Hey there,

I am a long-time lurker and just decided to finally register and post my story with binging.

My mother died about 4 years ago, and I think that's when I first started officially binging. It was the combination of stress probably, as well as a new desire to be "perfect", look really thin, etc. I managed to develop a binging (but never purging) habit, and would eat mammouth amounts of sugary and salty (carb!) foods and then "restrict" or "diet" the next 3-4 days to "make up for it", and feel starved by day 5 and repeat the cycle all over again.

That went on for the next 3 years.

Lately I have noticed that my binging habit, has SIGNIFICANTLY improved! It's actually been wonderful. Within the last year I discovered something I probably should have known all along-which was that my binges were resulting generally from the fact that I was just hungry, and my "self-control" widdled by the time day 5 or 6 rolled around and I was just so hungry.

What I also had to teach myself was that it was better to just eat the caloric amount neccessary for my body that day and not binge-because then it was truly just easier for my body to continue through the day and "self-control" became so much easier. I found naturally trying to satisfy my body-with those calories it needed, took much less energy than needed.

The other thing too, if every once in a while, about once every one or two weeks, I eat 200-300 calories above what I am "allowed" to; it never ends up being a huge problem, because the next day I find I'm able to eat a bit less. And I also learned that it is MUCH better to eat just a few more calories than normal-with that brownie at Starbucks late at night, etc. than to binge 2-3,000 calories a night.

I hope this helps someone! Also, I found my trigger: it's sugar, but not all sugar, really just especially processed sugar, like oreos. They say sugar and salty foods make you hungrier, and protein makes you more full. This is so true! I also increased my meat sandwhich eating, and found that helped a lot.

Good luck to everyone!
-Replytothread

Hi Replytothread. Thanks for the great tips! I concur that feeding your body properly is important.

I'm sort of doing the same thing where I eat what I want, when I want. Because of this the portion sizes have become normal and I don't feel deprived. It's a wonderful feeling.

Welcome to the forum!

I'm so glad to hear you've had success! It's true that you crave that junkie food less when you eat it less. I've only been working at this for like three days, and all ready, my body feels absolutely amazing! I'm glad you're working towards health as well.

I get what you are talking about. I do not want to be hungry forever. I am hungry then I need to eat something---if I try not to eat and get even more hungry then I give up and eat too much and usually the wrong things. I am in way more control when I am not starving.

I so agree with this!

I've been a 'binger' for the past 2 years. It would be me skipping breakfast, then eating a full lunch, but then for dinner nothing, or only a noodle soup out of sheer laziness. And then like clockwork in the evening I'd get on my bike to go buy chips, cookies and soda. Every evening. I'd be so emberassed and try to go to a different check-out every evening. Or just tried to look like I was buying it for a party or more people than just myself. And when coming home i'd hide it behind my back from my housemates. The dumbest thing ever!

Now, I started exercise and eating 3 good meals and 2 good snacks a day - and the urge to go to the store and buy those icky foods is much less. I even have a bag of doritos in the kitchen that I'm not touching for a whole week now. I've been reading so much about nutrition, that I can barely imagine putting foods that are so unhealthy into my system again. Also found out that the E-numbers in foods require animal-testing. So I try to avoid E-numbers. Which means a ton of stuff is already not so appealing anymore.