Make a rule not to eat while you’re doing anything else: watching a show, playing a game, reading a book, browsing Reddit Lemmy. When you’re eating, focus on the food. Taste and enjoy it. And when that gets boring or you feel full, set it aside and go do the other things.

Distracted eating is when I overindulge.

Drink a glass of water during your meals. And make sure you eat enough proteins. High protein diets are very effective.

If you’re craving chips, your body is telling you you need carbs. So get them from healthy sources of food instead. If you’re craving something like cheese or meat, your body is telling you you need proteins, so make sure you get them from healthy sources of food as well.

Avoid high carb food that doesn’t have a lot of nutrients. You will probably still feel hungry afterwards. Go for healthy food that makes you feel full and gives your body a good amount of nutrients.

And remember that healthy food can taste just as good. :)

One thing I do to limit my intake of a single type of snack is to pour a serving or two into a bowl and allow myself to eat the whole bowl without thinking about the restraint. I may go back for a second serving but I usually find myself not eating a whole family bag of chips in one sitting that way.

Everything in moderation!

I’ve started OMAD (One Meal A Day) for past month. It seems to work well. It’s basically intermittent fasting - 22-23 hour fast, 1-2 hour eating. You can drink coffee, water and zero sugar drinks during the fasting period but only eat for one period a day.

It’s been working well for me - I realise I don’t feel hungry during the day, I was just bored and habitually eating. I’ve lost weight (which was my main aim) but I find my day no longer revolves around the other mealtimes, and also I actually value my main meal now so I’ve been eating better quality and trying to actually cook. It’s also saved me money not needing to buy breakfast or lunch foods, and no snacks, and my food budget is concentrated into one good meal a day.

It’s been surprisingly easy to stick to.

Obviously it won’t be for everyone and you need to consider the health benefits and potential drawbacks first, but it’s working well for me.

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I’ve found this has been one of the most helpful areas for medication but I was undiagnosed for years so, here’s some things which I didn’t see:

• Use small plates. Tell yourself you can go back for seconds if you need to, but after you finish plate 1 (or after 15mins minimum), honestly reevaluate if you’re still hungry or just want flavour/texture. 15mins is enough time for your hormones which respond to eating, like ghrelin and insulin, to have kicked in. Never underestimate the impact of hormones.

• This might be due to another condition I have, but the more sugars I eat, the more I can’t stop myself from eating more. I try for the smallest amount of added sugar possible, and I lean on saccharin to take the edge off things which need some sweetness. Also, if you’ve never checked your blood sugars or been tested for diabetes, this might be worth looking into as polyphagia.

• Make sure you’re eating protein and a little fat when you eat. Also prioritise water and dietary fibre in those meals. If you have all 4 in your food, then you’re going to spend more time full from one meal, which helps stop some of the thoughts around food from occurring.

• In situations where you are going to binge, eat one mouthful of whatever it is you’re craving, and put everything away. Savour that mouthful. Wait 15mins minimum. Afterwards assess how badly you need and want this flavour/texture now that you’ve had some of it.

• Some of my cravings tend to reveal I’m not getting enough of a mineral or other micronutrient. Log the food you’re eating, and try to figure out how often you hit all the recommended daily targets. Supplement or tweak your diet as necessary to get more of those things. If I start craving potatoes, I know it might be potassium. If I start craving fries, I look at if I’ve had enough calories, because i’m craving carbs, fat, salt AND potassium.

• Don’t undereat to try to “make up” for a binge. It’s harder to make the right decisions when you’re too hungry, it perpetuates the cycle.

• Snack on something that takes a long time to chew, but is lower in calories, while you cook. Jerky, almonds, a carrot, whatever. Helps with impulsive decisions about adding delicious but unhealthy things.

Basically, eat nutritional food, and make it harder for yourself to binge by increasing the workload necessary to do it. I call it leveraging laziness, it has been surprisingly helpful.

My therapist told to try this thing recently where you suck on a candy or snack that you really like, don’t allow yourself to crunch it. Suck it until it dissolves.

Resisting giving into the frustration but of not being able to crunchit helps you with emotional regulation, feeling the emotion but not immediately reacting to it

Resisting crunching it because you want to taste that explosion of flavor helps you increase your ability to not only resist temptation but also to increase your ability to have the will to do the things you want to do.

It also interacts with that same oral fixation as eating, so you’re helping qualm some of those binging urges.

I do it with sugar free werther’s originals, it works surprisingly well

Beans 🫘

They make your stomach stay “filled” for a good while, so i eat them twice a week before going to college. 📆

Also, do NOT consume tea or coffee for at least 30 minutes after eating (unless it’s a latte or similar).

I’ll assume here you’re talking about eating outside your main meals, and you’re mainly eating for that dopamine reward.

Usually low calorie snacks (fruits, veggies, etc) are a good choice, but even eating too much of them can be detrimental. Best alternative IMO is finding something that distracts you from continuously eating. Preferably some activity that requires your attention and needs your hands active (so just watching a video isn’t gonna work in this case: it’s easy to continue eating while watching something).

In my case, I’d start doodling and fiddling with Lego blocks or something.

For me only buying heathy snacks is a big one if you insist on buying snacks in general

But the biggest way would be to not buy snacks

Can’t crush a box of Cheez It’s while watching YouTube if you have to go to the store first

Of course recently I got Invisalign so to eat any snacks is a headache of having to pull them out, keep it to a short amount of time, floss and swish when I’m done, and then put them back in. So that’s a huge hurdle but it cost me $5k so not the cheapest option for sure.

Eat before going shopping, and don’t buy junk food. It’s easier not to snack, when you don’t have snacks.

While there’s some good advice from others, there are moments you want to have a cheat day like once a week.

When you allow it to treat yourself and eat chips, you can choose for some very hot chips. Put it in a small bowl (to limit the snack), take one at the time (to slow yourself down) and suck on each part when you eat it. Before you know you it you’ll drink more and the hotness will slow you down or even lets you stop eating more.

Drink more liquids.

Try replacing unhealthy snacks with healthier ones. Eg. Nuts/seeds instead of chips, fruit instead of candy. hummus + veggies, homemade veggie chips/baked veggie “fries” (avoid starchy veggies)

Dont go to the store/order when youre hungry. Its easier to control what you buy than it is to say no to the unhealthy snacks in the cupboard that you already bought. i.e put a barrier between yourself and unhealthy snacks.

Make a hobby out of finding creative ways to make that comfort food healthier. eg. Sneak veggies into things, replace less healthy ingredients with healthier ones. eg. Replace butter with olive oil, replace beef with turkey, switch to lite salt (slowly) instead of table salt etc.

Finding the root cause is always good. Other than that lifestyle choices are a big factor

The only thing that really works against binge eating for me, is to keep a very low carb diet. I realized that if I eat carbs, I want carbs; I crave carbs, I binge. If I’m not eating carbs, I lose all interest, have no desire to eat them, my appetite falls way down and I fill up and stay satisfied super easily, and I just cease to binge.

Also, getting off carbs means a 10-day struggle with cravings (after shockingly rapid size/weight gains, bingeing and guilt); after going through that a few times, I’d rather just stay perpetually low carb. If you already like salty snacks like me, you might also really enjoy having an excuse to eat a lot of meat, cheese, veggies etc.

After decades if struggle- that’s what I’ve finally found that actually works. Over a year binge free. Good luck!