Just ate an entire bag of Reese's last night! HELP!

Okay, let me start off with how I'm feeling now. I am very mad at myself for what I did last night and the night before. Last night I ate an entire bag of Reese's. After making it all evening and finally laying in bed to fall asleep, my body started craving just one Reeses. This is how it always begins. Yeah, that's right- I usually binge late at night in bed. It's almost like, no one sees me and I am so tired, I lose consciousness of what I am doing. For instance, last night I wanted to stay up and watch a movie, but I was so tired I couldn't even keep my eyes open. However, I wasn't too tired to eat. I had the bag beside my bed so all I had to do was reach down, grab one, quietly unwrap it and devour it. Luckily, it was one of the smaller bags. But it still had 15 Reeses, each with 110 calories and 6 grams of fat.
Now that you understand what goes on in my late night binges, I'll tell you about the history behind it. When I was younger, I would sneak downstairs at night when everyone else was asleep so I could eat whatever I wanted. My favorite thing to do was to stand at the kitchen counter and eat straight out of the ice cream tub. It usually took 20 minutes before I made myself stop. But even then, my body would crave more. So I would take a bottle of water upstairs with me to gulp down in bed. I don't know if that helps the binge, but I sure thought it did.
One thing about me that might be hard to beleive is that I am very fit and in shape. I LOVE to work out. I used to work out every day for about 2-3 hours at the gym. But over the last month, I moved and have only been able to work out every other day. I get very depressed when I do not exercise. My body NEEDS those endorphins! I love studying exercise and nutrition and plan on becoming a personal trainer.
I also used to have a small notebook where I recorded everything I ate and how many calories it was. I stopped that practice this month also. I plan on starting that back up today.
I understand how silly it is of me to binge late at night. There is absolutely no point! I like to think it has to do with hereditary factors because both my mom and grandmother have done and still do it. Like me, my mom eats very healthily during the day and exercises a great deal. Is it possible I inherited a gene that led to this disorder or is it a learned behavior? I want to study it more, but I don't know of any good books or web sites.
Does anyone know if I have a disorder that needs medical attention or do I need to just try to work it out on my own? I really want advice and help. My health depends on it!

It doesn't sound like you need medical attention.

I also tend to binge eat late at night, and while I haven't found a perfect solution I have found a few things that help. One, do NOT under any cicrcumstances buy food that you'll binge on. If those Reese's hadn't been around you wouldn't have binged. Two, I find that if I eat well during the day and keep myself busy I do much better at avoiding binging at night.

I haven't tried this myself, but you could try taking an anoretic(makes you not want to eat) when you feel the binge urge coming on.

hey...

i used to binge late at night during the holidays ecause i had the time....i too would sit up to watch a movie...or read a book...i'd doze off, suddenly wake up...and like an impulse in seconds i'm in the kitchen binging....luckily this was the time when i could really excercise and control what i ate the rest of the day.....

now if this is some thing that your mother and grandmother have been doing and havn't been able to stop it doesn't mean that you can't stop it by yourself...but medical help is good ...they may have some sort of plan that once you get used to...you won't feel the need to binge...

for me...all that had to happened was college started...and since i prefer to ake up early on thos days and i needed to catch up on alot of sleep because before i used that time to do other things and ofcourse binge...so automatically the late night binges stopped...because i would go to bed earlier....and having a room mate around you don't want to go to the fridge late at night and eat up everything you can....

that's another thing...i also used to eat because everyone's asleep... i like the quite.....got me time to think in peace....and eat...and that's why i feel you can do this on your own....sleep when everyone does.....you want alone time you get it during work outs...or just get out by yourself in the middle of the day...go for walk or jog.....and don't ever keep food near your bedside..

try it out yourself if you like and then if it doesnt work in a certain amonunt of time seek medical help

I understand your binge eating; mine is worse at night than any other time. Maybe it is because there is no one around to catch me, maybe it is just boredom or both.

I agree with others, avoid having things handy that you are likely to start eating and not be able to stop. I don't think there has ever been a recorded incident of someone binging on spinach.

If your binges become a health issue, then professional help may be necessary, but I think occasional over indulgences are not unusual for many people.

Best,

N.