Binge Eating and PMS
Written by CCTC Staff Writer
Binge eating disorder affects about 2.8 million US adults, and is the most common eating disorder. Binge eating disorder is actually more prevalent than bulimia and anorexia combined. Unfortunately, despite its prevalence, awareness and understanding of this frustrating disorder leads to further shame and isolation.
The average woman will menstruate once a month, for roughly 35 to 40 years of her life. That’s approximately 3000 days—more than 8 years—of periods during her lifetime. At any given time, 800 million women and youth worldwide are menstruating.
Many people struggle with premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and an increase in binge eating behaviors.
In this article we will discuss:
What PMS is
What causes PMS
What Binge Eating Disorder is
How Binge Eating Disorder is diagnosed
What to do if you’re struggling with binging around your period
How to deal with food cravings before, during and after your period
Tips to manage binge eating around menstruation
What is PMS?
According to the Mayo Clinic, Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) has a wide variety of signs and symptoms, including mood swings, tender breasts, food cravings, fatigue, irritability and depression. It's estimated that as many as 3 of every 4 menstruating women have experienced some form of premenstrual syndrome.
Symptoms tend to recur in a predictable pattern. But the physical and emotional changes you experience with premenstrual syndrome may vary from just slightly noticeable all the way to intense.
What symptoms are associated with PMS?
Every woman may experience PMS differently ranging from both physical and emotional symptoms. These include:
Anxiety or depression
Crying spells or mood swings
Trouble falling asleep
Withdrawing socially
Lack of concentration
Change in libido
Joint or muscle pain
Headaches
Fatigue
Abdominal bloating
Breast tenderness
Constipation or diarrhea
What causes PMS?
Exactly what causes premenstrual syndrome is unknown, but several factors may contribute to the condition:
Cyclic changes in hormones. Signs and symptoms of premenstrual syndrome change with hormonal fluctuations and disappear with pregnancy and menopause.
Chemical changes in the brain. Fluctuations of serotonin, a brain chemical (neurotransmitter) that's thought to play a crucial role in mood states, could trigger PMS symptoms. Insufficient amounts of serotonin may contribute to premenstrual depression, as well as to fatigue, food cravings and sleep problems.
Depression. Some women with severe premenstrual syndrome have undiagnosed depression, though depression alone does not cause all of the symptoms
What is Binge Eating Disorder?
Binge eating disorder, also sometimes referred to BED, is an eating disorder that involves recurrent episodes of eating large quantities of food, often quickly and to the point of physical discomfort. Many people who struggle with binge eating disorder will describe a feeling of loss of control when eating. Binging triggers many emotions of shame, distress and guilt. While binging is involved in bulimia nervosa, the difference with BED is that there are no compensatory measures such as purging afterward. While often misunderstood and underrecognized, BED is actually the most common eating disorder in the UNited States.
How is someone diagnosed with Binge Eating Disorder?
The diagnositc criteria includes:
Recurrent episodes of binge eating. An episode of binge eating is characterized by both of the following:
Eating, in a discrete period of time (e.g., within any 2-hour period), an amount of food that is definitely larger than what most people would eat in a similar period of time under similar circumstances.
A sense of lack of control over eating during the episode (e.g., a feeling that one cannot stop eating or control what or how much one is eating).
The binge eating episodes are associated with three (or more) of the following:
Eating much more rapidly than normal.
Eating until feeling uncomfortably full.
Eating large amounts of food when not feeling physically hungry.
Eating alone because of feeling embarrassed by how much one is eating.
Feeling disgusted with oneself, depressed, or very guilty afterward.
Marked distress regarding binge eating is present.
Binge eating occurs, on average, at least once a week for 3 months.
The binge eating is not associated with the recurrent use of inappropriate compensatory behaviors (e.g., purging) as in bulimia nervosa and does not occur exclusively during the course of bulimia nervosa or anorexia nervosa.
How are Binge Eating and PMS connected?
A recent study conducted in 2021 found that females with Binge Eating Disorder were more likely to experience moderate to severe PMS symptoms.
What is causing this connection? Researchers believe this connection may be that binge eating may be used as a coping mechanism to deal with the physical and emotional changes and frustrations PMS may cause.
If I am struggling with binging around my period, what should I do?
If you are struggling with this cycle of binging and an increase in behaviors during PMS or menstruation, you are not alone. A beginning step to understanding the connection in your own personal experience may be to track your next cycle including physical and emotional changes and binges. You may be able to detect a pattern of when an uptick in behavior use may arise. Next, if you are currently working with a therapist and/or registered dietitian to support you in recovery from binge eating, discuss with them the increase of struggle during your cycle. Together you can brainstorm ways to better support your recovery and manage urges to rely on binge eating to work through the discomfort.
If you don’t currently have support, start with researching treatment providers or programs that specialize in eating disorders, including binge eating disorder. Finding a trusted professional that can help you feel less alone in your recovery and begin to better manage your binging.
I crave specific foods before and during my period, is that disordered?
Cravings before, during and after menstruation is caused by hormonal fluctuations and changes in what type of energy our body is needing. With so many women experiencing different symptoms and changes both physically and emotionally, it is only natural that our bodies nutritional needs may shift. Many women report craving carbohydrates or chocolate during this time, which actually helps raise serotonin levels. While these two types of foods are unfortunately demonized in our culture of food moralization, this is actually the body's way of trying to release serotonin to help with balancing out mood with mood swings being common during the menstrual period.
While binge eating is a disordered eating behavior we would want to work on, it is important to remember that it is normal to have specific cravings associated with menstrual periods. If anything, being able to tune into cravings and honor these desires can be a healthy response to our bodies' innate wisdom. The problem is not in the cravings themselves, but the response we have to these cravings and specific foods.
For someone struggling with binge eating, craving a specific food that may be considered an off-limit item can create a further desire to eat it and eventually lead to a binge episode after restriction.
How can I manage binge eating around menstruation?
Here are a few tips that may be helpful to help manage binge eating:
Seek support of a registered dietitian and therapist that specialize in eating disorder treatment.
If you binge, be compassionate with yourself. Binge eating is a difficult behavior to stop, and you are not alone.
Oftentimes people restrict themselves after a binge eating episode. This only further intensifies the binge and restricts the cycle causing more distress.
Reach out for support, if you are struggling with urges to binge reach out to family or friends to talk or to do something together as a distraction.
If you or a loved one is struggling with binge eating disorder, take the first step today and talk to someone about recovery or simply learn more about the holistic, flexible eating disorder recovery programs we offer.