How can you prevent binge eating. 

Binge eating is a concern that the majority of people suffer from, whether they are in to fitness or not. It has become a worldwide concern due to the availability of so many choices and fast food being easily available. So how can you prevent binge eating? To know the answer to the question, let’s get into what makes you binge in the first place.

How Ghrelin is linked to your set point

A set point is the weight that your body gets used to over time. An example would be if you are used to eating a certain number of calories for a period of time, provided you don’t try the starvation diet models. Your body adapts to the calories that you are consuming. This does not mean you can now go and do a starvation diet and keep doing it longer and your body will lower its set point. Your body wont allow you to go that far as its main purpose is to survive.

If you do a starvation diet, the first thing that happens to your body is. Your stomach starts producing increased levels of ghrelin (hunger hormone) and this ghrelin signals your brain to eat, which translates into you getting hungry.

The longer you stay on a starvation diet model or severely restrict your calories, the more ghrelin gets produced. The severity of the hunger you feel keeps increasing until you give in which you will and then binge eat. Even if you try to fight it, the level of ghrelin released will keep on increasing and not only will you feel hungry, health concerns will start coming in as well.

What happens if your ghrelin levels keep increasing

Ghrelin regulates your higher brain functions, which includes both memory and the reward-seeking system. This reward-seeking system is what makes you feel the way you feel after you take that first bite after severely restricting yourself.  Increased levels of ghrelin are also linked to learning difficulties and can impact proper brain function.

The reason body builders who are prepping for the stage start forgetting things and have slurred speech is due to their extreme diets and high levels of ghrelin, which starts affecting their moods, speech and memory as well. Once they are done with their shows, you can see them shoving food down their throats. That is an example of extreme levels of ghrelin.

The more fat you have on your frame the lesser the chance of ghrelin being a problem. If your body does not have fat on it to use as energy, it will go for your muscles if you don’t have enough of those as well. That’s where the binge comes in. The only people who suffer from low body fat issues are those extremely skinny or body builders with leaner bodyfat percentages below 10% body fat. This varies from individual to individual as well, so it’s not the same for everyone.

How your body adapts to severe restriction

Now, that is not the only side effect of severe restriction. One you start eating while having extreme levels of ghrelin. Your body will enter into  survival mode and everything you eat will feel like the best thing you ever ate. It will taste better, smell better and look appetizing and now you can no longer stop because  to you it was just a low calorie diet you were on.

But for your body, you were starving and this is the only time it can have food, so it will make you want to eat, so that it can store more fat, because it has adapted to you restricting it severely but in a very negative way. That’s why when you binge eat you get fatter than you normally would, because your body doesn’t care about building muscle now, just its survival and fat can be stored to be used later for energy.

How a lower set point helps prevent binges

The body adapts to the environment you put it in. If you starve it, you will end up having larger meals which will be binges, but if you limit it slowly and carefully, you will lower your body’s set point. Things like coffee help in suppression, but that’s just it. That’s suppression, not lowering your set point. Cardio only helps you lower your set point  if your diet model is not a starvation-based one.

If that is the case, then cardio will be the worst thing to do along with the starvation diet. Do some LISS cardio like biking, walking, jogging etc. A slight calorie deficit up to 250 calories to a max of 500 calories. See what feel better and you will notice your hunger going down overtime as your set point decreases.

What kind of diet model is better for preventing binges

The diet doesn’t have to be a FAD diet as those are short-term solutions that don’t work for everyone. Create your own diet. Eat foods from different food groups that are higher in protein and in fiber while being fewer in calories. Eat those, eat things that satiate your hunger but be mindful of what calories they have. Eating whole or clean foods helps as they are one of the most fulfilling of foods, but be sure to choose the ones that you like that are low in calories. The main goal is to create a diet you can stick to and not feel like you’re dieting.

Just some careful food choices is enough to both help you prevent binge eating because if your full and satiated ghrelin wont be released. Here is a list of top ten foods to build muscle which are low in calories and are satiating. Read top-foods-for-building-muscle/. Here are the top 10 weight-loss foods that are mentioned in the list, keeping ghrelin in mind top-10-best-foods-to-lose-weight/. All you need to do is add some of them, not all, just the ones that you like. Create a diet model for yourself that is not only satiating but to your liking as well. This will allow you to stay on your diet plan without having to go on and off your diet. A proper diet plan will not only prevent binge eating but aid in weight loss as well.