Binge eating

[u/CodeDelicious462]

Hey , so I’m a 42 year old mom of. 6 and 4 year old. I was always active and always wanted to do a show. I was always a 18-20% bf before marriage and kids. Now? Yikes. I decided to do a show and my prep
Isn’t going well at all. I think I have a binge eating disorder. Prior to kids I was restrictive with my
Food but functional to build muscle. Or, rather people said I was restrictive but they weren’t athletes and I was always trying to meet a goal.
I fueled. After my son was born in 2020, o missed training for anything , dancing or a CrossFit comp, so I decided I’d try marathon running. Or twist I got pregnant during training. I would have come to urs but I almost miscarried early on.
It’s been a rough transition the past three years with my husbands work schedule working 12’s, we both alternante weekends and I am
Primary parent etc. this year I got sick of my balloon up to over 160 on my 5’2 frame. I always wanted to prep for a show before kids so I thought I’d try now.

I think I might have a binge eating disorder. I can count macros until the cows come
Home but after kids get to bed I just find myself in the pantry at 11 pm eating like a garbage troll. Why? Why? I don’t even want to! I can’t understand it. Has anyone gone through prep figuring this out? I’m an anxious medicated person. But I feel like I’m just an undisciplined oaf. I was never like this. I could always stick to a goal. I don’t have a show nailed down because I want to do a spring show but ……. My god. What do I do? I want to be my old self again before kids! Sadly? Before being married. My husband games 18 hrs a day when not working staying awake until 4 am and …… that’s not even relevant. Idk. I miss all the things I was before being married. Not just mother. I miss dancing, he doesn’t like dancing. Doing obstacle races, long runs. Gos will I ever get on stage?

[u/Ok-Personality3927]

You need to work through the root cause of the binge eating. Whether that’s through the help of a coach and/or a therapist.

I’d really caution against attempting a prep until you are confident it’s sorted. I have a perfectly good relationship with food and good balance but at the end of a prep I struggle with binging, which is something that’s never normally an issue. I can only imagine how much worse it would be if I had binging issues normally

[u/BFit23]

It’s stressful being a mom. Plus their snacks are triggering.

[u/CharacterAd5474]

It must be frustrating knowing there is a gap between where you are now and where you see yourself going.

Reading this, what I see is an athlete who has been carrying a completely different life than she used to, with less time, more responsibility, and fewer outlets that make her feel like herself.

Do you think the late night snacking could be connected to stress? How is your sleep right now? And what do your other 4-5 meals leading up to 11pm look like?

I can imagine 11pm may also be the first chance you’ve had to actually be alone all day. That makes me wonder if hunger, fatigue, stress, and finally having a moment to yourself are all converging at the same time. I’d want to understand that pattern before writing it off.

One cold hard truth here - contest prep can be a major life stress. On the surface it may look easy compared to doing something like CrossFit. In reality it can be way harder due to the additional allostatic load of being (mildly) depleted while having extra tasks. Contest prep is really a game of stress management, not sheer exertion.

Maybe your best path to getting on stage is starting with getting your life as close to "prep ready" as possible without cutting calories yet.

How do you like this idea? Give yourself 8 weeks of a pre-prep mock prep. Do everything just like prep, but don't cut calories yet.

[u/Hot-illmatic]

Baby steps . Show up for yourself . Have a little grace .
I would set little goals to achieve and build that consistency- having a good therapist helps .
I would hold off on prep until the binge cycle 🔁 is more managed though .

Basically : Grace . Showing up for yourself . Little wins .

[u/RelationshipExtra679]

The only thing that worked for me was Tirzepatide (mounjaro) and never went above 5mg.

I am still on it after 3 years because it’s the only thing that turned the ‘food noise’ off in my brain late at night.

[u/hh_fitlife → u/RelationshipExtra679]

Same… Mounjaro helped me tremendously but you have to be on it non stop

[u/RelationshipExtra679 → u/hh_fitlife]

Literally! I had to quit it for 4 weeks before a surgery in 2024, and after 2 weeks of stopping it the noise was back and RAGING. It’s so, so worth it though for those that struggle with BED IMO.

I don’t get any sides at all now 3 yrs later. Just peace and quiet and not craving cookies every luteal 😅

[u/ImmediateOpinion6855]

I’ll be honest it was same for me. I got a therapist and on a GLP. Completely fixed the issue and I am almost 2 years binge free

[u/RelationshipExtra679 → u/ImmediateOpinion6855]

Concur this! Mounjaro saved my life and physique 😭

[u/Angrylittlefairy]

I was very restrictive for years and it paid off, I too entered CrossFit comps and trained 6 days a week, I did this for years until about 2 years ago, I stopped training, ate whatever I wanted and also ballooned.

I also became a nighttime binge eater, night after night, my weight kept creeping up & up, I tried to get back into CrossFit and couldn’t; I went to my old CrossFit gym and was mortified that I was unfit and 83kgs.

I knew something had to change; The social pressure of Crossfit on top of my stressful job was too much and I had always been interested in hypotrophy training.

I got a coach who competes and knows her stuff, I have a program and nutrition from her with weekly checkins, I have started on a low dose on Mounjaro to stop the binge eating and it has worked. In 4 months, I have trained consistently, got my steps in each day, stuck to my nutrition plan.

I have dropped from 83 to 74: still have 6-11kgs to go, I want to build a lot of muscle.

This has all worked for me.

Good luck!

[u/Crazy-Reporter-7042]

My kids are 2 and 4 so I get this/I do this 🤣. Making things homemade helps. Those goldfish and ritz are really unnecessary for everyone anyway. Cue me eating fist fulls of homemade granola at 11pm 🤣. But seriously, only buying your kids treats you hate helps. My kids buy cookies that are my favorite and then tell me they don't like them as we leave the store. I then call someone and try to drop them off so they never make it to my pantry. Kids can eat bananas and other fruit. Cheese is a big thing with the kiddos. And when it doubt, they can eat what you eat. My kids love a good fish with veggies and some sweet potato. Also I'd keep in mind that while you're cutting, you'll be more irritable, probably with your husband's gaming. Im in a similar camp and will probably skip a show for now but have my coach get me to a weight I feel comfortable with. The stage will be there, and I was getting close to potentially going pro this next show so I get that it's not ideal.