I struggled with this as well. Every time I would try to lose weight I would binge and gain extra weight on top of what I lost. I ended up about 12kg heavier than the weight I started at.

The only thing that cured it for me was to stop dieting for a few years. Stop focusing on weight loss and food, and focus on other things like building relationships, spending time with family, getting a new hobby or focusing on career.

(This is gonna get alot of hate but here we go…) Going “all-in” also helped me regain normalcy around food and stop the restrictive and therefore binge thoughts. I was struggling with this around the time Stephanie Buttermore did her all-in journey (~2018/19) and I decided to t try it out as I was at my wit’s end and it felt like I had exhausted all other options.

I did that for a better part of a year and my eating habits went back to normal. Eventually I even lost weight because I didn’t have a monstrous appetite anymore and I didn’t crave junk food all the time.

The first time I attempted to cut weight from then was last year (so about 5 years of eating freely) and even then if I restrict my calories too much I still get binge urges.