After reading some threads on binging it got me thinking about the times I have totally binged. After a life time of yo-yo dieting and eating disorders, I can never remember a time I binged in public. It has ALWAYS been in private. With exception of a holiday dinner or two I have always been a sneaky over eater. Ever try to fluff up a bag of chips to hide how many you have eaten? What about re-stacking the cookie jar to make it look fuller... My father could tell by just looking at me if I had "cheated" on my diet...and bring it to EVERYONES attention. So sad. I was always better in his eyes when I was starving myself. He was a Marine, and discipline was his middle name...

Has anyone ever binged in a social setting?

I do it in both. Public/social and private. I have noticed that I do more in private now then before just because everyone and their grandma knows I am on a diet.

A true binge? Only in private.

I have made a total pig of myself in public, "out with the gang" type thing, though.

Nope, pretty much always in private. There were one or two times DH and I 'shared' and entire bag of chips and bowl of dip and I'm pretty sure my 'share' was a tad larger than his - but for the most part binging has been a solitary (and often planned) endevour.

I just did it at the baby shower I hosted on saturday, I ate like a pig and stuffed myself. Finally I poured tons of salt all over the plate to make myself stop eating and picking.

I've seen people at 'all you can eat' places eat what I'd consider binge worthy but no, its a completely private thing for me.

I'm definitely an exception--all my recent binges have been in public, at social gatherings (not at work or at the mall or anything). I'm not sure if it is some sort of social anxiety or what???

When I lived with my parents, though, I used to binge secretly.

Really binging? Luckily I wasn't a habitual binger, but when I did, it was always private. My big binge would be a large (family sized bag) of plain Ruffles potato chips and a bowl of onion dip (sour cream and Lipton's onion soup mix). A lot of times if my husband was out at guys night or if he was out of town (or if I was out of town) I would buy those things and eat the whole thing by myself instead of dinner.

Always in private.

Doesn't mean I never went out to eat and totally overindulged, but for me, that's different from binging.

What's really funny is that the last time we went to someone's house and they had chips and dip - I had a handful and didn't WANT any more. It was too salty and made me sorta vaguely ill. Thank heavens.

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totally in private.

I've just totally bummed myself out...LOL I think of how many binges it took for me to get to 333+ pounds. I have spent entirely too much time alone the last few years. I'm a stay-at-home mom and I'm thinking it's time to get out and get a part time job while the boys are at school.

It's a vicious cycle. The bigger I got the more social phobia I had, the more I was alone the more I ate....YIKES

True eat till you are sick binges? home alone.

of course i learned to binge from the family we used to binge AS A FAMILY it was an event. everyone went out (aunts, and cousins) and we all got all our favorite foods, took them back to the house, put them in the middle of the table and all ate ourselves sick.

Totally in private. I somehow managed to get the mentality that if nobody sees me eat it, the calories don't count, plus I always had to buy my own junk food and hide it in my befroom because the stuff I like is either never bought or doesn't last long enough for me to actually get any.

It's something I'm working on.

I know what you mean! After thinking about this for awhile, I'm pretty sure the reason I've always binged in private is because of shame. Some deep rooted emotional baggage from childhood..."pretty face" syndrome or something nutty like that!

Always in private. I may overeat some around close friends or family, (thanksgiving or Christmas or Easter) but around co workers or acquaintances, I always eat a small meal and leave most of it on my plate. To the point where I get comments like, "I don't know how you're overweight, you don't eat very much!" from friends who don't know how much food I can truly put away. Only 1 girlfriend knows my binging secret, she struggles too so we try and support each other and talk each other off the ledge.