My Stepson has always been a big eater, he's hungry 24/7 and sometimes throws up from eating too much, not on purpose but because he's too full.

He hides food in he's room and binges on it when he gets in trouble. I have found old mouldy pizza, shredded cheese, packets of cereal, old Halloween Candy, you name it.

I'm a batch cooker and in one meal I'll cook for our lunches and meals the next day. He has gone into our lunch boxes for the next day and eaten all our meals.

I made ravioli for dinner, he said he wanted to "help me" by opening the packet to get ready for the water. As soon as he did, he snatched a handful of uncooked and raw ravioli and started eating them. I told him to stop, as they are raw and moved them away, he reached for them again. I waited until he was out of the kitchen then hid the packet until the water boiled then went to the bathroom. When I came out and got the packet to put in the water, I could tell half the packet was gone! Anyway, I served him up dinner when they were cooked, a small portion and put aside a little for him to take to school the next day. In the morning, I was heating up the ravioli for his school thermal. While I was heating them, he asked for some, I said, no, this is your school lunch. When I took them out, he snatched at the bowl and ravioli went all over the counter and he started grabbing handfuls and shovelled them into his mouth while I was telling him to stop. It was pretty shocking.

Others things he eats are salt straight from the shaker, dried Parmesean straight from the can. Food from the bin.

I've spoken with my partner about getting him to see a psychologist to help with his food noise but he doesn't believe in that. Said that he doesn't have an eating disorder and is fine. I've explained that what he's doing is disordered eating and something needs to happen.

Some things I was thinking to help are locks on the fridge, hidden foods, putting the whole family on a diet so there's no temptation in the house. I try to get him to exercise but he doesn't want to do that. He is getting bigger and bigger. Does anyone have any advice on what can be done to help him? I just feel so bad for him because he is too young to understand what's happening to him.

This is my biggest issue. I don’t usually struggle with getting full from meals (I often do pretty quick) but my issue is I always will still eat if I’m full even if it’s uncomfortable. Whenever I eat big meals I get full halfway through or so but I just… don’t have the willpower everyone else has to just stop or put it away. I always have to eat it. And have seconds if I can.

One of my worst binge triggers, for some reason, is eating dinner. I always have the strange urge to stuff my face at night even if I’ve eaten plenty during the day and am already full. I’m asking for help now because I literally just did this… and I feel the urge to binge :(

Hi everyone,

I’m posting because I’ve been struggling with my eating and would really like to connect with people who have experienced, or are still experiencing, something similar.

I regularly do strength training and cardio, and I try to take care of my physical health. However, despite my efforts, I’m dealing with something that I find very difficult to manage: binge-eating episodes.

Sometimes I eat large amounts of food, even when I’m no longer hungry. The hardest part is the feeling of completely losing control, as if I can’t stop even though I know I’ve eaten enough.

What frustrates me is the gap between my desire to take care of my body and my eating behavior.

I would simply like to eat normally, enjoy my meals, recognize when I’m full, and stop being so preoccupied with food.

I’m not looking for a miracle solution, but rather hoping to understand how other people have managed to break out of this cycle.

My main goal is to rebuild a healthy and balanced relationship with food, without guilt or feeling out of control.

I’d really appreciate hearing your experiences, especially from people who have managed to make lasting improvements.

Thank you in advance to everyone who takes the time to respond !

I just binged on day 6 of my current streak, about 1.4-1.6k calories worth of snacks, which is honestly not bad at all since I used to binge 6-10k. I had just hit 100 lbs this morning after being in a 500 cal deficit for a while too, losing about 17/35 lbs that I gained through binging since last year (I’m really short, so its in the healthy range for my height) I do recognize that this binge was out of some hunger though, and instead of reaching for a more filling/nutritious snack, I had sugary junk food that triggered my binging, so I need to remember to not do that again.
Oh well. At least the streaks are getting longer, my binges are getting smaller, and I’m overall losing, so I’m counting it as a win. The food noise is unbearable sometimes on top of OCD-like, depressive, and anxiety symptoms, but I’m seeing a psychiatrist FINALLY next month, so I may be able to get medication and diagnosis to help :)
I’m on the toilet pooping my pants out after that binge, probably as a result of the ice cream and fiber brownies and protein brownies I had. Still gonna have dinner as usual though!

Vent/seeking advice?

I’m tired of the mainstream advice for BED that says "you should never restrict yourself". I blindly followed it and gained way more kilos which my knees are now feeling, and I can no longer engage in my beloved dancing with the same intensity.

Now I’m at my heaviest, my knees hurt when I squat, and I just thought I wouldn't go easy on myself anymore.

Lately, I’ve been trying intermittent fasting (16/8). Honestly, the 16 hours are easy for me, but the moment my eating "window" opens, I can easily eat 1500 kcal in one sitting. It’s been a struggle, but with mixed success, I managed to lose 3 kg in 1.5 months. My deficit is also not big at all (only 300 kcal).

Today I tried talking to chatgpt (I can't afford a therapist) about it, and I got my favourite "You absolutely must not use intermittent fasting OR count calories given your disorder." I almost fucking threw my phone. I asked for practical tips about how to not overeat during these 8 hours, and it started criticizing the only method of mine that actually helped me lose weight for the sake of my health — even if just a little. It's "if you're homeless just buy a house" style of advice.

As contradictory as it sounds, advice on reducing anxiety around food actually makes me more anxious. I feel like I’m doing something wrong and that my only working method is bound to backfire on me by leading to even more excess weight.

Honestly, I’m so desperate that I’m starting to think maybe it'd be better if I had smoking habit instead, or wishing I was a cat who has food given a specific amount at specific time of a day. I just want to lose the weight that’s making me feel unhealthy and clumsy so bad. It's so simple and so complicated at the same time, it's debilitating.

How to stop binge eating?

Ill keep this brief, please skip and dont bash if you cant relate kindly brethren.

5’7, 145 Pound Man.

Cut from 169 Pounds a year ago after my old fwb pretty much called me fat in so many words and lost attraction.

No one believes I’m still out of shape with a shirt on but im moderately skinny fat and am afraid im going to eat it all back

Want to get down to 127-128 and stay there, , but my ADHD causing me to binge eat, my ocd and anxiety making the very thought of going back dreadful makes my life an everday hell. I get the attention from women but the unsettling feeling that a rebound is imminent.

Nothing is working. The psyllium husks, the high protein, the carbo loading. Everything i eat keeps me feeling hungry and unsatisfied, and i cant remember the last time ive been in a deficit for more than 7 days.

Ive tried semalgitude for a month, it made me nauseus and is expensive af

For the few men out there whove been able to get cut and stay cut. What can i do? What works in your experience? AI obviously wont tell me, most men have never gotten there, and the few who have seem to always be on gear. You should know how desperate i am for a solution by the fact i came to reddit of all places actually looking for an answer without being bashed 😭

Im past emotional reconciliation, i desperately want answers.

I am now officially 1 month binge free and I am so happy!! I'm not sure if ppl will know but 2 weeks or so ago I posted my progress of being 2 weeks ish binge free and said id update if or when I made it to 1 month and well here I am! I could not be prouder of myself, this is the longest I've been binge free in months. my next goal is 50 days so I will update then!

TW suicide
My step brother hanged him self at the age of 19. I am torn between binging and starving cycles. Sometimes I just feel so much pain and I try to eat it away. Then I feel sick (both mentally and physically) and I stop eating for a while bc I feel a nod in my stomach. Then physical hunger and mental anguish combined make me binge again. Horrible.

Okay so I have been struggling with BED for the past 9 months due to a previous extreme caloric deficit and basically zero fats in my diet.

I had gained about 20 pounds within 10 days, just binging whatever was in the kitchen. Primarily carbs in fast foods.

It struck me that I had a container of Metamucil in my cabinet, and I wondered if drinking, that would help to fill me up and stop at least the hunger that would cause me to binge.

In the past four days, I’ve been drinking Metamucil three times a day with water in my electrolyte drink or even better, I started adding it in my protein, shakes and would blend it up in the blender.

I noticed that the Metamucil would give me that full feeling, and I couldn’t eat as much or binge as much. I should say because it is so filling!

I’ve gone back to maintenance for two days and a slight deficit for the other two days, focusing on protein, adding some more fats and keeping up with the Metamucil throughout the day.

Last night, I was feeling a little bored, and it was a chocolate chip cookie on the table. Last week I would’ve just ate the cookie and it had some more cravings due to the sugar and ate more processed foods, but because I drink my Metamucil before bed I decided that I would try a little bit of meat instead of eating the cookie and I was able to stick with that and go to bed.

As of this morning, four days later, I am down 8 pounds! This has been so enlightening for me and I strongly recommend everyone and anyone here that struggles with BED to add 3 to 4 servings of Metamucil throughout the day and you will notice that you won’t be able to binge, or if you do, you won’t be able to binge as much as you used to because it’s literally so filling and makes you feel like you already ate.

I’m praying that I won’t jinx myself but the thoughts of food have drastically decreased and when I do eat, I noticed I’m not craving sugar or carbs as much as I used to.

I am adding 55 g of fat to my diet now and 115 g of protein. I will update throughout the next couple of weeks to let you guys know if the Metamucil is still effective.

Okay so I used to have a pretty big issue with restricting. Now, almost 7 months later, I've definitely gained weight and my mom is happy, but I don't feel like myself. My confidence has hit rock bottom and I count calories again because I want to feel good in my own skin again. Also, I'm a flyer on my cheer team and my stunt group has been struggling, and I'm worried it's because of my weight. Recently, I've been binging. It's like once every two nights, and it makes me feel awful. Sometimes I even throw it up, but it doesn't help. It ruins my mood, my workouts, and my focus. My grades have been going down and as a senior in high school I haven't been able to enjoy anything because I'm thinking about my body and the food I ate the night before instead of living in the moment.

What do I do?

This isn't even binging anymore it's little things that make me gain weight.. Like eating too much without it even being a binge and I don't know what to do, it's too easy to overeat and often it's not even that I snack is that J eat lunch or breakfast and just eat too much.

I have had a million "day 1s" and by day 4 i "deserve a treat" and undo everything. I get convinced that i can handle moderation, and 'just 1" is ok now. It is not.

I have 10 hours of work im behind on, and a midterm exam, and while food will fuel that work, it is not a place to seek comfort or escape.

For today: food does not rule my life.

update: my exam went well and i am feeling proud of myself. food is not a reward.

Ive posted on here before thinking ive cured it but I didnt. Ive tried every fad diet out there because a large part of me thought it was physical. Over time ive come to terms with the fact its a coping mechanism for depression and anxiety. What ive realised is that i had restricted myself from food and life so much that I crave dopamine. When I eat food and dont get fulfilled in my brain I just keep going.

The past couple days i tried something wierd. Ive only eaten sugar and junk. And wierdly enough I havent binged. My brain gets fulfilled and I dont feel the need to stuff myself. Usually I stop before im actually "full".

But now im at loss because I have gastrointestinal issues so sugar ferments in my system and gives me bad pain. I cant function. So now the foods that make me not binge i cant eat. And foods that I binge on (healthy foods funnily enough) are all i really have now.

Im going to do some research on healthy foods high in dopamine. Ive just realised that when I get full I also get triggered so im trying to avoid volume eating and feeling too full, which protien and fiber gives me.

Im at the point im not binging all or nothing, but overeating occasionally and always trying to not be obsessed.

But I need a way to make food positive and not binge worthy. I want to make foods rich and satisfactory for my deprived brain so I dont have to worry about it anymore. Like If I could find a version of sugar that doesnt hurt me.

So how do I make myself just put the damn food down and go do something else, I binged today and I just remember thinking right before "just put the food down" and "you want to stop binging right" and It just didn't work😞😞

Hi Guys

This is an embarrassing question but something I ave never grasped and maybe part of the reason for my obesity but how does full feel. I am sure my definition is wrong and a situation I sometimes find myself in. I have always defined full as that feeling of about to burst before we are almost sick. I've never been taught anything else so its almost like I feel guilty if Im not bursting. They talk about GLP1s but surely they not supposed to make you feel like a stuffed chicken. Would love to know other people's opinion on being full.

I used to be a really bad binge eater because I restricted my kcal too much. This went on for so long I tried everything, every piece of advice, it didn't work until I dived deep into the root of the problem and truly understanding my brain processing behind it. note: im not a doctor or scientist, just someone who was able to recover and wants to share my excpereinces if this can help anyone.

First you need to understand that binging becomes a habit - or at least it did for me.

1. How do you develop a habit?

Habits generally work through this cycle:

1. Trigger/cue: You feel a certain emotion, stress, boredom, etc
2. Action: You do something in response to that feeling
3. Reward: Your brain gets dopamine or some form of relief/reward from the action

The more times you repeat this cycle the more strongly your brain learns to associate the trigger with the action and its reward and eventually, something that initially required a conscious decision can become an automatic subconscious response.

Think about brushing your teeth or driving to work, you do these things without consciously thinking about every movement because you've done them so many times. Your consciousness is somewhere else thinking about something completely unrelated.

This is how habits work, your brain learns to perform actions automatically without your conscious mind needing to direct every step.

1. How do you develop binge eating disorder?

A common way this cycle can develop is:

You restrict too much on food/kcal, or have some other form of restriction.

Something TRIGGERS you, usually an emotion or stress, and you binge for the first time.

Your brain experiences pleasure or temporary relief from eating and remembers the association.

Next time you feel that emotion, your brain remembers what you did last time to feel better, and you feel the urge to binge again.

After repeating this cycle, binging can become a habit that your brain performs whenever you feel the trigger.

This is when you can feel like you're not even present when you make the choice to binge. Your taught your brain how it can get a quick hit of dopamine / reward to numb the trigger so that’s all it’s trying to get to. you feel out of control like you have to binge or even though you don't want to you know you will binge.

The neuroscience behind this

The first time you might consciously choosen to eat without restriction (binge). But every time you repeat the behaviour, neurones in your brain of trigger, action, reward get stronger and more closely linked (neurone that fire together wire together) to a point where you feel the trigger and automatically binge without even deciding to do so.

Your conscious mind may be telling you, "I don't want to do this" while your brain's learned habits are pushing you towards eating the food.

This is why it can feel like you have two minds.

When I used to binge one part of my mind would literally be screaming, "NO, STOP! You said you wouldn't do this! You don't want to do this!" yet I would still do it. It felt like something else was controlling my hand and my brain was separate to my body. Even as I was eating I would feel regret but I would continue eating I couldn't stop.

What helped me was understanding that the voice urging me to binge was not my higher self, not my rational mind, it was my subconscious mind, my past habits. My brain learned it could seek relief this way but that didn't mean I actually wanted to binge. Make your rational conscious mind more powerful over your subconscious mind that wants to ‘save you’ by getting the reward.

1. How to overcome this habit (or any habit)

a) Replace the action

Do 5 push-ups, spin around in a circle for 10 seconds, run a lap around your house, go pee. Do anything; it doesn't even have to be logical

You're trying to practise a different response to the same trigger

Over time, repeatedly choosing this new response can create a new habit and your brain creates a new neural pathway response to the same binge trigger/urge. So the more time u choose to spin around 5 times instead of binge- the easier it is to not have binging be an autopilot response.

b) Don't expect the urge to go away

If you say "I'm starting tomorrow binge-free!" don't expect to have zero triggers or thoughts about food - no you will probably have the same thoughts u had yesterday.

instead, tell yourself "I may have 1,000 thoughts about food, but I will not automatically act on them."

Even years down the line you may still experience an urge to binge. This does not mean you have not recovered.

The goal isn't to never have the thought. It's to have it and learn how to respond to it differently.

C) Sit with the urge: you are not your thoughts

Because your brain has developed this habit, you're used to getting the thought and immediately thinking "I have to do this now."

You need to practise sitting with the urge without automatically acting on it. Feel the whole feeling of "I want this food so badly" and remind yourself that it's just a thought

One piece of advice that really helped me was:

"You are not your thoughts, you are the consciousness behind them."

What this means to me is that you can't consciously choose every thought that enters your mind. Thoughts can arise spontaneously from learned associations, environmental trigers and other mental processes

You can notice or experience a thought without it meaning anything, you can feel an urge without acting on it.

When you feel like binging, remind yourself:

"This is an automatic urge, my brain has learned to seek relief this way, and I don't have to act on it."

D) Delay the time between the trigger and the binge

This was one of the most useful ways for me to see my progress

For example:

Day 1: You feel your trigger and binge immediatly.

Day 2: You feel your trigger, sit with the urge for 15 minutes, try your best but eventually binge.

You might see this as 2 days of failure, but no it's progress. You managed to pause bring your conscious attention back into the moment and resist acting automatically for longer.

Over time you can gradually increase that delay and it becomes easier each time. one day u will have the thought and simply just say 'no' and move on with your life

E) Every moment counts

Before I truly recovered I would always tell myself I'd start again tomorrow, start again Monday, or think "I've already messed up today."

Don't do this.

Every moment counts, even the tiniest moment. You don't have to wait until tomorrow to make your choice matter.

I also find it helpful to visualise that every moment I managed to delay or respond differently to my triggers, the strings between my binge habit neurones would get weaker / fall apart.

And even if you've gone 2 months without binging and then binge one day, it's ok you haven't ruined anything and you don't need to start over. Just continue trying bc even though u binged one day, u had so many days before that where u didn't, and your brain doesn't just forget those days bc of one bad day.

in conclusion, you don't need to be completely free of urges to recover, you need to learn that you can experience an urge without automatically acting on it, or acting on it at all.

you got this guys

Did binge eating make anyone else gain weight in a really weird way? I have been on the thinner side before it started (my ribcage has always been visible and i had visible abs, and my arms were pretty thin), and the weight gain went all to my stomach, lower back area and my thighs? I feel so weird in my body, because my upper abs and my ribs are still as visible as before, but i have a really noticeable stomach and big thighs now? I also only gained weight in the most upper part of my arms for some reason. It’s really annoying to me because i know these places are the last to lose the fat if I even manage to lose anything. Has this happened to anyone else?

I’ve been binging everyday for months. Maybe i’ll have some days where I’m busy and don’t have food around, or i sleep an entire day. I’ve gained a total of 8lbs this year which may not sound like a lot. But keep in mind that i walk a lot and already without movement my maintenance calories are like 2.7k. I eat until i feel sick. I’m laying here in bed with a hard stomach. I was thinking about ordering food an hour ago, it’s 4:30am now. I procrastinate grocery shopping, but even when we do it; the food goes bad from sitting in the fridge since we eat out so often. I’m lazy, i hate cooking these days. I’m at the heaviest I’ve ever been and I feel like shit. I’m dragging my husband down with me & I feel like a terrible wife. My husband has been struggling with his health & gained back so much weight. We definitely enable each other, the difference is my husband will stop when he feels full.

I haven’t made any real attempt at getting my health under control for a while. Tomorrow is a new day. I don’t have to continue this. I’m making a real attempt tomorrow.

So I struggled with both restriction and binge eating but now it’s not that I don’t want to eat I just have no appetite and get full rly fast unless I smoke. But if I smoke I binge eat and smoke for days until I throw out the pen. Then I don’t have an appetite and I hate being full while sober so I just don’t eat enough. But if I do get full I want comfort and the way I find comfort is from weed so I get a pen and the cycle continues.