How to tell if you have a binge eating disorder

When you think of eating disorders, anorexia and bulimia may be the first to come to mind. But in reality, according to the NEDA (National Eating Disorders Association), Bulimia Binge eating disorder (BED) is the most prevalent eating disorder in the United States.

In addition, while you may think that these are mostly women with eating disorders, Melainie Rogers, founder and CEO of BALANCE Eating Disorder Treatment Center, says that with BED, the percentage of men and women is divided to 50%.

Seventeen spoke to Rogers, who is also a Registered Dietitian Certified eating disorders, to find out exactly how BED is diagnosed and debunk the myths surrounding these disorders.

What is binge eating?

NEDA describes BED as "a serious, life-threatening and treatable eating disorder". To diagnose BED, three factors must be taken into account. According to Rogers, they are: "when a person finds himself eating an unusually large amount of food, he consumes it in a short time and eating that food makes him feel very distressed."

It is quite common to occasionally consume an excessive meal, but if this becomes a habit for which you are constantly stressed, you may need to ask for help. And if this cycle occurs at least once a week for three months, you should definitely consider the treatment options.

But it is important to note that the bed is different from bulimia, because excessive food consumers do not usually attempt to repair them by purging them. Instead, excessive eaters usually fall into a restrictive cycle in which they restrict themselves until they need to eat too much.

How can you tell if a friend or loved one is suffering from binge eating?

If you spend a lot of time with someone you may think he's struggling with BED, you may notice the disappearance of a lot of food in a short time, or packaging and empty containers. You may also notice discomfort when they eat in public.

But unfortunately, Rogers says that BED is quite difficult to identify because it involves "a lot of secrecy". It's possible that you notice that a friend eats too much, but Rogers explains that she usually sees her customers with BED avoiding getting baded in public.

Rapid weight gain over a short period is another sign that one could be suffering from BED, Rogers says. But it is also important to know that people with BED are not always overweight or obese. While many are, there are also people who are not overweight at all.

What are the myths about binge eating that need to be debunked?

A big misunderstanding that many have about BED is that if you had more will, you could stop eating too much. And if you just control your diet and exercise regularly, you could lose weight.

"Many people do not understand that a eating disorder is a mental illness," Rogers said. "Our customers come to us and they are so ashamed of not having this will.This is beyond the natural control of anyone – you need specialized treatment."

Rogers also adds that if you have problems with BED, following a diet will aggravate the symptoms. "Dieting, it's restricting, and with BED, people spend a lot of time restricting, and then they stuff themselves."

How do you treat binge eating?

"Eating disorders are a biopsychosocial disease, which means the benchmark treatment is a multidisciplinary team," Rogers said. This multidisciplinary approach includes psychotherapy, working with a nutritionist or doctor, and meeting a psychiatrist if anxiety and depression are contributing factors.

The most important thing to treat first is your diet. According to Rogers, you need to balance your food intake throughout the day to reduce the cycle of excessive alcohol consumption. In addition, it is therefore important to tackle the therapeutic treatment to determine the origin of this desire to gorge.

If you have an eating disorder, remember that the sooner you ask for help, the shorter your recovery time will be. "Full recovery is possible," says Rogers. "You do not have to spend the rest of your life with this disease."

If you or someone around you has an eating disorder, call National Eating Disorder Association, call (800) 931-2237. The hotline also has a online chat option.

Yerin Kim is an badistant editor of Snapchat at Seventeen.com. To follow her Twitter and Instagram!