Is Mental Restriction Causing You to Binge Eat?

Is Mental Restriction Causing You to Binge Eat?

Do you often have thoughts like, “I shouldn’t be eating this,“ or “I ate too much today, I need to eat less tomorrow.”? If so, you most likely have mentally restricted before. Mental restriction is exactly what it sounds like - putting limitations or shame around food you are eating in hopes to eat less. To people around you, you may not be restricting your food, but on the inside, you are putting food rules around everything you allow yourself to eat the rest of the day. If you have ever struggled with dieting or binge eating, then any sort of restriction like this can set you up for a binge because of the perceived restriction. You may have physically stopped restricting or dieting in your eating disorder recovery, but if you are mentally restricting this may still be cause binges.

To give you an example, let’s say you eat a piece of pizza, and while you are eating it, you think, “I really shouldn’t be eating this.” By doing so, you feel bad for eating the pizza and may develop feelings of shame and regret. This shame can often make us feel like we have “blown it” and develop the thought, “I have already messed up, might as well eat more now,” which may lead to overeating or emotional eating later on.

Common examples could be thoughts like:

“I can’t be still hungry, I just ate!”

“I can eat the candy but only one piece.”

“I can only eat what I want until I reach ____ weight, then I need to cut back.”

With all of these examples a person is still physically eating, BUT on a mental level not much has changed from when they were actively dieting. It’s not that they don’t eat, they do, but it comes with constant internal guilt, shame, and judgement.

Let go of mental restriction.

Letting go of mental restriction can take a lot of time to work through, but the way we start this process is first recognizing the thoughts in order to REFRAME the thoughts. When you first notice a mentally restrictive thought, write it down or say it out loud, then try to see if you can reframe it. This is not something that will come naturally - it will take time and repetition to rewire your brain to recognize and unlearn the psychological restriction. While you are working towards reframing these thoughts, always remind yourself that you can eat what you want, without guilt or regret.

Let’s practice!

Using the examples above, let’s practice reframing mentally restrictive thoughts.

“I can’t be still hungry, I just ate!”

REFRAME “My body is telling me it needs more nutrients today. My body’s needs fluctuates day to day, it is my job to honor its needs regardless of if I just ate or not.”

“I can eat the candy but only one piece.”

REFRAME “I can eat this candy mindfully and stop when I am at a comfortable level of satiety. This candy will not hurt me, and there is no need to put limitations around it.”

“I can only eat what I want until I reach ____ weight, then I need to cut back.”

REFRAME  “My weight does not get to determine how much food I believe I deserve. I will eat according to my body’s energy needs, regardless of size, even if that feels scary right now.”

If this post resonated with you, you are not alone. This type of mental restriction pattern is one many can fall into during their eating disorder recovery journey. It may feel like the last form of control that you have left around food, and it can be hard to let go of this pattern and move towards unconditional permission to eat. Feeling stuck in the binge cycle is a very hard place to be, filled with a lot of guilt and confusion, but I hope by identifying mentally restrictive thoughts and reframing them, you can be one step closer to breaking free from this cycle.

If you feel the need for professional support in this process, Focus Treatment Centers and Focus Integrative Centers have teams of registered dietitians that would gladly come along side you in this journey. Eating disorder recovery is hard, but you are so capable of doing it, one step at a time.

 

Contributed by Kaitlyn Tucker, MS, RDN, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist at Focus Integrative Centers, Knoxville, TN

 

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Lauren Sterritt