How Binge Eating Can Derail Your Weight Loss

Losing weight tends to be difficult, because it requires you to exercise some kind of control over your eating habits. When you can't be bothered to deal with your weight problem, you simply eat what you want, because you tell yourself that one day you'll tackle your weight. The trouble is that when you do decide to lose weight, you can get carried away with the idea of rapid weight loss, so that you end up on a ridiculous diet which usually ends in failure. You're so happy whilst you're losing weight, but then you find yourself bingeing on food and unable to stop.

After an eating binge you're usually left feeling ashamed and as if you're in a hopeless situation. You beat yourself up for failing to stop yourself and you convince yourself that you're going to be fat forever. You may try to get back on track and stick to the diet again, or you may simply abandon it and go back to your usual eating patterns, because you simply feel too demoralised to continue with your efforts. Indeed, that is is why binge eating can derail your weight loss. It isn't just about the calories you consume; it is also about the emotional attachment you have to food.

If food has always been the thing you've turned to in your darkest moments, then this inclination is going to be hard to fight against. Even when you're unhappy with being overweight and are desperate to lose weight, there is still something telling you that you want to binge on food. Unfortunately, it is rarely fruit and vegetables that you gorge yourself on; frequently, it will be chocolate, ice cream and anything else that is packed full of sugar and fat, which you consume large quantities of. You may get an emotional boost whilst you're eating this stuff, but you feel sick and downhearted afterwards.

It clearly doesn't help if you're on a low-calorie diet that is incredibly restrictive, because the more you tell yourself you can't have something, the more you want it. There will reach a point where you can no longer be bothered to restrain yourself and so instead of just having a single bar of chocolate or a couple of biscuits, you eat anything bad that you can lay your hands on, even though you know doing so could jeopardise your weight-loss success.

Binge eating will only derail your weight loss if you allow it to. Everyone overindulges now and again, so there is no point berating yourself for stuffing yourself with chocolate whilst watching television one evening or eating a whole packet of biscuits when you had only intended to eat one. It may be difficult to stay positive, but there is no point allowing yourself to be consumed by negative feelings after a binge, as this will only make you more inclined to gorge on high-calorie foods. Thus, you shouldn't let the occasional binge interfere with your weight-loss aims.