How to Avoid a Binge Eating Episode

Learn how to avoid a binge eating episode from Allegra Broft, M.D. in this Howcast video.


So if you're watching this video you may be trying to figure out a way to stop engaging in a repetitive pattern of binge eating. And it can really be a hard thing to do completely on one's own, so the first thing I want to say to you is try to get some help from an experienced professional or even a treatment center that has a lot of experience in helping people through trying to cope with these problems, and stop these problems.

There are self-help guides that you can get for helping to curb binge eating. And there are also some practical tips that you can put into place.

So, for example, one of the things that binge eaters tend to do in reaction to the cycle of binge eating, is that they tend to get very careful or restrained about their eating at other times of the day. They think, "If only I can stay on a very careful restrained diet, I won't slip back into binge eating at night." Only if a person's really exerting a lot of dietary restraint at all times of the day, it's very very hard to exert that type of restraint 24 hours a day, and it's somewhat inevitable that that type of restraint can break down.

So dieting is a solution to binge eating. I just want to say, as sort of a number one thing that is often fought with complications and may not help the binge eating get better, and may even make it a little bit worse.

There are certainly other straight forward behavioral strategies that you could try to put into place. Things like limiting the quantity of binge foods in your home, perhaps not in the long term, but at least in the short term while you're trying to get a handle on your behavior. That can be an example of a behavioral strategy that can be of help.

But ultimately you'll want to be trying to make any types of behavioral adjustments in the context of help with a professional, so you're doing it the right way, and so that you have the support of somebody else as you're trying to figure out how to kick this type of problem.

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