not really, but…
How to binge eat & not feel like you’ve sabotaged your diet
(Disclaimer: Try this at home)
It’s easy for all the experts and nutritionists out these to tell you to how, when, and what foods to eat to get thin or buff.
Most of the time they’ll leave you left confused or feeling like you need to go running to the store so you can modify your diet yet again!
I’m not one of those guys. I’m no expert. I’m just a former fatty who likes to eat big. Real big! Freak-of-nature big. Round up your friends to “come watch the freak eat” big.
Ok, enough about me. I just wanted you to know that I can sympathize about cravings, and craving junk food in particular. I’m here to help!
So you’re probably trying to cut that fat in time for summer (just around the corner)…
You’re trying to stick to that reduced calorie diet, but it’s tough! Maybe you’re fasting on top of your reduced calorie diet and pushing out the lengths… ending in binges.
Whatever your problem – here is an easy solution.
Inspired by a disastrous binge of mine the other night, I decided to conduct a test.
Here is the basic idea around the test:
Q: Have you ever had a huge dinner but not felt satisfied when you were done?
A: Of course you have!
Q: After one of these big fancy dinners, what do you eat?
A: Desert of course!
Q: Are you usually satisfied after this big desert?
A: Yes probably.
Why is this?
To keep it simple, the human body is run by sugars. The bad diet you’ve had over the years probably has you hooked on glucose dumps like some sort of crack addict. The binging urges you’re experiencing are your body craving sugars. If you’re not on a whole foods type diet, these urges are even stronger (from my experience anyway).
So here is what I did
Fruit is full of sugars.
Fruit is full of fiber.
Fruit is surprisingly low calorie.
Everyone likes at least some fruit (unless you’re crazy)
What I wanted to do, is pack my face with fruit until my raging urge to binge was over. When I felt satisfied, I wanted to tally up the calories & assess the damage. I wanted to make sure it was a “real” urge to splurge, so… it had been:
- 14 hours since my last food (Lemon/strawberry smoothie & a Apple).
- 16 hours since anything heavier like meat (Almonds & Chicken thigh).
1:45pm
Starting to feel pretty hungry. Getting distracted by food cravings during daily tasks. Drank some water.
2:00pm
Water didn’t cut it. Feeling really hungry now. Grab medium a apple.
2:45pm
Kept myself pretty busy for a while. Really hungry now. Lets eat!
4:30pm
Ate the fruit at a comfortable pace. Sitting at the PC now w/full belly feeling satisfied 
Remember at the beginning I said this was inspired by a binge from the other night? That was a mostly protein binge. I ate until I puked (awful. not a proud moment). I never did feel satisfied. Somewhere around 4,000 calories consumed in one sitting. I quit counting after 3,000 something. Protein binge side affects: Terrible gas, bloating, headache, worse sleep ever, morning hangover.
2.5 hour Fruit binge results
4 – Apples various sizes = 360
2 – Bananas (XL) = 300
4 – Deglet noor dates = 80
12 – Strawberries (L) = 72
30 – Grapes = 102
1 – Carrot (haha) = 30
Total Calories 944
All the strawberries and one banana were blended into smoothies. For me, this makes them less like food and not as filling.
Now I realize this is still a lot of calories, but compared to the last binge… only a fraction.
Other fruits like:
Plum = 30 cal
Mandarin (S) = 40 cal
Kiwi (M) = 50 cal
Peach (M) = 60 cal
Nectarine (L) = 70 cal
Pear = 90 cal
Orange = 60 cal
Grapefruit (full) = 100 cal
…are very sugary tasting & really high fiber. I’m confident the numbers would have been even lower had a few of these been on hand.
If it wouldn’t make me sick as a dog, I’d binge one more time like this with raw grains (oatmeal, groats, quinoa, granola etc…). I can’t even imagine what those numbers would look like! Grains are calorie terrible.
The moral of the story
When you feel like binging, reach for the fruit. As much as you want!!! Replace those stupid snacky high cal “Zone” and granola bars in your desk drawer, with slower spoiling apples and oranges. Those stupid bars will just make your even hungrier and are full of nasty refined sugars and hydrogenated oils to boot.
TIP: If you’re like me and LOVE popsicles, try freezing your fruit. Peel and separate some oranges, grapes, and apples. They taste better and have less calories than those sugar water “made with fruit” bars you might be eating now.
Am I missing something? Leave a comment.
Rachel @ 9:35 pm
I loved your post. I just had a binge day myself and it’s a comfort to know I’m not alone. I find one or two days a week I’ve historically spent the greater part of the day eating. I agree with what you say about fruit. I’ll have two or three granny smith apples with Better ‘n Peanut butter, then maybe a banana or two with some more peanut butter. All this after I’m already full. I mean, “stomach says no more”, but my brain most definitely says I’m still hungry. So confusing. When I add the extra several pieces of fruit, it’s not as disastrous as my protein protein binges, which have made me sick too. I’m a really, really active and lean person. And I have a hard time knowing sometimes, how and when to eat as much as my body needs. It is my hypothesis that if a person can do crazy hard work outs, they can probably take food to extremes too. Listening to soft feelings and still pushing myself to do what I need to do to “get out the wiggles” as I like to call it – in working out at the gym is quite the balancing act. Do you find it’s hard to know which feelings to listen to? Which ones to power past?