Why A Binge Eating Coach Can Help Your Eating Disorder Recovery

Binge Eating

If you have a problem with binge eating disorder and have problems trying to control your eating then it may be time to tackle your problem in a different way. Working with a binge eating coach can be an eye-opener for most people because they can help you to examine your entire relationship with food as well as address emotional problems that could be hampering your recovery.

Getting support from a person who understands binge eating disorder is important because they have programs and tools to help you control unhelpful eating patterns. Whilst doctors can help with the diagnosis of the problem they are unlikely to offer therapy and emotional support.

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What is Binge Eating?

Binge eating disorder tends to be categorised by a person eating a large quantity of food over a relatively short period of time even if they are not hungry. Whilst all of us might do this on occasion such as at Christmas for binge eating disorder to exist the problem must have been happening at least once a week for a period of three months.

As well as the quantity of food that is consumed there are also other problems that may exist with the issue including eating too quickly. Secret eating and eating when alone are also other characteristics of the problem. This is generally because of the shame associated with the need for large quantities of food.

When a binge is over there are also usually feelings of further guilt and shame over what has happened. Self-loathing and negative thoughts tend to play a big part in the problem as when we feel bad about ourselves it doesn’t make us eat less but more in order to comfort ourselves.

Binge eating disorder is closely linked with bulimia but is not the same. With bulimia someone who has overeaten will find a way to purge the foot from their system by either being sick, exercising or using laxatives. A person with binge eating disorder will do nothing to counteract what they have done.

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Do I Have Binge Eating Disorder?

So how do you know if you have binge eating disorder? Well, only a doctor can really diagnose so your first port of call should be with a medical professional who can give you a formal diagnosis. A binge eating coach can help with your relationship with food and your treatment but is not there to make the first assessment.

To assess whether you may have a problem with the disorder you can use our binge eating disorder test to help you in the first instance. If your answers point to a problem around food and eating then it makes sense to arrange an appointment with a health care professional to get more support.

Once a formal diagnosis is made you may be offered treatment options however in many cases binge eating coaching or therapy may need to be paid for privately.

What Causes Binge Eating?

Binge eating disorder is caused by a number of issues and problems. You may have one of these issues or you may have a combination of them that need the help and support of a binge eating coaching. Coaching or therapy is designed to examine your lifestyle and emotions to help you alter the way you think around food.

Here are some of the major issues that binge eating coaches tend to look at during their coaching sessions.

Dieting and Eating Disorders

Dieting is one of the major reasons why people experience problems with binge eating. Restricting food is problematic especially when done to extremes because they make you feel incredibly hungry.

We can all manage a small amount of hunger for a short period of time but if you are regularly trying to starve yourself to lose weight it changes your physical and emotional state. Eating too little food eventually is unsustainable and it is inevitable that if you are incredibly hungry you will eventually cave in and eat much much more than you would normally.

Overeating is likely to have made you feel a failure for being unable to keep up a restrictive diet and so that gives you negative feelings. When we experience negative feelings like self-loathing and disgust it causes issues such as anxiety and stress which fuel these types of eating disorders. The next day you resolve to go back on your diet starving your body once more and another binge happens.

This is known as the binge eating cycle which makes you do the same things over and over again. This binge cycle followed by periods of eating large quantities of foods starts to impact your general health and causes psychological problems as well.

Using Binge Eating Therapy to Help Body Image

Diets and restricting food are obviously used by people to alter their weight and change their body shape. The problem is that not everyone has the genetic make-up to have a slim tiny body. People come in all shapes and sizes so aspiring to fit into only one mould is problematic.

If a person diets and eats restricts too much to try and meet an impossible standard then they are more likely to binge. In order to stop binge eating from happening it is, therefore, necessary to address dieting and body image issues at the same time.

Remember that we are one of the first generations who are dealing with social media platforms such as Instagram or Facebook showing us unrealistic body types due to filters that hide the real people.

A therapy and coaching program can help to support clients with their body image and assist them with accepting themselves and who they are. Coaching can help you to focus on your emotional and physical health rather than aspiring to be a size zero.

Self-Esteem and Eating Disorders

Self-esteem issues and feelings of not being good enough also link with emotional eating and binges. Self-esteem problems also feed into poor body image and lack of confidence.

A lack of self-esteem can make people restrict their food in the mistaken belief that they can change their life by being thinner. When we see people for binge eating coaching we are regularly faced with clients who believe that dieting is the answer to their problems when in fact it is their body confidence and self-esteem that really need to be addressed.

Therapy and coaching help you to understand the reasons why you may be having a problem in these areas and give you tools and strategies to help you find freedom from food problems.

Emotional Eating Vs Binge Eating

Whilst emotional and binge eating can be considered two different things they are often linked. A binge eating coach will often work with you to understand whether emotional eating is also involved with your binges and give you options to assist with changing how you feel.

Emotional eating tends to involve a person eating to comfort themselves and make themselves feel better because of negative thoughts. The emotions could involve anxiety, stress, guilt, anger or jealousy to name just a few. When these emotions are present and a person decides to restrict their food then the mix of over dieting and linked with the uncomfortable feelings adds a further level of complexity to binge eating.

In our experience, emotional eating is present in many cases of binge behaviour and it can be difficult for our clients to spot how one problem tends to fuel the other. Binge eating coaching is a way of helping people to spot the relationship between emotional eating and dieting.

In our sessions, we also add hypnosis for binge eating into the emotional eating treatment as when our clients are in a trance state it is easier for them to relax and identify the subconscious emotions that are bothering them. Our self-hypnosis download for binge eating can also be useful at helping them change old outdated thought patterns or programs that are preventing them from feeling more positive.

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Food Psychology – Intuitive and Mindful Eating

A binge eating coach will not just look at your diet, lifestyle and emotions but they are also there to teach you how to eat differently as well. Hunger directed eating strategies such as mindful or intuitive eating can be life-changing when they are followed by clients.

Both mindful and intuitive eating move the focus to taking time to think about what you are eating and to how your body is feeling about that food. In our lives, we often do something out of habit but in many cases, those automated processes aren’t necessary.

As an example hunger directed eating asks people whether they are really sufficiently hungry at mealtimes or whether they are eating for the sake of it. It equally makes sure that if they are hungry they listen to those signals and eat something to prevent the hunger. This strategy of non-dieting can help to control binge eating.

If you want to try this for yourself you can try some self-help and read about the mindful eating resources we recommend to assist you. You can also buy our Binge Eating Worksheets and printables to help you practice this and other strategies to change your relationship with food at home.

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Online Binge Eating Disorder Coach

A binge eating coach or therapist is a great solution if you want help to alter your relationship with food and simply don’t know where to start. Binge eating recovery is possible with the right therapy program and help and a good coach can help to free you of unhelpful thoughts and behaviours that are prolonging your problem.

If you would like to make changes to the way you eat and tackle emotional issues relating to food then contact us on the form below to ask about our private one to one coaching and therapy programs.

All our sessions are carried out online via software such as Zoom or Skype allowing us to work with people worldwide.