Apparently, technically any food eaten ‘uncontrollably’ is considered a binge.
When I go in for treatment (anorexia) and they ask me if I ‘binged’, they don’t only mean 3000+ extra cals you eat until you’re stuffed. They are asking me if I ate any food ‘uncontrollably’, in a way I felt I couldn’t resist or stop, grabbing for it, eaten with haste, promoting shameful and guilty feelings - even if it’s just a bowl of oatmeal or single-serve packet of microwave rice or a flapjack bar from work (yah my ‘binges’ when they happen are mostly carbs lol). Though my smallest binge was either 5 dried apricot slices, or when I had 2 chocolate covered dates (though I’ve also eaten those things mindfully, without it being a binge)
You can have a whole bunch of potatoes, and stuffing, sausages, turkey, dessert, snacks, god knows what and make yourself feel sick, and that could be a binge depending on how you felt and why you ate it. You can also eat that exact same amount of food on Christmas day with your family, making yourself feel sick, with it not being a binge at all, because it was purposeful, mindful and not uncontrollable - just indulgence.
At least, that’s what those medical professionals have explained to me.
When it comes to a ‘binge’ as an isolated incident, not about the calories, it’s about the mental state - like with eating disorders in general, it’s not about the numbers (weight, calories, etc), it’s about what’s going on underneath. When it comes to disorders in general, there’s obviously a difference - if you’re binging on small amounts of food because you’re otherwise obsessed with restricting, it’s a restrictive eating disorder. If you’re frequently binging on large amounts of food without being overly concerned about restricting, it’s BED. You can also have mixes of the two. Then bulimia is you binge and then throw up, etc as we all know.
It’s not so cut and dry. It’s all intertwined.
‘Binging’ in a clinical setting refers to eating something in a way you felt you couldn’t help or resist, felt compulsive, medical professionals arn’t overly concerned with the calorie content of your food when treating EDs (unless you’re going through weight restoration). The only people so stubbornly concerned with calories and numbers and what they mean for us are us - the sufferers.
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