Yes, I've done similar things.  I recommend a few resources to read that
have helped me:
Overcoming Binge Eating by Christopher Fairburn
Life is Hard, Food is Easy by Linda Spangle
It Was Food vs. Me...and I Won by Nancy Goodman

It's not something you just wake up one day and stop doing so don't listen
to those who know nothing about it and tell you to just to stop.  You do
need to decide that you want to stop and then go through the process of
dealing somehow with the emotions that drive you to doing this.  It's not
easy and it's work, but it can be done.

Professional help is also available but difficult to find someone who
specializes in eating disorders.  Many binge eaters and bulimics tend to do
better with self-help.

I'm a weekend binger. Like you I'm not overweight. In fact I'm quite trim
now. I have my total weekly calories under control. Its just that on Sat/Sun
I'll eat more than half my weekly calories. And so Mon-Fri I need to eat
fairly lean, which is generally not a struggle but I realize that by
restricting myself during the week my body will start craving certain foods
and this will trigger another weekend binge.

People will say eating moderately is best, i.e. a similar amount of calories
each day. I'm not against that but I'm also not against varying my calories
day to day. I like the idea of listening to my body. Some days it wants to
eat more, other days less depending on what I'm doing or what mood I'm in. I
imagine that primitive man/woman may have had to eat lean some days, but
then after a successful hunt could make up for it with a bit of feasting.

The problem with this kind of eating though is during these weekend binges I
tend to eat a lot of carbs, and quite often not the good kind. So the
QUALITY of my diet is being reduced by eating this way.

I don't really know the solution. It's something I'm still working on. I
usually overeat in front of the TV. Cutting that down may well work for me.
I think the main thing will be my determination to overcome it. In fact your
post has got me thinking I really need to lick this problem and now rather
than just drifting along week after week. So thx for bringing up the subject
and good luck!

On 10/31/05 5:37 AM, in article
1130704628.662543.322620@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com, "Her Subj."
<hersubjectivity@yahoo.com> wrote:

When I am not dieting I binge eat regularly. I would eat even when not
hungry. Since you are not overweight your problem might be a bit different,
but I think most of the very overweight people here have experienced binge
eating.

doug

You aren't giving all the quantities, but it really doesn't seem like this
is what I would call gorging. Half a game hen and a bowl of oatmeal sounds
like a good--although untraditional--breakfast. Probably under 400 calories.
How soon afterwards did you eat the other stuff? And how much? With typical
quantities it still doesn't sound like a huge amount of food. What would be
a normal day for you?

This is making a little more sense. You are full, but continue to eat for
some emotional reason, because you are bored, or feel unaccomplished.

Boredom eating-yes. I use deflection of some sort. Go to the gym, practice
piano or guitar, take a walk, etc.

People on the Internet love to give diagnoses, but they are rarely
correct. Check out the definition of binging and see if it applies to
you. Do you eat until you get so full that you are uncomfortable
physically?

Half a chicken (admittedly, with nothing else) is my regular lunch,
and my weight is only 23% more than yours.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binge

i

I've never been a binger.  My 1st thought is that your body must be short on
something.

HS, one more suggestion, somewhat along the lines of what Cubit
mentioned. You are eating relatively low fat and a lot of carbs and
are feeling hungry. That is not very unusual. It is worthwhile to
explore if eating low carb and high fat would take care of your
hunger. It worked for numerous people. That way you could eat game
hens and such, much more often, and not be hungry, which is not at all
bad.

i

I've suffered with this sort of problem for most of my adult life, and
I have to say that although it's not nearly as bad as it used to be
all the various interventions and strategies I've tried (and there
have been many) haven't really made it go away completely.

I recognise some of the behaviour you describe, with variations.  I
have had long periods of what I call "remission" when I've managed to
not binge for up to 6 or 7 months, but the behaviour is always lurking
somewhere in the background waiting to return.    I can trace the
origins of my binge eating to reaction to the stupid semi starvation
diets I followed when I was in my late teens, but I realise the
reasons are more complex than this and that people can continue to
binge for reasons that may not be related to the reasons they
originally displayed the behaviour.

Nowadays at least it's recognised as an eating disorder and there are
a number of books and resources that address the problem.  When it
happened to me in the '60s I thought I was the only person in the
world who had ever behaved like this.

I don't see at all what binge eating has to do with fat acceptance,
except that it's quite possible that  if I wasn't continually striving
to lose weight I would be less likely to binge at times - indeed this
is one suggested approach for dealing with binge eating, but I've
never been able to let go of the dieting enough to trust this.   For
me, bingeing has resulted in much bigger fluctuations in weight than
what you are describing.  I absolutely agree that it's all in the
head. It has very little to do with hunger for me, too, although I do
feel a strong sense of deprivation (quite different from hunger) when
I'm restricting my food intake - even on a very healthy diet of 1500
calories with no foods banned - and I think this probably does have
something to do with it.

People mean different things when they talk about binge eating - you
can tell that by the way that some people refer to it here.  It's
quite different from merely being a bit greedy or overindulging.
Although I wouldn't regard Wikipedia as an authoritative source for
medical information, most of the bullet points listed to describe
binge eating apply to me.   I don't normally count calories when I go
into binge mode,  but I made myself do this once or twice and for me
it can mean around 5000 calories or more on a "bad" day.  I don't
think we know how many people suffer from the problem, because part of
the behaviour can be intense secrecy so that even those closest to you
don't know what's going on

I hope you find some advice here to help you, but in my view the
number of solutions is as great as the number of reasons individuals
binge in the first place and ultimately the solution needs to come
from within.

janice

Well, it's hard to say without knowing your full history. It affects people
differently for different reasons. Some people are sugar addicts or just
binge on everything. You need to examine yourself by using the tools to
identify the scope of the disorder if you do have it, as below.

I was a compulsive binger for many years. I stopped it with the
self-counseling (as in working out childhood issues), reading books,
changing my diet (less refined carbs, more good fats and protein), and
exercising. My biggest trigger was refined carbs (cakes, candy, ice cream,
pies, bread, rice, etc.). I believe compulsive binging is a combination of
unresolved issues, poor coping skills, and an imbalanced diet for your own
body chemistry.

Once you decide you want to stop and work on yourself, it can take a while
to get this under control (as in resetting your brain chemistry), but just
hang in there, don't give up, and do the work. Surround yourself with
support if you need it, and pursue good books about this disorder. Learn to
identify your moods and set yourself up to do other things. If you get
bored, go for a walk or do something you might enjoy doing. Sounds
simplistic, doesn't it, but you have to learn to shift to doing other
non-eating activities when your emotions step in. Also, analyze your diet,
which I believe is one of the binging factors.

It does get easier in time, and this disorder can be controlled with the
right tools. I didn't think I could ever control it after 25 years since 5
years old, but my problem at the time was the lack of education and tools.
No one knew much about eating disorders then.

My favorite book is The Sugar Addict's Total Recovery Program. While you may
not be a sugar addict and do not wish to implement this diet, it discusses
brain chemistry and how it's affected by a chemical imbalance as in diet or
poor environment (having friends boosts your endorphin levels, for example;
or having a highly dysfunctional family drastically alters your stress
hormone levels that drives you to cope with food or drugs), and how it in
turn drives your behavior. It's worthwhile to read about this part. It may
be available at the library near you.