Why is cereal so good to binge on?

[katiescarlett]

I was really struck by how many people mentioned cereal in the discussion about fave foods to binge on & thought it merited its own thread. I thought I was the only one obsessed with cereal!

Even before I was bulimic, I couldn't have a box of cereal in the house because I'd finish it off within a couple of days. I just love it - cornflakes, shreddies, fruit 'n' fibre - I could eat it forever.

In fact (and I hate myself for this), people at my office keep food in communal fridges and cupboards, and occasionally I steal their cereal because I just can't resist it :( I know that's really bad.

When I first started b/p-ing I just did it on chocolate and cake; somehow I thought it was 'pointless' doing it on healthier foods, but then I found that cereal is not only fun to eat but pretty easy to get up. Except the other day, when I had some granola with lots of milk, and at first I just threw up loads of acidic liquid which really made me smell of sick (never good when you're at work), before the milk and cereal came up. Do other people find that certain cereals work better?

And why is cereal so good to eat? I also love Kelloggs Nutrigrain bars, and I half-suspect them of using some secret Kelloggs ingredient that's addictive to people like me...

[Suzy]

Yup cereal is my downfall too I usually have four bowls when on a binge (worked it out to around 2000+ calories).
I find Special K, Branflakes, Frosties are best as they break down well and are not too stodgy, although porridge style ones when made runny are good.

[anonomousmia]

omg, i didn't realise cereal was such a big thing either! 4t it was just me! I always begin a binge on at least 2 bowls of cereal!

I find rice krispies, weetabix or bran flakes (with a load of sugar!) tasty and easy 2 purge. Also special k varieties, frosties and crunchy nut cornflakes. xx

[x2to00x]

i don't know about binging but i know i love cereal. i think it's b/c part of me believes that it's healthy so i can eat it mostly without guilt. <-- bs lie i tell myself.

i also tend to eat it dry by the pieces so that i can be "eating" but not getting that many calories. honey nut cheerios anyone ;-)

[nathrakh]

I used to weight 110 kilo, and went down to like 55 kilo right now. I lost that much weight by only eating cereal and skipping all other meals. However, then i started having bigger portions of cereal because i always am hungry untill i ate like 2000 calories of cereal in 1 session followed up by a day of fasting. After a while i went beyond 2000 calories and fasting wasnt enough anymore so i had to start purging aswell. To avoid gaining weight. But cereal has always been like my favourite food, i especially like Cruesly and all :P. And since im really depressed eating is like the only thing right now wich gives me a good feeling, however if i dont purge it will make me gain weight.

[katiescarlett]

Sorry you are depressed :( I can't offer much advice that will help, except that cereal is probably the worst thing to eat if you are trying to lose weight. It contains so many calories compared to how full it actually makes you feel. As other people have said, it's easy to eat your whole day's calorie allowance in one sitting, and still want more.

Try to eat stuff like vegetables and low-fat yoghurt and lentils - that's what I do to allow myself to eat plenty in terms of quantity, but still not gain weight. Also it might help regulate your mood - sugars and carbs, which cereal is, tend to give you a high and then a low...

[nathrakh]

Yeah used to eat al of fruit aswell in the past. In sick quantities. Like 3 kilos of apples at once. Stopped binging fruits when i read only the liver could use the fructose in ur body. And the rest of it would be stored as fat.

[i.hate.my.life.45]

Oh, I always binge on cereal.

[stonecoldsober]

is cereal a bad food? becuase, damn..i love it!

[katiescarlett]

Is cereal a bad food? Not from what the marketers would say (fibre, vitamins, blah blah), but if there was some kind of index to measure the ratio between how easily you can fill up on a type of food versus how many calories it has, then cereal would definitely be the worst food in my book.

If I ate as much chocolate as I possibly could, I'd probably consume about 1500 calories. Cereal, I could probably get through two whole boxes - 3000 calories at least. It just slips down so easily!

[nathrakh]

2 boxes of cereal are easier to purge then 1,5k kcals of chocolate tho hehe. When i binge i dont binge stuff wich i find hard to purge.

[blah]

when a went through a b/p phase a couple yrs ago lucky charms and cookie crisps were def a favorite..i think it's all the milk etc

[katiescarlett]

Yeah, cereal is definitely easy to purge, but I only realised that quite recently. I guess I always associated bingeing with sweet foods - chocolate was a 'treat' which normally I'd only 'let myself' have a little bit of, so it made sense to binge on it; but actually (as many people here know - I'm a late learner!) it's quite hard to throw up.

I still remember my feeling of pure *delight* when I threw up cereal for the first time. I hadn't intended to b/p; I just fancied some cereal, and ended up eating five bowls and feeling bad, so I thought I'd give it a go, and was so happy when it worked really well.

Maybe it's because the milk neutralises the acid a bit. Maybe it's because the density of cereal is just about right so that it stays in suspension in the milk rather than sinking to the bottom of your stomach and not coming up. Anyway, it's brilliant...

[nathrakh]

I think the weight of a product also makes a big difference in how easy it is to purge. I once ate some sweets and they stayed like bricks in my stomach.
Ive also found fruits really easy to purge. Like apples. Im trying to lessen purging/binging tho. And trying to plan it. Like eat 1k kcals all week long, every day. And then once per week a binge with everyting i like, and a purge. But its annoying to plan these things as its not always possible to purge when ppl are around :(. Maybe its good ppl are around preventing me tho. Else id do it even more oftne. I just hate myself so much for having to binge purge. But eating something just makes me really good, but eating only a small bit of something nice just doesnt work for me hehe.

And i think milk really neutralizes the acid yeah. Today i had a big purge on fruits. But gotten loads of bleedings in my mouth.

[katiescarlett]

Really: fruit? That would never occur to me - but it sounds like I've always been quite misguided about foods to binge on; I imagined it to go naturally with chocolate and cake, but actually those foods are the hardest to get up!

I do find crunchy foods more satisfying to binge on; I know lots of people say ice cream's good, but I don't enjoy eating it.

I am trying to keep the b/p'ing to once a week, too, but it's more like twice a week at the moment. I wish I could say that the once-a-week rule is purely for health reasons, but it's more because my gag reflex gets desensitized really easily so giving myself a week's break means it's easier to make myself sick when I do go for a binge...

[pitypeace]

its horrible, vomiting it tastes like Horlicks the malt drink! no joke! *if ur purging cornflakes*

[silentxrainxdrops]

I ALWAYS binge on cereal usually special K or cheerios :)/:(

[Vision Thing]

Cereal is great to binge on....but I don't eat it with milk

[Priscilla]

coco-pops are my dream.
I didn't even realise how easy they were to bring up until a couple of days ago-how sad!

The best thing is it's a way i can binge on chcolate but it still comes up really easy
[damn chocolate being so bloody difficult.]

[Static]

the weight of food totally plays into how it comes up. Most cereal floats, so it's easier. The other thing too is that cold foods (like icecream and cereal) are appealing to bingers (and purgers) since they don't make you feel as full as something warm would.
I mean. Come on. Cereal has everything-- a billion flavor/texture options, it can be crunchy or soft, sweet, fruity, chocolatey, etc... and it comes up smoothly since you're eating it with milk (or something) and that makes the solid more liquid.

[tulips]

eTo view links or images in this forum your post count must be 1 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. I've only purged on cereal once.
It hurt so much coming up. They were the flakes kind. And milk is so disgusting the second round.