10 Ways to Treat Binge Eating Disorder

Do you know that time when you eat and eat and even once you are full, you still have the urge to stuff your mouth with your favourite food? Well, that’s what we call binge eating.

Binge eating is when you continuously feed on unusually large amounts of meals without minding the quantity of your consumption. Eating to a point where you become uncomfortably full.

This type of eating can easily lead to a disorder also know as Binge Eating Disorder (BED).

Read also. How to jump-start your weight loss journey

How will I know that my binging has turned into a disorder?

• When you eat to a point where you feel painfully full
• When you start having guilty thoughts on why you have eaten that much
• When you are having recurring binging episodes and you are no longer in control of how you consume your food.

Binge eating a large number of foods in a haste manner and not stopping even when you are not hungry anymore.

While binge disorder should be treated very seriously and one should seek medical attention, there are some of the things that you can do to reduce binging at home.

So here are 10 ways to make sure you are doing something about the latter.

10 ways to help you stop binge eating now

1. Mindful eating

The term binge eating describes eating with no self-control. Therefore, the first thing to tackle would be to try and be mindful of what is in front of us.

If you are not sustained with the meal, you can always plan your meals in such a way that you eat 6 times a day, instead of 3 times a day that we all are used to.

You want to make sure you are serving moderately portioned meals. 50% of your meal should come from veggies you enjoy, 25% from proteins and the rest from carbs.

As you serve those 6 meals, remember not to fill your plate, with unusually large amounts of food.

If you own a food scale, it’s even better because you can measure out your food according to the number of calories you need to consume in a day.

Check out: How to Count Calories and Macros for WEIGHTLOSS.

2. Drink plenty of water.

Water is the holy grail for a lot of things. It is good for your skin, a natural detox, and enables you to become fuller for longer. This is because water is a natural suppressant and when the stomach senses fullness, it sends signals to the brain to stop eating.

Water is best consumed in the morning because that is when the body is getting rid of toxic substances. You can as well add some fruits to fasten the detoxification process. Drink at least a gallon of water before noon.

Water helps with binge eating by making you fuller for longer

3. Quality sleep

While sleeping for limited hours or been deprived of sleep will bring in food cravings, especially highly processed foods and sweet treats just before bedtime, sleeping for longer hours, say 8 to 9 hours will help curb the food cravings.

Also when fatigued, the percentage of resisting highly processed foods to curb how you feel is generally low as compared to when you are feeling less tired and fully rested.

4. Keep Busy

When you are busy and doing something that takes your concentration away from your surrounding, it is less likely for you to start thinking about food.

So, whenever you have free time and all you think about is food and you just ate, then be sure to do something that will take your mind off the food.

5. Strict dieting

The reason why you are binging might be because you are starving yourself from certain food groups. You don’t feel satiated, hence you binge on healthy foods, then later you start craving for highly processed foods.

A case in point, we have The Keto diet. This is a diet that involves the restriction of carbohydrates consumption.

I have seen people who jump into Keto complain about their energy levels go down as they begin the diet, bringing in a feeling of tiredness.

Now, there is nothing wrong with this diet if you are looking to lose weight faster, but restricting carbs or consuming very little carbs than your body requires, will make you somehow more fatigued.

This is because carbs are energy giving foods and you get your day to day energy, mostly from carbohydrates that fuels your body.

The Keto diet restricts you from consuming anything greater than 20 grams of carbs per day. Which is way less than the recommended carb intake in a day.

6. Eat more fibre

Fibre is widely known to make one full. Especially fibre coming from complex carbohydrates such as sweet potato.

So next time you feel like the food you are about to eat will not satisfy you, be sure to incorporate lots of high fibre foods.

7. Meal planning

When you have a meal guide and a food journal, it will be easier to track your food consumption and also helps you to eat moderately with mindfulness.

Read Here: How to Meal prep for Beginner’s

8. Eat without distractions.

Learn how to eat without having a phone in front of you or a TV.

These are the biggest distractions while eating.

Studies show that those who eat while watching TV or using their phones eat way more than those who concentrate on their food only.

9. Work it out

Working out is the most common way to reduce stress levels. And when the stress levels are reduced, the regularity of emotional eating significantly reduces hence reduction of binge eating.

Any exercise can work. Just keep moving or do some movement with your body, if working out may seem a little bit stressful.

10. Clear the temptations.

We all have some feel-good junk here and there in our houses, which is not bad. But if you really want to deal with binge eating, it is better to clear the highly processed foods to avoid temptation.

Sometimes we binge because we see the food that we love there, sitting, looking at us and all we could do best is eat it. So save yourself from this temptation.

Don’t forget to always balance your eating habits. Get well soon.

10 reasons why you are binge eating