Hello everyone,

     I just read all the posting tonight. I see people will binge and purge. I have not purged after a binge. It sounds like people may be sensitive about their image. I am guessing on this point. Counseling has helped me look at how I am feeling when I binge so I can look at other ways to deal with the problem.

I have been overweight most of my life. I am also active except for the past year. The army keep me weight under control by having to meet weight standards. I usually at the high end or over. I am getting unhappy about my size plus the fact I am out of shape. I was 214 last year and now I am 254 as of today. My goal weight is 185 or body-fat percentage under 20 percent.

       I am a person who just constantly snack or eat meals all day long. I can't remember whose post I looked at about the type of foods when binging. I just can not eat fruit or vegetables during a binge. I will say a binge is everything but fruit and vegtables. I have favorite food like pizza and lasagna that I will eat even if I am full. I just don't completely understand why I do this. I don't feel depressed at time when I do get carried away with eating.

sharki007- I've been doing a lot of reading on the subject of binging and emotional eating.  They said usually during a binge you turn to your comfort foods.  Like if you have very happy memories of your mom making chocolate cake and how happy you were a lot of times you turn to chocolate cake because it brings back those happy feelings.  Or if every time you had pizza it was a reward you might turn to pizza cuz it brings back those kinds of feelings.  The advice it gives is that after you have a binge record what you ate and what brought on the binge.  Then it says to take each food you ate and write if it's related to memories or feelings of the past.  Don't know of this helps but it's made me analyze things and figure out some things.  Plus, I'm not big on counselors so I like to psycho analyze myself. lol. Good luck.

Howdy everybody! I am somewhat new to CC, just joined about a month ago. I am in the process of recovering from anorexia (had it for several months now) and ever since starting recovery, I have been over eating and turning to food for comfort in crappy times. I'll eat until I am so uncomfortable it is sickening. I restricted and had such great will power before recovery, never even dreamed of picking up a cookie or a scoop of ice cream. I convinced myself that stuff was evil. Instead, I went to the other extreme- over eating junk food. I'll range from 2,500-3,200 calories a day and half of that is from late night binging. I then exercise like mad the next day and the vicious cycle continues. I wish this could all go away.

by the way here are my stats

Age: 15  Height: 5'3  Lowest weight: 87.5   Current weight: 93  goal weight: not sure, may want to stop now

Hi all, I'm an emotional eater myself. I didn't realize it until I joined CC, hadn't even heard the term, but I fit all of the descriptions. After the kids get in bed it sets in. While upstairs getting them ready I would feel fine, not hungry in the least, but as soon as the kids got in bed, as I would walk back downstairs, I would suddenly be famished! I've mostly overcome that one though.

Watching tv and reading in the evenings are the worst times for me- I feel like mindlessly snacking.

The worst part of it is I think I may be training my kids to become emotional eaters, as I sometimes show my love with food, if that makes any sense. I don't want their feelings of happiness, sadness, etc to be linked to food :

I don't think I've been truly "happy" since becoming a binge-eater. It's comforting to know that I am not alone in having this problem, but yet it pains me greatly to know that so many people are feeling as bad inside as I am feeling constantly. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings here.

I am feeling completely miserable right now. I am at a plateau and have been for 3 weeks and I am disappointed. I am working out so hard and counting calories and since it isn't freakin' working I feel like I want to totally binge on everything! I am at workl and I can't but I feel like when I get home it is over. I know I shouldn't be thinking like this, but i can't help it. I want to go out and just order everything(appetizer, burger, fries, coke, dessert, more appetizer, more coke). I am telling myself right now I am not going to do it, but I want to. I will probably just binge on some special k or something. I hate this. All aspects of it. Disappointment on both ends.

Hey everyone.  I'm still eating more than I should but I'm finding when I binge it's not as severe as it used to be.  I'm doing a lot more thinking before I totally crash.  I'm actually thinking about what I will think afterwards so I'm able to stop myself and not eat everything.  It's still more food than I should consume in a short period but it's not as much.  I still believe though that this is progress. 

Hi Jerichocheyenne,

      Thank you on your adivice on how I relate pleasant memories to type of food I eat during a binge . Do you have any books you can recomend to me on emotionally eating? I never thought of myself as an binge eater. I realize there is specific foods I lose control on.

     The thing I find the most frustrating is the fact I quit drinking and smoking so know food replaces my addiction. The hard part is trying to figure out this demon that I am repressing. It seems like when I deal with one issue there seems to be another lurking in the shadows. I believe the problem to solving binge eating is understanding is dealing with the demon inside. The analgy  in AA is quiting drinking is the easy part. It is dealing with those demons that will keep you sober. I have heard emotional eating is like addiction. My mother and her mother suffers from the same infliction. I know self esteem is one of my demons.