How to Stop Binge Eating in 4 Easy Steps

Binge eating is a major reason why so many people fail to lose weight. The problem is, the diets we follow to lose weight, actually encourage us to binge eat even more.

After over 6 years of going between periods of strict dieting and binge eating, I devised a simple 4 step formula that helped me control my binge eating problem. I managed to pinpoint why I was binge eating and came up with a few simple solutions to overcome them.

I hope this helps you as much as it did me.

4 Tips That Will Show You How To Stop Binge Eating

1. EAT WHATEVER YOU WANT

Forget the notion that a certain food makes you fat, because it doesn’t. Too much food makes you fat. You will lose weight as long as you eat less food then you burn off a day.

So then, wouldn’t it make sense to eat foods you enjoy?

From personal experience, I would often binge eat and ruin my diet on foods that I was forbidden from eating. Depriving myself of these foods caused my cravings to get so out of control that I would eventually crack under the pressure and binge…big time.

The good news is, it actually doesn’t matter what food you eat, as long as you eat less total calories then you need a day. So stop depriving yourself of foods that you enjoy, this only increase our cravings, and in turn increases our chances of bingeing.

2. EAT MORE

Low calorie diets cause our metabolism to slow right down, so we burn less calories. At the same time, these low calorie diets seem to increase our appetite. So we end up eating more and burning off less!

I know that depriving myself of feeling full and content after a meal, lead to me wanting, then needing to experience it more and more. After a while of resisting temptation, I would explode and not only eat enough to feel full and content, I would eat way too much and end up feeling sick.

In actual fact, you don’t need to cut calories so far to lose weight. To safely burn off fat simply eat 12-14 calories per pound of bodyweight spread out over 4-6 meals. This should also be more than enough food to avoid ever feeling hungry or deprived.

3. OVEREAT BUT DON’T BINGE

Let’s face it, overeating is fun. It’s enjoyable. Now is that really such a bad thing? It is our natural instinct. This goes way back to our caveman days. Do you think that when they made a kill, they portion controlled it, and put the rest in the freezer?

Stupid question I know, but it shows that overeating is instilled in our DNA from thousands of years ago.

What is great is that overeating actually helps us lose weight faster. You see, our body fat is stored on us for a reason, to help us survive in periods of food shortage. After a few days of reduced calorie eating our body starts to realise that there is a shortage of food coming in. It will then become more reluctant to burn it off for energy.

Giving it an abundance of calories occasionally gives our metabolism a much needed kick in the pants. This convinces the body that there definitely isn’t a shortage of food. It will then realise that it is pointless to hang onto our fat stores, and continue to burn it up at a faster rate.

So what I did, was every 4th or 5th day I would eat my calorie limit (see point 2) times 2-2.5. So if I was eating 2400 calories to lose weight, every 4th or 5th day I would try to keep my intake under 6000 calories. This was more than enough calories to satisfy my cravings, allowed me to enjoy myself socially and it still allowed me to burn fat.

I figured that if I didn’t do this, my cravings would soon become too strong and I would binge eat well over 10,000 calories.

4. CONTROL EMOTIONAL EATING

I know many binge eaters do so when they are stressed. I don’t blame them. However, try to find other non-food ways to relieve stress. Get outside and go for a walk, play with your children or your pets, go to the park or the beach. A hard workout is great stress-buster. Put on some music, have a hot bath, do some stretching or meditation. Anything, just try to find other areas to vent your stress.

No one is perfect. Next time you binge, think about how and why you do so. And think of how you can prevent it the next time. Learn from your mistakes. If your mistakes are similar to mine, then hopefully these tips can help you.

Best of Luck :-)