reveling in a loss of control.)

The binge can be elaborately planned, like a premeditated crime; but it can also happen in public, when I'm in a restaurant, or at a buffet. It is like a fit of temporary insanity; some people go blind with rage, I go blind with a kind of lust.

It's not natural. It isn't purely accidental, a matter of misjudging a portion or having "eyes bigger than my stomach." It's not one bit like eating a little too much, more than planned.

And then afterward, there's a crushing remorse. The comedown from the manic eating is a depressive episode.I am in blackest despair. It hurts me to know that I'm capable of hurting myself. I feel stupid, stupid. I denounce myself more nastily than any other living person ever would. I would give anything to go back & get a "do over."