Binge eating sucks. It feels awful physically, mentally, and emotionally. But having a binge doesn’t mean you’ve failed, and it definitely doesn’t mean you’ve lost all your progress. In this video, Dani dives into what actually causes binge eating, how it’s different from just “overeating,” and most importantly, what to do after it happens.
TRANSCRIPT:
Binge eating sucks. I know it sucks. Nothing that I say is gonna magically make it not suck.
But it doesn’t mean that you fail. And it certainly doesn’t mean that you lost progress. And
there’s actually, and whether we like it or not, binge eating can teach us something if we are
willing to hear it.
What’s up everybody? Welcome back to the channel. My name is Dani Taylor, co-owner of
Vegan Proteins Online Coaching. And today, we’re gonna be talking about binge eating.
Maybe you came to this video because you just had a binging episode and you don’t know what
to do next. Hopefully, by the end of this video, you’ll have some strategies to move forward
without feeling like crap about yourself. If you’re new to the channel, welcome.
Happy to have you here. So we are an online vegan fitness coaching company that puts out
content every week of tips, tricks, recipes, videos, meal plans to help you get in the best shape
of your life as a vegan. But I will say, this video applies to anybody, vegan or not, if you struggle
with binge eating.
So stay tuned, even if you’re not vegan. So first of all, let’s define a binge because there’s a wide
way of defining it. There’s the actual criteria for binge eating disorder, which we’re not going to
touch upon that today.
Although I think these tips could be helpful for anybody. I think once it’s at that clinical level, it
should really be worked through with medical professionals. But there’s also just the act of
binge eating, right? And there’s many definitions of a binge.
Some define a certain amount of calories eaten in a certain amount of time, but I define it
differently. I define it as feeling out of control while eating. Like you want to stop eating.
You don’t even want to be doing this at all, but you cannot stop. Some people say they just like
basically see red, feels like they leave their body. It’s different than just overeating.
Overeating is like, eh, I probably shouldn’t have this second piece of cake, but I’m going to do it
anyway. That’s overeating. That’s a conscious choice.
And that’s a different thing than what we’re talking about here. I’m talking about when you did
something that you didn’t actually want to do when it comes to food. And binge eating is
remarkably common.
I would say, I would say almost every human being that I know has had at least one binge
eating episode in their life. I think that most people experience it more than once in their life. I
think a lot of people experience it with a fair amount of regularity and it can be really, really
distressing.But the reason that I talk about how common I believe it to be is because having a binge makes
us feel like we are the only one in the world who has ever done it. We are gross. We’re like a
kitchen goblin that just eats whatever is in front of us.
We have no self-control and bullshit. I can’t think of almost anybody I know that has never had
an incident like that with food. Almost everybody has had one.
And in the fitness realm of people who are in sort of like gym culture, people who really like to
work out, fitness professionals, it is even more prevalent. Based on my own work that I’ve been
doing with athletes for the last 16 years now, I would say almost every single athlete
occasionally has something that they would classify as a binge. And there was a study in 2015
that said that 22% of male trainers and 59% of female fitness trainers actually are classified as
having eating disorders.
They meet all the criteria for having different eating disorders. I think that some of that might
be a bit of a stretch, but I would say that most people that work in the fitness industry definitely
have what would be categorized as disordered eating, which means it would check some of the
boxes. And I’m not suggesting that if you have binges that you should just be like, oh, cool, I
had another binge and then just keep doing that over and over again.
Like I’m not trying to normalize it in such a way that I’m suggesting it’s a good thing, but it is
something that does happen a lot more than people are willing to talk about because they’re
ashamed. I’ve spoken openly on this channel about my own history with disordered eating. I
used to be 215 pounds.
Guess what? I didn’t binge eat then. It wasn’t until I lost a significant amount of weight that I
struggled with binge eating and then full-blown eating disorder situation. It was actually being
in the gym world.
I shouldn’t say in the fitness industry. I wasn’t working in the fitness industry at that time, but
being in sort of gym culture is really what kicked that off for me. And I think that that’s true for
a lot of people.
Folks decide they want to change their physique in some way. Maybe they want to lose some
weight. Maybe they want to tone up.
Maybe they want to build some muscle. And then, you know, six months later, they’re like,
whoa, what just happened? I’ve never eaten like that before in my life. And then, you know, it
might happen again and again.
So I simply say all of this to let you know, you are not the only one that is dealing with this. Lots
of people are dealing with this. It doesn’t mean you failed.
It just means you’re human. So let’s get into what not to do after a binge because I think this is
really important. I think this is where people turn one binge into a cycle of binges that they thencan’t seem to stop.
Because after a binge, most people feel full and bloated and gross and mad at themselves. The
knee-jerk reaction is to correct. Try to fix it.
And I’m telling you, do not try to fix it. You can’t fix it, but you don’t need to fix it. So a lot of
people will try to deliberately restrict their food the next day.
Like, oh my God, I ate enough for three days yesterday, so I can’t eat at all tomorrow. This is a
surefire way to end up binging again. They decide they’re going to try to exercise it off.
I’ve seen people try to calculate how much they took in so that they could then do that much
cardio afterwards. This is a surefire way to lead to another binge. I’ve seen people pair one or
both of these things together with compulsively checking the scale.
This is a surefire way to lead to another binge. Why? Because there are two things that could
trigger a binge. One is physiological, stuff that’s happening in your actual body, and the other is
psychological.
And both are important. We’re not just a body. We’re not just a brain.
But let’s talk about the body for a second. There’s a lot of things that can be going on in your
body that can cause you to overeat or binge eat. But I would argue, as somebody that has
coached hundreds of athletes over the year, my company has coached over 2,000 athletes over
the years, the number one thing that leads to and the second one is not even close, is under
eating on a consistent basis.
I have something that I have called the binge eating trifecta. And it is if you are too tired, too
hungry, and too stressed. It’s not a matter of if you’ll binge.
It’s just a matter of when, if all three of those things are happening at once. So when you are
consistently under eating, you have already checked one of those boxes of too hungry all the
time. So then you get one crappy night of sleep and your boss hands down a difficult project
with an intense deadline, boom, you will binge.
Almost certainly. Maybe not that day, but it’s coming. So you have to manage those things.
Under eating on a consistent basis. And I have a whole video that people seem to really like a
lot about like nine signs that you’re under eating. Definitely go watch that if you’re like, am I
under eating? To find out.
The second physical thing that could be going on in your body, I just touched upon a little bit, is
exhaustion. Are you completely overworked and you just need to sleep? Going into restriction
or overexercise mode right after a binge, you could see how that would trigger both like the
under eating and being hungry component and the tiredness component. Now you’ve got two
of the boxes checked.Okay. There’s other elements that can happen. Things that are hormonal can definitely make
someone more inclined to eat more.
But really, really make sure that you are eating enough on a consistent basis. And I hear some
of you already saying, but I’m trying to lose weight. I get it.
I understand you have to have the deficit to lose weight set up in a way that it’s enough of a
deficit for you to continue losing weight, but not so much of a deficit that you end up here. It’s a
fine line. Sometimes it takes a little trial and error to find that line, but it’s worth finding and you
can lose weight, get to your goal weight without ending up in this binge restrict cycle.
It is possible. Now there’s also the psychological side of things. And I touched upon it a little bit
with stress.
Stress is a huge umbrella term that encapsulates a ton of different things. I’m saying stress
kind of feels like a cop-out, but let’s say social situations, maybe you get really anxious in social
situations and that triggers you to just start kind of hand to mouth the whole time that you’re
there. And then eventually it just kind of spirals.
Maybe you have a big project or trip or something coming up and you catch yourself just like
totally zoned out over, uh, you know, bowls of cereal at the end of the night. And you don’t
even know why something that I think is really important when we are considering the
psychological side of things, which I do want to say a lot of people immediately point to the
psychological reasons for binge eating and they completely skip over the physical ones that I
just mentioned. But if you are in the fitness world, look at the physical ones first, because I
would say eight times out of 10, it’s that one.
Okay. Um, but that’s not to say that the psychological stressors don’t add to the likelihood.
When we feel uncomfortable things, it is our natural human inclination to try to not feel that
way.
Makes sense. Right? So when we feel exhausted or lonely or sad, or sometimes even happy in a
way that we’re not comfortable with, we can be like, ah, I don’t want to feel this. Let me feel
something else.
And there’s a million things people can do to feel different ways. Some positive, some negative,
but you know, just shoveling food into your mouth. For most people, they will report just
feeling kind of zoned out, spaced out, which isn’t necessarily a good feeling.
You were feeling really bad before. It’s certainly a, certainly feels like a good feeling for the 20
minutes or so that it’s happening. Then of course, what happens afterwards? You feel the guilt,
you feel the shame, and you then are like, ah, this is an uncomfortable feeling.
I don’t want to feel this. What can I do to not feel this way? And you can see how this could turn
into a pattern. Pair the psychological with the physiological.And it’s very, very easy to fall into these traps. Just wanting to feel better, which is pretty much
the only reason why people binge, whether they realize it or not, is their body, their mind. It’s
just trying to feel better.
So don’t restrict. Don’t go over exercise. Don’t hop on the scale.
Why would you do that to yourself? Give yourself a few days. If you’re that’s going to upset you.
And then the last thing, and I cannot stress this enough, do not talk shit about yourself.
We’ve all done it. It’s happened to everyone. What would you say if this was your best friend
coming to you saying, I struggled, I had a binge eating episode, or your sister or your daughter,
what would you say to her? If what you’re saying to yourself is something you would never say
to them, you need to stop it.
I don’t care if that sounds harsh, knock it off. You’re not helping yourself. You’re only hurting
yourself.
Does it make you feel better to say that you’re a lazy piece of crap who’s a constant screw up
and can’t stick to anything? Do you feel better after you say that to yourself? Do you feel
empowered? No, you don’t. And you just reinforce this angry, nasty, negative voice in your head
every time you do it. So it’s not something you can just be like, oh, I’m not going to do that
anymore.
And then you just stop. But try. Pay attention to what that voice in your head is saying.
If you’ve got to give it a different name, give it a different name. Like, oh, that’s Kenny and he
sucks. Whatever.
Sorry if your name is Kenny and you’re watching this, but you get my point, right? Separate it
from yourself and it will get quieter and quieter. So what do you do after a binge? Okay. This is
probably what you guys came here for.
Sorry. I had a lot to say about it before we got here. The first thing I would say to do is just stop
and breathe.
Give yourself a minute to just exist. Don’t do anything. Just breathe.
Get back into your body. Cause a lot of times we’re trying to leave our bodies when we’re doing
this. So try to come back into your body along these lines.
I would also say I have found it in my past, very helpful to change my environment, go
somewhere else, go for a walk, just change what room you’re in. If you can’t get in your car and
go for a drive, but changing the environment can sometimes really snap you out of it. Quick
ways to sort of change your state without actually leaving could be to take a shower or a bath.
Some people that’s really uncomfortable after a binge. So like splashing cold water on your faceor some people even say holding ice cubes in your hands, like it kind of shocks you back into
your body. Once you feel like you’re, you know, back, back in where you belong.
Right. I would encourage you to get curious. So I know I just told you, like, don’t talk shit about
yourself.
And that’s, I don’t want you to do that, but get curious, not critical about how this happened in
the first place. Try to kind of walk your steps back of what, like what happened? How, how did I
get here? And now that I’ve given you the context of some of the physical and psychological
reasons why someone might get here. And I told you about my binge eating trifecta, right? Too
hungry, too stressed, too tired.
How, how do you feel like you ended up here? Just ask yourself that because that’s where we
extract the lessons so that we can plan better for the future. This next one is really hard for
somebody, but I think it’s one of the most important. And that is to get back to your routine
immediately.
Like I said, people’s natural inclination is to skip meals, go over exercise. Don’t do that. Eat
something at your next meal time, whatever time that is.
So that means if you had a binge at two in the afternoon, but dinner is normally at six, you
should still eat something at dinner. Now there’s a fine line here where if someone is so stuffed
that they like can’t eat at their next meal, that’s different. I would still encourage people to eat
something, something, have a handful of grapes on a plate, like something, just sit down and
eat something.
So you re-normalize yourself to that routine. Do the next workout that you have to do when
you’re supposed to do it. Don’t bump it up.
Don’t double them. Don’t do any of that. Just get back to your normal routine.
Go to bed at your normal time. I would get, I would care to wager probably 80% of binges
happen like after 8 PM, right? If you’re, if it’s late and you’re up, go to bed, just go to bed and
just consider it like a reset for tomorrow where you will again, get right back to your routine.
This is so, so important.
So depending on what you ate, how much you ate, you may have had a lot of sodium, which
isn’t a bad thing. I’ve got a whole video about sodium and why I think it’s really important, but
when you’ve had a lot more than you normally do, you’re going to retain a bunch of water. And
the fastest way to get that water out is to make sure that you’re drinking water.
Plus drinking water is going to help keep things moving through your digestive tract. So I think
that’s really important also, but you know, a lot of times we feel really full, so we don’t want to
drink water. And then we end up kind of dehydrated and even more bloated because now we’re
retaining more water.So I know it’s hard, but I would definitely recommend doing that. This next one might be a little
bit controversial. When I was in the throes of, you know, struggling with this, I found it to be
very helpful and it’s to move.
And when I say move, I don’t mean go exercise to burn calories. I don’t mean hopping on the
elliptical and away at it. I mean, go outside, go for a walk, do some stretching, do some yoga,
anything that is a kind of more gentle movement.
One, it helps aid in digestion, which is going to help you. Two, it just brings you back. It is so
easy for us to just like become a brain on a stick.
I shouldn’t say that. It’s so easy for us, especially when our bodies are feeling a way that’s
uncomfortable to do everything we can to basically dissociate from our bodies. And when
you’re doing something like going for a walk or doing some movement or stretches, it really
helps bring you back.
And it also allows you, I feel, to appreciate what your body is capable of. And when you’re in a
place where your brain kind of wants to talk shit, right, about how bad you are, it can be a good
reminder. Like, you know, my body can handle this.
My body can recover from an episode of overeating, even a lot of overeating. It knows what to
do. It will bounce back.
It carries me through the world. It can do all these amazing things. It can just really help
because a lot of times we want to take these things out on ourselves, and a lot of times we end
up taking it out on our bodies specifically.
So show it some love. The next one I would say is talk to someone. Talk to a friend, a family
member, a therapist, a coach.
Talk to somebody that you really trust. I find that it’s helpful to talk to somebody that kind of
understands these things. You know, I said most people do deal with this at some point in their
life, but there’s still some people that don’t or are just not going to have any kind of clue of
what you’re talking about.
And it can be kind of challenging, I feel like, to talk to people that struggle to empathize with
the situation. And sometimes it can actually do more harm than good, even if the person you’re
talking to has the best intentions. So, like, know your people, know who you should talk to, and
have a conversation with them.
Sometimes just, like, getting it all out there can feel much, much better, and they will reassure
you that there’s nothing to be ashamed of, that these things happen. You know, you just got to
pick yourself up and move forward and, you know, just be there for you. It can be really
validating.And the last thing that I would say is reflect and plan. So remember back when we were being
curious, what led me here? This is the time. Give yourself some space, right? Give yourself some
space between the incident and doing this part, but really looking back at the events that led up
to the binge episode, so that you can kind of pick out the triggers that may have been there
and plan for them in the future.
You know, maybe it’s a particular person that just kind of sets you on edge, and then you gotta,
you have to, like, escape yourself for a minute, and it leads you to food. Maybe you don’t spend
so much time around that person anymore, or maybe you mentally prepare yourself for that
and make sure you have a nice, healthy, balanced meal before you interact with that person,
because that will definitely decrease the likelihood. Maybe it’s work stress is just crushing you,
and you have to have a conversation with your boss about, you know, lightening the load.
Not an easy thing to do, but again, if you look at these binge eating episodes, there are lessons
there. Maybe you need to stop going to bed at one in the morning and getting up at six in the
morning. Maybe you need to fix your bedtime routine.
But the biggest one I would say is maybe you need to look at your day-to-day diet and make
sure that you are eating enough, well-balanced, nourishing foods, not just nourishing for your
body, but nourishing for your soul and your mind and all the things. You gotta make sure
you’re getting enough, because you are not gonna outsmart your body. It’s gonna get what it
wants eventually, one way or another, and if you’re underfeeding it for a long enough time, it
will eventually be time to pay the piper.
So you’ve gotta make sure you’re eating enough, and if you are someone who is trying to get in
better shape, level up their fitness, change their physique, and you feel like this is a hard thing
for you to navigate, I’m gonna leave a coaching assessment link down below in the description.
Feel free to click that. If you fill it out, you’ll hear back from myself or one of our coaches within
a business day.
And we have some other free resources below, like a seven-day meal plan complete with
shopping list. That’s been really, really popular. So if you’re a vegan who’s trying to get in the
best shape of their life, that’s what we do.
That’s what we’ve been doing since 2008. All the links are down below. Feel free to go check
that out.
And if you liked this video, please like the video, share it with somebody. If you think it would be
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