overexercising

does anyone compulsively overexercise to counter binge eating & also ocd which for me its always one more lap or if i miss a day i feel like a fat slob failure. used to go to the gym & spend hours back when i worked but now i dont work & i jog & try to turn everything into exercise. playground equipment is like a gym 4 me. its just never enuff! just wondered if anyone was like this

Yes! I used to be extremely addicted to and compulsive about exercising and it was all part of my ED. I think it's called exercise bulimia. I went to great lengths to be able to exercise, including getting up in the middle of the night to go running. And even if I was injured I kept going. I had to stop when I got a stress fracture in my foot. I thought I was going to go insane from the enforced rest. But what I actually found was that it helped me get my eating back in check. It was like, without the exercise to compensate for the binges, I didn't binge as much.

Are you getting any help with this trixielou? Wishing you all the very best

thanks 4 your reply. ive gotten up in the middle of the night also to jog one time it was cold & raining & the town cop stopped me to ask if i was ok i guess he thought i was running from someone. oohhh and injuries are the worst a couple of years ago i turned my foot so hard the top of my foot rolled on the pavement i actually limped around town every day & it actually healed with me doing that. then a month & a half ago i rolled the same foot jumping with the kids on those inflatable slides & i was forced to rest it & i could only walk not jog. it makes me wanna binge even more if i dont exercise cuz im depressed. the killer with my weight is i have gotten back in the habit of waking up at night & binging on sugar which makes me feel hung over the next morning. the thing is my workouts arent out of control--its my thinking if i dont do it for a day. my max is 3 days & if feel like im gonna go insane. my t encourages my workouts because it helps control anxiety & bp (he says its like a med for me) but i havent came out & told him about the other side of it your right exercise bulimia like rite now its 1am east time & i cant wait til morning when i can go work out & im already thinking make up laps. i feel like its the only thing i have that i can still control. rite now the walk/runs i do are equal to about 5 or 6 miles. i remember a time i would go 10 full miles (a full lap around my town is a mile) after a binge. i know its so counterproductive to be exercising to not even burn off half the crap i binge on but right now its more to feel good mentally & so i can function each day.

It's really difficult to get out of that mindset. Also, exercise is good for us so it's easy to kid ourselves that we don't really have a problem. And I totally know what you mean when you say you're not just exercising to burn off the binge, you're mainly doing it to feel better. I'm the same. I was really using exercise to boost my mood ("runner's high" etc). Not that there is anything wrong with exercising to put you in a good mood. Just, when it gets excessive and starts taking over your life and it's the only way you know how to feel good, then it's a problem.

Does your T know you have an ED? I hope you're able to talk to him about that part of it. And that he and he can help you work on ways to moderate the exercise and the binging. Good luck!!! ((((((((trixielou))))))))))))

well i went 5 extra laps today it felt good but the joint below my left knee isnt liking it. i was talkin to this guy down the street who used to jog all the time on the railroad tracks. im 36 & was askin him if his knees ever bothered him when he jogged. he said he blew both of them out--no wonder jogging every day on the railroad trax . my dad also said this man had an old football injury which he didnt say anything about. heres the kicker--he jogged every day & had a heart attack after that he sat around on his porch & got fat he couldve atleast walked theres other people i know who have had heart attax & battled cancer & they walk like crazy. doug (thats his name) just couldnt believe im 36 & my knees are botherin me but gosh my daughter did cheerleading & the girls that were the tumblers were havin major knee problems be4 high school i severely need an elliptical machine i love em! i will talk to t about it he wont be surprised cuz he knows im the type where i do everything to the extreme

This is such a good, yet often overlooked, topic!

This is how my ED started, and I didn't even know it was an ED! I wanted to lose weight and I was told to exercise. I just took it to the extreme. I used to exercise off every single calorie I ate in a day. So I'd end up exercising many times a day, ususally immediately after a meal. I made myself run until I threw up or passed out. That's how I knew it was a "good workout."

I still see exercise as a punishment. I can't seem to wrap my head around healthy exercise.

I totally agree that it can be hard to know what "healthy exercise" is. And I think a lot of people over-do it, even if they don't have an "official" ED. I am also someone who tends to do things to extremes, and exercise fits right into that category for me.

Trixielou mentioned walking and I now find that to be the healthiest exercise for me. I have 3 energetic dogs and we hike a lot every day, but it's not that obsessive or excessive type of exercising that happens when I run. I find walking to be the best form of exercise for me now.

Sorry about your knees ((((((trixielou)))))) I have issues with my Achilles from running.

uugghhh im actually gaining weight i have been puttin the food away heavier but usually when i do that ill go couple of days not eatin it balances out well i go 4 blood work today & come to find out the last thyroid test i had that never made it to my d office was high & that was months ago so i had more blood work today have a d appt monday so will find out just what my levels are & obviously my med needs adjusted. sluggish thyroid = sluggish metabolism not to mention other symptoms. this makes me mad cuz my labs from last time just slipped thru the cracks. i remember when i first ever got put on thy med i was a fat slob & the weight started droppin off. didnt really know where to put this but 4 me it goes here cuz i was so upset i did xtra laps today. uuggghhhh wanna say more but very agitated

I obsessivley excercise too, but not after binge eating. I don't eat anything, and when I am forced to by parents, I excercise compulisively before and after the "meal". I don't know why, but it makes me feel good, like the tablespoon of food that I ate doesn't matter anymore, now that I've excersized.

I obsessively excercise too. It's something I have control of and It relaxes me. I go to the gym every morning for one plus hours and then I'll go again at night for a class or two. I do rotate my exercises everyday in which I'll do cardio one day and then fat buring the next. I now have a very little appetite. So it's very hard for me to eat my Weight watcher points.
Two weeks ago I got so mad at myself for putting a little weight on I worked out at the gym extra hard last week. I lost 6 pounds. Yahooo!
Exercise to me is something I enjoy and again I can Control!!!....

yey i got a treadmill! id like to have an elliptical also. i remember when i used to go to the gym & i would get on everything i used to go to an ed website & people would talk about doing the same thing like spending hours at the gym & even going to different gyms. rite now im just walkin on the treadmill need to put some different songs on my ipod to workout to