Binge eating can be debilitating
Binge eating can be debilitating mentally and physically. It can drain your mental energy – for some people, it completely takes over their life – and can result in a big caloric surplus followed by remorse and a big calorie deficit.
The hard truth about binge eating when you’re trying to lose weight is you’ll never get to where you want to be while binging is still happening because as soon as you make progress these consistent binges will bring you right back to square one (or worse…). And more importantly, binge eating isn’t good for your headspace and mental health either.
If you don’t fix binge eating before attempting to lose weight, you won’t be able to sustain it long-term. Let me use an analogy here – if your goal is to save a lot of money but you uncontrollably spend your money every day, well then, how do you think you will ever be able to save your money?
So, we need to fix binge eating first. If you hold off the weight loss and fix your binge eating first, the weight loss phase will be much easier and more sustainable.
Binge eating can be debilitating mentally and physically. It can drain your mental energy
Main reasons for binge eating.
There are 4 main reasons for binge eating:
Reason 1: You're hungry
The reason it happens is because you are letting your hunger get too high. You are undernourishing your body, you are not giving it the fuel and nutrients it needs so you are JUST HUNGRY.
If you’re waiting all day to eat and hunger is going to the roof, it’s no wonder you want to go crazy on any food you can get your hands on.
Or, if you try to lose weight and go from eating a lot of food to starving yourself in an attempt to lose weight faster, don’t be surprised if your hunger is through the roof.
See, when you don’t eat all day or you’re trying to only eat 1200 calories because that’s a magic number that someone on social media or a fad diet told you, don’t be surprised when going nuts with wanting to binge.
The solution to this is to simply raise your calories, or at least don’t let your hunger get super high.
Reason 2: You are restricting the foods you crave
Most people only binge on the foods they “can’t” have. They don’t binge on chicken and broccoli but on foods like cookies, cake, pasta, ice cream, pizza…
The issue is when most people go on a diet and lose weight they get super restrictive and avoid all their favourite foods – No more date night, no more sugar, no more wine, no more ice cream, no more anything like that.
So it’s no wonder when they fall off, they go crazy on those foods.
Usually goes like this…
Since you’re trying to lose weight, you restrict all the foods that you love but “you are not supposed to eat because they make you fat”, but now that you fell off, you go crazy and indulge in those foods before you “get back on track”.
Sound familiar?
This one is easy enough to fix – If you stop the restriction, you stop the binge. So, don’t restrict the foods you crave, consume them in moderation instead.
Reason 3: You are using food to suppress your negative emotions
When your binge eating is based on your emotions (also known as stress eating, or anxiety eating…), it is because you are trying to suppress your emotions with food.
The problem is not only does it make weight loss hard but you’re suppressing emotions and long-term it leads to emotional numbness – Not only your “bad” emotions will be numbed but also your positive emotion will be numbed.
Ask yourself this question, If your kid or a family member came to you feeling really sad and overwhelmed because their pet was struck by a truck and died, would you tell them, hey, here is some ice cream, go act like it didn’t happen? You wouldn’t, right? You would listen, you would be there, and you would say, it’s OK to feel sad, I feel sad too. But when it is you, when you are stressed, you are anxious, you are depressed, you are sad, you are confused… you go, I am not allowed to feel like this, and you go on a binge to try and suppress those emotions.
You need to hold space for your emotions: You are an emotional being and telling yourself not to feel is like telling yourself not to breathe so stop being emotionally constipated and sit down with your emotions, acknowledge them, let you feel them, and watch how they dissipate.
Reason 4: It's an identity issue
Your unconscious mind’s job is to protect your identity.
If your identity is made up of things that you don’t like about yourself, that you are trying to fix but that represent who you think you are, you are never going to succeed because your brain won’t let it happen.
So, you need to shift your identity to what you want to be because your actions always go in congruence with who you think you are, and stop labeling yourself with the things you don’t want about yourself.
Recommended reading
Recommended reading
Additional Resources
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If you are interested in improving your health and wellness, check out other resources such as Our Blog, Free Resources and/or join our private Body-Mind Transformation Secrets Community on Facebook, and The 360 Transformation Blueprint Podcast on Spotify and go on an even deeper dive with me to uncover how to succeed in your health and wellness goals.
You may also be interested in our Sleep Secrets Cheat Sheet. It is a great resource with strategies to fix and optimize your sleep which is crucial to succeeding in your health and wellness goals.
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