Sex: Female, Age: 20, 5 feet 4 inches, SW: 135, CW:124, desk job with swimming and walking as exercise.
Let me start of by saying that while I have never struggled with my weight (always have been healthy BMI), I relate SO MUCH to people on this thread and their struggles with binge eating. I love food, especially sugar, and when I binge I eat an insane amount of calories until I feel sick. I think the only reason I am not overweight is because I am an athlete and because my family is naturally very thin.
My binge eating has had its ups and downs. It was especially bad when I had mono in college, because I was too tired to walk to the dining hall and ended up just eating candy from the vending machine. I felt like I had tried EVERYTHING to get it to stop. I tried food journaling, distracting myself with other activities, and intuitive eating. Intuitive eating is great for some people, but since I have chronic constipation my body's signals were always messed up. If I hadn't had a bowel movement in a few days, I wouldn't be hungry at all and food would be difficult to get down. However, once I had a bowel movement I would eat everything in sight and most of the time it was unhealthy.
I am finally at the point where my binge eating is under control, and I've unintentionally lost 10 pounds in the process. I recognize that everyone is different and for some people these tips may not work. However, they helped me so maybe they will help you. My tips are:
1) Count calories if you can't eat intuitively. Don't see calories as "bad" or "good," but keep track of them
2) Make sure you are eating enough, whatever that may look like. Use TDEE calculators and don't try to cut an insane amount of calories, especially if you are an athlete like myself. (If you are trying to lose weight of course you will need to cut calories but don't go overboard). It might be tempting to always overestimate the calories you are eating or skip food now and then, but that will come back to haunt you. For me, it meant that I felt weak in the pool and could barely move around without exhaustion. It also made more prone to binge once my body finally rebelled and told me that it needed more food.
3) Limit added sugar intake, but you don't have to cut it out completely. By sugar, I mean white sugar, brown sugar, maple syrup, honey, etc. Anything that doesn't come from fruit. Sugar is a huge trigger for me, and I thought that if I stopped eating added sugar completely that my body would get used to it and stop craving it. If that works for you, great, but I was always craving cheesecake or cookies and eventually would binge. Now, I just make sure I stay under the 24g a day rule and allow myself a cookie after dinner.
4) Don't force yourself to eat foods you hate. Instead, find healthy or healthyish foods that you enjoy. I am a picky eater, and whenever I tried to force myself to eat veggies or other foods I hate I felt like I was punishing myself. It wasn't sustainable, I would always binge. Now, I make most of my own food so it is healthier, but I only eat foods I enjoy. For example, I love quiche, plain Cheerios, fruit, chicken, pasta, etc. so that is mostly what I eat.
5) If your body sends you poor signals, keep a regimented routine. Like I mentioned earlier, some days I feel stuffed even though I haven't eaten nearly enough calories, while other days I could eat everything in sight. Now, I eat almost exactly 2000 calories per day no matter how I feel. It feels so wrong to eat when I feel full, or to not eat when I feel hungry, but I know it is for the best. I keep my exercise consistent as well, and when college swim starts up I will add 200-300 calories to my daily intake because I will be working out 2-3 times a day.
6) The scale is not always an accurate reflection of your health. I don't weigh myself often, because I know that if I did I would become obsessed with every gain/loss. Adding muscle, of course, makes you gain weight. Additionally, my constipation means that my weight fluctuates based on whether I have had a bowel movement recently. Water weight/retention, bloating, menstrual cycles, etc. can also affect the scale numbers. If you really need the scale for your goals, I would focus more on the average weight you gain or lose over a period of months versus a day or so.
7) I know this might seem kind of hypocritical coming from someone who has never struggled with weight, but try to remind yourself that you are trying to stop binging for your physical and mental health instead of the weight. This way it makes it seem more positive, and the weight loss WILL FOLLOW if you burn more calories than you consume. I use a similar mentality with school: if you focus on learning as much as you can from a class instead of the grade, you will be more motivated and the good grades will follow naturally.
Hopefully you can use one or more of these tips!
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