Emotional eating after a military deployment [ME]

I have noticed that since I have been back from my deployment going on two months now, I've upped my calorie intake to about 3000 or 4000 calories a day. I didn't really take heed of it until this week I started counting up all the junk I've been eating. I was not an unhealthy weight while over there by any means, and I'm very afraid of getting an eating disorder from these binges. It's like a whole new world of magic food I haven't seen in 15 months has been opened up to me, and I can't control myself. I've also noticed that I binge most when I am stressed. I have not started throwing up but I seriously have thought about it.

Please, if you have any advice to get my hunger back to a normal level, please share it. If you're wondering, I'm active Army and female.

Misu

Oh yeah and I was about 120 at 5'4" during the deployment, I think I'm nearing 130 now... I know it doesn't sound big but I've never weighed this much in my life..

It is great you have posted because now is the time to turn things around -- and you are pretty self-aware to recognize the dangers of your thoughts and issues at the moment.

Ideally, a therapist and nutritionist would help the most now. I am assuming that although psychological help is available to you, it may not be the most experienced at dealing with the early phases of a possible eating disorder. However, perhaps some of the issues stem from returning from your latest deployment, in which case it can't hurt to examine that.

You could also develop a meal and exercise plan. By creating structure to everything that goes in your mouth at what times and when and how to exercise, then it creates less anxiety and more calm. I'm not talking restricting foods at all -- just knowing what a healthy breakfast, lunch, dinner and a couple of snacks looks like each day before you actually get up and face the day.

You are right, you are not at all big or remotely overweight, so your panic is a sign of distress and not reality. You know you are not responding to hunger signals, even though you talk about getting your hunger back to a normal level. Hunger is always at a normal level. What you are responding to is anxieties and stresses over feeling out of control and bingeing is a way to blunt those feelings temporarily.

A psychologist can be of real use in both dealing with the underlying feelings as well as developing the techniques to handle the day-to-day in the way that gives you the control back you deserve.

I am sorry you are having a hard time. Is there friends and therapy for support? I can't imagine how emotionally plus physically hard it is to be in the army. I give you a lot of credit but hope you take care. Is your weight in a healthy range? I am sure you are very active so probably need a very high cal diet to maintain. Can you preplan so that you are prepared and to not get to hungry? Do you think you are using food etc as a way to cope.Take care

I was very active before... but sadly I broke my foot in Afghanistan and I can't run anymore - at least for a few months. So that makes it even HARDER to control the calorie levels.

I really like the idea of a meal and exercise plan. I had thought about a meal plan just to save money so I don't have to throw away food, but starting one sounds even more useful now. I have been trying to eat healthy this week but my boyfriend (also in the Army) is really sabotaging things and will pressure me to eat a lot more. Even last night he made a comment "oh God, you're a calorie counter now?"

Sigh....

This is a duplicate thread

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No this isn't the duplicate, the one in weight loss is the one I need to delete... sorry.

Actually, if you are not trying to gain weight, this is not the correct forum - the weight gain forum is for individuals trying to gain weight.