Battle of The Binge
Why do we binge? And if you can’t stop yourself bingeing every now and then how can you ensure you get back on track?
What causes us to binge? There are probably as many reasons as there are diets but I think they fall into these main categories:
* dieting too strictly so a binge is a rebound rebellion
* stress eating, using food as a comfort
* celebration eating and just carrying on afterwards
* overwhelming sweet craving you give in to and carry on
* the weight stops coming off so you binge in a “sod it” way
* self sabotage - you think “I don’t deserve to succeed.”
I know the reason I can’t for the moment get much more weight off. I keep bingeing. It’s like taking a few steps forward only to fall back because I hit the roadblock of a binge. When I binge it’s like I’m being taken over. An urge so strong I cannot resist. This is my brain fighting back and it’s not entirely my fantasy that it does so.
The two main reasons diets fail is that our bodies adjust to us eating fewer calories so our metabolism slows down. We carry on dieting but the weight stops coming off. And that is so frustrating we may think, sod it. I might as well eat. I think that’s one of the main reasons I binge.
Lizard brain
The second reason diets fail is that our brains don’t recognise we need to lose weight. Instead they register that we’re eating less and so put us into famine mode - find food and eat it! We are flooded with messages to eat. It’s our survival mechanism, our primitive/lizard brain kicking in. This is because for most of human existence food was scarce.
I don’t like this idea of going to war with our own bodies. It feels unhealthy to me to call it that. I prefer to use the term trying to override our brain - set it to manual from automatic. You can override these messages urging you to eat more just as you can override your metabolism slowing down.
For the latter I’m afraid there is no alternative but to take some kind of exercise. I am still not convinced exercise makes much difference in a weight-loss regime - the only way to lose weight is to eat less. However what exercise can do is boost your metabolism so you make it more efficient at burning calories. Think of it as keeping a pilot light on. The great thing about exercise is that it keeps on working when you’re not actually doing it. That’s the whole point of aerobic exercise. You make your body more efficient at using fuel. And you don’t need to do that much. A brisk 20-30 minute walk every day is enough. If you can get out twice, as dog walkers do, so much the better.
Override your brain
To override brain messages urging a binge I’ve started keeping a diet diary. I’ve always recorded my weight every day but now I also record how much I ate and if I binged or over ate a bit. If I had a “hungry” day or a good dieting day. If I had a hungry day that’s usually due to being a bit too strict the day before. But if I have a binge I try to find the trigger. Was it stress? Was it frustration at the scales stubbornly refusing to move? Or was it just an overwhelming desire to eat chocolate and being unable to stop? Attending a celebration where there is lots of food and drink can leave you thinking afterwards, well I’ve blown it now I might as well carry on.
Identify triggers
Identifying the triggers for a binge - even anticipating them if you can - is a good way to at least try to limit the damage. When I’m having a binge day now I’ll say to myself, okay, this is a binge day. I’m going to go for it and ignore calories but... I go back on the diet straightaway tomorrow. I give myself a day off. I accept I am human not a robot. But the key is getting back on track the following day. Record your weight after a binge. Record why you think you binged. Try to cut down on the number of times you binge. Maybe pencil in a binge or two for the future so you know they’re coming and they’ll give you some relief from relentless dieting.
You will binge if you’re on a diet. It’s practically inevitable. The way to cope is not to let it define you. You are not greedy! You are human. It’s entirely normal to eat an entire box of chocolates once you’ve have one. Whatever you do don’t beat yourself up about it. Don’t be full of remorse and self hatred. Congratulate yourself on having got as far as you have. If you hadn’t been successful on your diet you almost definitely wouldn’t have binged!
It’s not the setbacks define us. It’s how we deal with them. Keep it going!