I-used-to-be-anorexic-but-now-I'm-a BINGER Support Group!

Any others in this situation? I was a binger even about a year or so before I became anorexic. Then, I was anorexic for 10 months and about 4 months after I began recovery, I went back into the binging routing. At this point I have not gone a single day without binging in about a month. Stress seems to make it worse (and lack of sleep).
So... this is the place where we can support each other and share our tips and tricks for not binging.

Stillrunning, I know exactly what you are talking about.  I was/am in the same boat.  I don't know if you will go to an OA meeting, but starting to understand your behavior was the key for me.  Starting to understand reasons behind your desire to binge and the feelings associated with it.  You need to see a therapist - I won't talk to my mother either - not yet anyway.  I'm 25, not sure how old you are.  I would just say start focusing on the mental health, its only going to get worse. 

i've put on half of the weight i've lost from anorexia, due to binging :(

Yay, a new group for me!  Well, probably not something to be happy about, but at least I know I'm not alone.

I'm recovering from anorexia, too, and I've gained about 10 or 11 pounds.  Which would be a good thing if some of it hadn't been from binging on junk food.  I have a horrible weakness for chocolate and sweet things.   And when I binge, I tend to feel so guilty that I'll hardly eat the next day.

Ugh, I binged on Ben & Jerry's ice cream last night.  I felt so guilty I could hardly get any sleep.  But it was sooo good.

crystal187, I know what you mean! My biggest problem is the dining hall. I go and have salad and think I'm doing great, but the second a carb or dessert touches my lips, it's like the flood gates have broken, and I can't seem to stop! I feel guilty, even though I do need to gain, and I end up excercising way too much to make up for it. I hate it, because it's just another way I feel like I can't control myself any longer! I used to restrict to control myself. Then I started purging to control even more. Now I binge and feel like I have to purge to regain the control I've lost over my eating and weight gain. aaaah will it ever stop? 

Ughh... the desserts in college dining halls are killers.  Once I take a bite, I'm gone, no matter how hard I try to control myself.

This is interesting...I wonder how common it is for anorexics to go the other way and become bingers.

I've done the binging myself, not quite as much now...I'm losing my taste for a lot of the sweet stuff I used to like.  I still sometimes starve, and I don't see that stopping.  I just ate breakfast, but on my way to pick it up, I found myself thinking "Come on...you're not THAT hungry...why not wait till lunch when your stomach is really screaming?" 

I do that too! It's hardest on the days I have class, because I only have time to eat breakfast at 7:30am, then I have a block of classes until 4pm. In the beginning of the semester, I used to just drink coffee for breakfast and then have dinner around 5pm, but that's waiting ALL DAY not to eat, and I would get dizzy spells when I stood up and not be able to concentrate in class, or even hold a conversation because all I could think about was how my stomach felt like it was eating itself. When I finally decided to take control, I started eating breakfast, even if it's just a few bites, to get me started, then throw a granola bar or one of those 100-calorie snack packs in my bag for in between classes. But the urge is still there, like "come on, you can wait till dinner to eat, you're not reeeally hungry, are you?" But you're right, it's like pringles, once I pop I just can't stop! Darned eating disorders. . .I feel like either I'm not eating or I'm eating constantly. Is there no happy medium?? 

I experimented one day and only ate when really hungry and I prob. ate like 1000 cals all day long.

Ignoranceandwant, thank you! I find that to be another huge problem. I love the whole "intuitive eating" thing where you pretty much stop counting calories and macronutrients and listen to your body. Well, my body (when I'm not binging) is perfectly happy consuming like 1000 calories a day, so I feel like I CAN'T trust it.

ARRRRGH I keep binging on low-cal (10-17 cal/oz) frozen yogurt until I feel literally sick to the stomach and can't sleep from the discomfort. It's like my stomach has recognized it as a low-cal source and as soon as I start eating it I don't even have the chance to enjoy it before my brain is thinking "OK, that's not enough. What flavor next?" and I have to either go back for a (much) bigger size or go to another ice cream parlor to get a different kind.

Today, I decided half-way through a low-cal yogurt binge that I would stop with the low-cal stuff and went for a McDonald's snack wrap, ice cream cone, and Quizno's sub (delicious!). Did the trick. Felt stuffed, which isn't necessarily a good thing, but it stopped me from getting a)more ice cream or b)a burrito.

Maybe it's time to quit with the substitute "fake" foods?

omg everyone sounds the same as me. i went throgh about a year of only ever eating breakfast and then an apple for the rest of the day. and became anorexia. exercised like crazy, maybe 4 hours a day . and then i got told i was too skinny and it was alsmost like permissin to eat more. so i used to have massive binges and then not eat anything the next day. then binge the next. and when i say binge i mean BINGE. like 10x the amount of a normal person. gained weight so quickly. and became anorexia gain for a few months. am slowly recovering although havnt eaten much in the past week. i feeel like a binge right now. but i have eaten 4 pieces of cake and like 10 pieces of fruit. so i think that is enough for one day. my friends all think i am crazy and **** up in the head. maybe i am --- but at least im not alone!!!!!!!!!!!

i went from 174 lbs to 108-111 by anorexia and now that i'm increasing my cal intake i can't stop binge eating. it's 10:30 am and i only have FIFTEEN calories left for the day and i'm up to 112.6 lbs :(:(:(:(:(

 

SOMEBODY HELP.

I, like many of you, am recovering from anorexia. A month and a half into the treatment, and I haven't binged once.

What I did and still do that may sound overly obsessive (but hey, it works!) is to plan out what I'm going to eat the morning of or the day before. A nice big breakfast, atleast 300-400 calories, is so important. It keeps you from getting hungry faster during the day. I also have smaller meals and more snacks, so I'm eating smaller portions more frequently. This keeps me from getting hungry.

I used to follow my food log like a bible, but now I feel like I have gotten the hang of "normal eating." We're kind of learning how to eat again (as sad as it sounds, lol). And, like learning anything else (sports, instruments, math problems..) practice is the key. I wish you all luck - I know ya'll can kick your problems in the butt! <3

i just posted this on another thread but i guess its more applicable here::

i've never posted here before but i really feel like i need advice from people going through the same thing I am.  I started out at 135 lbs (I’m 5’6’’ and I was a division 1 athlete).  I was cut from my team and basically learned what a calorie was—dropped down to 110 this summer.  I sought help when I couldn’t run anymore (my body was eating away at my calf muscles for energy).  Anyway I finally got my stomach capacity up to allow me to gain some weight (2-3 lbs) but have found that I’m binging 1-2 nights a week.  My living situation is WAY less than ideal (one of my roommates is very critical and has alienated me more and more throughout my recovery).  I know that bingeing isn’t the healthy way to gain weight—and I was never a snacker/binger growing up, nor is it part of the healthy eating habits I know I need to learn.  How do I get myself to stop bingeing and eat normal portions of normal foods and feel good/full/normal about that so that I can focus on my schoolwork and ACTUALLY study?

Sorry if I just rambled a lot but I really need to find a way to get over my food obsession/new binging habits so that I can focus on school.

oh my goodness. this is an amazing idea for a thread. i thought i was the only one.

yeah no kidding this is really great!!!

I'm 18, 5'2 and  currently 159lbs.

I recoreded my weight logg and it goes something like this:

2007-01-01: 87lbs (my lowest)

2007-01-16: 95.5 lbs

2007-05-29: 155 lbs

2007-10-12: 166 lbs (my highest)

 

My goal weight is 115-120.. and i'm trying to get there slowly, without binging. It gets hard on weekends, but I've pretty much got control of it during the week.

 

 

Jal234, I wish I had a good answer, but I am working on the same thing myself. I study for 20 minutes or so and then grab a snack. One thing that helps I have noticed is snacking on fruit/ veg instead of junk foods, and then drinking decaf tea while studying.

Muttlover, I have tried creating a meal plan, but I never end up following it. My cravings always win. How do you motivate yourself to follow your food plan. Also, what kinds of things do you snack on?

Oh, for goodness sake, I'm so glad someone made this thread.  I am having SO much trouble with this, and it's turning me into a purging food-hound of a girl.  I'm starting to get so scared by what I'm doing -- and yet I don't stop, and I.. I don't know, I don't know what to do.  It's like what a few of you have said: recovery has become some awful justification for unbelievably unhealthy eating.  It's getting so hard for me to even have a spoonful of something without it turning into a binge, and then.. then things just get worse.  I'm completely conscious of the fact that I don't even WANT the food, but it's as if I'm.. delaying what's coming.  As soon as I stop, I need to get rid of everything, and that's the most disgusting and unbelievable habit.

 I'm going to the doctor tomorrow to follow-up, and try to get some insight into this...  It's just so hard to know that I'm the only one who can end this.

I actually made about about this problem i was having a couple months ago.. it was called "OMG HELP ME IT HURTS" because i was stuffing myself so much. My doctor said that it wasn't my fault.. It's our bodies taking control and finally getting some nurishment. She recomended having a large bowl of very high fiber cereal when i feel a binge coming on. This would fill me up so if i continue to binge, there wouldn't be loads of room in my tummy and i would stop. It helped sometimes.. but i've gained about 70lbs from binging after i was anorexic. and I've found that trying to restrict afterwards only made things worse, punishing myself made things worse, trying to get rid of the food made things worse. So just try to eat as much healthy food as you can.. because i'm sure if i didn't eat a tub of icecream with most of my binges.. i wouldn't have gained so much weight in the first place.

Hi. I hade this problem at one time in a past recovery. Right now I'm back though to weight gain. Anyhow I think for myself when this happened I was still trying to control my body in certain ways. This would set me up to overeat. I agree with the other poster about having a meal plan set. If your "saving" calories you will tend to overeat later. My nutritionist used to always say too that many people after starvation for so long will overeat and may go past there set point. It will level out though and you will return to your normal if you stick to a healthy plan and your body trusts. When I would binge she would encourage me to the next day get back on my meal plan. If you restrict you start the cycle again. Its very hard but trusting the system. Also some I think was I still had issues I didn't look at and led me to use my ed in a different way. I hope you can set up a meal plan that fits your needs and you can feel good about.Also that is not extremes.

amberr, thanks for the high-fiber cereal idea. I LOVE cereal, so I am going to try that one.

Hope3333, could you post a sample of what your daily meal plan is like. I always have trouble coming up with them because I have a tendency to put all of my cals at the end of the day.