How To Stop Binge Eating: Gentle Ways To Deal With Overeating Triggers
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It’s Saturday night and here you are binging both on your favorite Netflix show and your favorite foods until you can’t take anything in anymore… Does that sound familiar?
It might be that you have a tendency to binge eat and it’s quite a serious problem you should fix for your health and mental wellness.
Time To Stop Binge Eating?
Start By Listening To Your Body.
What Is Binge Eating?
Binge eating or overeating occurs when you want to consume large quantities of food at one time, or when you want to continue eating even though you are actually full.
While there’s no problem in enjoying your favorite meals from time to time, if you’re constantly overeating, it might lead to weight gain which then affects both your body and your mood.
We want to be healthy and happy so anything that hinders our smile should be looked at and improved, or taken care of completely if possible.
“Why do I binge?”
Compulsive binge eating has some common triggers.
Many times it can occur after doing crash diets that restrict food intake too much or completely eliminate one food group.
In this article, I point out several overeating triggers and how you can deal with them naturally.
How To Stop Binge Eating: 4 Ways To Deal With Overeating Triggers
1. Binge Eating Because Of Bad Mood
When you are engaging in extreme dieting, or when you’re constantly anxious or depressed, it can lead to eating disorders and binge eating.
Negative feelings, and emotions that are pushed away can make you crave large amounts of comfort food because your body needs those tiny little happiness hormones (endorphins) which you don’t get much from other sources (like positive experiences).
Also, if you tend to skip meals because you’re too anxious to eat, not eating for a long time can also trigger you to eat compulsively after the initial anxiety calms down.
This is an unhealthy way to live, and it can lead to weight gain + it further feeds your mood disorders.
How To Stop Binge Eating When Sad, Stressed, Or Depressed?
Don’t get into extreme diets or calorie reductions that are very drastic.
Instead, try to eat regularly, watch your portion size, and choose healthier, filling ingredients.
If you are too anxious or depressed to eat, help yourself to calm down or look for the brighter side of life (yes, it exists, even if you don’t believe it now).
Here are some of the resources that can help you:
How To Stop a Panic Attack And Intense Fear
3 Powerful Mind Shifts That Heal Anxiety For Life
30 Ways To Calm Down Your Mind
How To Stay Positive When Life Keeps Giving You Problems
Printable Thought Journal With CBT Based Exercises
Printable Worry Workbook That Helps You Relieve Your Worry
Positivity Journal Printable To Help You Push Yourself To The Positive Side Of Mind
2. Binge Eating Because Of Genetics
Researchers believe that there is a genetic component involved in eating disorders, and in binge eating as well.
This means that if you have a parent or family member who has an eating disorder, then you are more likely to have the same problem.
Additionally, if you grew up seeing someone in your family cope with problems using binge eating, this can mean that you have unconsciously been taught to overeat as a way to deal with your problems.
How To Stop Binge Eating?
Knowing that you might have a tendency to binge eat is actually very beneficial.
When you are aware that overeating (or in some cases – even a binge disorder) is part of your genetic structure, you can be extra motivated to choose a healthy eating plan and watch what you eat.
Please know that a genetic tendency does not mean that you will 100% have the same problem, it’s still just a tendency.
You have control over your life and over the things you put in your body.
Watch what you eat, and remind yourself that you can stop eating when you want to, even if it can leave you feeling a little bit unpleasant.
When watching your food intake, simple tools like meal planner and a food diary can be helpful in staying on track.
3. Binge Eating Because Of Poor Body Image
If you have a poor body image, then the inability to lose weight or to have a trim physique may lead to binge eating as well.
This one is trickier but, basically, when someone makes a rude remark about your weight, or when you decide that you “need to lose weight fast”, you might fall into the trap of starving yourself.
You want to lose those pounds quickly, but in reality, weight loss is usually a slow process.
If you don’t understand it well and don’t see those pounds going right away, you will feel worse and it can cause a binge eating episode.
If you’ve been hungry for days, this is almost guaranteed because staying hungry can lead to low blood sugar, then your brain sends signals to your stomach that it needs more energy, this, in turn, leads to more stomach acids, and this is how you develop a very strong craving for food.
How To Stop Binge Eating When You Struggle With Body Image?
If you try to lose weight, accept the fact that it will take time, but it doesn’t mean that you should drop your weight loss efforts completely.
Do it in a healthy, and self-loving way.
Be compassionate about your body and try to fall in love with every single inch of your body, even if you don’t like how it looks right now.
You have only one body to carry you through this life and hating it is just self-sabotage.
Also, do understand that losing weight is not an answer to all of your problems – this article explains why.
Related: How To Love Your Body, Truly, Kindly and Honestly
4. Binge Eating Because Of Boredom
Another thing that may trigger a binge-eating episode is simple boredom.
When you don’t know what to do to keep yourself entertained, food is probably the easiest source of fun that comes to mind.
How To Stop Binge Eating When Bored?
Well, you probably guessed it – in order to stop binge eating out of boredom, you need to find something else or productive to do in order to keep your mind off of food.
This one is as simple as it gets, I’m sorry!
You have to find something exciting to do because your body craves happiness and excitement hormones and you have to do something that creates them.
For me, organizing and decluttering work great.
It takes my mind off of virtually anything and it also gives me happiness and achievement hormones when I enjoy a clean and very organized home.
If this sounds appealing to you, you can read about how I get motivated to clean & declutter my home here + here are some ideas for when you’re bored AF, but would love to be productive:
25 Positive Ideas For When Your Life Feels Boring
99 Productive Things To Do When You’re Bored
How To Stop Binge Eating Before It Even Starts
And is it even possible to prevent binge eating?
In many cases – yes!
To prevent overeating:
- Don’t use dieting plans that are too harsh or extreme.
- Don’t go for long periods of time being hungry.
- Keep your blood sugar levels stable by eating regular, small, healthy meals.
- Plan your meals and write a food diary to help yourself stay on track.
- Don’t neglect your anxiety, depression, or self-esteem problems, and look for ways to improve your mental health.
- Try to be self-compassionate and understand that your body feels and works better when you love it.
- Don’t be afraid to choose a healthy lifestyle even if your family tends or is used to binge on.
- Try to acknowledge your boredom and make something productive out of it.
Best Books That Help You To Stop Binge Eating
You should also gather more knowledge about food and the way you’re eating is impacting your life.
I personally recommend looking into intuitive eating – a healthy eating approach that is based on listening to your body and trying to understand what kind of food it actually needs.
Here are the best books about it that teach you how to stop binge eating and how to build a new, healthy relationship with food:
Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works
The Intuitive Eating Workbook: Ten Principles for Nourishing a Healthy Relationship with Food
How To Stop Binge Eating – Final Thoughts
I hope these tips have shown you how to stop overeating in gentle, helpful, and healthy ways. Binge eating is not an easy problem to tackle – that’s true, and it is highly related to the way you see yourself and the world around you.
If you find that it’s getting harder and harder to control your binge eating episodes (even after you try these tips), please know that a mental health specialist can be very helpful in such situations.
A professional can help you to identify the reasons why you tend to overeat and teach you how to stop binge eating by changing your thoughts.
Remember – life is not all butterflies and roses, but even if you have a binge eating problem, it does not make you or your life worse than others.
You are as valuable, as beautiful, and just like everyone else, you deserve happiness.
Stay strong – and try to find a way to love yourself, because you can never overeat on that.
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