for me personally it is not necessarily the food that i fantasise about, it is the hole that the binge eating will fill and the stress, anxiety, loneliness, fear and any other emotions that will disappear during the actual binge that i find appealing. even though i know that afterwards i can add guilt, hopelessness and feeling repulsed at myself to whatever was wrong in the first place... leading to yet another binge. food that i crave is usually savoury and full of salt... oh and pickled onions, jars and jars of pickled onions now i'm fantasising!!

Totally valid points! Of course, it is that instant relief you feel during a binge. I would think pickled onions are an OK thing to binge on---can you eat too many pickled onions for weight gain? Regardless, you make a very valid point---I just wish I could figure out how to not want to binge at all---or like a drug addict, perhaps those feelings will always be there, and managing the symptoms is the goal I should try to obtain.

It's so good to know I'm not the only one.

I day dream and fantasize about food/binging all the time. I think about pizza, chocolate bars, hot dogs, cheeseburgers, ooey gooey cheese covered creations, fries, all sorts of things. The really bad part is that I am a vegan so sometimes I have to remind myself that I really do not want to eat a burger. It's more what those foods represent to me. In my past they were what I ate when I was sad, happy, having fun, etc. So I find when I get stressed or kind of down all of a sudden I have a giant stuffed crust pizza looming over head in a big thought bubble and it follows me everywhere. Or if I am out for dinner I want to be like everyone else and I feel left out.

I'm learning though that I can have all of those same things from time to time, they just have to be vegan versions.

the pickled onions not really a problem...its the cheese, crisps, corned beef, bread and more cheese that goes with them!!! it does feel like an addiction. i have managed 20 days without binging and it just feels like when i gave up smoking. i crave binging especially when stressed or alone in the house. hopefully it will get easier

Wow, 20 days is great! Stick with it! That is very inspiring! I do fine during the week, but the weekends are always by down-fall, I think I need more friends and hobbies! I used to fill my weekends with shopping---another addiction, or food. But I need something else. The gym only takes up an hour or two eat day, so I must explore something else.

Keep up the great work---you should be proud---they say 21 days to break a habit

I've been dangerously, self-destructively addicted to: online gaming; shopping; self-harm (acne-picking); and food. I have never not been addicted to something. My neurosis is avoidance problems through addiction and escape, and I'm only starting to grasp how to manage it.

I think about & dream of irresponsible food and shopping behaviors all the time. Self-control works the same in both situations for me... I go to a store, try on twenty things... buy three. I feel better afterwards knowing, "I needed this. This fit my budget."

I hear you on the addictions, lackadaisy. In my case I am addicted to exercise and sugar. How stupidly counterproductive. The sugar addiction is related to a cigarette smoking relapse/eating tons of sugar on a 10 day vacation over Christmas/New Years. I don't think I've "fully" recovered from that excess yet.

I used to binge eat when dealing with emotionally difficult situations. I, like another poster on here mentioned, would order enough food for many people (and would even pretend I had people waiting for it at home to the cashier) and then eat all of it. Over the last year, binging has become more and more undesirable. I eat a whole bag of chips with ranch dip or fast food and I don't even enjoy it once its done -- I just feel sick, unhappy, and ashamed. Whenever I'm tempted to binge or fantasize about eating an entire pizza (which I have done...more than once), I think about how awful it feels and that gets me through it.

My last binge was in December and it wasn't that big (like 3 or 4 slices of pizza after a stressful day of air travel). I got so sick I haven't eaten pizza since.

I'm pretty much always fantasizing about food. Whether it's browsing recipes, strolling aroung the grocery store, looking at foodie blogs, or just thinking about my next meal, lol. But I do sometimes have weird twisted obsessive binge fantasies that make me anxious just thinking about them (wow, I sound like a perv, lol).

Sometimes I'll plan out the perfect binge day. When the husband would be out of the house, what I would eat for each meal and snack. Going over all the foods in my head that I crave the most and which ones would be most deserving to indulge in for the perfect cheat. Lately I've been wanting to make a whole cake, frost it, and sit down with it in the pan and snarf it. The fact that I like to visualize myself doing this is pretty disturbing...definitely not healthy behavior.

I don't know if there is validity in this statement, but I read somewhere that it is actually healthy to think about your 'craving', really visualize it, what it will taste like, feel like, etc., and then just let it go (obviously the hard part!), I wonder though, if actually thinking about a binge and then the after-affects of the binge would help us to not binge? Really being present in the moment and thinking the entire thing through before you do it. I always feel like such crap after I binge, major hang-over for a day at least, so it is never worth it!

I don't really fantasize about binge eating, but I do think about food all the time. I look forward to my next meal, I browse recipes online when I feel like it, and I love watching cooking shows on TV. I can't help it, I just love food.

No, I can't say I have any desire to binge, even in a fantasy. But I have one persistent fantasy that I just can't shake loose. That is wanting to eat a tray of 6 super frosted white cupcakes from the bakery. It is the last of the junk foods I still get gaga over. And I am not talking about excellent homemade cupcakes with real frosting, but the kind in the bakery that has 1200 ingredients on the label. lol.

I have only eaten them once in 17 months. I ate two and immediately threw the rest away, I was gagging from the sweetness. Even with that experience, the thought floats through my mind now and then. No other food does that to me.

And if we were talking about drinks.....ah.....I fantasize about a snifter or 6 of brandy....mmmmmmmm