Does anybody here, on top of their binging, practice alternative eating patterns? I recently started intermittent fasting (eating every other day) as a way to make sense and control my binging. Every other day I give myself an hour to eat. I will not put a single piece of food in my mouth not during my "hour" every other day (sugar free gum and water are what i eat the other 47 hours). During that hour, I am allowed to binge on healthy food (I eat granola, fruit, veggies, peanut butter, rice cakes, pickles, seaweed, nuts, air-popped popcorn, and dried fruit if I really need something sweet). That eating makes me feel like I have gotten my urge to binge out, without actually eating anything too bad for me. It keeps me going fine until 47 hours later when I get my next hour.

I recently went vegan, so that cuts out about 99% of junk food/stuff I would be tempted with (cheese crackers, candies, chocolate, pastries, etc), so my binges are usually never too high-calorie.

Anybody else adapt any sort of alternative eating to allow them to incorporate the binge in a healthy (or at least weight-loss-friendly) way, rather than simply cutting it out of your life? i've found that, since iv started this, I havn't had one single urge to gobble down trash.

I cannot be helpful here, since my whole effort was toward making my eating patterns more conventional -- to sort of "mainstream" my habits -- rather than adopting completely new ways.

But I do want to thank you for the phrase "alternative eating patterns," which, seriously, I had never heard before.

Come to think of it, though, the more I focused on eating healthily, and had to source some of my foodstuffs from farmers' markets and small, privately owned health stores, and started to learn more about nutrition, and the more I got interested in reducing stress through meditation, yoga & other means, the more I wandered into the universe described as "alternative." If alternative healing methods & alternative lifestyles are common phrases, I guess why not alternative eating?

For me, personally -- this is likely not true for you -- I don't want to binge in any way. I don't want to do anything that even faintly resembles a binge. Yeah, I am not fully confident in my recovery or recovering state, so I shy away from anything that even slightly resembles binge/restriction behavior, particularly fasting. I'm not saying it's not a good strategy, just that it's personally scary to me.

I would think not eating for 47 hours would make me more likely to binge.

Why not just eat 3-6 times a day and when urges to binge come try to figure out WHY they are coming? I used to binge all the time now I can't remember the last time I had a binge because I learned to recognize what caused the binges in the first place (waiting too long between meals and not eating enough during the day).

I really didn't think IF was eating every other day. I'm pretty sure there's more too it, and more variety - like fasting for 24 hours from one dinner to the next. I don't actually believe fasting works long term if used often, but I think a 24 hr fast once a week or every two weeks could be an interesting way to train your body to adapt.

Fasting every other day, for me, would mean that the days I'd eat, I'd likely over do it majorly. I'd probably consume 3 days worth of food in one day

I think that binge prevention goes hand in hand with WHY we binge. I have had some serious problems in that department. For me that's controlling my anxiety and stress (toughest part), eating real, balanced meals when I am hungry and making sure they're satisfying, eating no processed food and simple carbs, which make me crave more.

For dealing with my bingeing problems I had to be *less* controling and rigid with myself.

Good luck with your way of eating - I hope you find something that works for you. Dealing with bingeing is really difficult

I tried that for a while and it was torturous not to eat for 24 hours. I mean maybe after 20 hours i'd get to the point where the hunger would finally go away....but for most of the time i had to try really really hard not to let the hunger get to me. I don't know how you do it.

I will say, though, that it pretty much eliminated binging for me. Normally, my stomach never, EVER feels full. I mean i could eat 2000 calories during the day and STILL have a 3000 calorie binge at night, and NOT feel sick at all!! BUT, intermittent fasting was the ONLY thing that ever gave me that feeling of fullness; i guess if i didn't eat for 24 hours, my stomach actually shrank to the point that i couldn't really eat more than around 2500 calories even if i really tried.

I am curious to see how this works out for you! It is certainly a different way of taking control.