My binges are always things I try to justify to myself. Like, if all I have in one day is a gallon of ice cream, and then have a small salad later, I'm still okay. But I always feel gross afterwards. And I've definitely played the 'I'm buying this for another person' game! I'll go in and get a couple slices of pizza from my nearest pizzeria and will be on the 'phone' with someone and come up with a line like, "oh, you wanted the pepperoni? Okay, can I have one pepperoni and one cheese. Yeah, I'll see you in a couple of minutes" before hanging up.

I really thought I was the only person crazy enough to do this - glad to know I'm not alone!

Hahaha oh wow, I used to do that all the time! My favorite binge was McDonald's.. it was enough food to feed 4 adults and 8 small children. (all for moi, of course)

So I would "call" someone and verify the orders with them.. I was addicted to sweet and sour so while on the "phone" I would say.. "Please extra sweet&sour or I'll get sent back" (chuckle)

wow.. those days are hopefully NO MORE.

oh and I'm from Staten Island! it's nice seeing someone kind of local here!

Yes, thats my definition as well. I can eat a lot (like I did over Christmas) but its not really a binge.

Bingeing, to me, is something completely uncontrollable - never pre-planned and (in hindsight) it was always related to having low blood sugar. About an hour or two after eating I'd start to feel a little giddy, slightly nauseus, maybe feel like I was going to pass out - and then I'd start to gorge. I'd eat and EAT for about 20 minutes until my brain recognised that it had gotten the glucose it needed, then the binge would be over and I'd be left feeling very ashamed and shocked at the amount I'd eaten.

Of course I'd then try and eat less or even skip the next meal and an hour or two later the cycle would start all over again. I thought it was just lack of self-control - the sugar connection never occurred to me. I'm now on a low GI diet and I've got it under control.

I can remember hiding behind a McDonalds eating three big Macs and three large fries and three large shakes - having made out that I was collecting the other two meals for other people.

Hooray New York, the land of cheap bagels and pizza, but expensive everything else. Although once that trans fat ban kicks in we may see some gradual improvements.

On topic, I haven't gone on a real binge in over a week. The last time I thought I just had to eat something or I would die, I went straight for the celery and hummus. I still felt guilty, though - I think those old feelings are going to be hard to get rid of.

See with me it's kind of the same. . . kind of. While a lot of the time I feel the need to hide it, I've gotten more and more comortable binging (so to speak) in front of my boyfriend. Although there are times when he'll eat a pizza and a half and he STILL doesn't get any fatter.


And I definiately have done the ordering food while I'm "talking to someone on the phone"!!!!!

Oh my gosh! I almost had tears in my eyes when I realized how many other people do the same things I do... I thought I was alone.

Hm... my girlfriend is thin as a rail (weighs LESS THAN HALF what I do) and that girl can EAT! But she's a very slow eater.. and I shove food in my mouth like there's no tomorrow. She's definitely seen me eat a lot, but she has never seen me binge.. and I hope she won't anytime soon.

For me, a typical binge starts when I am either nevous, lonely, or upset. I start "grazing" on everything in the kitchen. I will sometimes shove things into my mouth that I don't even enjoy, and I do it too quickly to enjoy it anyhow. I can easily eat an entire quart of ice cream, block of cheese, and two huge muffins in one sitting.

Oh my goodness...
Well I can totally relate to the hiding food/lying scenarios, although a binge isn't exactly a lot of food for me, it's more the type of food I am eating. I am a small eater and always have been. Therefore, a binge to me, is eating a regular #2 from McDonalds, or a personal sized pizza from the local pizza place. I eat about 1,000 calories a day (Dr. Supervised, no worries) , so if I use those calories for pizza or mc'ds I feel disgusted.
Yesterday was a total binge day for me, and I was super upset about it. I have been very dilligently counting calories and eating the right foods, but yesterday I was upset because although I was so strict, I weighed in and the scale hadn't moved ((TOM)) so, I ate pizza for lunch and a burger and fries for dinner! YUCK-O!

Wow... I don't know whether to laugh or cry from reading these replies... I can relate to every single one of them!

My worst binge "crime" is buying a bag of candy - usually gummy bears or gummy lifesavers - and eating them all in the 5 MINUTE trip from Target to my house. Then I bury the evidence in the trash can in the garage so my hubby won't find the bag.

I have totally done the order the large pizza, the cheesesticks, the 2 litre of soda and dessert FOR MYSELF when my husband is out of town. Then, I can barely eat any of it because my stomach is just not that big, and I end up tossing a lot of it in the garbage. Does anyone have any idea how much money we would actually save if we didn't spend it on binge food???

Seriously though, I knew that I really, seriously had a problem when I would lie to my husband about what I ate.

For me a binge can be relatively small or huge. It is eating food when I deliberately am doing to self sabotage or AS I am eating going "you dont need this, you dont even WANT it, why are you EATING it" but eating it anyway. And then going and getting another. ...and another.

Its the self sabotaging aspect of it that makes it a binge for me. I can eat a lot of food and not consider it a binge if it wasnt intentionally self destructive.

Usually there is a huge quantity involved but sometimes its just eating because I feel COMPELLED to eat this junk that I dont want.

Lets see in recent memory...
All the truffles I got as a gift in one sitting (what a waste, after the 2nd who even tasted it)
An entire pumpkin pie with almost an entire can of reddi-whip (reddiwhip as it turns out is a trigger food for me - when you are raiding the pantry to figure out what other kinds of foods you can put reddi-whip ON you know you have a problem. Especially when it ends up being just a bowl of rw)
and my most recent newyears eve fiasco
- 3 slices of pizza
- 2 bowls of nacho cheese/sausage/rotel cheese dip with lots of chips
- ~1/2 cup of m& m's "because sweet cuts the spice"
- Can of guinness "to cut the sweet"
- Ice cream
- cookies - 4 really rich shortbread/nut/jam things

- and of course champagne.

I think overall it was a 2800 calorie binge - but I am actually kind of proud that I went back and documented every single bit of it in fitday....for me that was a really good therapy.

I know what you mean. Last week I had a "regular" meal from McDonald's - 10 piece chicken nuggets, large fries and Dr Pepper, and I put it into fitday. That meal alone was worth all the calories I should have consumed in the entire day.

I'm trying something new this year, and so far it's working very well for me. I've stopped thinking of any food eaten as forbidden or even "off-program." My goal is to eat more whole (natural/unprocessed) foods, more fiber, less fat, lower glycemic index (I'm insulin resistance). I've stopped defining "binges" too, though I am keeping a very detailed food journal.

I write down what I eat and when, and how I feel - both about what I've eaten and why I may have made the choices I did. The rule I've given myself is that I have to write down both positives and negtives about the experience. So even when I ate 9 chocolate kisses when I'd planned to eat 3, I wrote down both the good and bad things about my choice.

I am noticing things, like the less startch/sugar content, the less likely I am to eat more than I wanted, or foods I hadn't planned on, and the more frequent mini-meals I eat, the less I'm likely to lose control. Also, the more I write positively about the choices I make, the less deprived I feel, which for me is very important. I get really discouraged if I don't feel like I am enjoying what I'm eating.

Really, a binge for me may be anywheres from a box of fig newtons to a near whole thin crust pizza.
A binge for me is either when I:
1. eat with the intention of purging it, no matter how little/much I eat.
2. eat to the point of pain or intense fullness whether or not I purge afterwards.
3. eat whatever amount of something without feeling in control of the situation.........when the food is "controlling" me. Even if it is one cookie.

A binge for me is when i can't stop eating. No matter what i tell myself, i continue to eat and eat and eat.

I can stop now, it's a miracle. If i start to eat faster i realize a binge is about to come and i just put down the food and walk away.

But really my binging is when i can't stop and when i get a huge stomach ache. My worst binge hurt my stomach so bad that i crawled into my bed and cried myself to sleep. I woke up six hours later... yah binging sucks!

For me the biggest danger is always in cooking a whole box of something, telling myself I'll just eat half, even putting the rest away in the fridge, and still ending up eating the whole thing, plus (since at that point I'm likely to purge anyway) whatever else I lay hands on, melted chocolate chips are a particular danger, or more leftovers. Its been a while since my last binge, and I'm hoping to keep it that way - but I notice it when I shop, like I did today - I only bought one thing I had to cook all at once, everything else was either single serving or cook as much as you want at one time. My worst trigger foods though, in no particular order - Stovetop stuffing (bought some today but I WONT CAVE), annie's mac and cheese with corn, broccoli cheese rice, melted chocolate chips, spaghetti bolognese if I make too much (and because you have to buy the meat in minimum half pound packages, I ALWAYS make too much.) Going out hasn't been TOO terrible for me, my dangers are 1000 calorie qdoba burritos, 500 calorie DD bacon egg and cheese on a bagel, and 800 calorie sbarro's chicken and spaghetti - I get them all on a regular basis, which is OK as long as I keep track and compensate elsewhere. Its the watching it that's hard!

To me a binge is when I go out and buy several junk food items and eat them all at once or when I just keep eating and eating even if I'm full (like if I make lasagna or something really yummy).