Eating Disorders - anyone out there struggling with binge eating?

DawnPhenomenon

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Does anyone out there struggle with binge eating? How do you cope as a binge eater with diabetes?
 
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zand

Master
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I agree that carbs are a major culprit in making us feel the need to binge. Often there isn't a lot of nutrition in them, so the body just craves more and more food. Carbs can make leptin resistance worse, which means you feel more hungry.

I needed counselling to get to the bottom of what it was that caused me to binge. I think a lot of T2s have a wrong relationship with food. Nowadays I have a much better idea of when I am really hungry and don't view food as a treat. Treats are other things like a long bath or a walk in the sunshine. Food is just fuel. Carbs aren't the right fuel for my body unless they are from leafy green veg.

If binge eating is a big problem for you, you could ask your GP if there is a counsellor you could see. Mine referred me to one for 8 sessions.
 
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DawnPhenomenon

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I agree that carbs are a major culprit in making us feel the need to binge. Often there isn't a lot of nutrition in them, so the body just craves more and more food. Carbs can make leptin resistance worse, which means you feel more hungry.

I needed counselling to get to the bottom of what it was that caused me to binge. I think a lot of T2s have a wrong relationship with food. Nowadays I have a much better idea of when I am really hungry and don't view food as a treat. Treats are other things like a long bath or a walk in the sunshine. Food is just fuel. Carbs aren't the right fuel for my body unless they are from leafy green veg.

If binge eating is a big problem for you, you could ask your GP if there is a counsellor you could see. Mine referred me to one for 8 sessions.


Thanks for this. I was going to join Lighter Life for a kind of 'new start' and needed a signature from my GP. However, when I explained my prob and how it had been going on all my life (you wouldn't eat all day then would take two bottles in the afternoon) she told me it would be a habit very hard to kick and referred me to counselling. I loved the counselling sessions - like chatting to a good friend who had to just sit and listen!!! i don't do the whole tin of quality street thing any longer but I still 'scavenge' for food in the evening and if nothing interesting is around I'll eat whatever there is. I think my body may be misreading tiredness for need of food. I am quite old (61) and still work very long hours with a lot of manual stuff. Last night I came to bed at six. I never eat in bed. Perhaps I should stay here all day!!!
 
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ButtterflyLady

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Thanks for this. I was going to join Lighter Life for a kind of 'new start' and needed a signature from my GP. However, when I explained my prob and how it had been going on all my life (you wouldn't eat all day then would take two bottles in the afternoon) she told me it would be a habit very hard to kick and referred me to counselling. I loved the counselling sessions - like chatting to a good friend who had to just sit and listen!!! i don't do the whole tin of quality street thing any longer but I still 'scavenge' for food in the evening and if nothing interesting is around I'll eat whatever there is. I think my body may be misreading tiredness for need of food. I am quite old (61) and still work very long hours with a lot of manual stuff. Last night I came to bed at six. I never eat in bed. Perhaps I should stay here all day!!!
For me the key has been to ensure that plenty of the right kinds of foods are available in my house at all times, so I am not tempted to eat the wrong things.

Since you work long hours and do manual work, you should probably be eating a bit more than others anyway. Perhaps meal and snack planning might help? If I eat enough at those times I am less tempted to graze.
 
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DawnPhenomenon

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For me the key has been to ensure that plenty of the right kinds of foods are available in my house at all times, so I am not tempted to eat the wrong things.

Since you work long hours and do manual work, you should probably be eating a bit more than others anyway. Perhaps meal and snack planning might help? If I eat enough at those times I am less tempted to graze.


Yes that really is key - walk past the 'goodies' which are really 'baddies' and don't have them in the house in the first place.
 
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13lizanne

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I think that once it really "clicks" with us that we're eating to save our lives - dramatic I know but nevertheless true, something happens to strengthen our willpower. I too was a "scavenger" in my kitchen whenever I was bored or upset etc etc. I wish you the very best of good luck with your diet, you can do it!
- p.s I've never gone hungry since I started to low carb.
 
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Hedonista

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239
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
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Diet only
I've been a terrible binge eater, and still have my moments. I've found low carbing has really helped, as has eating three regular meals a day and eating until I'm full at each meal. It stops me standing by the open fridge at ten o clock at night eating whatever's in it!
 
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DawnPhenomenon

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I've been a terrible binge eater, and still have my moments. I've found low carbing has really helped, as has eating three regular meals a day and eating until I'm full at each meal. It stops me standing by the open fridge at ten o clock at night eating whatever's in it!

I really hope to follow your example
 
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DawnPhenomenon

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Done it again. Fallen off the wagon big time. Youngest child left home for Glasgow and that hollow, lost feeling only feels better with a truck full of carbs. When will I learn?
 

Gemma2

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Messages
179
Type of diabetes
Type 1
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Insulin
I was a binge eater many many years ago and was hospitalised for it twice.
I am Type 1. At the time I joined an Eating Disorder group which was quite good meeting likewise binge eaters. At the time you felt very alone as you knew you were allowing yourself to fall in the path of all types of complications.
Please try and limit your binge indulgences and only buy sufficient food you need for the day.Dont buy 4 donuts when you only want one!
Best wishes.
 
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ButtterflyLady

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Acceptance of health treatment claims that are not adequately supported by evidence. I dislike it when people sell ineffective and even harmful alternative health products to exploit the desperation of people with chronic illness.
Done it again. Fallen off the wagon big time. Youngest child left home for Glasgow and that hollow, lost feeling only feels better with a truck full of carbs. When will I learn?
Hugs, I know how it feels. Do you have any pets? I think carbs can take away the hollow lost feeling but so can other things.

We can't change the past, tomorrow is another day. x
 
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DawnPhenomenon

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Hugs, I know how it feels. Do you have any pets? I think carbs can take away the hollow lost feeling but so can other things.

We can't change the past, tomorrow is another day. x

No pets. I was thinking of getting a dog but when I mentioned it to my partner he said 'let's just try for a baby'. I'm 61
 
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JenniferW

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561
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Does anyone out there struggle with binge eating? How do you cope as a binge eater with diabetes?

I have a life-time of overeating and developed binge eating at one particularly difficult period of my life. I've had therapy of different sorts at various periods of my life so have a fair understanding of why I'm like I am, and I was pretty much at a stage of living with it, feeling there were worse afflictions. I'm now 68, and was very aware there was a lot worse around me. Then I got the T2 diagnosis.

I've changed from what I thought was a good low GI wholefood diet to a low carb one, and the whole shock of the diagnosis (and the X-PERT course really drumming in how serious this is) has resulted in a certain amount of change. I've changed my shopping a lot, but even if there are only low carb foods in the house, I can -and do - still binge.

I'm sure tiredness makes this worse. I occasionally overeat in daylight, when faced with too tempting opportunities, but I usually have the strength of will to walk away or make a sensible choice. Increasing my exercise has added to my tiredness. I have greater tiredness than I'm sure is 'normal', probably from the T2, and probably from various other stresses and strains in life. I can easily sleep 12 out of 24 hours, and 10 hours has always felt 'normal' for me. I've talked about this with the diabetic nurse at my GP's and I think she's now tested everything they can think of - with no answers. So for now, I'm sort of just left living with this.

I was pleased to find this thread - for me, this is the biggest problem in my T2 management.
 

DawnPhenomenon

Well-Known Member
Messages
107
Type of diabetes
Other
Treatment type
Other
I have a life-time of overeating and developed binge eating at one particularly difficult period of my life. I've had therapy of different sorts at various periods of my life so have a fair understanding of why I'm like I am, and I was pretty much at a stage of living with it, feeling there were worse afflictions. I'm now 68, and was very aware there was a lot worse around me. Then I got the T2 diagnosis.

I've changed from what I thought was a good low GI wholefood diet to a low carb one, and the whole shock of the diagnosis (and the X-PERT course really drumming in how serious this is) has resulted in a certain amount of change. I've changed my shopping a lot, but even if there are only low carb foods in the house, I can -and do - still binge.

I'm sure tiredness makes this worse. I occasionally overeat in daylight, when faced with too tempting opportunities, but I usually have the strength of will to walk away or make a sensible choice. Increasing my exercise has added to my tiredness. I have greater tiredness than I'm sure is 'normal', probably from the T2, and probably from various other stresses and strains in life. I can easily sleep 12 out of 24 hours, and 10 hours has always felt 'normal' for me. I've talked about this with the diabetic nurse at my GP's and I think she's now tested everything they can think of - with no answers. So for now, I'm sort of just left living with this.

I was pleased to find this thread - for me, this is the biggest problem in my T2 management.


When I read this I thought how true it was. I often mistake tiredness for hunger. If I'm shattered I eat and eat and I imagine that deep down somewhere I'm trying to give myself energy. Unfortunately the opposite happens.