More on 'Binge Eating'

[Guest guest]

This is how I handled my binge last night....brought on by a relative's gift of my favorite cherry sour balls.....from Here's Howe Old Fashioned Candies...darn her! I did quite well for about 5 days and then last night...all craving hell broke loose...by the time I was sated....I had eaten a horrible lot of them....managed to throw the rest in the garbage at about 2:30am!

Made a pact with myself to fast the next day....drinks tons of water...and spend extra time at the gym....by 7pm...the sugar swelling was gone....and I had had a good workout. Back on track now. I am just thankful I was able to throw HALF of them away!

[Guest guest]

Hi folks:

A couple of weeks ago there was discussion here about how to handle

what was termed 'binge' eating. Having just had a little more

exposure to this in the past couple of weeks here are a few thoughts.

Prior to the recent discussion I never considered a fluctuating

caloric input as 'binging'. I have just regarded it as pretty much a

natural phenomenon. Our pre-agricultural ancestors must have spent

most of their lives 'binging' - eating lots when it was available,

with the appearance of fruit in the fall for example, or when a

woolly mammoth happened by, and eating much less at other times.

[Does anyone have decent evidence that a moderately fluctuating

caloric intake is harmful? My guess is that the answer is

probably " No " because there does seem to be evidence that periodic

fasting is beneficial. And fasting clearly entails a fluctuating

caloric intake. But I am very open minded to evidence either way.]

The issue had always seemed to me to be the AVERAGE daily caloric

intake, and whether that average was consistent with whatever one's

objectives happened to be. [i am very new to CRON, so there is no

assurance that what I say below, which has worked well for me pre-

CRON will work for anyone else, or for that matter me, after

commencing CRON. But it has been a successful approach for me to

this point.]

Periodically I feel it would be good to go somewhere and 'pig out'.

It doesn't happen often. Perhaps a dozen times a year including

calendar dates like 25th December. I have never resisted this urge.

But I have endeavored to channel it, as with all my eating, as far as

possible in what I believe to be a healthy direction. So one of my

favorite 'binges' has been a visit to an excellent local all-you-can-

eat chinese restaurant¹.

Once at the restaurant the first thing I order is chinese tea (yes

TEA! and the lots of water it contains). Then I eat as much as I

want while taking care to avoid the items I regard as unhealthy -

especially anything deep-fried; as well as high fat items such as

tofu; and sugary stuff, especially desserts. I end up eating a lot

of delicious stir fried or steamed vegetables (delicious because of

the sauces) and small amounts of various meats that the dishes

contain.

I have absolutely no guilt about this. It is very enjoyable, and, as

far as I can tell, healthy. The issue for me has been (and remains

after recently starting to move gradually toward CRON) maintaining a

desirable average daily calorie intake - NOT an absolutely consistent

day-in-and-day-out daily calorie intake.

Here are some numbers that may be helpful for those amenable to such

arguments to get a grip on what might be termed 'healthy binging'.

(If the numbers are different for you then you can easily substitute

yours and come up with your own result):

Let's suppose I consider a healthy daily calorie input to be 1500.

Let's also assume that on days when I go on an expedition to the

chinese restaurant I manage to raise my daily calorie intake to

3000. I will also assume I have a total of twelve binges a year.

Here is how the numbers work out:

The presumed healthy (for the sake of this example), CRON, average

daily intake of 1500 calories in a 365.25 day year amounts to an

annual consumption of 547,875 calories. The excess food consumed

during the twelve binges is (3000 - 1500) x 12 = 18,000 calories.

So, in order to still end up consuming the desired 547,875 calories

for the year (including the binge excess) then I need to eat 1450.7

calories per day, excluding the 'binge excess'. (547,875 -

18,000) / 365.25.

1450.7 calories per day is about fifty calories a day less than the

desired average of 1500. The fifty calorie difference is the

equivalent of about half a banana.

So, I can fully achieve my calorie intake objective by foregoing half

a banana a day throughout the year, and enjoying a dozen binges

without any thought of guilt. It has worked for me thus far. It

remains to be seen whether it still will after I am twenty pounds

below my set point.

Rodney.

¹ I have been to the chinese restaurant so many times now that I

have rated just about every dish they have on a score from zero to

100! This makes it easier to remember which taste the best.

[Guest guest]

--- In , " Rodney " <perspect1111@y...>

>

> [Does anyone have decent evidence that a moderately fluctuating

> caloric intake is harmful? My guess is that the answer is

> probably " No " because there does seem to be evidence that periodic

> fasting is beneficial. And fasting clearly entails a fluctuating

> caloric intake. But I am very open minded to evidence either way.]

>

> The issue had always seemed to me to be the AVERAGE daily caloric

> intake, and whether that average was consistent with whatever

one's

> objectives happened to be. [i am very new to CRON, so there is no

> assurance that what I say below, which has worked well for me pre-

> CRON will work for anyone else, or for that matter me, after

> commencing CRON. But it has been a successful approach for me to

> this point.]

>

> Periodically I feel it would be good to go somewhere and 'pig

out'.

Thanks for sharing a piece of your life with us and welcome to this

forum, Rodney.

Binging involves loss of control. I could go to Baskin-Robbins when

I was not hungry and eat several scoops if ice cream. I could stop

before I got sick but it was binging because as members of AA

say, " A thousand drinks is not enough and one is too many. " I have

experienced that kind of loss of control with other high carb foods

too. I avoid binging now by avoiding foods that trigger it and eat

only low starch veggies, carrots, low fat fruits, legumes, seeds and

nuts. This has kept me from binging. I have no cravings for the

other foods now.

Has anyone here read The Pleasure Trap? I think it deals with this

but I have not read it.

I suggest that a " pig out " is not necessarily a binge and you seem

to have some control about your feasts. I also suggest that we may

sometimes need a relatively large meal (or two or three) to

compensate for low intake and high burning that cause too much

weight loss. I like to maintain tight control and I will

intentionally increase energy intake when my weight is low. I think

that keeping it to +/- 2% is probably realistic for most of us.

Is this how others keep body weight stable?

" Pigging out " --up to a point--can be helpful but I do not consider

binging healthy.

[Guest guest]

I am inclined to agree with your speculation about our early ancestors

consumption patterns. Periods of plenty and periods of little.

There is fairly widespread consensus that yo-yo dieting is unhealthy, but

it's not clear that to me that it's worse than being obese, and I would

expect a far different response to oscillating several tens of pounds around

an above average BMI vs., oscillating a few pounds around a below average

BMI.

I believe there is value in intermittent fasting (resting the digestive

system, clearing unhealthy intestinal flora, etc). The benefit of CR is

likely from low average total consumption, however you accomplish it.

This is just my personal speculation so make your own call. However I'm

pretty confident there is no value in stressing over past behavior.

JR

-----Original Message-----

From: Rodney [mailto:perspect1111@...]

Sent: Thursday, January 01, 2004 7:18 PM

Subject: [ ] More on 'Binge Eating'

Hi folks:

A couple of weeks ago there was discussion here about how to handle

what was termed 'binge' eating. Having just had a little more

exposure to this in the past couple of weeks here are a few thoughts.

Prior to the recent discussion I never considered a fluctuating

caloric input as 'binging'. I have just regarded it as pretty much a

natural phenomenon. Our pre-agricultural ancestors must have spent

most of their lives 'binging' - eating lots when it was available,

with the appearance of fruit in the fall for example, or when a

woolly mammoth happened by, and eating much less at other times.

[Does anyone have decent evidence that a moderately fluctuating

caloric intake is harmful? My guess is that the answer is

probably " No " because there does seem to be evidence that periodic

fasting is beneficial. And fasting clearly entails a fluctuating

caloric intake. But I am very open minded to evidence either way.]

The issue had always seemed to me to be the AVERAGE daily caloric

intake, and whether that average was consistent with whatever one's

objectives happened to be. [i am very new to CRON, so there is no

assurance that what I say below, which has worked well for me pre-

CRON will work for anyone else, or for that matter me, after

commencing CRON. But it has been a successful approach for me to

this point.]

Periodically I feel it would be good to go somewhere and 'pig out'.

It doesn't happen often. Perhaps a dozen times a year including

calendar dates like 25th December. I have never resisted this urge.

But I have endeavored to channel it, as with all my eating, as far as

possible in what I believe to be a healthy direction. So one of my

favorite 'binges' has been a visit to an excellent local all-you-can-

eat chinese restaurant¹.

Once at the restaurant the first thing I order is chinese tea (yes

TEA! and the lots of water it contains). Then I eat as much as I

want while taking care to avoid the items I regard as unhealthy -

especially anything deep-fried; as well as high fat items such as

tofu; and sugary stuff, especially desserts. I end up eating a lot

of delicious stir fried or steamed vegetables (delicious because of

the sauces) and small amounts of various meats that the dishes

contain.

I have absolutely no guilt about this. It is very enjoyable, and, as

far as I can tell, healthy. The issue for me has been (and remains

after recently starting to move gradually toward CRON) maintaining a

desirable average daily calorie intake - NOT an absolutely consistent

day-in-and-day-out daily calorie intake.

Here are some numbers that may be helpful for those amenable to such

arguments to get a grip on what might be termed 'healthy binging'.

(If the numbers are different for you then you can easily substitute

yours and come up with your own result):

Let's suppose I consider a healthy daily calorie input to be 1500.

Let's also assume that on days when I go on an expedition to the

chinese restaurant I manage to raise my daily calorie intake to

3000. I will also assume I have a total of twelve binges a year.

Here is how the numbers work out:

The presumed healthy (for the sake of this example), CRON, average

daily intake of 1500 calories in a 365.25 day year amounts to an

annual consumption of 547,875 calories. The excess food consumed

during the twelve binges is (3000 - 1500) x 12 = 18,000 calories.

So, in order to still end up consuming the desired 547,875 calories

for the year (including the binge excess) then I need to eat 1450.7

calories per day, excluding the 'binge excess'. (547,875 -

18,000) / 365.25.

1450.7 calories per day is about fifty calories a day less than the

desired average of 1500. The fifty calorie difference is the

equivalent of about half a banana.

So, I can fully achieve my calorie intake objective by foregoing half

a banana a day throughout the year, and enjoying a dozen binges

without any thought of guilt. It has worked for me thus far. It

remains to be seen whether it still will after I am twenty pounds

below my set point.

Rodney.

¹ I have been to the chinese restaurant so many times now that I

have rated just about every dish they have on a score from zero to

100! This makes it easier to remember which taste the best.