Description

Binge eating is a form of overeating in which a person ingests a large amount of food during a discrete period of time (within one or two hours, for example) and experiences feelings of being out of control and unable to stop eating during the episode. In practice, the duration of a binge may vary greatly from one event to the next, making it difficult to define the number of binges occurring in a given day. Binge eating often occurs in the absence of hunger and is characterized by eating very rapidly; eating alone (due to embarrassment over the amount being eaten); and having strong negative feelings, such as guilt, shame and depression, following the binge. Typically, a binge episode ends only when all the desirable binge foods have been consumed or when the person feels too full to continue eating.

While binge eating is a symptom of