Like the title says, I've been eating within my calories for 4 days straight, but I'm wanting to binge so bad!!

It's tough to even write this, so I'll keep it short.

I think I can get through tonight, but I'm afraid I will binge like crazy tomorrow.

I can get into the gym for 2 months straight, so why can't I continue eating within my caloric needs? Why do I want to eat until I burst?!

What should I do? How do I stay binge-free?

Help...

what are you eating in a day? I have found eating the wrong types of food make you want to binge because your hormones are thrown out of wack.

Also how much are you working out? Maybe you really are hungry and should just have a salad or some fruit just choose something healthy like a handful of almonds and the cravings should subside.

edit- Reading comprehension fail.

Hi, If you are not hungry and have ruled out a medical issues it is likely that your binge eating is emotionally driven.
Eating within your calorific needs is great but eating healthily is only half the answer to controlling your binge eating.
You need to work on identifying and understanding the emotions you have that cause you to engage in a food binge. It might be a feeling of anger, anxiety, helplessness. It may be that food has become the drug you use to deal with your feelings.
A diary will help, as will any self education you can do on the reasons why you binge.
You can stop but you need to educate yourself on how. You may have a few slip ups in learning how to stop but you will get there. Fill your life up with other sources of happiness other than food.
You'll get there.

I don't really believe too much in emotional eating I do to a certain degree but when your cravings are killing you to the point where you go almost crazy trying to deny eating something I think it is more of a hormonal thing. That's why I ask what have you been eating for the day because even though you have eaten within your calorie limit it may not be all that great of food as in ones with too much sugar or mostly packaged food which barely keeps you full and makes your cravings go crazy from the blood sugar spikes least in my experience. So maybe its the type of foods you are eating.

Or if your eating mostly packaged foods the amount of foods you are able to eat are usually too small.

Not sure whats going on but just an idea for you.

Also the reason I don't believe too much in emotional eating as well is because I mostly believe that the bad foods are what cause most of the emotional ups and downs also when your hormones are going crazy or you have a thyroid problem etc.

I still wanna eat when I'm bored or depressed but it's controlable when my blood sugar is stable I have noticed.

Here's what I've been eating:

B (8am) - 1/2 cup oatmeal (natural, no sugar added)
Bev - 2-3 cups coffee with non-fairy creamer (no sugar)
Sn (10:30am) - 1/2 cup 2% fat cottage cheese
L (12pm) - 1-2 cups of home made turkey noodle soup (noodles are whole wheat)
Sn (around 3pm) - 1/2 cup fat free greek yogurt with 1 tsp of honey
Sn (5pm) - 1 serving of peel & eat shrimp with some cocktail sauce
D - turkey tortilla (home made, approx 450 cals)
Sn - 1 ruby red grapefruit and a 1/2 cup of peanuts in-shell (it helps calm me to fidget with peeling and eating)

*I eat my snack by 8pm and go to sleep around 11. I get a good 6-7 hours of sleep, so i'm well-rested when I wake up.

As you can tell, I'm eating up all the turkey from Thanksgiving, lol.

What do you guys think - am I missing anything in my diet? Any suggestions are appreciated.

coffeeshopgirl - I don't see any fruits or vegetables in your meal plan except for the grapefruit. Are you wanting to binge because you're still hungry? If you're wanting to binge out of hunger, I highly advise adding more vegetation to your diet. I'd actually advise that anyway.... I'm a serious binge eater myself and to curb it, I make sure I get at least 3 servings of fresh raw fruit and veggies a day. If you're wanting to binge out of a particular craving, I wouldn't deny that craving. I usually get cravings for something sweet (cake is my #1 vice), so if I feel a craving coming on, I'll curb it by having a handful of chocolate covered almonds I keep in my cupboard. It's still bad, but not nearly as bad as wolfing down half a cake like I would've done otherwise. That way I satisfy my craving without having to go overboard and binging till I'm bloated.

I see nothing here but carbs. Yes, oatmeal is healthy, but what about protein and fats to satiate you?

Same here... no real nutritional value.

This is a very small meal. While it does have a nice balance of carbs/protein/fat it's not really much.

Without a serving size or ingredients list it's hard to see what's going on here. Do you have fats in the soup? A good amount of protein from the turkey? Is it bulked up with lots of fiberous veggies?

You probably get the point by now... the trend seems to be a lack of fat in your diet. Unless you have some specific dietary restrictions you should be eating much more! Your body NEEDS fats to function properly, they make your food flavorful and satisfying, and they help to keep your appetite under control.

Yep... like ZERO fat here.

Same comment as the soup... hard to see what's in this.

This would make me want to binge too. Try cutting carbs and making sure there is some fat and protein with every meal. Have you considered switching it up to have bigger meals, fewer snacks?

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Now that I see it, i do have to get more veggies into my diet. I'm still getting used to this meal planning thing.

Might sound like a dumb question, but what would you suggest for breakfast?

How would you get more healthy fats and protein into this diet?

Thanks again! Feeling like a weight-loss freshman over here

Eggs (WITH THE YOLK), chicken, pork, fish (tuna has the best protein to calorie ratio I've found - better than whey protein powder!), beef, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, soy milk, edamame, olive oil, nuts (watch it, some people binge easily on nuts - I sure do), avocadoes...

I put olive oil on everything! You can saute mushrooms and garlic in it, you can put it in your soup, you can put it on noodles.

One of my favorite meals are noodles, coated with olive oil, some feta cheese mixed in and then add some tuna or chicken! With a salad on the side.

But I do have to be careful to measure out the noodles and the olive oil, as they are high calorie. Feta cheese and tuna aren't so bad, but still be careful. A larger can of tuna is 150, while they also sell them a bit smaller with 100 calories instead. I think feta is like 80 calories a tablespoon, but it's very very flavorful and I find I don't need much to be completely satisfied with it.

I also like to add beans to stuff whenever I can. Soups, salads, casadillas...

I think of it like 'pumping up my meal'. What can you add that's healthy and would make this meal just that much better? Yeah, quinoa is good, but top it with tofu or chicken and mushrooms sauted in olive oil and it's super good! Plus more nutritious.

Thanks thewalrus0

I've been adding more veggies and fat into my meal plan. Definitely did the trick. I guess I just needed a few add-ins to what I had on the menu for the week.

I'm feeling better, and definitely stronger since I've made it through the week.

I'm also feeling more in control. Tonight I went out with a friend and she offered me a fried cheese stick. She knows I'm eating healthy, and quickly apologized. I smiled and said "No need to apologize, I saved some calories for a little treat."

It might sound silly, but I just feel more in control of my eating.

Thanks again for the support everyone!

I don't know about you but I have managed to keep my binging under control after I started tracking my progress. If I feel like eating (too much) I open my PC and start exploring the graphics and targets and it is such a motivation booster for me. I use the software from fitsmarty.com for tracking and I like it. Especially for graphics and stuff. But I suppose anything would do the trick. Even Excel or just pen and paper.

I dunno, to me your diet sounds really low in calories, especially considering how much exercise you're doing. From where I'm sitting, it's no wonder you've succumbed to the binge monster!

F.