If you struggle with bingeing on sweets then this post is for you! I will tell you 3 common reasons you are bingeing on sweets and how to stop them.
I used to be so obsessed with sweets and sugary foods. I would binge on several big bars of chocolate in one go. I could also eat an entire cake in one sitting. I would eat and eat and still not feel satisfied. I felt like a bottomless pit.
I truly thought that I am an “emotional eater”, I am just “addicted to sweets” and that there was something deeply wrong with me.
If you struggle with any of this I completely understand and know what it feels like. But know that there is a way out of this and I will tell you exactly how to do it!
Because now I have a very normal relationship with foods – I eat all foods and whatever I want. Yes, I also eat sweets. I love ice cream, chocolate, and cookies…but I no longer feel out of control around these foods and I have zero desire to binge on them. I have normal hunger cues – I eat when hungry and stop when full.
But there are several things I did to normalize my relationship to all foods, including sweets. And in today’s post, I want to share with you the 3 most common reasons for bingeing on sweets and how you can overcome them.
3 Most Common Reasons Why You Are Bingeing On Sweets
Next, I will talk about the 3 most common reasons you are bingeing on sweets and how to overcome them. These are all the things I did that kept me feeling crazy over sugary foods and the most common pitfalls I see happening to most of my clients.
1. Not eating enough calories and carbs
The first reason is that you are not eating enough food, not enough calories. Maybe you have been dieting and restricting. This is the recipe for getting obsessed with sweets and sugary foods. When you restrict you are essentially putting your body through starvation or famine. And carbs and sweets are the easiest source of fuel for us when we are deprived and have been through a famine.
And maybe you are not eating enough carbs in general. Maybe you are trying to limit carbs or eat only the low-calorie type of carbs like fruits and veggies. Yes, those are also technically carbs but they do not provide enough fuel compared to high carb foods like bread, pasta, potatoes, pastry, cereals, grains, cookies, chocolate. If you try to limit or exclude those foods you are about to get very obsessed with sweets and sugary foods and prone to binge eating when you do eat them.
Or maybe you are not eating regularly enough. Many people restrict during the day and then at night time feel this insatiable hunger and they binge and overeat. But not eating enough or regularly enough all throughout the day is the reason you feel compelled to binge and overeat, especially carbs and sweets.
2. Having a lot of rules around sweets
Secondly, the very common cause of bingeing on sweets is having a lot of food rules around sweets – what you are allowed, how much and when.
Maybe you have rules that say you are only allowed sweets during the evening, but not during the day.
Or rules that say you can have only one cookie but not more.
Or you allow sweets only when you have your “cheat day” or a “cheat meal”.
Or you restrict what types of sweets are allowed. For example, you try to substitute your sweets, like chocolate or candy with eating more fruits or the “healthy sweets”. Eating fruits is not the problem but if you really crave chocolate then eating fruit will not cut it. It only creates the next binge that is waiting to happen.
And if you think you are addicted to sugar then please see my video about it HERE.
3. Having a diet mentality around sweets
And thirdly, you have a lot of limiting beliefs and diet mentality around sweets.
For example, labeling sweets as “bad” or “unhealthy”, having beliefs like “sugar makes you fat” or “carbs make you fat”.
All of these beliefs reinforce diet mentality that is actually a form of mental restriction. And mental restriction affects your hunger cues the same way restrictive dieting does.
You can see my videos about mental restriction Part 1 and Part 2.
If you want to be a normal eater or intuitive eater it is not about how to “eat right” but it is more about healing your relationship with food in general. And the healing needs to happen by changing your behaviors around foods, and also changing your mindset with foods.
Additionally, I really recommend you to read my post about how to restore normal hunger cues.
If you want to learn more about recovery and how to do it step by step then please read my book “BrainwashED”
You can check out my recovery online courses HERE.
If you wish to work with me one on one, then I offer Recovery Coaching where I can help you go through your recovery step by step and offer support and accountability. Read more and apply HERE.
Or you can book a one-off coaching call with me HERE.
