Dieting Can Actually Cause Binge Eating and Body Image Distortion

your health and touches every area of your life, slowly consuming each part of it. Here are some tools to support your freedom from binge eating/restriction and support a healthy relationship with food and your body.

Release Food Rules/Expectations

Learning how you feel around foods and why they make you feel like you should or shouldn’t have them allows you to change that relationship. Maybe you don’t eat carbs because they were off-limits as a child. This food rule that “carbs are bad” has been ingrained in you for years, so you don’t eat them now, even though you enjoy them. When you understand where those thoughts come from, you can rewrite them. Learning how carbs support the body and enjoying them when you want can prevent you from binging because there isn’t constant thought about restricting them.

Limit Social Media Time

Limiting time spent on social media and muting and unfollowing accounts that don’t support your healing process is also important. Mindless scrolling can lead you to think of how you “should” be doing things to align with others while constantly seeing other peoples’ progress pictures, dieting “wins,” and “clean eating” recipes continues this narrative about the rules surrounding food and your body. Put the phone down, stop scrolling, and focus on things you can enjoy in the moment. Give yourself grace in this journey as you work against YEARS of diet culture and generational messages to step against the “norm” of how to think about food and your body. Breaking free of dieting, binge eating, and restriction will lead you to be able to trust yourself and feel more confident within your body and will pour into every area of your life. You are worth that.

By Jennifer Braun, RD

“Binge eating involves eating unusually large amounts in a specific amount of time and eating uncontrollably. Stressful situations, such as relationship challenges or trauma, can trigger binge eating episodes, as well as conversations around food, including “good” and “bad” foods and how they relate to weight and body image.”

—Jennifer Braun, RD

Jennifer Braun, Registered Dietitian and Personal Trainer, opened The Nourished Life to support clients in healing their relationships with food and their body and understanding their needs and desires. Her approach is to meet you where you are and support you in living life with purpose, energy, and happiness. Call 860.506.6212, email jennifer@nourishedlifect.com, and visit www.nourishedlifect.com.

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