Binge eating after restriction? I DESPERATELY NEED HELP!
I'm 5'6" (167cms) I used to weigh around 160lbs (72.5kgs) but manage to lose it to a healthy weight in within a year. After that I restricted my caloric intake to 1200cals a day and some days that I reached 1700 I'd consider it as a binge day. I was also active at the gym.After 6 months of restriction I became like 100lbs (I didn't have my periods for 6 months).
3-4 weeks ago, 1 day I just woke up, sat infront of the fridge and ate everything that was in there O_O it came up to 4000 calories. The next day I went food shopping for a week and promised myself i'll never do what I did again but I did that again and I can say i had 3000-4000 calories every other day but its been a week that I eat around 2000 calories (sometime a couple of hundreds more but not less) and I gained 20lbs!!! It's so crazy... I don't even feel like working out anymore, I eat to the point that I cry... I have no idea what is going on, I'm breaking down every day and it's really hard for me to continue, I feel like I'm a different person... I'm under so much pressure (i live on my own in a country that I have no friends or relatives and I'm just 18.) Today I did really well but again I binged at around 5 PM, but I came out of the kitchen and said to myself I'll go to the gym in an hour. After an hour I was getting ready that I noticed my tights are not fitting and I just started to cry and went and grabbed 2 flake bars and ate them without realizing how they taste like. I'm really worried about myself and I definitely don't want to continue... I'm so lost. I dunno how but is there anyone who can help me? :(
Original Post by modelrunrepeat:
Love I'm going thought the same problem!!! I know how horrible it is! It's like your mind goes totally blank and all your focused on is eating!!! The tips I've learnt are: fill your self up at the beginning of the day with a large portion of veggies, and some protein. Stay away from processed sugar, drink a glass of water with every meal, put notes around the house and even put a lock on your door and put the key somewhere wher it will take you ages to get it (ie in the shed). Hope this helps!!! Xx
Whilst I think this is great advice for a person who has a binge eating problem and is a normal weight or overweight, I don't agree that a person who is recovering from excessive restricting to the extent of losing their period and being very underweight should fill up with veg etc - they just need to eat!
Manyaaa, if you were 5' 6" and 100 lbs, then you were desperately underweight, and your body has done what it needed to do to get you back to a minimum healthy weight. It isn't bingeing, it is called 'reactive eating', and is a necessary part of recovering from a long period of restriction, that not only helps you gain to a healthy weight, but repairs all the unseen damage inside that starving yourself down to 100 lbs caused. Far from telling you to lock the fridge, i am going to suggest you eat 2,500+ calories EVERY DAY to get well again, and stop the gym for a while. At 100 lbs, with a BMI of just 16, and no periods for 6 months, you actually qualify for a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa (though obviously, only a doctor could confirm that!)
Have you seen this web site?
Try typing 'extreme hunger' or 'reactive eating' into the search box, and you will get all the science and facts behind this, but I do promise you, it is a GOOD thing you are eating like this, NOT a bad thing! - better still, you could post your own question on the 'Is this normal?' forum on that site.
Best of luck!
