How To Control Your Eating Habits

Binge eating disorder is a condition that probably affects millions here in the United States and around the world. People with binge eating disorder often consume large amounts of food while feeling a real loss of control over their eating.1 This disorder differs from binge-purge syndrome (bulimia nervosa) since people with binge eating disorder usually do not purge afterward by vomiting or using laxatives.

Most people overeat from time to time, and many feel that they frequently eat more than they should. However eating large amounts of food and even being over one's ideal weight does not mean that a person has binge eating disorder, on the contrary many individuals that are considered to be in good shape actually do have serious problems with their attitudes towards food, to the point where it can indeed be classified as a disorder. The criteria for binge eating disorder are:

• Frequent episodes of eating what others would consider an abnormally large amount of food.
• Frequent feelings of being unable to control what or how much is being eaten.
• Several of these behaviors or feelings:

1. Eating much more rapidly than usual.
2. Eating until uncomfortably full.
3. Eating large amounts of food, even when not physically hungry.
4. Eating in isolation out of embarrassment at the quantity of food being eaten.
5. Feelings of disgust, depression, or guilt after overeating.2,3

Episodes of binge eating also occur in the eating disorder bulimia nervosa, a condition that affects many bodybuilders and fitness models in numbers higher many would expect. Persons with bulimia regularly purge, fast, or engage in an unhealthy pattern of prolonged strenuous exercise after an episode of binge eating. The purging process is usually understood as vomiting but it can also include the use of diuretics (water pills) or laxatives in greater-than-recommended doses to avoid gaining weight- practices that many in the health and fitness circles regularly engage in to allow themselves to maintain their look.

Fasting is defined as not eating for at least twenty-four hours. Strenuous exercise, in this case, is defined as exercising for more than an hour, but not as a means to better health and or self improvement, but rather as a reactive practice meant solely to avoid gaining weight after a binge. Purging, fasting, and prolonged strenuous exercise are dangerous ways to attempt weight control. Excessive shape and weight concerns are also characteristics of bulimia, issues that may seem benign in someone in extremely good shape, but when explored can sometimes reveal that their 'being in shape' is not at all the result of a balanced approach to health and fitness and is inevitability self destructive.

As was mentioned previously, many competitive bodybuilders suffer from some form of the aforementioned eating disorders. The only difference is that their cycle of weight gain and weight loss, extreme dieting, nutrient deprivation and dehydration combined with the thousands of hours of almost daily prolonged periods of strenuous exercise has become almost socially acceptable. Be that as it may, the extreme practice of that particular lifestyle falls within the realm of a disorder nevertheless. That applies for those that employ the use of illegal drugs and for those that make the claim of being natural.

Unless there is a real balance where overall health is prioritized over attainment of a transient cosmetic appearance such as being big or having an extremely low body fat level, it is a disorder and has no relation to health and fitness whatsoever.

Psychological disorders aside, there is research that indicates that a pattern of weight gain and weight loss (yo-yo dieting) is not all healthy. This is true as much for the competitive athlete as it is for members of the general population. Studies show possible harmful effects for large weight regains including increased cardiovascular risk factors and type 2 diabetes in overweight/obese individuals. Harmful metabolic changes may also occur in young, normal weight individuals who do not need to lose weight as well as decreased immune system function and reduction in bone density in women.4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

There are other eating disorders that can also often go unrecognized. Night Eating Syndrome is a prime example and it is one that many can relate to, albeit in a less extreme form. Night Eating Syndrome is characterized by a lack of appetite for breakfast; the consumption of more than half of daily food intake calories after the evening meal, and waking up at night to consume high calorie, high-carbohydrate snacks and insomnia.3 Foods eaten during the nighttime binge are almost always unhealthy. After the night binge, the person is usually not hungry in the morning, and breakfast, the most important meal of the day is skipped.

The excessive food intake at night also creates a decrease in melatonin, a critical sleep relate hormone. Research has shown that the decrease in melatonin contributes to increased sleep disturbances and insomnia.

Again, it should be stated that most people may not have the characteristics of this particular syndrome to the extent that it becomes pathological, but the pattern of almost uncontrollable late night snacking on high carbohydrate and unhealthy foods is a very common issue for many individuals.

While the general population may not be diagnosed as having an eating disorder, most still find the task of controlling their eating habits to be an almost impossible endeavor. However there are practical and systematic approaches that make the likelihood of success much greater and none of them involve quick fixes.

The first key is an understanding of our patterns with regard to food consumption. The development of an intimate understanding and, in the course of time, patiently learn how to modify one's behavior.

Simply resolving to no longer eat unhealthy foods is not the answer for most, nor does the answer lie in fad diets. If that were the case then everyone would be successful in their attempts at weight control and that certainly is not the case. There must instead be an unrelenting commitment to a change in lifestyle. One that is divorced from the destructive perspective that somehow there must be some form of atonement for failures to stay on track.

It is almost human nature to believe that when a 'wrong' is committed, that a period of guilt is required, followed by penance of some sort. Unfortunately, this is very much a reality with regards the way most perceive their diet. The individual falters, eating something that falls into the category of forbidden, and falls into a downward spiral of self hatred and disgust. This self inflicted flagellation is followed by a resolve to either exercise more, diet harder or employ some extreme method to compensate for the 'damage' done by their indulgence. (Sound familiar?).

Physiologically speaking, there isn't anything that can be done to compensate for a slip in one's diet. Nothing at all. What is done is done and any attempts to try to undo the past are simply wasted exercises in magical thinking as they have no foundations in reality. This way of thinking can very easily lead towards the aforementioned eating disorders and pathologies and not the intended goal of attaining a healthy body. Instead the slips must be looked upon as what they are; learning experiences that teach us more about ourselves since every slip holds the information necessary to help avoid their continued reoccurrence.

The limited idea of getting into shape for summer or for a contest does not permit a transition towards this way of thinking. However the idea of getting into shape over the course of several years for reasons rooted in self care does. Nothing worth achieving comes quickly, having control over one's eating habits are no exception. It takes practice and patience. True achievements stem from a lifetime of dedication. It took me the span of two decades to be able to do it, and without the slips and failures encountered along the way, I would not be able to do it as easily as I do today.

The other important factor is an understanding of the dynamics behind learned behavior.

When you decide, for example, that you are no longer going to eat unhealthy foods, your new attitude only serves to supplement your original behavior where eating unhealthy foods were acceptable. Behavioral psychology has found what many of us in the trenches, so to speak have learned through objective observations. Namely that the very habits that we seek to change resurface because they are not fully forgotten. New and old ways of thinking coexist as opposing impulses that will always be in competition unless steps are taken to disarming undesirable attitudes.13

Disarming those attitudes requires a fundamental change in perception, a change that comes only with time and patience. It is only when you are able to enjoy foods that are good for you that you will be able to break the cycle. Again, it does not happen overnight but a consistent diet of wholesome foods would eventually bring about the conclusion that many of them are very much enjoyable and you would find yourself craving the very foods that are good for you, because they would physically make you feel better. The temptation to indulge in the foods that you wished to avoid therefore fades into the background, a temptation that over time is simply forgotten.

This is the same progression that allows me to maintain my diet all year round without any exceptions whatsoever, and the one that has worked unfailingly for innumerable individuals that I have been honored to work with over the past seventeen years as a professional trainer. I know that many of you are asking yourselves how you could possibly stay on a diet of only healthy foods long enough to get to a point where the old habits are pushed aside. Taken by itself it would indeed seem to be a daunting task. The answer lies in a very specific regime of infrequent, high intensity resistance training. Training that forces change on every level of the individual's existence; on a cellular level, building new muscle and burning fat, creating in the process an appetite for the very foods that the body would need to support the new growth. Finally on a spiritual level, opening the doors to a whole new way of perceiving the world, one where limits are constantly being re-evaluated and where the seemingly impossible task of breaking free of the perpetually destructive cycle of weight loss and weight becomes very much a reality.

Information contained in this article is not meant to treat, diagnose illness, nor substitute for medical counsel and is intended for purposes of information and education only. Consult your physician before modifying your diet or starting any exercise program. This article may be reprinted as long as credit is given to the author.

References:
1. Marcus MD. "Binge Eating in Obesity." In: Fairburn CG, Wilson GT (eds). Binge eating: nature, assessment, and treatment

2. Stunkard AJ. "Eating Patterns and Obesity." Psychiatric Quarterly, 1959, Vol. 33, pp. 284-295.

3. January issue of the International Journal of Eating Disorders

4. Field AE, Byers T, Hunter DJ, et al. Weight cycling, weight gain, and risk of hypertension in women. Am J Epidemiologic. 1999;150:573-579.

5. Weinsier RL, Nagy TR, Hunter GR, et al. Do adaptive changes in metabolic ratefavor weight regain in weight-reduced individuals? An examination of the set-point theory. Am J Clin Nutr. 2000 Nov;72:1088-94. 3. Leibel RL, Rosenbaum M, Hirsch J, Changes in energy expenditure from altered body weight. N Engl J Med. 1995 Mar; 332:521-628.

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8. Kajioka T, Tsuzuku S, Shimokata H, et al. Effects of intentional weight cycling on non-obese young women. Metabolism. 2002 Feb;51:149-154. 6. Sea M, Fong W, Huang Y, et al. Weight cycling-induced alteration in fatty acidmetabolism. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2000;279:1145-1155.

9. Graci S, Izzo G, Savino S, et al. Weight cycling and cardiovascular risk factors inobesity. Int J Obesity. 2004;28:65-71.

10. Field AE, Manson JE, Laird N, et al. Weight cycling and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes among adult women in the United States. Obesity Research. 2004;12:267-274.

11. Fogelholm M, Sievanen H, Heinonen A, et al. Association between weight cycling history and bone mineral density in premenopausal women. Ostseoporos Int. 1997

12. Shade ED, Ulrich CM, Wener MH, et al. Frequent intentional weight loss is associated with lower natural killer cell cytoxicity in postmenopausal women:Possible long-term immune effects. J Am Diet Assoc. 2004;104:903-912.

13. The Psychological Review