I'm still not quite sure if I was a binger or just a compulsive over eater. I know I did binge on a few occasions, like...ordering too much when going out to eat. But I took some of it home. Is binging like...you open the fridge and just start to eat? Is it like emotional eating where you get frazzled and the only thing that numbs the anxiety (speaking from familiarity) is something to gnaw on? Or is it beyond that?

I know I am definitely a compulsive over eater and I am working on that. Having a great week without a single hint of over eating and trying to stay faithfully within my calorie range along with these CHAlean videos. And I was definitely a binge drinker some years ago...

Yet is there a difference between lack of portion control and binging? Your thoughts are appreciated! Also, I'd like to know how you stop yourself from binging. Like, maybe it would help me with my emotional or compulsive eating and too-large portions!

I'm looking for all the advice I can to continue this journey right

To my understanding, a binge is when you eat a very very large amount of food in one sitting. The word itself suggests a lack of control, doing something to excess. Overeating can happen subtly (as simply as having 500 more calories per day than you need) but binging seems to happen episodically. Think of eating 4,000 calories in one go, not even tasting the food.

I'm not a binger, but I suck at portion control. Sometimes I can't believe how small dinner looks on the plate. I try to drink a lot of water before I start eating and during meals. I also make an effort to take small bites (e.g. if I am eating pasta I don't have more than 2 noodles on the fork) and chew each bite, since one of my biggest problems was eating too fast and not really tasting or chewing each bite.

Have you ever felt really guilty and awful after eating something? Ever had a great day food-wise and then blown it all to pieces with something stupid like cookies (cough cough last night) or the midnight munchies? That crushing guilt alone is usually enough to keep me out of the ice cream aisle at 7-11.

Oh man, I still have this problem. My friend and I cook a lot of Filipino, Japanese,Hawaiian and Indian food, and we always get upset afterward because we look at each other and ask "Dude, did we even chew?" Laughter ensues, but it still sucks. All of that fun and effort for me to have practically jacked open my gob and poured the food in. However, the friend has a God-Tier metabolism and I sooooo do not!

As for binging, I don't think I've ever sat down and taken in 4,000 calories, though if I have and am not aware of it? I probably wouldnt be shocked. I'm more the type who's ended up consuming that much in a day without really meaning to, though. I do know that my over-eating/emotional eating (not quite binging but too-big portions) usually involves carbs, though. Chips, bagels, paninis. Stuff like that.

I feel better cutting a good chunk of them out after so long.

Interesting question! I was always one to have a LOT of whatever I was eating (like if I'd go for pizza, I'd eat 4 or 5 slices). But I think my bingey-est behavior would be coming home from work after a night shift, finding something good on the DVR, going to the kitchen and getting something to eat, then thinking what the next thing would be before I even finished whatever it was. And I would just keep on doing that till I finally dragged myself to bed.

I know now that a lot of it for me was simple sleep deprivation. I knew I was tired, but my body just CRAVED lots and LOTS of bad food. I shoulda just gone to bed! Now that I work day shift and I am being treated for very severe sleep apnea (which I was diagnosed with back in May), I very rarely even feel the need to overeat.

Get your sleep everyone!

binge
   /bɪndʒ/ Show Spelled [binj] Show IPA noun, verb, binged, bing·ing. Informal .
–noun
1.
a period or bout, usually brief, of excessive indulgence, as in eating, drinking alcoholic beverages, etc.; spree.

That's from dictionary.com

I was both a binge eater and a compulsive over eater. Lucky me!

I actually used to purchase large quantities of food with the very intention of eating it all in a short period of time. Or maybe I purchased it to have for the whole day and wound up eating it in one sitting. Oh and was I sick afterwards. But then it would pass and I'd *look* for something else to shovel down me. It wasn't pretty.

I also grazed throughout the day. Almost non-stop. And my portions were waaaay to large as well while I was eating meals.

I don't miss those days. Whoever says that eating what they want, when they want makes one happy is mistaken. There was no happiness to be found in doing that. With foods such as that, there is no satiation point. There is no satisfaction to be had. You're looking for the satisfaction, you're looking for something, but it's not there, so you keep on doing it and doing it looking for the right outcome, which can never be found through the overindulging of food.

Yuck. Bad memories.

My therapist said its consuming more than 2,000 calories in an hour.
I'm sure I have done it.
Mine is not like frenzied, frantic eating.....more of a feeling of not being full and wanting more so I keep going back for more even though I know I shouldn't.

I'm sorry, I didn't see this portion of the post earlier.

How did I stop?

Well I had to totally and completely ban the foods that I was binging on. I wasn't binging on roasted broccoli and tomato salad. Nu-uh. I was binging on cookies, ice cream, cakes, fried foods, etc. Certain foods brought out a feeding frenzy in me, it wasn't ALL foods. So I had to eliminate the culprits. Cold turkey. I had to let my love of *those* foods die down.

What also helped me? Giving myself a calorie budget to adhere to. It's built in accountability and forced portion control. I took this all very seriuosly. I made a commitment to do it, no ifs ands or buts. And that was that. I was doing this, no matter what, once and for all and permanently.

Another fabulous tool to help me with my commitment - writing down each and every morsel BEFORE it went into my mouth. ZERO EXCEPTIONS.

Planning was also key for me. I mapped out my food schedule in advance. I got rid of the junk, but added in other foods. I knew where each and every meal and snack was coming from ahead of time. Much easier to stay on plan, when you've actually got one. I made sure those foods were healthy, delicious, truly satisfying foods. Ones that wouldn't make me feel like a human garbage disposal. Loaded with protein and /or fiber. I started giving my body what it needed and it stopped looking for it in the other stuff that I was eating which could never fulfill the order.

The biggest key though was realizing that a change had to occur. I couldn't go on like that. SOMETHING had to change. My desire to be thin, slim, trim, active, fit and a ALIVE overpowered my desire for *those foods*.

Were there some uncomfortable moments? Yes. Breaking bad habits, and at some point, that's just what they are - habits, is not a simple task, though it was loads easier than I imagined it would be. The best thing was the total and complete ban. Because once I had a single bite of one of *those foods*, I was gone. I had a terrible time stopping once I started - my solution - don't start. Problem solved, 165 pounds gone and kept off for over three years.

After a couple of difficult weeks, where you just must push through it, it became dare I say, relatively easy. It was nothing short of miraculous to me. The more time that passed, the less I wanted those foods.

Bad eating begets more bad eating. And thankfully the same holds true for good eating. Before you know it, it's the good foods and the good behaviors will become your norm.

This is from the "Chicks in Control" forum. What is a compulsive overeater or binge eating syndrome?

I'm always curious about these exact definitions too. I feel like I don't binge, exactly, I just prefer to have something to nibble on (constantly) while watching movies or reading. I'd be fine foodwise if I didn't read or watch movies, I swear! I don't overeat when I'm out with friends, or at restaurants or work or anything like that. Problem is, I love to read! It's not like I'm upset, or needing to numb anything or anything like that. It's sad that I could have negative associations with relaxing/ enjoying myself - but maybe that's it? Maybe I just feel too sedentary?

Anyway, I wish I had some advice for you, but I'm just working through things myself - I can definitely commiserate!

I have a binging problem, too. I say "have" because even though I went cold turkey on those foods and haven't binged in months, I know it's something I'll likely always have to worry about.

For me, a binge involved going to the grocery store or a restaurant, buying a lot of food, and bringing it home with the intention of eating it all in a short period of time. The 'bringing it home' and eating it by myself part is a key component, I think. I would have been horribly ashamed if anyone had seen me consuming that amount of food.

A binge for me might consist of eating an entire pizza (or as much of it I could eat before getting sick), or maybe going to McDonalds and coming away with two burgers, two large fries (which I would dip in mayo), fountain drinks, and usually ice cream too. Way more than any normal person would eat in a sitting.

It definitely represents a loss of control in a way that just overeating or messing up portion sizes doesn't come close to, and I'm deathly afraid of going back there. But I figure as long as I'm afraid of it, I'm taking more care to make sure it doesn't happen. Trigger foods don't enter my apartment, and while I have things here that I like, I don't like them enough to sit down and eat 4,000 calories worth of it. I never go to a grocery store on an empty stomach, and if I go to a restaurant I either eat in or take a friend with me, since I won't binge if there's anyone there to witness it. The urge to binge has definitely decreased substantially after months of clean eating, I hope it keeps going that way!

To me, binging was when I woke up, or got home from school and scarfled down a sandwich, and while eating that sandwich, was thinking about the chicken nuggets in the freezer, the roast for dinner, AND the cake for desert. I would eat two FULL MEALS one after the other, and still have a snack.

I could wake up and eat ramen, a hotdog, a sandwich, some chips, some finger fingers or chicken nuggets, AND some toast. One after the other. It was pretty bad.

I had to learn to control that. Sometimes I still scarf food down. I just scarfed my breakfast down, but it's a small salad and I've still got a glass of milk left, so I'm not too worried about it. It's just hard to know when to stop. It really is.

I used to order multiple sodas at the drive-thru to deflect suspicion that I alone was going to eat all that I had ordered.

Hi there! I do NOT see how to send a pm to you - maybe because
I am new (I did look at the help sticky). Anyway I wondered if you have a blog somewhere on here as to how you lost your weight. I am amazed you lost so much in such a short time! That is so awesome.

I have done that, too.

I'm terribly embarrassed by how I used to eat. Even my husband doesn't know. He *almost* caught me once when he got in the car and smelled fast food, but I played it off as a lingering smell from the day before.

I consider myself a compulsive over-eater now, even though the slip-ups are getting fewer and fewer. I used to be a binge eater. For a long time I didn't know what that was, and after I did I refused to believe I was a binge-eater. I was also a purger for a time. I'll explain how it felt for me.

A binge for me usually started with a kind of almost panicked feeling. I would start with one thing, a sandwich, cookie, something... and as I was eating that I'd start feeling anxious. I could, and can, feel it building up. I ended up scarfing down the sandwich or whatever, and immediately went for whatever else was available. While eating that, the panic would grow and grow and I would end up eating more and more. I've driven, stuffed, to fast food chains and ordered MORE to eat and had it gone by the time I got home. I'm talking a big mac meal, grilled chicken sandwich with extra mayo, 2 cheeseburgers and more fries. It would get to nearly full-blown panic attack, can't breathe almost crying, proportions and I would continue to eat until I was sick. Once I was so physically full it HURT the panic would stop. It's very humiliating, and the shame I feel is enough to make my eyes sting even now. I started purging out of sheer guilt and disgust, which lead to more panic, more guilt and more disgust. I had been going to a forum for bulimics, which instead of helping just drove me further into it. Last year around this time, I almost fainted while purging and that was it for me. If I binged, I dealt with it. I refused to allow myself the "easy" way out by purging. I owned it. I focused on those sick, terrible feelings and associated them with the binge, realizing that the panic I felt was BECAUSE of over eating/binging. I went from eating close to 4,000 calories in one binge (sometimes more, sometimes less) to what I consider, just compulsively over eating sometimes. Sometimes I'll start eating and eating, then stop myself and realize what I'm doing. I'll have eaten over 1000 calories sometimes, but I can stop that panic, assess what I'm doing and put the food down. Sometimes I have to completely get out of the house to do it.