Binge Eating Help - What Leads to a Binge and How Can You Stop It?

Prior to recovering from 6 years of Bulimia, I couldn't tell you how I got into a binge. All I knew was once I was bingeing it was virtually impossible to stop. Since discovering Natural Eating and recovering from bulimia I have been able to identify just what habits lead to a binge and how you can avoid them. From my experience if you have got into negative eating habits over time, you will find you tend to binge regularly. This is simply because the way you are eating is not positive and empowering and is not what your body wants and needs. I've identified those "negative habits" as follows:

1. Dieting
2. Deprivation
3. Inconsistent exercise
4. Eating on a schedule
5. Comments from others or Comfort Eating

Dieting:
Generally when we diet we are following a plan or programme that has been designed for us by somebody else. We are generally taught to eat a certain amount of food at set times throughout the day. This does not take into account, when we are actually hungry, and how much our body needs or wants. Therefore we may not be eating enough food to sustain us, and we will eventually binge. This is because you can only survive on willpower for so long and if you are not eating enough your body will demand more food and once you start eating more than you are "supposed to" it is very hard to stop.

Deprivation:
This normally stems from dieting as well. Often you are told to eat only certain types of food, generally only healthy options and you are "not allowed" the high fat, high sugar foods. Accordingly you may be depriving yourself of your favourite food. Again will power will only work for so long and you decide to cheat on your diet. So you may just try a little bit, but because you are "not allowed" it you feel guilty which ultimately leads to a binge.

Inconsistent exercise:
Again, the amount or types of food you allow yourself, may not necessarily be enough, particularly if you are exercising. We need different amounts of food each day depending on how much exercise we are doing. So if you are not increasing the quantities of food you have when you are exercising you will eventually get ravenous, which will lead to a binge. This is because your emotions take over when you are over-hungry and you just don't know what you want.

Eating on a schedule
I find that most people tend to eat on a schedule or in a particular routine, i.e. 3 times a day. However, this may not necessarily be when you are actually hungry. Therefore we tend to overeat because we know it may be 5, 6 or more hours before we get any more food. So ultimately you may find that you are actually over-eating at every meal. You have got into this habit so now you don't even notice how it feels when you have eaten too much.

Comments from Others or comfort Eating
Often we take what other people say to us to heart, particularly to do with food and our bodies. If someone makes an unkind or negative comment about our weight/body, this can unleash all sorts of emotions. Ultimately this may lead to a binge as we try to comfort ourselves. Similarly some of us are "comfort eaters" and tend to binge when we are sad, angry, bored, lonely, upset or disappointed.

The way to deal with all these issues is to embrace "Natural Eating", which is all about how you eat, not what you eat. Therefore you can still enjoy all your favourite foods while achieving and maintaining a natural and healthy weight. Natural Eating is based on four simple principles and is defined as follows: "Listening to your body so you can feel when it is hungry. Eating exactly what it wants at that time. Stopping when you are satisfied but not over-full, and moving onto something else after eating."

In this way you are giving your body what it wants and needs, when it needs it. You are still enjoying all your favourite foods; however, you are not eating without limits or controls. It just means that the limits and controls are coming from within, not from the external forces of a diet or eating plan. Accordingly, you won't be inclined to binge, as you will be satisfied all of the time.

By Catrina Bengree