What Is Binge Eating?
Binge Eating Disorder (BED) happens when someone feels stuck in a cycle of eating while feeling unable to stop, often followed by guilt or sadness. Those difficult feelings lead to further use of food as a self-soothing technique, where it becomes a vicious cycle. Binge-eating episode happens when you eat very quickly, without being hungry/when uncomfortably full or eat alone due to feeling embarrassed.
Evidence suggests it is the most common eating disorder, and symptoms often begin in early adulthood, after a period of dieting. It can affect your weight, but also your mental health and how you feel about yourself. With the right support, it is possible to understand the triggers of binge eating and find kinder, more balanced ways to react.
Research has shown that guided self-help approaches can be very effective. If you’re struggling, know that you don’t have to face it alone- we’re here to help.
You’re in the right place if you:
- Have felt you can’t trust yourself around food or feel out of control around food
- Eat in secret, hide foods, eat very quickly or use eating in a way that makes it difficult for you to recover or make any progress
- You’re worried about your eating patterns, struggle with disordered eating, including comfort eating, skipping meals, emotional eating and yo-yo dieting
- Feel like no amount of food satisfies you, but you’re exhausted from dieting, and scared to make changes or not sure how to nourish yourself adequately
- Have co-existing health conditions (like Irritable Bowel Syndrome, hypothalamic amenorrhoea, high glucose or cholesterol), and you’re wondering how you can improve your health, without entering an endless cycle of restricting and bingeing
- Have body image concerns or feel eating affects your self-esteem and mood (feeling guilty, stressed, and embarrassed) and want to develop a healthy relationship with yourself
- Have sensory-based and nutrition challenges associated with ADHD and/or autism
- Have an ‘all or nothing’ approach or many diet rules, but want to learn intuitive eating and build a healthy relationship with food.
Binge-eating may feel different for each person, with everyone's experience being unique. We want to make our services accessible, so please reach out if you feel we may help.
What We Offer
An effective treatment for binge eating disorder should address more than your symptoms and eating habits. It also addresses the root causes of the problem, including the emotional triggers that lead to binge eating and your strategies for coping with stress, anxiety, fear, sadness, or other uncomfortable emotions.
If you have obesity, weight loss may also be an important goal, but dieting may contribute to binge eating, so it should be conducted with the support of a professional.
We offer help in clinical services for adults with binge eating, depending on your needs. We have therapeutic and dietetic help for people who feel like they are stuck, having difficulty in relationships or are interested in exploring unhelpful repeated patterns of behaviour.
- Specialist support for binge eating from NHS-experienced professionals and care within a multidisciplinary team to ensure holistic care and contact with primary care. We have been working as therapist and dietitian for a few years in the national health services. We bring those multidisciplinary experiences to our clinical work, sharing the same fundamental values of providing compassionate care.
- Therapeutic strategies for binge-eating. Sessions are led by your therapist, Jane Taylor. Binge eating disorder can be successfully treated in therapy, which focuses on the dysfunctional thoughts and behaviours involved in binge eating. A therapist will help you during your healing journey, focused on identifying the cause of binge-eating and providing evidence-based treatment. Therapy can teach you how to recognise your triggers and emotions, create new habits and develop effective emotional regulation skills. One of the main goals is for you to become more self-aware of how you use food to deal with other things.
- Dietetic consultations tailored to physical and mental health to build sustainable habits. Sessions are led virtually by your specialist dietitian, Martyna Kosciuszko. Together, you develop practical dietetic strategies for binge eating and emotional eating. Those consultations include:
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- Nutritional assessment to identify eating difficulties, long-term goals, dietary strategies, including co-existing conditions (e.g. Irritable Bowel Syndrome, hypothalamic amenorrhoea) and possible nutritional deficiencies (e.g., anaemia, calcium, vitamin D). In your first session, we will discover your story, including a full medical and diet history. This detailed assessment will lay the foundation for your recovery journey. After the assessment, you will receive a detailed assessment report along with recommendations.
- Follow-up sessions and nutrition guidance to support balanced eating and a positive relationship with food. During follow-up sessions, you will develop the skills to be able to listen and respond to your body. You will learn hunger/satiety cues, understand physical/emotional hunger and build intuitive eating skills. These sessions are also designed to help you maintain your progress, meet realistic nutritional goals and heal your relationship with food.
Martyna Kosciuszko
Registered Dietitian with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
Martyna Kosciuszko is a Registered Dietitian with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) in the UK and holds an MRes in Clinical Research (Human Nutrition). She is during completion of her PhD at the University of Manchester.
Martyna has specialist experience across both physical and mental health nutrition. She began her career in Poland supporting patients with weight management and gastrointestinal conditions, and later worked in the UK within NHS multidisciplinary teams. There, she supported clients living with anxiety, depression, autism spectrum disorder, personality disorders, and eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and ARFID.
Martyna has a particular interest in binge eating and helps clients move away from cycles of restriction and eating through practical, compassionate, and evidence-based strategies. Her approach combines nutrition education with supporting clients to build a healthier, more balanced relationship with food. She has completed additional training in Intuitive Eating (London Centre for Intuitive Eating), Motivational Interviewing (Association for Psychological Therapies), and CBT-E for Eating Disorders (CREDO Oxford).
Her philosophy is that recovery is not about rigid rules but about gaining confidence, flexibility, and trust in yourself to make choices that serve your wellbeing.