Want to lose weight? Then don’t binge eat!

It’s a disorder more common than breast cancer, AIDS and schizophrenia combined. It starts off simply enough with someone, who goes on an eating spree when he/ she feels a loss of control while eating. This gets triggered into episodes spread across several months and soon falls into the category of binge eating disorders.

So if you are obese or a Type 2 diabetic and binge eat, how does it affect you?

The answer is given by a study published by the University of Pennsylvania in the journal Obesity:

If you continue to binge eat while trying to lose weight, you manage to knock off only half those pounds vis-à- vis those who binge eat and stop or those who don’t indulge in uncontrolled eating at all!

"Continued binge eating can act as a barrier to achieving success," said Ariana Chao, an assistant professor in the Penn School of Nursing.

The highlights of the study called Look AHEAD are as below:

The random, multicenter trial was conducted on 5000 + participants aged 45 to 76 with BMI over 25 ( 27 for those using insulin) and having Type 2 diabetes.

Look AHEAD aimed to create 2 groups; 1 group was driven with an intensive program to induce weight loss and awareness on diabetes via diet instructions, physical activities as well as modified behaviors. The second group was encouraged to attend only 3 sessions a year on physical activity,social support & eating.

Additionally, Look AHEAD assessed binge eating as well. Participants responded via a questionnaire on whether they had indulged in binge eating over the past 6 months.

When the researchers analyzed the data, they found that at the end of four years, those who either refused to binge eat or ate it in lesser quantities lost more weight than those who continued to eat uncontrollably.

Also those who binge eat to cope with stress or deal with negative feelings or thoughts could benefit from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) . As Chao says, "Our findings suggest that people who continue to binge eat after they start a behavioral weight-loss program need an additional treatment like cognitive behavioral therapy, which is one of the most effective for this condition.

In other words, even if you binge ate in the past but are now trying to knock off weight, don’t give up. By monitoring binge eating during weight loss and a additional treatment, you can surely succeed!