Physical :
- The feeling of fullness? (Similar category in sensory, but met 2 different ways)
- Food coma / guaranteed sleep?
- Warmth? (Most people are inside so much they don't realize how much extra body heat is created by consuming a lot of food. Want to stay warm working outdoors in winter? Stuff yourself at breakfast. It takes a good 5-10 hours to digest large quantities of food, and that entire time period is like carrying around your own personal heater.).
- Burning calories / muscles being used (seems weird, I know, but after ratiocination, digestion burns more calories than any other daily activity. Ratiocination uses roughly 80%, Digestion 50% of the remainder).
- et cetera
- et cetera
Physiological :
- Malnourishment. ((May seem odd, but many if not most overweight people are either malnourished or would be if they didn't overeat. (Classic example is the meat & potatoes crowd. The vitamins & minerals so abundant in certain fruit/veg are also usually present -in tiny amounts- in meat & potatoes. But one has to eat apx 5 KILOS of potatoes to get the vits/mins in half a cup of dark green veg, or a peach, etc. Shrimp, which is high in iodine, is another classic. People who eat shrimp regularly? Usually only eat 1/4 pound or less. People who don't eat shrimp regularly? Easily consume over a pound of it! ) When our bodies are chronically deprived of certain nutrients? Not only does it cause over eating of the nutritionally lacking foods, attempting to get the nutrients, but it triggers binging of "treat" foods that are abundant in those nutrients. ****** You mentioned binging on sweets. I'll lay money on the table you have pain issues. I could be wrong, especially if you're binging on bananas (which hints -shouts- at muscle spasms, body craving the potassium to relax spasming muscles: calcium to flex, potassium to relax)... But the link to pain & sweets is the brain. The brain runs on glucose & glucose alone. The purest form of sugar around. The 4th ventrical of the brain? Is what produces endorphins / body's natural pain killer. Without a steady supply of sugar? The brain will die. Increased use of the brain? Like a 4th ventricle working overtime around the clock dealing with pain, burns a whole f*ckload of sugar. LOL. It's a quirky thing. People with pain issues can usually consume often well over 1,000 kcal a day in "empty" (aka sugar) calories, and not gain an ounce. Quite simply because their brain is burning it all off. But switch to 1,000+ calories coming from protein or fat? Fwoomph! Gain weight like crazy.))
- et cetera
- et cetera
- et cetera
Then just keep brainstorming!!! :D
Mental
Emotional
Trauma
Sensory
Lifestyle
Habitual
Social
Et cetera
***
Clearly... There are dozens -if not hundreds- of possible things you could be gaining, getting your need/wants met by binging. Sit down & list them out like above? Voila. Problems with active solutions.
From consuming a few tablespoons a day of pure sugar to help meet pain needs, to figuring out what you're malnourished in (I'm not saying you are! Just IF that's on your list) so you're no longer consuming 10lbs of potatoes at several thousand calories, but an orange at 1/100th of the volume & kcal... To adding exercise (we need muscle movement, whether it's exercise or digestion), to turning up your thermostat &/or dressing warmer if anxiety cold or winter, Or taking a hot bath in summer... Taking a sleeping pill if tired instead of eating yourself to sleep... Drinking water for the full feeling (or in sensory, increasing the amount you're being touched), or do sit-ups to make the muscles swell, or eat beans/anything else that gives you gas ;).
I'm fond of charts... So I'd end up writing lists like
Pain - Sugar daily, analgesics, physical therapy
Sleep - Meds, exercise, naps
Fullness - Water, sit-ups, compression gear, beans
Anxiety Cold - Take a hot shower, turn up thermostat, dress warmer, get blood moving, anti anxiety meds, etc.
See a need/want & look at ways to fill it. That way, instead of fighting both what's causing the need/want AND denying your body & yourself the 1 solution you know works... You've got dozens of solutions in play that FILL those need/wants. Rewarding, instead of punishing. :D Carrots over sticks.
