Why Can’t I Stop Binge Eating? Insight From a Therapist

TL; DR

If you’re stuck in a cycle of binge eating, the solution may be the opposite of what you’d expect. Restriction and dieting are most likely the root cause of your bingeing, not a lack of willpower or emotional weakness. Our bodies are biologically wired to overeat in response to food deprivation, a survival mechanism backed by research like the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. The more you restrict, the stronger the urge to binge becomes, leading to a guilt-shame cycle that keeps repeating. The most effective way to break that cycle is to eat more consistently (three meals and two to three snacks daily) to give your body the regular nourishment it needs. If bingeing or emotional eating is affecting your life, specialized binge eating disorder therapy can help you stop the cycle for good.

Are You Struggling With Binge Eating or “Emotional Eating”?

Maybe you begin each day determined to “be good” and stick to your “healthy eating” only to find that towards the end of the day, you are “ruining it.” You may be eating foods you didn’t intend to eat and feel out of control. Perhaps you consider yourself a “compulsive overeater” or “emotional eater.” You may believe that it’s a problem of “willpower.” Some people even describe feeling addicted to foods like sugar.

The solution we provide at EDTLA might be very different from what you would expect.

The solution is often counterintuitive: don’t try to “restart” or “be good” (aka continue to restrict). Instead, the recommendation is to eat more.

Yep, if you are binge eating, you are likely not eating enough! That’s right. Even if you are bigger-bodied and have been told by others to lose weight, this is still likely the case.

Dieting Is The Problem, Not The Solution

While many diet companies would have us believe otherwise, dieting (restricting) is not something our bodies are designed to do. Like the other 4 basic needs—water, sleep, air, and warmth—food is a primary need without which humans cannot survive.

Our bodies evolved in an environment in which food was relatively scarce. To survive in such an environment, our bodies had to prioritize the consumption of food above other activities. When our food supply was less secure, stocking up when food was available was a behavior that ensured our species’ survival. Bingeing was not a matter of poor willpower, but a perfectly normal and healthy body response to starvation. Most people who didn’t “binge” when a rare animal wandered into their territory died, and those genes didn’t get passed down.

When any of our 5 basic needs is unmet, several things happen. The first is usually that we become irritable and narrow our focus on trying to get that need met to the exclusion of other activities. We may also have poor concentration for other activities. This is the distracting “food noise” that is being vilified in the age of GLP-1 medications.

Binge Eating Is Driven By Restriction

A now-famous Minnesota Starvation Experiment put several healthy young men on restricted diets for 6 months. During the restriction phase, the men exhibited behaviors that indicated a preoccupation with food, including collecting cookbooks, recipes, and cooking utensils. Both during the dieting phase and during the refeeding phase, there were reports of binge eating among the participants. This demonstrates that binge eating is a powerfully driven biological response to restriction.

Binge eating—the rapid ingestion of a large amount of food, usually with a loss of control during the eating—commonly leads in turn to feelings of shame, disgust, guilt, self-criticism, and distress. You may then resolve to diet again and do an even better job at restricting. You may even use other behaviors to try to undo the effects of the binge. Either way, more dieting ensues, and the cycle repeats.

You Need to Eat More to Stop Binge Eating

Even as an experienced eating disorder therapist, people often don’t believe me when I tell them they need to eat more, not less, to stop binge eating. You may, like so many of my clients, believe you are eating enough. Maybe you feel that your eating is emotional, and not necessary. You may believe that your problem is with willpower.

But, if you have not tried it yet, I strongly encourage you to try doing the opposite of what you have tried: instead of focusing on cutting out the binge eating, focus on eating more. In particular, plan to eat three meals each day plus two to three snacks. This regular eating is usually the way to break a cycle of disordered eating and begin recovery from an eating disorder.

Even if you don’t believe me or are terrified of weight gain, run it like an experiment for a week and see what happens. You may be surprised to see that it really helps.

You Don’t Have to Keep Fighting Your Body — Binge Eating Therapy in Los Angeles Can Help

If you’ve spent years blaming yourself for binge eating, therapy can help you finally understand that your body was never working against you. And that real, sustainable relief is possible. Working with a specialized binge eating disorder therapist means trading the exhausting restrict-binge cycle for a compassionate, evidence-based approach. One that actually addresses why the bingeing keeps happening.

You don’t have to keep white-knuckling your way through another failed attempt at restriction or wondering why willpower never seems to be enough. Binge eating therapy can help you rebuild a consistent, nourishing relationship with food, quiet the shame that follows a binge, and develop the emotional tools to break the cycle for good. At our Los Angeles eating disorder therapy practice, our skilled therapists specialize in helping teens and adults understand and overcome binge eating disorder with care that is judgment-free and rooted in the latest evidence. Ready to take that first step? Here’s how:

1. Reach out to Eating Disorder Therapy LA directly. We’re here and ready to help
2. Fill out our quick Google form, and we’ll connect you with a binge eating disorder specialist in Los Angeles, CA
3. Begin the journey toward a calmer, more nourishing relationship with food. One that no longer depends on restriction to feel in control

Other Services EDTLA Provides in Los Angeles, California

Understanding why you can’t stop binge eating is the first step. Having a skilled, compassionate therapist by your side is what transforms that insight into lasting change. With professional support in binge eating disorder therapy, you can expect to stop binge eating and break the cycle. You can learn to rebuild a consistent and nourishing relationship with food. Finally, you’ll be able to quiet the shame and self-blame that have kept you stuck.

At Eating Disorder Therapy LA, we offer individualized, evidence-based care to a broad range of clients. We help adults, college students, children, teens, and caregivers, addressing the full spectrum of eating disorders and related concerns. In addition to specialized binge eating disorder treatment, our therapists provide care for Anorexia Nervosa, Atypical Anorexia, Bulimia Nervosa, Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID), and Family-Based Treatment (FBT). We also offer support for Excessive Exercise, Body Image challenges, and Eating Disorder Phobias Related to Swallowing, Choking, and Vomiting.

To make quality care as accessible as possible, our Los Angeles therapy practice offers both online counseling and group therapy for eating disorders. We also provide small group FBT and ARFID consultations, eating disorder education, speaking and training, school programs, and clinical supervision for eating disorder therapists.

We invite you to explore our Eating Disorder Blog and Dr. Mulheim’s published books for deeper insight and guidance. When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder and The Weight-Inclusive CBT Workbook for Eating Disorders (available in 2026). To reach our team directly, call (323) 743-1122 or email Hello@EDTLA.com. We look forward to helping you find the relief and food freedom you deserve.

About the Author

With years of clinical experience helping clients understand the biological and psychological roots of binge eating, Dr. Lauren Muhlheim is uniquely equipped to shed light on why restriction is so often at the heart of disordered eating. As the founder of Eating Disorder Therapy LA and a licensed psychologist with the credentials Psy.D., FAED, and CEDS-C, Dr. Muhlheim has dedicated her career to providing weight-inclusive, evidence-based care that challenges the diet-culture myths that keep so many people trapped in the binge cycle.

Dr. Muhlheim specializes in treating binge eating disorder, anorexia, bulimia, ARFID, and related concerns across the lifespan, working with children, teens, adults, and the families who support them. Her non-diet, compassionate approach to binge eating treatment is reflected in her two published books. When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder and The Weight-Inclusive CBT Workbook for Eating Disorders (available in 2026). As well as one of the only FBT training courses for dietitians currently available in the field.

As one of a small number of FBT-certified therapists practicing in Los Angeles, Dr. Muhlheim is a respected advocate for family-centered, weight-inclusive eating disorder care. She is licensed in California, Indiana, New York, and Oregon, and holds a telehealth license in Florida, allowing her to extend her expertise in binge eating disorder treatment to clients across multiple states.