3 Big Mistakes we are Making with Binge Eating

December 7, 2022

Welcome back to The Balanced Dietitian Podcast! Happy December my friend! We are in the last month of 2022. The year passed by so fast! I hope that we are doing great as we are getting close to the holidays. I am getting really reflective on the year that has passed.

So much has happened this year. I got engaged, married, went on my honeymoon, and had my first trip with Anthony. The Balanced Practice grew, we welcomed three new wonderful people to our team this year, we had our first team retreat, we launched our eating disorder program, and had multiple cohorts. It has been a big year! I am really excited for the year to come!

Today we are talking about binge eating and we are talking about three big mistakes that we do with binge eating. We are going to dive deep into these three big mistakes and give you some insights and other ideas when it comes to binge eating.

In this episode, we discuss:

[04:24] Mistake #1: Not keeping your binge foods in the house

The first mistake that I hear often is to not keep your binge foods in the house. There are actually multiple issues with this. The first issue with this is that we’re not actually fixing the problem. This is a band-aid solution.

[05:01] Food is not the problem

With binge eating, food is not actually the problem. There are many reasons why we become engaged in binge eating. Binge eating is a symptom and a reaction. By taking away that food, what happens is temporarily you may not binge on that food, because you don’t have access to it. But what about the next time you have access to it?

We are making things worse because the next time we have access to it, then we want to make up for it. then we need to have more than we really go all out because we know that it’s going to be taken away again. The first mistake is feeling like we need to restrict the food or take the binge foods out of the house. This will make it worse and fuel and continue the cycle.

[06:50] Mistake #2: To restrict the next day

Mistake number two is to restrict the next day. If we have a binge tonight then we restrict ourselves to make up for it tomorrow. This also continues to fuel the cycle. Our brain goes into repair mode and tries to figure out how to make things better. Restricting yourself further will just lead to more binge-eating episodes. The more that we restrict, the more likely we are to binge. So restricting the next day and not nourishing yourself the next day is setting ourselves up to binge.

[08:38] Mistake #3: Seeing binge eating as the problem

The last mistake that I want to talk about is seeing binge eating as the problem. If a binge happens or loss of control, we tend to see that as the problem and that’s where there’s a lot of guilt and shame that comes in and fuels that cycle. But this is a mistake because binge eating or loss of control with food is a response to some type of restriction. When we see the binge as the problem, we only focus on the binge and the shame, the guilt, and the unpleasant feelings. We feel like we are personal failures.

We start to shift our brains to realize the binge is a reaction or a response. It’s my check engine light. What is happening right now? What is happening that either my body physically pushed me towards a binge, or I psychologically needed to rely on that at this moment? What came up for me at this moment? This is a lot to process, I highly suggest that you do this one-on-one with a dietician or therapist.

[12:23] You are not alone if you struggle with binge eating

What I want you to really get from this is that if you struggle with binge eating or loss of control over food, you are not alone. It is not a personal failure and you deserve support. You deserve help. You are so deserving of having a good relationship with food in your body.