7 Things To Do If You Can’t Stop Binge Eating At Night

This post was originally published on September 10, 2020, and updated July, 2026.

Binge eating can feel so horrible, fill you with shame, and make you feel hopeless about losing weight. But more than anything, it is very misunderstood. Binge eating is not some kind of personal failure, lack of willpower, or food addiction, despite what so many like to claim. It’s a smart, adaptive response to emotions and bodily states that need your attention. If you’re wondering how you can stop binge eating, particularly at night (when it’s most prevalent), this post will help you. We’ll start with helping you understand why you’re binge eating in the first place.

What is Binge Eating?

Binge eating is eating that feels out-of-control and perhaps a bit compulsive. There is often emotional numbing or “checking out” going on during the eating process. It is typically consuming “larger than normal” amounts of food in a short period of time, usually more than the body needs for physical nourishment, and becoming uncomfortably full afterward, although some people do not feel too full, no matter how much they eat.

If you’re not sure whether what you’re doing counts as a binge or ‘just’ overeating, I break down the difference here.

During a binge, you may feel unable to stop, feel out of control, or totally tuned out from your current experience in your body. You may plan a binge hours ahead of time, or it could be unplanned and spontaneous. There are so many variations in how each person may experience binge eating, as each person’s relationship with food, their body, and attuning to their needs also varies.

If you are trying to understand yourself better and your relationship with food, one thing I want you to know is this – binging is serving a psychological purpose, even if it feels utterly worthless and horrible. If this is you, I’m sending you all the love and patience and peace in the world as you navigate this complex experience.

No matter how much you think you should be able to stop, you’re not broken or gross of lacking willpower. But something is going on. I hope this post helps you get curious and compassionate with yourself about what is underneath the binge eating and how think about not needing it anymore.

How to stop binge eating at night, in short:

Most nighttime bingeing isn’t about willpower or lack of control. It’s about not eating enough during the day. The fastest way to reduce it is to eat consistently (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks), give yourself real permission to eat the foods you crave, and be kind to yourself the morning after instead of restricting to “make up for it.”

Also please keep in mind that this will not be solved overnight, but will take days days, weeks, or even months of you repeatedly responding to your body’s needs until it trusts you will not be starving it again. Here are the 7 steps in detail.

Why Do I Binge Eat At Night?

Binge eating typically happens as a result of a combination of a few things: restriction (physical and psychological – we’ll talk about this later), emotional distress, and/or trauma, complex trauma (which is incredibly common) and PSTD. Most people who binge eat do so at night, rather that during the day. And this makes sense. If you are trying to eat less during the day, you’re likely pretty hungry by the time afternoon rolls around. This could cause primal hunger, and a reaction to keep eating all night long.

And if diets you’ve been on have put strict rules on how much you can or should consume, it’s possible you’ve developed a bit of a preoccupation with it. Squashing your thoughts down all day can be exhausting. Believe it or not, allowing yourself to eat more is one great way to eventually stop binging in general.

If you want to understand so you can stop, here are the reasons binge eating at night is so common:

You binge at night for a reason that makes complete sense: by evening, a day of under-eating (skipped breakfast, a small lunch, no snacks) catches up with you. Add the fact that nights are less busy, more private, and closer to easy-to-reach food, and it’s the perfect setup. It’s not a willpower problem. It’s a nourishment problem. And that’s good news, because it’s fixable.

1. Restriction – physical and otherwise

Binge eating and binge eating disorder (BED) are fundamentally restrictive. I know that can be extremely confusing, but it is true. So if you’re always trying to eat less, or believe you should be eating less, and you ALSO end up binging every night, there is something that’s not working. The key is not believing that you’re fundamentally flawed, but looking at the way you’re eating during the day. You could be binging as a way of coping with the belief you should eat less. Yes, this happens.

Trying to eat less is likely just to make you eat more.

Binge eating can also be a reaction to emotional, psychological, or spiritual restriction. Not speaking up for your needs, not living life the way you authentically desire, or not having enough connection or pleasure in your life can make you more likely to lean on food as a coping mechanism or a way to soothe yourself. Because women are socialized to adhere instead of speak up, the patriarchy could be to blame, at least somewhat.

Strict rules for eating and living can trigger binging or cause you to develop binge eating disorder. For more about why food rules trigger binge eating and what to do about it, I suggest learning more about intuitive eating. And if you want my take on why other types of rules we live under can cause us to have unmet needs (restriction), sign up for my newsletter, Lunch & Liberation. I wax on about how our cultural and problematic conditioning keeps us stuck in low self-worth and attempts to fix that by shrinking our bodies.

It’s a fun community to be a part of.

2. Chronic dieting

If you’re trying to lose weight and binging at night anyway, some deprivation effects are going on that you want to stop doing. General food restriction (ie not eating enough) by doing things like calorie counting, doing a keto or low carb diet, or any other type of food group or food amount restriction – can also feel like deprivation in your body (not to mention your spirit). Lack of proper nutrition is deeply felt by every cell in your body, including those in your brain, so simply put – not eating enough can trigger a binge.

Binge eating is most common at night, after the business of the day has ended. If you don’t eat enough during the day… maybe skimping on carbs and fat at lunch and depriving yourself of afternoon snacks, it will feel impossible to stop binge eating at night.

In addition to being more hungry at night because of not eating enough during the day, it is common to be less busy (so less distracted from our emotions), more likely to be alone, and more likely to have easy-to-access food around. This is why prioritizing eating a filling breakfast and lunch are the best things to do to make you less likely to binge eat before, with, or after dinner.

3. Emotional unmet needs

Emotional eating is often misunderstood. Is it normal to eat for comfort, like ice cream to deal with a humid day, your grandma’s lasagna after a long car ride with screaming children, or any kind of traditional cultural food when you feel disconnected. This is a wonderful, life-affirming beautiful part of being human.

Eating food for emotional reasons is not a major problem, even if you are doing it every day. But if the quantities are enough to make you feel physically sick or uncomfortable, it’s likely making you feel even worse physically and could be raising your blood sugar. You could also be mis-managing your emotions.

Not feeling free to express your emotions can be deeply uncomfortable to the psyche, even if it feels super “normal”. Due to cultural systems that make productiveness the height of human achievement (eye roll) you may be exhausted after work. If you work in an environment that doesn’t promote your self-expression, maybe your creativity feels cut off.

Perhaps you don’t feel safe expressing your needs. Do you feel like you are constantly having to prove yourself because you are a woman, or in a larger body? You bet that takes a toll.

Our lives are incredibly busy. Too much stress and not enough stress management skills can lead to using food as a coping mechanism.

If you have gotten into the habit of using food to soothe any sign of a difficult emotion, ie emotional eating, it can easily turn into a binge if the emotions are severe enough and if you haven’t learned other helpful tools for dealing with difficult emotions. And if all of that is happening AND you are starving because you’re on a diet – perfect storm.

4. Complex trauma AND POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (PTSD)

A very hight 60-70% of folks with binge eating disorder have a trauma history. When you’re stuck in a trauma response your nervous system is activated and you’re seeking an escape from this feeling. It could be shame that is triggered – a really bad conversation with your mom or a doctor in which you were made to feel like you were bad or wrong, either for being a certain size or for eating more than you “should”.

During a binge, you are likely to feel temporary – but real – relief from difficult emotions you were struggling with before the binge. Anxiety, loneliness, fear, depression, and stress are common reasons that someone may binge eat. That emotion may be something you are consciously aware of, but it could also be something that is buried deep down. Both are valid.

What about GLP-1s and night eating?

A lot of people ask whether a GLP-1 medication (Ozempic, Wegovy, Zepbound) will stop their nighttime bingeing. For some people, these drugs do quiet the urge to eat at night, and that relief can be real. But there’s another side to the story, which is why these drugs aren’t always the answer. GLP-1s turn down the volume on the thoughts about food, because they dramatically affect your appetite, but they don’t resolve what’s driving it. If the bingeing is coming from under-eating during the day, or from using food to cope, that pattern is still there underneath. Which is why some people find the bingeing returns when they stop the medication, sometimes louder. If you’re on a GLP-1 and still feel out of control at night, or trying to decide, that underlying relationship with food is exactly what’s worth working on.

Binge Eating vs Binge Eating Disorder (BED)

If you feel triggered to binge eat most days of the week, and it’s happening week after week, it’s possible you could be diagnosed with binge eating disorder (BED). Binge eating disorder is the most common eating disorder and is extremely under-diagnosed due to lack of awareness about eating disorder nuance by healthcare professionals and body-size bias (weight stigma), which is rampant.

Some experts, including one of my teachers, Fiona Sutherland, believe than many people diagnosed with binge eating disorder, actually have atypical anorexia. This article from Project Heal explains how common anorexia is in larger-bodied people. The NYT also wrote about atypical anorexia.

So, the difference between binge eating and binge eating disorder is the frequency and intensity of the episodes and the amount of emotional distress that corresponds. BED also includes moderate to severe mental health disturbances. If you think you may have binge eating disorder, you could tell your doctor if that feels safe. You could also send me a message and I can help direct you toward the care that you need.

But do know this – you can heal. And a rigid diet and weight loss is probably not going to be how you get there, no matter how much you don’t want to hear that.

7 Steps to Stop Binge Eating at Night

1. Get adequate carbohydrates at meals and snacks

Make sure you’re feeding yourself enough during the day. That means eating breakfast and lunch, and at least one snack in the afternoon (some people need a morning snack too). If you’re hungry at 3pm, but you try to suppress your appetite by drinking water, diet soda (not that there’s anything wrong with diet soda), or eating plain carrots, you are very likely to be EXTREMELY hungry when you’re done with work. This amount of under-eating triggers binge eating all night long.

After eating enough during the day for a week, see if your urge to binge at night lessens.

2. Give yourself permission to eat all foods

Forbidding yourself from eating your favorite foods is not likely to last long without backfiring. The more you lean into unconditional permission to eat, the more you will learn to trust your body.

Take note of the foods that you binge on. Are they also the ones you aren’t really giving yourself permission to eat? If the answer is yes, make a list of foods that you don’t let yourself eat. Introduce one of them back every few weeks, being mindful in the process.

Try not to just go hog wild with eating these foods without paying attention to your body, but do it mindfully. If it’s ice cream that you binge on, for example, go on an ice cream outing during the day. Go get your favorite ice cream cone and enjoy the hell out of it. No guilt allowed. Since nighttime is a vulnerable time for binging, we want to break this up by bringing these foods into the light of day.

3. Focus on nourishment instead of weight loss

Did I lose you? I know this one is hard, and can even feel impossible. But one way to fast track your progress to healing your relationship with food and stop binging at night is to put weight loss on the back burner. When you’re actively pursuing weight loss, you are probably not going to be eating enough and will be feeling deprived, even if for a little while you can convince yourself you’re not.

Instead of closing this tab, freaking out and running away from this right now, maybe just start with a pros and cons list and see where that takes you. I get it. It is a HUGE task to stop blaming your body for being the problem.

To do: Get out your journal and make a pros and cons list. What could I gain if I stop trying to lose weight and instead work on improving my body image? What will I lose? Then write about your answers for a while.

4. Make a loose plan for how you will eat

Instead of being surprised every time you’re hungry, make a plan to eat enough. This doesn’t need to be fancy, just a general idea of how you’re going to feed yourself throughout the week. It can be food you make, assemble, order from a restaurant, or take out of your freezer – all work. Remember that food rules do not help you in this scenario. Just have enough food accessible to you so you don’t run into a food emergency. That is a really good setup for a binge episode, especially at night when you’re more likely to be tired and stressed from the day.

If you want to change your eating habits, like eat less cheezits or more vegetables down the line, great. But if you’re dealing with binge eating, now is not the time. You can get to that later. Here is a great article by a colleague, Rachel Hartley, about why gentle nutrition needs to come last.

5. Find ways to feel, heal, and deal with your emotions

This one is, of course, not simple. Be curious about a craving, rather than immediately blaming yourself for having it. If you are overly stressed, try some soothing techniques like spending time outdoors, getting more sleep, or talking to a therapist. If you have some deep trauma that you are aware of, I suggest putting the project of controlling your body on hold and finding someone who can help you process your past.

I fully recognize this is no easy task. We live in a world that treats thinness like some kind of badge of honor. So if binge eating has caused you to gain weight, I see you. I can offer you is this: you do not deserve to hate your body. If you can convince yourself to put the goal of weight loss on hold for 6 months, for example, you may find that you heal from the binge eating for good. It’s that powerful. You may want to read this.

6. WHAT TO DO After a binge

This is very important – talk kindly to yourself. The guilt that hits the next morning is its own problem. Here’s more on how to soften the guilt. Say things like “It’s ok. I’m okay.” Do something that soothes your nervous system like deep breathing, looking at the stars in the sky, lighting some incense, or using aromatherapy. Call a friend.

The day after a binge, unpack it. Ask yourself why you were triggered. Did you eat enough earlier in the day? Did you binge on foods you’ve labeled as “bad”? Is subtle restriction showing up? Was there an experience today where I did not get my needs met?

Try not to just tell yourself that you’re lazy or broken or gross or lacking willpower. These phrases may feel more comfortable to you because they are what you’re used to. But I promise you, shaming yourself is not going to help you stop binging at night either.

7. Get support

I see the most amazing people drastically change their relationship with food by working regularly with me. I’m not saying I’m the only option (obviously), you need to find the right person who you connect with and you feel safe and comfortable with.

I believe we all deserve to have peaceful and abundant relationships with food. Working with someone 1-1 allows you the space to really understand why food is such a strong coping mechanism for you. Being guided with compassionate, but direct, support is a game-changer.

I also always recommend group support for binge eating and body image troubles. Consider joining my group if binge eating is something you’rea ready to tackle. Being heard and speaking your truth about an experience that can feel so shameful is deeply healing.

My Favorite Resources About Binge Eating

Here is a great interview with Amy Pershing, a binge-eating expert, on Food Psych with Christy Harrison.

Reclaiming Body Trust, a wonderful book to help heal the painful cycle of body shame.

Check out my full list of body image, eating disorder, and intuitive eating resources here.

Final Thoughts On Binge Eating At Night

If you are restricting yourself – in actuality, or just the feeling that you should be “eating better” to lose weight, it can lead you to feelings of failure and an urge to binge eat. Sugar cravings are often due to deprivation or a perceived future deprivation. That’s the “diet starts tomorrow” mindset.

If you are dealing with binge eating on a regular basis, I promise you – you can heal. First things first – make sure you’re eating enough. It is often quite hard to know how much to eat if you’ve been a chronic dieter for 20 years. Working with someone who can guide you on this to make sure you’re eating enough, and help you work through how surprisingly difficult this may be could be super helpful.

Want to stop feeling out of control around food?

And if you’re ready for deeper, guided support, take a look at The Love Food Again Program, my six-month group program for people who are done with dieting as a way of life and want to feel normal around food again. Come see if it’s the right fit.

You deserve a happy relationship with food and your body, no matter your body size.