Do you think restrictive eating leads to binging?

Recently, I did some reading on intuitive eating and learned alot about (some of) the emotional/psychological reasoning's behind binges.

In short, it seems that alot of people who have practiced restrictive eating in the past have future issues with binging. I was shocked to even see that when parents practiced restrictive eating on their children it promoted future binging behavior.

I realized that when you restrictively eat you lose track with your inner cues... You also put an over-signifigance on food. It is hard to stop eating when you are full and food is now an emotional buffer.

I think some of you can probably identify with this: if your parents forbid junk food there was some point in your childhood where you wanted it so you ate it in secrecy.

Anyway I was just curious as to who here has practiced and/or grew up in a house with restrictive eating habits and if that has resulted in future binges.

I think I can attest to the results of restrictive eating. Growing up, there was no money for junk food. If by some chance, we got ice cream or something else sweet, it was a free for all. With 4 older brothers and one sister, if you got any, you ate as much as you could, as fast as you could or someone else would eat it. To this day, my sister and I still have issues with that. We always have to remind ourselves that 1-no one is going to take it from us and 2-we have the money to buy more.

Knowing this, I tried to always have some form of junk food around the house when my kids were little so they wouldn't get that way. That was a good and bad idea. It worked for them, they can take or leave sweets. The bad part, was I was always having to replace the stuff, because I kept eating it.

Growing up (especially until I was around 12), my mom was really into cooking with all whole grains, no sugar, sweetening things with fruit juice, lots of veggies, etc.  She'd grind her flour, make her own bread and yogurt... you get the picture.  We only ate at meal times or when she made something special.  She would serve our food and we were supposed to finish it.  Not the greatest thing for learning internal hunger cues.

I remember being 5 years old at a friends house where I was served chocolate milk and a hot dog (not chicken, not turkey, the real thing with all the nitrites and nitrates and artificial color).  I felt too scared to tell my mom and I was terrified that my friend's mom would tell her that I'd eaten that.  Crazy to feel that guilty over a hot dog!

I started hiding food and binging when I was 9 as my own sort of control and rebellion.  I was borderline anorexic by the time I was 14 and bulimic two years later.  I still have trouble with binging, and while I don't attribute that all to growing up with fairly restrictive eating, I think it's definitely played a part.

i was a heavy kid and as a solution to my habitual overeating my mom labeled food in the house with a sharpie (it was just the two of us in the house) and i was not supposed to eat things that were labeled MOM.....this has led to 30 years of binge like secretive eating habits......it was really hard for my boyfriend to understand (we live together) why i wouldn't eat food he has purchased (chips, cookies, ice cream) in front of him, but he would come home and there would be a significant amount of whatever it was missing....he was actually the FIRST person that i ever told about my secretive eating and he tried REALLY hard to give me a hand with the problem ..........i think that like *daisylove*, i was eating as much as possible (without finishing the item because that would be TOO obvious) because  it was possible that i would not get any otherwise

recently something has clicked in my head, though i couldn't tell you what it was, and i have no longer felt the need to be secretive about my eating ........ i feel like i am in control of it and am actually really proud of the fact that there are STILL girl scout cookies left in the house when in the past i would have secretly eaten them already and left boxes with one or two cookies behind in the freezer.....

sorry if that is all a little confusing.....your question hit home and this is the first time i have ever tried to put it in words on *paper*......so thanks for accidentally encouraging me to sort out some tangled feelings!

elizalou, I totally understand what you are saying!

When I was growing up I ate alot in hiding... And I remember one of the times I was staying at my boyfriend's parents house and I was sneaking some junk food from their pantry. Since I know them all well there really was no need AT ALL for the sneaking. But I was still doing it... As I was doing it I remembered being baffled at what I was doing... There was no need for it. After that I try to remember that there is no need to be ashamed of food or to sneak it!

it all depends on why the person is doing the restrictive eating, and what their mental attitude is towards it.

If it's imposed on a person, not a free choice, then, yes, rebellion can occur in the form of binge eating.

But if it's done by choice, with the right mental attitude, and the "bad" foods are replaced with tasty "good" foods that the person loves to eat -- then I don't think it will result in binge eating, because the person won't have the same sense of deprivation.

There are probably as many people that credit their restrictive diets as a child to their good eating habits as an adult as there are that reacted by binging as adults. 

And there are probably as many examples of mothers who let their kids fill up with junk food AND their kids continued to eat junk food and binge as adults OR the very opposite, kids who turned to healthy eating as adults.

Let's face it, this world has lots of triggers that can set off bad behavior.  But in the end, its our choice how we react. 

defintelty, most anorxeics like me go through a period of binge eating, i still try to restrict everyday but i just have to eat and i can never be full anymore

i totally agree with manewell's post about how presenting restrictions can change how people see them and am amazed that i had never really thought about it that way!

i think that for me the difference is that i was told i was a *big....chunky....husky....big boned....etc...* kid and the restrictions were for presented as a way to control my weight (by a mother who was a skinny kid and a slim adult that could eat anything and not gain weight) rather than as a step to a  healthy lifestlye that everyone (including my mom) should embrace......it made me different, so it was a shameful thing that i hid ....and the longer i hid it the weirder my eating habits got ...i think i went on my first crash diet at the age of 9 and this led to the *all or nothing mentality* that made binging and secretive eating a viable option ....and the more shameful it was to me and the more guilty i felt......especially as a kid when you are SURE you are THE ONLY ONE going through whatever it is you are going through.......


and normajeanbaker i can totally relate to your sneaky eating at other peoples houses....i would offer to clear the table as a way to eat more in the kitchen ........and babysitting was always hard....most of the houses were full of snacks that i was not allowed to eat in my moms house and i would obsess about how to eat the snacks without the kids knowing so they wouldn't tell .....i'm sure that many of the people i sat for wondered about where the heck the bags of  chips,cookies, and/or candy went.......

OMG!!!  It's so true.  The more I tell myself I can't have something, the more I eat!!!! It's horrible.  I get mad at myself for gaining the weight, then I'm mad because I know I have to work hard to loose it then I punish myself by binging, then get mad because I binged so I figure...Oh well...already blew it & eat some more!!  It's HORRIBLE!!!!!!   What a vicious cycle!!!

manewell, this is a really tricky topic to discuss... Restrictive eating and Intuitive/healthy eating can be very easily confused.

A restrictive eating house-hold would ban junk food and shame a child who wants to eat it.

An intuitive eating house-hold would emphasize the health benefits of healthy foods but also acknowledge that occasional indulgences are normal.

That is how I always see it at least.

I had the opposite problem. My mom bought unlimited amounts of junk food for me and my brother, and I took advantage of it, eating both regular food and junk food as much and as often as possible.

Sure enough by the time puberty was almost over and my height reached it's peak, I kept eating junk all the time and my weight got out of control. My mom is responsible for me gaining weight, and I'm solely responsible for losing it. Now she's angry at me that I lost a ton of weight and she didn't. Now she wants me to eat more, so it's a good thing I don't live with my parents anymore.

Growing up my dad tried to curb our junk food consumption by not buying the stuff, but if he didn't buy it my mom did. My dad gained 90lbs in college and lost most of it, so he fully understood how dangerous my eating habits were. He tried everything possible to warn me, but I couldn't resist with all the junk being funneled towards me.

Now that I lost 55lbs, I will never allow myself to buy junk food like that when I have kids.

dm84, I have seen that too... It is the reverse.

I just think it is important to encourage healthy eating and activities but not shame anyone for eating junk food every once in awhile.

I went through a period of time where I ate whatever I wanted... Literally ate all the time. It was SO hard to get used to listening to my body AND not having something in my mouth constantly!

Oddly enough, I had the exact opposite happen to me. I grew up in a house where my parents were vegetarians who ate very healthily, very little fat, and almost not sweets. We never had soda or fast food. However, it wasn't that they restricted it, just that they didn't like it so we never bought it, and we never went out to eat because restaraunts didn't used to be so vegetarian friendly.

Because of this, I never developed a taste for these foods. I don't like soda, fast food, sugary cereal, or potato chips to name a few.

Maybe it was different for me because I never felt like it was something I wasn't allowed to have.

my mom always prided herself on making dinner for a family of 5 under $5.  she would literally write what she paid on cans and boxes of foods.  green beans $.29, mac and cheese, $.79, you get the idea.  she is a very thrifty woman, and i greatly admire that [in retrospect!]

when i started receiving a meager allowance, i would oftentimes spend it on junk food at the convenience store up the street.  i could pack away a whole bag of salt n vinegar chips!  i bought some Magic Middles [remember those?] once and ate them so quickly.  next time i bought them i portioned them into baggies and stored them in a tiny "locker" i got from Claires to rty to make them last.  i can still remember going back to open that "locker" over and over... i must have been about 9 years old, which was right about when i started getting pudgy.

in 6th grade my friend melanie and i would bike to the frozen yogurt shop ["I Can't Believe It's Yogurt!] almost daily, where i'd get a LARGE frozen yogurt with peanut butter cup toppings, stuff like that... and still come home to a cheap, bland dinner at home.

sometimes when i'd babysit they'd have PIZZA or FAMILY SIZED CHICKEN McNUGGETS and encourage me to eat some.  believe me, i did!  the woman i babysat for was VERY big.  i'm surprised i didn't get as big as her then! ;P

i never really thought about this until the post, what a bunch of memories this brought up!  and alot of insight to my current struggles!

a modern spin on what i just posted... though i am past it now, i was once at the point to where if i had a beer or cocktail or whatever, i couldn't stop after just one.  i couldn't even enjoy 3 or 4.  i drank and drank until i was staggering, slurring my words, vomiting, passing out drunk.  i kept that up for a few years until i told myself that it had to stop!

i'm ALL about some self-discipline and self-restraint now, respecting my body, and the things i put in it!  and how to tell myself NO and that ONE serving or taste is enough!

energygirl, that is so interesting! I know someone who had an experience like that as well... and I have noticed the healthier I eat the less I like junk food because it makes me feel like crap!

lexabear, i am finally found some restraint as well... ya! AND i love claire's!! : )

Yes yes yes and yes. This was something i previously refused to believe, telling myself that it was my lack of willpower failing me that lead to my binging. But I know know that its my restriction during the day that leads to my night binges...still i won't change my habits, such a vicious circle.

My parents are both doctors so they have a strong focus on heath and fitness. I grew up with virtually no junk food but I was still allowed treats and I never really thought about food consumption as I was always fairly slim.

After a few years, I moved to Australia and started swimming competitively. My parents started to talk about diet and exercise more. Before moving to Australia I didn't have chocolate and lollies and stuff like that so after coming to Australia I became hooked on the sugar hit. The only reason I stayed slim was because I was swimming so much, but my calorie count would top 2500-3000 on a typical day (roughly, I didn't count calories back then but judging by what I usually ate + how often I ate from what I can remember) but I also burnt a lot: I was doing a minimum 3 hours of swimming EVERY DAY plus some gym work every now and then.

The highest I hit while I was swimming was 42kilos (thats really tiny, but I'm short so I guess I didn't look bad)

Then I quit. School work got too much, my coach was a cow and I just had enough. But I still ate the same amount.

Cue the 18kg weight gain, I was mortified. And lazy. I kept this up for about 3 years. Then I discovered the wonders of Bulimia. Lost 16 kilos. "Recovered" (not really I'm still struggling with restricting too much and then bingeing and, well, running to the loo). I'm 55.2 kilos now after gaining 7 of the 16 kilos I lost. I want to get down to 53, and then to 51. which will put me just on the borderline of "healthy" and "underweight" - just because I feel better when I'm that small. But I'm trying to be healthy about it, thats why I've joined calorie-count.

LOL I hope everyone could follow on! Sorry about that ... I got carried away.

In short: yes, my parents triggered my bingeing tendencies by putting too much importance on the food I was consuming, their comments really got to me. However, I believe if they had not triggered me, something else would've. But there were other triggers too that contributed as well. (I was physically assaulted 8 months ago, emotionally abused by my ex-bf and I've suffered from a low self-esteem since I was little from being picked on at school)

Sorry if that made no sense guys! But thats my story...

We didn't usually have junk food around either and I believe that it has seriously led to my bingeing problem.  The only thing I binge on is junk food.  Regular food I have no issues with.  I gained every pound of my extra weight from junk.  I do try to keep it around for the kids, but one of my sons has issues with bingeing already.  I can't keep around stuff that I like or I'll eat it.  But luckily I can resist stuff like Little Debbies, popsicles, hostess cupcakes, etc. and the kids like them.  Come to think of it, that's probably because that was the stuff that I'd have in my lunch as a child.  Hmmmm.

I do wish I could overcome this but I don't know how.

Hahaha... I grew up in the mother-hub of restrictive eating household. I would like to give an example... We had carrot ice cream... and we were excited about it! Also, I didn't even know milkshakes were supposed to have ice cream in them until I was about 14. Banana milkshakes without ice cream were a big treat in my house.

I found that while I was growing up I had a tendency to eat like a mad fiend when I out and had the opportunity to taste the sweet and salty flavours of all things bad for you. However, now I get ridiculous cravings for carrots, bananas, and whole grain toast with honey.

Definitely. Until I finally allowed myself a proper amount of food and calories without feeling guilty, I was on a horrible binge/starve cycle. Awful.