What Is Binge Eating Disorder? What Are Its Causes And Symptoms?

by Decoding Obesity The Best Health and Fitness Podcast

According to a recent report, an estimated 2.8 M people have binge eating disorder in The United States. About 3.5 percent of adult women and 2 percent of adult men suffer from binge eating disorder.

Pic Credit: Healthline

People who have binge eating disorder (BED) consume large amounts of food and feel unable to stop eating. We all overeat on some occasion when there is a party; it's your birthday or any other special event. But, binge eating disorder is not occasional overeating. Excessive overeating that gets out of control and becomes a regular occurrence amounts to a binge eating disorder.

Binge eating disorder is recognized as an official diagnosis. BED affects almost 2% of people throughout the world and causes additional health issues linked to like high cholesterol levels and diabetes.

Symptoms Of Binge Eating Disorder

If you have BED, you will eat a lot of food in a short amount of time even if you are not hungry. When you binge eat, you feel a sense of relief, but it's often accompanied by a sense of shame or loss of control afterward. BED can be diagnosed as follows:

• Recurrent episodes of binge eating. An episode of binge eating is characterized by both of the following:

◦ Eating, a larger amount of food in a discrete period of time than what most people would eat in a similar period of time under similar circumstances.

◦ A sense of lack of control over eating during the episode.

• The binge eating episodes are associated with three (or more) of the following:

◦ Eating at a much more fast pace than normal.

◦ Eating till you are uncomfortably full.

◦ Eating large amounts of food even when not feeling hungry.

◦ Eating alone because of feeling embarrassed about your eating.

◦ Feeling disgusted with oneself, depressed, or very guilty afterward.

• Marked distress about binge eating

• The binge eating occurs, on average, at least once a week for 3 months.

• The binge eating is not associated with the recurrent use of inappropriate compensatory behaviors (e.g., purging) as in bulimia nervosa and does not occur exclusively during the course of bulimia nervosa or anorexia nervosa.

What All Causes Binge Eating Disorder?

While the exact cause of binge eating disorder remains unclear, it is probably caused by an interplay of genetic predisposition coupled with an unfavorable environment. What Can You Do To Overcome Binge Eating Disorder?

The first step to overcome this disease is to recognize that this entity is a medical condition. If you suspect that you are suffering from this disease, reach out to a psychologist or a psychiatrist.

Even the best weight management advice is likely to fail until this underlying disease is addressed. The mainstays of therapy for this are cognitive behavior therapy and a medication called Vyvanse. Which of these are appropriate for you would need to be determined by your physician.

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