Health & Support

First off... an introduction. I've been at this for over 2 years, started in May 2006 and have kept my weight off 30-35lbs for that long now.

But what I have noticed is that in the past few months, when I allow myself to eat the forbidden foods, I do tend to "mini-binge." Usually not too bad, more just of a cheat day that I do allow myself to have, but there have been a few times where I have eaten so much pizza to the point that I got sick. Or had 4 donuts without even realizing it. Why is my body not satisfied with a normal, within moderation, amount of these forbidden foods, like it is with my regular diet?

Before this, I never understood the concept of an "uncontrollable binge."

A lot of people say it is calorie restriction - and the body triggers this sort of action, but I restricted my calories much more in the first year of calorie counting than I do now. I didn't experience this then. Why now do I feel like it's so much easier to lose control?

To clarify though - I have never had a full-out binge. The kind I read about on here where it's one food to the next and unstoppable. But I see myself developing binge tendencies and I have to say it does scare me.

What are CC's thoughts?

you know this happens to me too, and I am not sure why either. All I have to say is that I didn't have this prob before I started working out... weird but true. Now I tend to stuff my face bad. I don't do it anymore (haven't had a "binge" since I quit drinking/smoking pot) but I still tend to break my diet with a donut and I swear the feeling is still the same... it's still a binge but just a smaller one. Never ever had a sweet tooth before dieting either... weird!

I also developed a MAJOR sweet tooth! I just attributed it to growing up and my taste buds changing since I was 16 when I started this... but maybe not. 

Could be because you're lacking in a certain nutrient or mineral, you're tired, or thirsty. 

If I don't get enough water in a day, I have a tendency to over eat.  And when I'm tired, I get cravings for simple carbs.

When I have a 'mini-binge' on luna bars, it's usually 'cause I've been short on iron for the last few days.  Maybe you just needed more carbs in your diet when you had those that doughnut, and your body knew that they were full of quick-digesting carbohydrates, so it triggered a response to have more.

That's my best guess. (:

I mini binged this last week and had almost cut my water consumption in half. I am drinking more water now and all the sudden my eating habits have equalized. I'd say try water water water when you get the urge to binge.. but I'll be trying it more often to see if I get steady results.

For me, fatigue is a huge factor. My tired body wants a quick fix, so I crave sweets. The problem started at least a year after I started losing weight. It has never been a blackout kind of thing for me, but I have eaten an embarrassing 7000 calories in a single day.

I think our bodies get more sensitive when we're smaller because we don't have as much of a security net against starvation. The brain kicks in and says, "Hey, there's pizza! Better stock up!" Just my guess, though.

I am glad to know it's not just me. Thank you for posting this sugar_and_spice.

 

A little about me - I started losing weight in March 2007 and reached my current weight around December 2007. Went from 215 to 153. Oddly enough, I didn't find maintaining an easy thing to do, it took me a few months to get it right.

 

I have never been a binger (and I still am not). But I have observed in the last 3-4 months that I get an intense craving to eat some high cal food every few weeks and when I do eat, I usually go about 2000-3000 calories over my daily limit. It was frustating for me as you can imagine. I go to the gym thrice a week without fail (I'm not lacking in motivation) and I have made it a point to include everything in my diet (including above mentioned high cal foods). Like Sugar_and_spice, when I was loosing weight I was restricting myself a lot more than I do now. So I was completly baffled as to what was happening with me..UNTILL

 

I finally figured out what was going on, I saw this through trial and error. Everytime my weight dips close to or below 152 I seem to have these wierd cravings (sometimes accompanied with tiredness to the point where I don't want to go out and do things). In my case, it's almost like going below 153 is not something that is working for me. I just figured this out a couple weeks ago and I decided to make it a point to not let my weight go below 153. Even though I am not looking to lose any weight now, I do work out a fair bit and I think that might have made my weight go down gradually from 153 to 152 and further, which in turn was leading to bad food consumption patterns. Well now I know what my problem is, I will be more vigilant.

 

I don't know if this could be the exact reason why sugar and the others are having this issue, but it may be worth lookin into. Good luck. 

As a former dieter, binger, anorectic, and overweight person, I am convinced that my own disordered eating resulted from dieting, and nothing but dieting.  I came across an author last summer who explained how bodies react to dieting.  They react to dieting as if you were in a famine situation.  Then, when your body senses that there is indeed available food around (in your kitchen, at a picnic or party, or wherever your binge might occur) your survival instinct kicks in and overpowers you to eat.  I always considered myself to be a  really good dieter (okay, make that an "expert" dieter) but at certain times I was overwhelmed by what I now know to be my survival instinct that inspired me to eat/binge against my wishes and against my better judgment, on ridiculously fattening foods that I couldn't believe that a "expert" dieter like me would ever eat.  It seems more and more apparent to me that  this author is correct every time I read posts on this forum,  and see former dieters who can't seem to keep their thin status permanently, such as Kirstie Alley, Oprah Winfrey, Brittney Spears, Delta Burke, Sally Struthers, Janet Jackson.  Surely these people have enough money to hire trainers and personal chefs, but the fact remains that if you continue to diet you will continue to have to be at war with your body's survival instinct, and unless you resort to purging, drugs, or cross over to severe anorexia-which could result in death, your survival instinct will win in the end by causing you to binge.  It takes abnormal willpower  to  consistently ward off binging  when you've been dieting (famining)  and abnormal willpower does not work in the long run, I've come to  learn first hand, as your survival instinct will override your willpower in order to insure your survival.  Think about how far dieters would go if they didn't have a survival instinct?  I believe if I didn't have one, I would have dieted all the way into complete nothingness and disappeared.  Wouldn't a lot of us do that?  We wouldn't be able to stop dieting without our survival instincts.

The book I read was How To Become Naturally Thin by Eating More, by Jean Antonello.  It cost me a whopping $4.00 (used) and has turned my life around.  You could explore costly therapy and other alternatives, but why not spend 4 bucks first and see if this book makes any sense to you.  She wrote a follow up book called "Breaking Out of Food Jail" which was also helpful to me.  I quit journaling my calories, obsessive weighing everyday, weighing out food portions on a food scale, and other habits that were taking over my life.

Here is an excerpt from Chapter 3 of How to Become Naturally Thin By Eating More c. 1989:

"You can trust your body and must if you want to be thin for the rest of your life.  If you let go of the traditional diet controls and allow your body to adjust to the plentiful lifestyle we enjoy, you can trust it to gravitate slowly toward it's most adaptive weight.  All evidence proves that your body's most adaptive, healthful weight is lean."   Jean Antonello

The key is giving up the dieting lifestyle, and that ain't easy in today's world.  And I never before questioned the experts in the diet & fitness industry until I read Jean's books.  Her books opened my eyes and I can see now why there is an obesity epidemic happening, and why eating disorders are rampant.   Jean's theories made so much sense to me that to this day I scratch my head wondering why the rest of the world doesn't know that this is the way eating was meant to be, and the only way to natural, permanent thinness.  Jean says you shouldn't suffer in order to lose weight, and that the exact opposite is true.  She says on page 61 (of the same book as quoted from above) You must not and indeed CANNOT lose weight PERMANENTLY by forcing your body to withstand the pain of unsatisfied or significantly under-satisfied hunger."  Her book is actually known as the "Anti-Diet", and explains how dieting has gotten us into this mess in the first place.

Sincerely,

Risabelle

Original Post by ser25:

For me, fatigue is a huge factor. My tired body wants a quick fix, so I crave sweets. The problem started at least a year after I started losing weight. It has never been a blackout kind of thing for me, but I have eaten an embarrassing 7000 calories in a single day.

I think our bodies get more sensitive when we're smaller because we don't have as much of a security net against starvation. The brain kicks in and says, "Hey, there's pizza! Better stock up!" Just my guess, though.

^I definitely tend to overeat when I am tired. I also find that if I don't get enough fat I reach for bad fats- i.e. I can't stop thinking of potato chips and french fries.

Thanks for that post Risabelle! I'm going to look for that book. It's interesting how our bodies seem to have a mind of their own and they'll take care of themselves if we just listen to them. I really need to work on this myself.

For me, like Ser25 said, I feel like my body doesnt have that security net because I'm small already, although it might be a mental thing for me too, I find that if I go too long without eating or let myself get hungry(2-3 hrs! haha) I start to get really nervous and shaky, or I'll lose all energy. Also when I binge it tends to be all carbs because that's the one thing I'm still iffy about allowing back into my diet in larger quantities. but I guess that goes to show that my body really wants them!

ramshacklemann- isn't it comforting to know our bodies will stabilize at a healthy weight without us really having to overthink it so much?! I know before all this weight mess I got myself into (health problems, anorexia) my weight was completely stable and I never once thought twice about it, I ate everything i wanted, and naturally got exercise out of things I enjoyed like dancing. There was never this obsession about how many calories I'm getting, nutrition, I need to go to the gym x amount of times a week, etc. I'd really like to go back to that lifestyle!