The FastDay Forum

Hey All,
I've been enjoying this WOL for 6 weeks, I've lost 10 lbs. I've been on a plateau for the past few weeks, but my fasts have gotten easy and OH has joined up which also helps.

I've been having a binge problem, though! I find myself eating way too much on my nonfast days, even if I'm not hungry. Especially sugary treats or other typically forbidden food.

I'm just wondering if anyone else had an issue with this? I know the movie said this WOL doesn't lead to binging but I guess I'm just special??

Yes, me. I have a problem, too. I eat way, way too much on feed days. If I am at a buffet or a party, I eat so much it is embarrassing. I keep going back to the table for more and more. I am fasting two days a week, but I doubt I'm losing any more weight. I think I'm just maintaining. Not sure how to control my binge eating.

Sometimes I have what I've come to refer to as "hungry days" where I feel like I could eat forever and never get full. Without wanting to sound too crazy I try and get in touch with what my body is really craving and have that, often its protein. Not sure if this helps but I just try and slow down and think, rather than eat as a reaction as I have done the last 20 years.
I haven't craved sugar for ages though which is really unusual for me.

I use some fast day tricks on non-fast days. If I'm thinking of snacking, I get a glass of water first. Or take a walk.

I wonder about the rule (and I find that it is true) "every diet has an equal and opposite binge". I wonder if this is what happens on food days? I certainly eat more than usual - but then I discovered I had gastric ulcers, the pain of which is identical to hunger pain. So now I pop an ulcer pill when I feel pain that I don't think should be there - just after having eaten, for example. Whether this makes any difference remains to be seen. One of the authors, in the book, says they eat "whatever I like, cake..." which sounds like permission to me!

I'm going to try something new to help me with that today. I put a piece of paper in my purse last night so I can carry it with me, and I'm going to write down every single thing I eat. I'm not going to necessarily limit what I eat, but if I eat it I will write it down. Hopefully seeing it written down will help me to stop after a 'normal amount'.

Personal triumph: I stopped myself part way through a binge a few days ago. I had a box of chocolates I had told myself I would eat 1 or 2 a day on non-fasting days. Suddenly I got the thought, which wouldn't leave me, to finish off the whole box (around 20 chocs left). So I started but ten I got an equally sudden burst of strength from somewhere and stopped about half-way through. Binned the rest and then squeezed washing up liquid over them in the bin so I couldn't take them out again. I think the good feelings about aborting the binge, actually out-weighed the negative ones over starting it. It can be done!!

Something which I find helpful and it may help someone else: when armed with a spoon, I reached for the peanut butter jar yet again, my daughter said " Mum, you KNOW what it tastes like so you don't need to eat it!" I am learning to recognise the binge mode approaching.

IMO binging is always about carbs and nearly always high GI carbs (mostly sugars). If you need to eat, try protein or fat instead (eggs, meat, cheese) - protein in particular is more satisfying and less 'bingy'. There are very few or perhaps no carbs that you actually need to eat to live. (Gorging on protein regularly isn't good either but you are less likely to do that.)

For chocolate (my downfall!), consider Lindt 99% Excellence - small bitter squares and quite expensive but you get a big chocolate hit for only about 14 calories. The taste is so strong you just let it melt in the mouth - and the amount of sugar so small that you are quite unlikely to want to finish the bar! One for serious chocoholics only so in my family I don't have to share it out at all!

The other day I made the mistake of starting on a Lindt Easter Bunny. It was sweet in both senses, and I mean *was*...

I went through a phase of binging when I got about a month in. I had come from a very strict low carb regime and, having read the book by then, did the usual and thought, 'eat anything I want'! Of course, having been off sugar in all its forms for a couple of years, the first shot of chocolate and I went bonkers!

I soon found that I missed the feeling of well being I got from the lower carb intake though and seem to have hit a compromise with a more moderate carb intake which allows for a bit of sweetness in the form of a little chocolate with my after dinner coffee and things like grapes and pineapple.

I do find that the more I beat myself up about what I eat the more I go off the rails. Sometime, if you eat a little of what you really fancy it will stop the craving. If you keep eating round it (even eating the so-called healthy foods) you can end up consuming more calories than you would just having a little bar of chocolate!

Sometime, if you eat a little of what you really fancy it will stop the craving.

I agree, I certainly don't avoid all carbs; my approach to prevent post-fast binging was to make myself eat my normal breakfast of organic oats which are relatively low GI but carbs nevertheless. Skipping post-fast breakfast could lead to a 'binge' later...

Apart from chocolate, I have found Chinese food is pretty bad for causing non-compliance on an epic scale - probably the combination of a lot of carbs (rice), a lot of sugar and a lot of salt. Oh yes and alcohol - of course...

All things in moderation. I was just trying in my previous post to point out where the problem area was likely to be for those suffering a 'binge' attach - i.e. with those sugars.

I agree with the view that it helps to try and focus in on what it really is you are craving. When I have a really hungry day,I eat more, but sometimes, it doesn't feel as though it's about being hungry. I think about what a REALLY want and try to eat some of it (usually some chocolate, cake or french bread!) I find that I don't go completely crazy I just enjoy it and then usually my mind moves on!

Yup, I certainly feel that a decent breakfast after a fast is a big help. You need to know what will normally keep you full for longest. For me porridge always gave me a bad sugar low after about two hours so I usually have some scrambled eggs as they will keep me full until tea time. I tend to eat nearer lunchtime anyway rather than proper breakfast as my joint probs mean its late morning before I'm functional enough to prepare food.Its about knowing what suits you as an individual isn't it? This WoE gives you the freedom to do that without anyone dictating what you have to have for each meal.

5:2 seems to be helping a lot with distinguishing hunger from the feeling of needing to eat. Because I now experience true hunger on my fast days I seem more able to step back from the fridge and tell myself that I am actually just tired and that eating will not take away that sensation. It was as though my brain needed to be reset because it was interpreting any signal of need whether thirst, tiredness or whatever as hunger.I've not fully mastered it by any means but I feel as though I'm much more in control.

I also went through a week where it seemed my eating was out of control on my non-fast days. I was starting to really worry about it when my next fast day I also went a bit over.

But I have 4 days in a row that I start just like fast days, the only difference is what I eat for snack when I get home from work and what I eat for dinner.

For some reason, that moderate day after the less than successful fast seemed to have bumped me back into gear. Thankfully.

I do find that if I track every morsel, especially when I think I have gone crazy, it is often not as bad as I thought it was- which helps with the guilt.

I also am working on eating what it is I truly want and not what I think I should have-when I am successful at that it will stop a potential binge in its tracks.

Good Luck!

Hey, nycnyc, you've done really well so far! For me, I know that sugar leads to a binge, so I don't eat any on fast or non-fast days.

On my last two fast days, I've noticed I'm getting more aware of the difference between hunger and cravings. Cravings, which I call the feeling of wanting to eat something/anything have triggers like feeling tired or feeling bored or uncertain and I have been able to address those and then the desire to eat went away. I'm hoping I can transfer that to my non-fast days.

I do find that if I track every morsel, especially when I think I have gone crazy, it is often not as bad as I thought it was- which helps with the guilt.

I've noticed that too. Some days I track non fast days but other times I don't bother. Often I feel a total pig and when I enter what I've had into MFS I find I've actually only downed about 1300 cals! It just feels like 2000.