Better Me with BodyByBree
Better Me with BodyByBree
4 Steps to Overcome Binge Eating
Ever felt trapped in the relentless cycle of restrictive dieting and uncontrolled binge eating? You're not alone, and this episode is your compass out of the chaos. We talk macros, not as just numbers, but as keys to a guilt-free mealtime. Say goodbye to the restrict-binge-repeat loop and hello to balance and moderation that can truly change the game.
Want more? Find and follow Bree on
www.bodybybree.com
Instagram
Pinterest
YouTube
Blog
Are you looking for a space where you will learn to improve your mental strength, emotional health and heal your insecurities from the inside out? Take the first step to living a more meaningful life with the Better Me with Body by Breed podcast. I'm your host, bree. I'm a certified personal trainer, entrepreneur and mother of three. I've helped empower thousands of women to take action through fitness, nutrition, meditation, development and aligning thoughts with action. This podcast is for those who are ready to feel inspired and motivated to live a more purposeful life. Let's grow together.
Speaker 1:Have you ever gone a little too strict with your diet and then you find yourself raiding the pantry late at night and you cannot stop eating. Then you feel so guilty for binging that you wake up and you restrict again, only to find yourself repeating the cycle over and over till you feel like you have no control over your food or hope of finding balance. In this podcast, I'm going to give you steps to overcome binge eating and heal your relationship with food, so you never have to be stuck in that miserable binge restrict cycle again. Let's get started. Hi friends, welcome to the podcast. This topic actually, I think, applies to more people than we know, even if you don't have a specific binge diagnosis.
Speaker 1:A lot of women fall into this category of binging. Sometimes it's even unconsciously binging, where they don't realize they're doing it. Let's go through a typical scenario that I tend to see. This happens with family members, friends, clients. I see it all the time you start a new diet, you're really excited about it. You have a list of foods that you can eat and not eat. It's pretty extreme. It's pretty restrictive. You're seeing results so you feel great, but you can only go for so long. Then, by the time you start cheating a little bit here or there, you're so hungry that you end up going to the pantry and just eating everything in sight. It's almost like something shuts off in your brain and you just eat, and eat, and eat, and it doesn't matter how full you are, you just start binging. Then you wake up the next morning and you feel so guilty and so much shame and so gross. You're just so mad at yourself for doing that again that all of a sudden you're like okay, I'm going back, I'm cutting out all carbs, I'm cutting out sugar, I'm going to get right back on my diet keto, whatever it is, whatever your drug of choice is for your diet. You do this over and over and over. It is a repetitive cycle and it's so damaging for your relationship with food. Let's talk about this. Let's heal this. Let's talk about why this happens.
Speaker 1:I'm going to give you four things to know on how to heal your binge eating habits. Are you ready? Here we go. First of all, if you've ever asked yourself why do I binge eat, you're not alone. This was a crazy statistic to me. Did you know that binge eating disorder is the most common eating disorder in the United States? This is according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Is that not crazy? You're not alone.
Speaker 1:Binge eating disorder is the most common eating disorder. It can actually affect your quality of life, your sense of well-being, your health, and it can be super difficult to stop binge eating because it becomes such a habit. Fortunately, by learning these helpful coping strategies and identifying, maybe, the psychological reasons you binge eat, then we can work to overcome it. Let's talk about the difference. This is important before we get into it the difference between binge eating versus overeating, because they are two very different things. One cell. It's really important that you kind of understand the differences.
Speaker 1:So binge eating is when you repeatedly have episodes where you eat like a lot of food in one sitting and it's like making you sick and you wouldn't normally eat that much under any other circumstance. Over eating is where, like every once in a while, you just you know you like what you're eating and you're overeating a little bit. But binge eating is completely different. So binge eating disorder typically involves feelings of disgust, guilt, embarrassment directed towards yourself, eating alone to conceal your behavior. So a lot of times when you binge, like you'll be alone in the pantry and it's like something you're hiding Episodes that occur at least once a week for like three months. So it's a repetitive thing that just keeps happening. And then significant like feelings of euphoria when you're bingeing. So, unlike binge eating, overeating tends to not happen like reoccurringly or be driven by a sense of lack of control. So in most cases, overeating it's not like triggered by the same sense of feeling, guilt and shame that bingeing does. So it's this real. It's kind of like a psychological feeling that I think a lot of women go through and I will even say like personal experience I have done this before Like I have been way too restrictive and my cheat meal or my treat meal that I would allow myself.
Speaker 1:This was when I was competing. So it happened when I was competing and I was only eating four, four foods throughout the whole week and I had to be so strict that when I was able to have my treat meal, I went crazy. I would make myself sick. I would eat a pint of ice cream, hamburger fries, a bowl of cereal, like I would feel so physically sick. But in my mind I was like this is my only chance for the whole week to eat what I want and it was not good, like it just kind of developed this like bad habit that I had to break after I was done competing because I had to retrain my brain. No, you can't fit these foods in, and this is why I love macros. This is why I'm so obsessed with teaching my clients about balance in macros, because no food is off limits. When no food is off limits, then that restriction mentality just kind of fades away and you don't feel the need to binge because you're not constantly restricting throughout the week, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about the five reasons that people binge eat. So number one like, or one of the reasons this isn't number one, but one of the reasons is actually genetic. So did you know that binge eating could be genetic? Because some people are genetically prone to have more addictive personalities? And also this goes in line with enneagrams, like there are certain enneagram numbers. When I train my clients, I have them take a personality test so I know how to train them and I know their strengths and kind of some of their weaknesses that they tend to do. And this goes in line with genetics and like your personality or enneagram type. Some people are more the all or nothing type, where they're either doing keto and not eating any carbs or they're having 10 bowls of cereal. That's just their personality type. The same goes for someone who can have one drink of alcohol or those that have you know get super addicted and become an alcoholic. It's that genetic type to kind of become obsessive with certain things. So yeah, one of the factors is genetics.
Speaker 1:Another one is depression. So depression and binge eating disorder are often really closely linked, because they might binge eat when they're depressed, so experiencing symptoms of depression. Another one is low self-esteem. So self-esteem and body image and eating disorders are all very often closely linked to one another and in a lot of cases, low self-esteem or poor body image will trigger feelings of guilt and shame that people cope with by binge eating. So the feelings and then the worst part is the feelings of guilt and shame that you feel after binge eating can lead to worsens self-esteem and body image. So it's like this awful cycle that just goes in a circle. Another one, number four, is stress and anxiety. So stress is a common trigger for binge eating and many people use it as a coping mechanism to deal with stress or anxiety. Number five is dieting, which I think this is the number one most common. That I see is that they it might seem counterintuitive, but people binge eating after dieting because people diet too and sometimes they like want to control their food intake to a point that they have really intense cravings for food and then, as a response, they binge eat and it's like then, when they know that they've slipped up, it triggers, you know, shame and guilt.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about some of the ways that you can actually help overcome binge eating. Okay, so I have four ways that we can overcome. So number one is you have to stop restricting yourself and coming from a place of restriction, because whenever you come from, I call it either abundance mentality or restriction mentality when you're coming from a place of restriction diets that involve extreme restrictions on food intake, like, and they tell you you have to eat this and you can't eat that and you have to eat 1200 calories. That's what leads to these crazy overeating episodes, because you feel like you just can't eat what you really want. Like. It's almost better for this type of personality. Instead of not eating the cookie and then later eating 12 cookies. It's better to just eat the cookie. Right, if you just ate one cookie, it would get, it would be out of your system. One average cookie is about 25 grams of carbs. Eat the cookie and then feel satisfied, instead of restricting the whole week and then eating 12 cookies on Sunday. So just that restriction mentality.
Speaker 1:Once I really teach my clients the difference between restriction and abundance mentality and allowing yourself, switching the lens and allowing yourself to say, oh, I can eat that. It just like when it fits in my macros, I can eat, you know, the Oreos, I can have the cookies. It's just how do I want to feel? Do I want to feel that way? And it takes away that restriction feeling.
Speaker 1:So we usually like with diet plans you want to stay away from anything that promises rapid weight loss food groups, that put good and bad categories on food groups. Any diet that eliminates entire food groups like carbs. Any claims that weight loss can be achieved without exercise like you, that's not a healthy diet plan. Or one that revolves around rigid eating plans and limited food choices and certain times of day, like you don't need to do any of that to be healthy, none of that. So if a diet plan is selling you that run, like you don't want to do that, okay, you want a diet plan that teaches you balance and long term sustainability. So just remember, at the end of the you know, at the end of the day, weight loss is about burning more calories than you consume. So you can do that in a lot of ways and you can still include your favorite foods. So a slow and steady approach is actually the best way to do this and to help get rid of pinching. So stop restricting.
Speaker 1:Then the next thing is don't skip meals. So whenever you skip meals, your glucose levels are gonna plummet. When they plummet, guess what happens? You crave the sugary, quick carbs and you just want something to get that energy up, and so when you're skipping meals, you're way more prone to binge later and to just eat way more than you need to eat and feel sick. Okay, so actually having regular eating patterns has been shown to reduce the chances of binge eating later in the day. Also another big proponent. I know people like love intermittent fasting. I think no. My personal opinion is you do not need it.
Speaker 1:Breakfast is important. It jump starts your metabolism, it provides you with the energy you need to function and also it helps you so that you start the day on the right note. Okay, so that if you eat a really good like high protein meal, things like eggs oh, it's Greek yogurt, high protein, with higher fat I don't wanna say higher fat, but like moderate, like a macro, balanced breakfast, you're gonna feel amazing and it helps to maintain your metabolism, your energy levels and it helps you so that it doesn't trigger binge eating. Number three is eating balanced meals. So this leads right into number three is making sure that you're eating a balance of carbs, fats and proteins with each meal. You don't wanna just snack all day and then eat a giant dinner and then eat a huge dessert. You wanna eat balanced meals throughout the day. This is really great for your glucose levels so that you don't store fat and you'll feel satiated. So every macro nutrient has a purpose. So protein helps build muscle and helps keep you full. Carbohydrates give you energy. Your fats help balance your hormone and help you feel satiated. You need all three.
Speaker 1:So if you can eat good, balanced meals, I promise you your cravings are going to be almost non-existent. When I'm good at this and I eat enough of carbs, fats and proteins in each meal, I hardly ever have any cravings. I don't crave sugar. I don't feel the need to eat all of the like crazy crackers, chips, cookies. I don't feel the need because I feel satiated and I'm eating enough for my body. Right, that's the other key is eat balanced meals and eat enough. You should not be eating lower than 1200, 1300, even 1400 calories. I rarely give a client lower than 1400 calories.
Speaker 1:Number four is to know your triggers and your personality type. So I talked about this before a little bit, in that it can be genetic, but knowing your triggers is huge. Like if you have a pattern where you know you notice that you're restricting during the week, then you go. Let's say, you go out with your spouse or your partner on the weekends and you binge every single time you do a date night. That's a trigger, right? Or let's say you go to work and you don't eat all day at work and then you come home, you put your stuff down, you turn on the TV and you get all your snacks and start eating and you notice that you're eating a ton when you're sitting down to eat or, sorry, when you're sitting down and watch TV. That is a trigger. The TV is a trigger. This is your ritual. So notice what your rituals are and why you're getting triggered to binge.
Speaker 1:So number one is being aware of the triggers and number two is knowing your in-eargram type or your personality type, so that you can see some of your natural tendencies and work against the natural tendencies, so that you can make a plan for your weaknesses and that's how they become your strengths, right. So let's go through the four things we went through, okay. Number one stop restricting. No, foods are off limits. Number two no more skipping meals. You wanna eat frequently to avoid getting overly hungry. Number three eat balanced meals, aka macros. And number four know your triggers and your personality type.
Speaker 1:I promise it's possible to overcome binge eating. I would love to help you. If you need help, me and my team literally hold your hand and hold you accountable and do check-ins and help you the entire way through, okay? So if you would love that support, let me know. We are here for you and I would love to help you overcome binge eating. All right, that's it for today. I will talk to you guys next time. See you later.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us in today's episode. If you liked the content and wanna hear more, remember to hit that subscribe button and write a review. As a small business owner, I appreciate it more than you know. If you are looking for a program to help with self-confidence, to lose weight, get in shape and work on your mental, physical and emotional health, check out my training programs on wwwbodybybreedcom. My team and I help to hold you accountable through the Body by Breed app, where you log in to see all your workouts, custom meal plan made specifically for you and your needs, and communication through the messenger. You are never alone when you're on the Body by Breed training program. Click the link in the show notes to get more information on how to transform your life from the inside out. Buh-bye.
.png)