Overcome Binge Eating - We Can't Stop Binging If We Don't Even Know When We Are Hungry!

Time and time again when I talk about eating when we are hungry I get told, "I never have hunger pangs", or "I don't even know when I'm hungry". Unfortunately we will never learn to eat naturally and stop binging if we don't know when we are hungry. This is the first step in the "Natural Eating" process. Once you get that right, the other 3 steps are easy to follow.

Generally, there are two reasons we don't feel hungry:

1. We are not eating often enough, and
2. We eat too much every time we eat.

Firstly, people often tell me they don't feel hungry when they are not eating frequently enough throughout the day. What tends to happen is that they will have breakfast at say 7 in the morning and then not have anything else until they have lunch about 12 or 1pm. Then they will have their evening meal at say 6 or 7 in the evening. The problem with this way of eating is that 5 or 6 hours is too long to go without food. Originally, our body tells us after about 3 hours that it needs something to eat. If you constantly miss the signal because you are busy or choose to ignore it, eventually you won't notice it any more. This causes your metabolism to slow down, until eventually you are absolutely starving, you can't eat quickly enough and then you start bingeing.

Secondly, some people have got into the habit of just eating too much every time they eat. Again this can be because we don't "allow" ourselves to eat in between meals, so we have to eat large portions when we do eat to carry us over until we're "allowed" to eat again. Unfortunately our stomachs are only the size of our fist, so if we eat large amounts all the time, then over time it will stretch and we find we are eating more and more to fill it. Because we are eating too much, our body struggles to process the food and we never actually feel hungry because when we go to eat again the last meal has not been properly digested.

Both these scenarios lead to binging because we are either starving a lot of the time or overfull, but not actually satisfied. If we aren't satisfied we tend to keep eating to fill that void or need, even if we know we're not hungry.

The only way to know when you are actually hungry is to ask yourself. Start the day with breakfast as it will kick-start your metabolism and then 2 or 3 hours later you should feel the sensation of hunger. If it has got to 3 hours and you haven't noticed anything, then actually ask yourself, "Am I hungry?" This will bring you into your consciousness so you can experience the feeling. If you don't have breakfast your body won't be able to get going and you won't notice you're hungry until you are ravenous and then binging is likely to occur. Continue to ask yourself regularly throughout the day so you can experience the initial feeling of hunger. Then you can make the appropriate choice in a controlled manner, you will be satisfied sooner and the bingeing will reduce and eventually stop completely.

I am a Natural Eating Consultant, wife and mother who has recovered from 6 years of depression, a side effect of which was bulimia. I used to binge on food uncontrollably and then exercise excessively to get rid of it. In my mid thirties I was introduced to Natural Eating which together with personal development, allowed me to learn to love and trust myself enough to make a full recovery. My weight settled at a healthy weight in 1998 and has remained at this level for over a decade. Previously, I'd had weight and food related issues for over 20 years. I have now written an e-book entitled "Empower yourself by eating what you want - how to lose weight naturally without dieting.