Bingeing vs Overeating

Are you binge eating or are you “just” overeating?

This is one of the most common questions I hear from women struggling with food and while it might feel important to figure out which category you fall into, here’s the truth:

The label is irrelevant to your healing. What actually matters is that you feel out of control with food.

Whether you’re eating a pint of ice cream and a jar of peanut butter in one sitting, or you’re repeatedly grabbing handfuls of chocolate-covered almonds all day long when you said you wouldn’t both experiences can feel uncomfortable, shame-filled, and overwhelming and both are 100% worthy of healing.

One is not “worse,” One is not more serious, and one does not mean you’re more broken than the other.

Why We Get Stuck on Labels

Many people obsess over whether their behavior “counts” as binge eating or is simply overeating. They’re hoping that once they have the right label, they’ll finally know what to do, but labeling your behavior doesn’t bring relief, it doesn’t stop the cycle snd it doesn’t address what’s actually going on underneath.

The real issue isn’t food quantity, It’s the feeling of being out of control.

The Real Question to Ask

Instead of asking, “Is this bingeing or overeating?” A more helpful question is:

“Why do I feel out of control with food?”

When you start there, healing becomes possible and to do that, we need to look at two equally important pieces:

• the science

• and the spirituality

The Science Behind Feeling Out of Control with Food

1. Nutritional Restriction

One of the biggest drivers of binge eating and overeating is restriction/dieting/undereating.

When you under-eat—whether intentionally through dieting or unintentionally through busy schedules, your body will eventually demand compensation. So it isn’t a willpower issue, It’s a biology issue.

Chronic restriction creates urgency around food, which leads to overeating later.

2. Nervous System Dysregulation

When you’re stressed, anxious, or overwhelmed, your nervous system goes into survival mode s for many people, food has become the fastest way to self-soothe.

If your nervous system isn’t regulated, you’ll keep reaching for food, not because you’re weak, but because your body is trying to calm itself.

3. Unprocessed Emotions

Food often becomes the go to coping tool when emotions go unacknowledged. Stress, loneliness, frustration, sadness….

When those feelings aren’t processed and acknowledged then food steps in to numb, distract, or temporarily relieve them.

Healing requires learning how to identify, feel and process emotions instead of eating them.

The Spiritual Root of Food Struggles

This is the part that often gets ignored, but it’s essential.

1. Control

Feeling out of control with food is rarely about food itself, It’s about trying to control internal overwhelm.

When life feels overwhelming, food becomes the place where control is either exercised or lost. Healing requires learning how to release control, not tighten it.

2. Inner Child Wounds

Many food struggles are rooted in early experiences around lack, safety, or self-soothing.

If food was comfort, reward, or security growing up, those patterns don’t disappear in adulthood. They show up during stress, fatigue, or emotional overload.

Healing means addressing those old wounds, not shaming yourself for them.

3. Expanding Emotional Capacity

When your capacity to tolerate discomfort is low, food becomes the escape. As you build emotional resilience your ability to sit with stress, uncertainty, and hard feelings, the urgency to use food decreases.

You don’t need food to cope when you can actually handle what you’re feeling.

How Healing Actually Happens

Healing binge eating or overeating isn’t about:

• trying harder

• controlling yourself more

• or finding the perfect food plan

It’s about addressing overwhelm and control at the root.

That means:

• stopping chronic unreasonable restriction

• regulating your nervous system

• processing emotions

• learning to surrender control

• and building emotional capacity

When those pieces come together, food loses its power.

The Bottom Line

At the end of the day, your recovery approach isn’t about whether you binge or overeat. Feeling out of control with food is about control, not food and once you start addressing that, real food freedom becomes possible.

Want Support Beyond Information?

If all this resonates with you, here’s a truth for you:

You don’t need more podcasts or blog posts (they are filler), you need support, structure, and accountability with a road map to follow.

That’s exactly what my Food Freedom coaching program provides.

Inside coaching, we work on:

• breaking the unreasonable dieting/restriction → overeat cycle

• regulating your nervous system

• handling emotional triggers/danger zones in real time

• building food sobriety that actually lasts

👉 Learn more about my coaching program and apply here.

And if you want ongoing support, tools, and episode updates, make sure you’re on my email list through my website so you don’t miss what’s coming next.