Do You Struggle With Over Eating?

I’d like to start by saying that over eating, binge eating, and emotional eating are all slightly different, but ultimately have similar roots. Because over eating is a vague term to define, I’m going to primarily discuss binge eating, but if you feel as though you have an issue with over eating, please read on.

What is binge eating?

Binge eating is defined as 1. eating an amount of food larger than most people would eat within a specific amount of time and 2. The sense of a lack of control over eating during an episode. Generally, people will eat more quickly than normal, eat until uncomfortably full, eat when not hungry, eat alone, and feel guilt, disgust, and/or depressed after eating.

In order to be diagnosed with binge eating disorder, someone must have at least one episode of binge eating per week for 3 months, and may not use any compensatory behavior for the binge (IE purging, fasting, or exercising excessively). Binge eating disorder is a clinical eating disorder that is more prevalent than both anorexia and bulimia combined, but simple binge eating that does not fit into the DSM criteria is even more common.

Generally, at any point where you feel out of control around food, or a compulsion to eat past the point of fullness, you may feel as if you have binged, regardless of the actual amount of food eaten.

 

Why do people binge eat?

Now this is a very tricky question, and I cannot proclaim to have the perfect answer. I have worked with a number of binge eating clients, and have found some commonalities, but obviously these are not all the reasons. The main commonality is that almost all people who binge eat have very specific neurotransmitter reactions to food, particularly sweet and carbohydrate heavy foods. This means some people are just more prone to overeating and binge eating than others.

Beyond that, MANY people begin binging and overeating in a response to restriction. People who have dieted before will often end up binging on the “forbidden” foods, and enter a cycle of binging/restricting. For some, this cycle only continues until they reach a healthy weight and develop a healthy relationship with food, while for others, it continues.

There are also a huge number of people who overeat for emotional reasons. Let me be clear and say many people eat for reasons other than hunger. There is a reason why eating ice cream during a breakup is a cliché – sweet foods make us feel temporarily happy. Overeating to the point of extreme fullness can be numbing and temporarily relieve stress or anxiety. It can also be a way to self-pity or self-sabotage.

Other clients I have worked with have “always overeaten,” according to them. These people have stronger brain reactions to foods that make them crave certain foods. This does not mean they are immune to the binge/restrict cycles – most of these people have tried diets because they are often living in larger bodies and have been told by doctors, friends, family, etc to diet, which just exacerbates the overeating symptoms.

Finally, there are people who have a physiological reason for overeating, such as insulin resistance. People with insulin resistance or diabetes do not utilize sugar/carbohydrates properly. They may eat a carbohydrate-rich meal and feel hungry immediately after because the carbohydrates they just ate did not actually get into their cells, which are in need of energy. The body will interpret this as having not eaten, and will therefore send out signals that it needs carbohydrates or sugar for quick energy.

For most people, overeating comes from a combination of these things. It is important to understand why the binges are occurring because the treatment will vary based on the reasons for overeating. In my next post, I promise to give some tips on how to deal with overeating and binging regardless of the reason!