Binge eating is not a choice, or a reflection of willpower. But it’s not the real problem, either; it’s merely a symptom. In order to stop binge eating, you must dig deeper and address the underlying root of the issue: hunger.
I know it’s hard to believe that hunger could have anything to do with something like binge eating — I mean, I used to eat enough food in a single sitting to feed a small army. Hunger was the least of my problems. Right?
Wrong. Hunger is so much more complicated than I ever understood or respected. It’s a biological, hormonal state defined by your body and brain, and it’s completely nonnegotiable. Your body dictates whether you are hungry or full — not a diet plan.
Hunger hormones are designed to work in tandem to regulate food intake: Ghrelin informs your brain when your body needs fuel, and leptin kicks in when you’ve satisfied your hunger. Easy peasy, until something disturbs that delicate balance. That something could be, say, a devastating famine or a wacky academic study about starvation…or something really stupid, like our society’s never-ending obsession with weight manipulation.
It only takes one diet to send your hunger hormones into panic mode. Even when you don’t think you are hungry, or think you SHOULDN’T be hungry, your hunger hormones are telling another story. Elevated levels of ghrelin ensure that, biologically speaking, you are always hungry. Diminished levels of leptin ensure that you are never satisfied.
It’s a hell of a way to live a life. Everywhere you look, food seems to beckon, and diet culture is always there to remind you: food is bad bad bad. You are bad for wanting food. So you do your best to resist, but there is no suppressing the biological drive to consume food. That’s where binge eating comes in.
Binge eating is a biological response to biological hunger, and I hope that helps assuage the guilt and shame that are so wrongly associated with this disorder. You can overcome binge eating, but not through sheer force of will. In my experience, the only way to effectively stop binge eating, once and for all, is to show your body that hunger is not an issue: by eating. Give yourself unrestricted permission to eat what you want whenever you want it. Feel fullness. Feel satisfaction. And stop letting diet culture shame you for needing food.
six months to sanity 
HELL yes! This reminds me a lot of The Brain Over Binge Recovery Guide by Kathryn Hansen. One of my favorites
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Thank you so much, Cait!! Honored to be in her company! Here is a link for anyone interested: https://www.amazon.com/Brain-over-Binge-Recovery-Guide/dp/0984481745
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This was a really useful read. Thank you 😊
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Thank YOU, Jo! So glad to hear it!
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This is useful to me. I started my journey to recovery today and i think this blog opened up my mind a little more on how to get better. Thank you.
I wrote about my disorder last night, feel free to check it out!
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Congratulations on starting your journey!! You can *totally* do this. There is so much guilt wrongly associated with binge eating, and I hope this mindset helps you release yourself from blame. I thought I’d never ever get to be a “normal eater,” but giving myself unconditional permission to eat (see my post about Phase 1) was all it took. Best of luck to you — recovery is so worth it!
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I really believe this! I have always had an unhealthy relationship with food. But I never have an issue with binge eating like I do when I allow myself to get too hungry. It’s better to JUST EAT, than to neglect the hunger and over do it!
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Yes, exactly! “Controlling” hunger is a destructive fantasy…it just doesn’t work that way! Imagine if we all walked around trying to minimize our oxygen intake — after passing out a few times, we’d probably start to get the picture! Our bodies are in control, and that’s really not a bad thing. Thank you for reading!
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Ok. Super desperate. This is the only thing that makes sense. I feel some relief in what I’ve read so far. Looking forward to a clean slate. I’ve said so many times over the last few years that I wish I would catch amnesia so I can learn to eat all over again. I am a recovering drug addict 20 years and a reformed smoker 11 years. Food is 20 times harder to put down. My latest drug of choice… never thought of picking it up and stop dieting. This is so true. I don’t know which end is up anymore but I’ve kicked some other serious habits and I can sincerely thank u for giving me hope right now. Wish me luck!!!!
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Julie, I’m SO sorry I did not respond to your comment. I had a baby in April and my life turned upside down in a way I simply was not prepared for. It’s so important to me to respond to the people who take the time to comment here, and I’m so sorry this went unanswered for so long.
I’m just catching my breath and catching up on my blog now, and I’m so moved by your comment. I can’t know how difficult it is to make changes in your life with a background of addiction, but I KNOW that you can do it! This strategy is so much different from addiction recovery, because you can’t get clean from food — you need food every single day! (And if you’ve ever tried getting “clean” from certain trigger foods, you know how that turns out. You’ll always find something else to binge on.)
If you happen to see this, I would love to hear how you’re doing! Let me know if you ever have any questions…I know I’m months late, but I’d love to help in any way I can, whenever I can. ❤
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