Want to know the ‘meal plan’ I was given by a dietitian at age 15? It may sound scarily familiar. 

My dietitian recommended (in her buttoned-up shirt and thick rimmed glasses) that for breakfast I was to have a black coffee and a thin piece of toast with something like low-fat cottage cheese on top. Not exactly the breakfast needed for a busy university student, hey.

Lunch was no better: a salad with protein and low-fat dressing. So forget anything tasty or creamy to actually satisfy a growing girl.

My “allowed” snacks were 100g of fat-free, sugar-free (fun-free) yoghurt or a “small” apple. Yes, it HAD to be small. Plus, a selection of battery-fuel energy drinks to keep me from falling asleep during a mid-afternoon lecture. 

Any guesses how that went? 

The binge eating saga

As you can imagine, by the time I got home from class, the hunger pangs inside of me were SCREAMING louder than a midnight possum-fight. And this, my friend, is where the uncontrollable binge fest would kick off...

I would cook up mountains of rice or noodles. I would devour thick chunks of crusty sourdough bread. I smashed chocolate-brownie ice cream by the TUB, then three, even four bowls of cereal and ice-cold milk, stalking the pantry and fridge for my next nighttime fix.

After being “good” all day, and then binging at night, the post-ravage guilt I felt was unbearable. I would lie in bed at night after another ‘failed day’ feeling useless. Berating myself until the early hours of the morning.

Then the next day? “Okay Lyndi, today you can do better, let's start again”. Stuffing my flimsy, insubstantial meal prep into my bag for the day ahead at Uni.

But every night, like clockwork, I was like a squirrel hoarding nuts for winter.

Is diet burnout a thing?

In all honesty, I was eating what I deemed ‘perfectly’ in public (with my little plastic tupperwares of dry, green leaves and not a carb in sight), then eating in secret at home to fill myself up.

This happened basically every single day. And what I didn’t realise at the time? I was going through diet burnout. Yes this is a real thing!

I was trying harder every single morning to stick to my strict ‘meal plan’ like a limpet clinging onto a rock. But because I was restricting myself so intensely during the day, I was overwhelming my mind and body, which led to me being out of control around food at night, stuck in a vicious diet cycle.

You gasp for air when you’re holding your breath, and you binge on food when you’ve restricted.

You might be reading this uncomfortably shuffling around on your squeaky office chair thinking “Oh yup, I can relate to that in some way”. In all honesty, our constant fixation with losing weight is exhausting, so it’s time to embrace a new approach.

The good news? I’m here to tell you that it doesn't rely on willpower or counting calories – not just as someone who’s lived through it, but as a nutritionist and dietitian, too.

So, let’s get into it.

The Last Supper mentality

No, I’m not talking about historic paintings (in case you were wondering!) The last supper mentality which had me in a chokehold in my binge-eating days, is the thought patterns so many of us have experienced.

It sounds a bit like this:

“Well I’m half way through this value-sized bag of cheese and chives chips, so I may as well finish the whole packet now, so there’s none left for later and then I can do better again”.

It’s giving yourself permission to binge on something because you think you’ll do better once it’s all finished. But how often is that actually the case?

So how can you break out of this cycle? I suggest starting with the Three Packet Principle.

The Three Packet Principle

It might sound counter-intuitive, but rather than removing all traces of the foods I used to get most out-of-control around (like chocolate, salted crisps and peanut butter), now I make sure I always have three packets of it in the house.

And when I finish a packet, I replenish it. So any time I want more I can. Rather than that desperate need to gasp for air after holding your breath (i.e. denying yourself food then binging) it’s now always readily available.

The fear of that addictive food running out is gone, kicked to the curb. And now you know there’s no point finishing the packet, because there is always more available.

Pigeon-sized portions

When I wouldn’t eat enough during the day, it triggered me to eat uncontrollably at night time. A super common experience I hear from my hundreds of Binge Free Academy members when they first join.

It may sound simple (and it is!), but the biggest mistake by far is not eating enough during the day. So by the time night comes, the snack-fiend strikes.

There’s a common belief that French women never get fat, and as I mentioned in a recent episode of my No Wellness Wankery podcast, there is some truth to that claim. Why? Because they prioritse eating satisfying and filling lunches so they don’t have the urge to plummet head-first into the pantry by the time they get home in the evening.

We eat for two reasons: fuel or pleasure. Think about this: you have a big presentation at 2pm, so it’s important you’re firing and thinking clearly. Having a balanced lunch beforehand helps – i.e. eating for fuel. (You can find my tips for building a balanced meal here if you need them).

Then sometimes you eat for pleasure: consider a slice of birthday cake or special foods at Christmas time and the shared ritual of eating them. That’s enjoyment.

Feel hungry all the time

When we undereat, we are boosting our cravings (not the desired result), along with our natural hunger hormones, called ghrelin. When you get hungry and your stomach starts to growl, that’s your ghrelin levels going up, telling your brain it’s time to eat.

So, when you eat and start feeling SATISFIED (this is key), your ghrelin levels should go down. At the same time, a hormone called leptin, which signals satisfaction, should go up.

An important thing to know about ghrelin is it also regulates your metabolism. So if you have high levels of ghrelin, you feel hungry all the time. Pretty smart hey!

The thing no one tells you is that dieting (aka ‘trying to be good during the day) increases your hunger hormones, slows your metabolism and boosts cravings for the things you’re trying to avoid. It’s an evolutionary response – that your body tries to store fat if it thinks resources are scarce.

This explains why you feel hungry all the time and often end up being good all day only to lose control at night.

Saving calories over satisfaction 

I used to count my calories meticulously during the daytime – down to every grape I was eating. Yes, it was as boring as it sounds! 

Now as a leading dietitian and nutritionist in Australia, I remind people how important it is to feel satisfied after what you eat, rather than getting bogged down in the dirty calories-counting business. 

A 200-calorie afternoon snack of yummy passion fruit yogurt and berries, or a slice of the old-faithful avo toast MAY just be your saving grace. 

If the afternoon hunger comes creeping into your belly, don’t stash those calories for later º – recognise the natural hunger and eat. It may help refrain you from fridge-diving at 7pm that night!

And if you’re ready to unravel yourself from years of dieting, just know that with the right support, you too can become someone who breaks free from this dreaded cycle. 

You can become someone who eats when hungry, stops when full and doesn’t obsess about food. I’d love to show you how. 

Lyndi Cohen is one of Australia’s leading dietitians, known as the Nude Nutritonist. She is a best-selling author and mentor for those with binge and emotional eating. Lyndi challenges diet culture, our warped beauty standards and provides practical strategies to help people overcome their disordered eating. Her Free 5 Day Course is an introduction to her renowned Binge Free Academy and the on-going support she offers.