Weekend binge: Here’s how overeating on holidays can affect your body and mind

More often than not people can have a fairly healthy diet and lifestyle through the week but go on a massive binge on the weekend that can affect their weight and overall health. Does this resonate with you? Do you love to binge over the weekends?

What are some of the reasons that you end up binge-eating? How will it impact your health and physiology?

Let’s take a look…

Reasons for binge eating

There are several underlying causes that lead to binge eating. It’s important to understand two big triggers before we check out the impact of overeating.

Fewer calories: The first major reason for bingeing is lack of adequate calories from nutrient-dense foods through the week. When you force your body to eat highly restrictive diets during the week, it leads to cravings and the desire to binge on all kinds of food over the weekends.

Most of us feel that we have earned the right to binge, because we have struggled all through the week. But this could lead to overcompensating and going on a binge eating spree - on sugary treats, alcohol, unhealthy fats and desserts.

If you struggle with blood sugar imbalance through the week caused by low fat or low protein diets, or both, then the imbalance in your blood sugar levels can make you go on a binge fest. It’s very important that you eat a diet that is not calorie-restricted or low in protein and fat all through the week.

Emotional triggers: The second big reason for bingeing is trauma or emotional triggers. There are connections between binge eating and adverse childhood experiences, trauma, emotional suppression, lack of nurturing relationships or high stress. In fact, most bingeing can have roots in some sort of unresolved emotional problem in your past.

If you do go through regular binge episodes, explore something like journaling. Writing all that is on your mind on a piece of paper every morning when you wake up is a powerful way to release any emotional suppression.

Even if you do not eat an unhealthy diet through the week, bingeing can cause several disturbances in your physiology.

A meal that is overloaded in starch, sugars and harmful fats can cause a lot of disturbance in your body.

Dangers of binge eating

• When there is an excess of starch or sugar in your diet, far more than your body can actually handle in one meal, the sugars start to ferment and begin feeding pathogenic bacteria like yeast. This can lead to conditions like Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth and Candida.

• When there are excess bad fats from fried foods, more than you can handle in one meal, they stay in your system for too long, as your body cannot digest too much bad fat in one meal. This leads to oxidative stress, where your cells sit in their own waste. It can also trigger liver challenges like fatty liver. All of this can lead to symptoms of digestive distress that range from bloating to heartburn.

Binge eating is also extremely dangerous as it can lead to insulin resistance. Most binge meals are very rich in carbohydrates and cause insulin to spike sharply. Frequent episodes can lead to insulin resistance, as well as dysfunction in other hormones like leptin and ghrelin.

• Ghrelin is the hunger hormone, and leptin is your hormone of satiety. You can have patterns of abnormal hunger and lack of satiety. Bingeing can also trigger hormonal imbalance leading to abnormal blood sugar patterns and insulin behaviour.

Weight gain is another aspect of bingeing. You might end up forcing yourself to undereat the rest of the week or overtrain. One of the biggest health myths is that you can over-exercise a bad diet.

• Doing an extra hundred crunches or squats after a weekend of bingeing is not going to counter the impact. Your body recognises consistency. It requires a balanced approach all the time, which does not oscillate between undereating and overeating. When you then undereat to try and negate the ill effects of a binge weekend, you get into the same vicious loop again. The very next weekend you will be so fed up of undereating that you will reward yourself with another binge eating episode. This will also make you emotionally stressed and anxious, worrying about your weight.

• Take another look at your diet. Are you getting adequate calories from nutrient-rich foods through the week? If you are, then your stable blood sugar will not make you seek out overcompensation. Starving now and bingeing later will only disrupt your health, mood, sleep and mind. Instead, if you opt for healthier foods over the weekends you will always enjoy food and the right foods will help you get stronger and healthier over time.

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