FitSugar

Do You Binge Eat When You're Depressed?

FitSugar — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 16:55:42 PST

America's favorite talk show host Oprah Winfrey has never hidden the fact that she's an emotional eater. In an outtake from the upcoming debut of Piers Morgan Tonight, Oprah stated that the box office failure of her movie Beloved made her so depressed that she drowned her sorrows in mac-n-cheese - about 30 pounds of it.

I've had my run ins with cookies when sad, and an occasional second piece of chocolate cake when the world seems a dark and dire place. But I am not sure I would call that binge eating. What about you?

Weigh In: Stopping Late Night Snacking

Fit Community — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 03:31:13 PST

FitSugar reader kimmyk10 from our Weight Loss Support group needs your help. Can you offer her any advice on how to manage her late night snacking habit?

So I have been trying to eat better and count my calorie input/output for the past month or so; I am even keeping a food journal. I am usually pretty good throughout the day . . . that is until about 8 p.m. rolls around. I become this ravaging, hungry lady who will eat anything sweet in sight. I will sometimes undo my entire days worth of diet and exercise because my sweet tooth is so bad.

So I was wondering if you guys and gals have any pointers that you all use to avoid late night snacking? Or do you have any low-cal snacks that won't have me working out extra hard the next day to make up for my late night binging?

Are you also trying to shed a few pounds and need advice from fellow readers? Join the Weight Loss Support group for a community of folks - like kimmyk10 - who are facing similar daily challenges. Offer advice, healthy recipes, or ask a question - we're all here for you!

Health Headlines: Stuttering, Binge Eating, and Death by Boredom

FitSugar — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 03:00:14 PST

Unlocking a Medical Mystery: Stuttering - CNN
Experts believe we have been stuttering as a species for as long as we have been talking - there is even an Egyption hieroglyph for stuttering. The speech disorder appears to be caused by a genetic mutation that interrupts a cell's ability to process waste material. Previous studies pointed toward a genetic component, but now there are three specific mutations pegged for further research.

Binge Eating Officially Defined as a Mental Disorder - NPR
The American Psychiatric Association released a draft of the latest version of its diagnostic manual and a new addition appears on its pages; binge eating is now classified as an eating disorder. The APA believes there is now enough evidence to label binge eating as a mental disorder, and it joins anorexia and bulimia in the eating disorders group.

To learn if boredom can kill you,

read more. Chronic Boredom May Bring an Early Death - Cleveland Leader According to a survey of 7,500 British civil servants, boredom is linked with an early death. Survey participants who answered that they were bored at work in the previous month were two and half times more likely to die of heart problems than their co-workers who found work interesting. No, boredom won't kill you, but it can lead to unhealthy behaviors like drinking, smoking, and using drugs.

How Monica Seles Smashed Her Eating Disorder

FitSugar — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 06:00:00 PDT

At age 16, tennis pro Monica Seles became the youngest winner in French Open history, so we were all stunned in 1993 when she was stabbed in the back during a match in Germany, and forced to leave the game for two years. She eventually healed, but was gripped by emotional trauma as she slipped out of the number one ranking and into a depression. In her new book, Getting a Grip, Monica reveals how the sad series of events led to her eating disorder. She says, "I turned to food for comfort. Food became my best friend. When emotionally I got down, depressed and had anxiety, I found comfort in food."

Monica was training six hours a day, but was also secretly binging late at night. It led to 37 pounds of weight gain, which translated to criticism by her trainers, nutritionists, and the media. To hear more about how Monica tamed her eating disorder

read more. After a debilitating injury in 2003, Monica's foot was in a cast for three months, so she was forced to take time off. That's when she made some big life changes. She fired her trainers, coaches, and nutritionists when she realized she was using them to fix her problems on the outside. It was her emotions, though, that were causing her to binge, so she needed to get those settled if she was going to control her eating habits and make any progress with her body. She said,

I threw out every single diet notion I’d learned. I allowed myself to eat every single food group. My extreme cravings went away. I allowed myself to have cookies or pasta. I stopped dieting and I started living life. That’s how I lost 37 pounds.

When Monica was upset and got the urge to eat, she'd go for a walk instead to calm her down. She's also big into journaling to get her thoughts and emotions on paper, and it's helped with her recovery tremendously. Reading through old journal entries helped her realize she didn't ever want to go back to that place. It became clear that it was time to end her love-hate relationship with food and turn it into a positive relationship, so she could in turn "have a love relationship with her body." Source

Healthy Dose Link Time

FitSugar — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 11:45:00 PDT

diet blog has a primer on preventing binge eating.

That's Fit wonders if aspartame is a good sugar alternative or not? Me? I don't like the taste of it.

HealthBolt reports that a German woman finally has a pencil removed from her skull after living with the object in her head for 55 years. Needless to say, her headaches have decreased.

About: Yoga teaches you the One-Legged King Pigeon. Talk about an amazing stretch and beautiful pose.

The Skinny Website ponders Janet Jackson's quick weight loss.

Mark's Daily Apple believes that vegetarians and carnivores can agree that factory farms stink!

Leslie at The Weighting Game dishes and reviews so many energy bars. Learn from her mistake and drink water with those bars.

iFit&Healthy investigates the Victoria Beckham diet.

Fitness Fixation finds the restaurant industry eeevvviillllll, primarily Cold Stone Creamery.

Back in Skinny Jeans exposes 8 diet foods loaded with high fructose corn syrup!

Since coffee might actually be good for you, don't forget to enter YumSugar's espresso machine giveaway!

Net Sweat reports that flip flop injuries are soaring.

Binge Eating: The Lesser Known Disorder

FitSugar — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 03:00:17 PST

Did you know that binge eating has now become America's most common eating disorder, affecting one in 35 women, making it three times as common as anorexia nervosa? I honestly didn't know until I was watching CNN and saw the story of a young lady who suffered with binge eating.

Binge eating is a relatively unknown disorder since most people think that eating disorders are about not eating, rather than overeating. The reason it has been so unknown is because there seems to be a greater stigma attached to binge eating than to anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa, so people are less likely to admit to the problem. Natalie, the woman featured on CNN, revealed that her binges would include: a sleeve of Ritz crackers with peanut butter, Triscuits, some cheese from the refrigerator, maybe some cream cheese straight out of the carton, maybe some mayonnaise right out of the jar. Natalie, like others with this disorder, experience a food high and addiction like you would from a drug. Binge eaters keep their eating a secret and some avoid weight gain by exercising excessively.

Why is it bad: The major complications of binge eating disorder are the diseases that could accompany obesity (Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, gallbladder disease, heart disease and certain types of cancer). Furthermore, people with binge eating disorder can be extremely distressed by their binge eating. Some people miss work, school, or social activities to binge eat. Obese people with binge eating disorder often feel bad about themselves, are preoccupied with their appearance, which can lead to avoiding social gatherings. Like most eating disorders, binge eaters try to hide their problem so that close family members and friends don't know what they are doing behind closed doors.

Binge eating is more than pigging out on pizza on a Friday night, a binge has two main components. One is eating an abnormally large amount of food in a short period of time and the other is having a sense of loss of control of the eating. Worried that you or someone you know may be a binge eater? Take the quiz on Overeaters Anonymous.

Eat Cake For Breakfast and Lose Weight, Study Says

Jenny Sugar — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:21:52 PST

If your insatiable sweet tooth is preventing you from losing weight, findings from a recent study may be just the thing to help you slim down. Researchers found those who ate a large breakfast that included something sweet lost weight and were able to keep off more pounds than those who ate a small breakfast.

A group of 193 obese adults (not a huge study) were split into two groups. One ate a large, 600-calorie breakfast that included a sweet item such as a cookie, cake, or doughnut. The other group ate a 300-calorie breakfast with no dessert. Both groups ate the same amount of calories daily: 1,600 for men and 1,400 for women.

Keep reading to find out more details about cake and weight loss.

Fat-Proof Your Life

Health — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 04:06:06 PST

We are pumped to share one of our favorite stories from Health.com here on our site.

By Maridel Reyes

It's true that there are certain times in your life when extra poundage seems to appear out of nowhere . . . and settle on you. In fact, experts have honed in on the exact moments when you're most vulnerable to weight gain.

"Life transitions, having a baby, and going through menopause cause many women to pile on pounds," says Susan Albers, PsyD, author of But I Deserve This Chocolate!: The 50 Most Common Diet-Derailing Excuses and How to Outwit Them. "But with planning and prep, you can stay thin."

We asked top experts for their strategies to help you ward off weight creep - and even shed pounds - at these tricky stages. Solutions ahead.

Getting married

Heavier ever after? It can be the flip side of wedded bliss: "Six out of 10 of my clients come back heavier after the honeymoon," says celebrity fitness and wellness guru David Kirsch.

Health.com: 25 Diet-Busting Foods You Should Never Eat

Young newlyweds pack on an extra six to nine pounds in the five years after getting hitched compared to singletons, according to research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. And most of that gain happens in the first year of marriage.

"Couples start to mirror each other's eating habits," explains Albers. "You might be matching him calorie for calorie without realizing it."

Learn how to keep the pounds down postmarriage and in the mommy years, after the break.

Weight Loss Rules You're Allowed to Break

Jenny Sugar — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:58:49 PST

If you love to eat, losing weight can seem so structured, you immediately get frustrated and grab the first decadent food you can find. Even though there are some very specific guidelines that can help you reach your goal faster, there's no one-size-fits-all weight-loss plan for everyone. Here are five rules you can bend and still drop pounds from the scale.

No Cheesecake, Wine, or French Fries
While dessert, alcohol, and fried foods tend to be high in calories, just because you want to lose weight doesn't mean you have to live without the foods you adore. Actually, denying yourself the bites you crave can backfire, causing you to feel deprived, resulting in bingeing. You can't eat these foods all the time, but it's perfectly healthy to enjoy a few spoonfuls of ice cream or a small glass of chardonnay every once in a while. Just limit your portion sizes and only indulge about once a week.

Salad, Every Day
Salads aren't for everyone, and the dissatisfied feeling you get afterward could cause you to head to the nearest pizza joint. Plus salad toppings can really add up. When a bowl of greens is covered in candied walnuts, cheese, dried cranberries, avocado, and creamy dressing, a seemingly healthy salad can run higher in calories than a burger. If you're not into a bowl of raw veggies, choose other low-calorie meals that incorporate veggies such as sandwiches, broth-based soups, grilled veggies, and whole-grain salads. You have to enjoy the foods you're eating in order to stick with a healthy meal plan.

Keep reading to find out three more diet rules you can break and still lose weight.

Video: Kristen Bell on Playing a "Professional Liar" in a New "Perverted" Dark Comedy

PopSugar — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:05:00 PST

House of Lies' leading lady Kristen Bell stopped at Sundance to tell us about playing a "professional liar" in the new "perverted" dark comedy. Plus, find out which Big Miracle costar she said couldn't take the Alaskan cold and hear how she stays fit by eating leftover pizza in our fun one-on-one interview at the Bing Bar!