Why do I Binge Eat? Common Triggers You Should Know About

Disclaimer: I want to start this blog with a disclaimer that I am not a doctor or medical professional and that these are my thoughts and opinions based on my own personal experiences.

Binge Eating Disorder (BED) is definitely not a ‘one size fits all’ diagnosis, and not everyone who binges from time to time has BED.

Each person that experiences any sort of binge eating will experience it differently and individually.

Maybe you’re asking yourself, ‘why do I binge eat?’ Here are a few common triggers:

• Stress
• Low self-esteem and poor body image
• Dieting
• Mental Health conditions
• Etc.

Are you experiencing any of the above? Perhaps a combination of a few. In my experience, I would say that a lot of the above triggers go hand and hand. For me, it is like a messed up, twisted cycle.

I am stressed so I eat. I eat and I gain weight. I have low self-esteem and a poor body image because I am overweight. This causes me more stress, making me want to eat more. I diet because I’m overweight. Dieting incorrectly could cause me to eat more. The cycle goes on, and on, and on…

So how do each of these things relate to binge eating? Let’s break them down into more detail:

1) Stress

Stress can be a huge contributing factor to binge eating. So many things in our daily lives can cause our stress level to rise each day. The constant overwhelming thoughts going through our head, you know the ones I’m talking about – the bills are adding up. Am I going to meet this deadline at work? How can I possibly arrange our schedules between work, childcare, extra curriculars? When will I have time to clean the house? The laundry is overflowing. I need to call and book that appointment I’ve been putting off for months…

Basic routine activities that every adult must face can often add up and cause an immense amount of stress that can potentially lead to a binge eating episode.

Why though?

Stress is an emotion. Emotional eating can be linked to a reduced amount of dopamine in the brain. Simply put, and without getting all medical and technical sounding – dopamine is what makes us happy. It regulates our mood.

Dopamine can be increased a number of different ways – exercise,  sunlight, meditation, social interaction … oh, and EATING.

Food gives us dopamine and that is why we often turn to binge eating to make ourselves feel better when we’re stressed. It’s a quick band aid solution if you will that will bring us comfort and make us feel better in the moment.

It doesn’t fix our stress. It doesn’t make the stress go away. It doesn’t solve any of the issues that are contributing to our stress – but it makes us happy in the moment and it makes everything else temporarily go away.

2) Low self-esteem and poor body image

I know, I know – I already have low self-esteem and poor body image because I’m overweight, so why would that cause me to eat MORE?

Well, unfortunately, these feelings don’t just go away over night. These feelings are usually engraved in our brains due to the thoughts that we allow ourselves to believe, and it can be difficult to change our mindset.

If you continue to think negatively about yourself, and continue to think poorly about the way you look, you are likely to eat as a way of coping and dealing with those thoughts and emotions.

Eating will give you the dopamine you’re lacking to momentarily feel better about yourself and allow you to feel temporarily content.

3) Dieting

Finally, you’ve taken the first step after thinking about it for months, or even years. You’ve finally taken the leap and you’ve started your diet. You are finally going to commit, and this time is going to be different than all the other times!

So why would this cause me to binge eat?

Dieting is so complex and can sometimes require a lot of research and planning.

It can be overwhelming (stressful). It can be extremely hard. It can cause us to feel a lot of different emotions about ourselves, our abilities and our bodies. It is often a roller coaster of ups and downs, good days and bad days. Those reasons alone would cause us to emotionally binge to gain dopamine.

But what else?

Any form of dieting will require you to make extreme changes in your eating habits in order to achieve your goals. Regardless of what type of diet that you are choosing to pursue, you will likely need to give up certain foods that you love, you will need to restrict your intakes such as reduced calories or carbohydrates.

Many people will start and fail because they’re restricting themselves too much, too fast.

A sudden extreme caloric deficit for an example will not be realistic or sustainable. You will be hungry. Your brain will constantly be thinking about food. You will send your body into a shock. You will start to feel sick, maybe get a headache.

Eventually you won’t be able to take it anymore. You will binge eat, because you will do whatever you need to do in that moment to make yourself feel better. To make your body feel better.

There are ways that you can diet that will avoid this. Do the research. Start slow and work your way up. Focus on doing it properly and succeeding, rather than looking for quick results causing yourself to fail.

4) Mental Health Conditions

That’s pretty vague, I know. There are so many mental health conditions that can contribute to binge eating. But the main few that come to mind are anxiety, depression and addiction.

Food is addictive. Sugar is addictive. So naturally, if you have an addiction to food, you are likely to binge eat. Binge eating doesn’t necessarily happen all the time, it usually happens in episodes. Many people binge eat without having binge eating disorder, but if this is something that you find you are doing frequently, it can be a bigger problem and it is important to speak to a doctor.

Many people with anxiety or depression disorders will often binge eat as a way of distraction or forgetting. It turns the focus off whatever thoughts are going through their head onto the food that they’re binging instead. It gives them the added dopamine that they need to temporarily feel better and content.

As mentioned above, binge eating is not one size fits all. There are many contributing factors that can lead to binge eating, and everyone’s experience will be different.

For more information on my own personal experience with binge eating disorder, check out Binge Eating Disorder – Food Addict Anonymous

Let me know in the comments below:

Do you have any moments of binge eating? How do you overcome them?