Eat your next meal, at the normal time, in the normal way. Do not skip breakfast, do not fast tomorrow, do not exercise it off, do not weigh yourself. Everything in you will say the opposite, and the opposite is the first link of the loop that produced tonight. This one decision is the hinge.
That is the answer. The rest of this page is what to do with the hours in between, because they are long and they are loud.
The next hour
Four things, none of them a punishment.
- **Stop where you are.** If it is still going, it can still be a smaller episode. Put it down, leave the room, and let that be the outcome.
- **Clear up and change rooms.** Not as penance. It ends the scene, which stops the evening rolling straight into a second round.
- **Drink some water and sit down somewhere else.** You will feel physically uncomfortable for a while, and that is not a signal to act on.
- **Write the time down.** Just the time, and two words about what came before it. That turns tonight into information rather than into a verdict. The method is in [the hours when it happens](/guides/food/the-hours-when-it-happens).
Then go to bed. Nothing good is decided after a binge, and every plan made in that hour is a rule.
What not to do, in order of how much damage it does
**Do not skip the next meal.** This is the big one. Skipping breakfast to make up for last night restarts the cycle at the restriction link, with an extra layer of shame on top, which is why tonight then tends to be worse than last night. Beat describes the loop plainly: the guilt afterwards "reinforce[s] that cycle of negative emotions, restriction and binge eating again".
**Do not plan a fast, a detox or a new set of rules.** Rules made in the aftermath are the aftermath talking. NICE tells clinicians to "advise the person not to try to lose weight (for example, by dieting) during treatment, because this is likely to trigger binge eating."
**Do not exercise to cancel it out.** Exercise is fine. Exercise as compensation for a binge is a different behaviour, and it belongs in the conversation with a GP rather than in tonight.
**Do not weigh yourself in the morning.** The number will mean nothing and it will produce rules.
**Do not tell yourself you have undone everything.** One episode does not delete a fortnight of eating regularly, in the same way one meal does not fix anything. The pattern is what moves.
If you have made yourself sick, or are thinking about it
This is the point where the advice changes and where we stop being general.
Vomiting, laxatives, deliberate fasting or driven exercise after eating are compensating behaviours, and they mark a different pattern from binge eating disorder. Beat draws that line explicitly: unlike bulimia, binge eating disorder "isn't followed by trying to get rid of the food through behaviours such as vomiting".
If that is part of what happens for you, please take it to a GP soon rather than when you get round to it, and say those words in the appointment. The NHS instruction on eating disorders is to see a GP as soon as you can. This is not something for a web page to coach you through.
The morning
Get up at the usual time and eat breakfast at the usual time.
You will not be hungry. You may still feel full. Eat something anyway, because the point is not the food, it is refusing to open the day with a deficit. Then lunch at the normal time and the afternoon snack that you will be most tempted to drop, because dropping it is what decides tomorrow evening.
Treat the day as an ordinary day rather than one you owe something for. No making up, no earning back, no clean slate starting Monday.
If any part of that feels impossible, [eating enough is the intervention](/guides/food/eating-enough-is-the-intervention) is the structure, and [the first two weeks of regular eating](/guides/food/the-first-two-weeks-of-regular-eating) is what it feels like while it beds in.
The shame, which is doing more work than the food
Here is the honest bit. The eating is not what makes tomorrow worse. The shame is.
Shame produces the plan to restrict, the plan produces the hunger, the hunger produces the next episode, and the next episode produces more shame. That is the engine, and it runs on the thing you are feeling right now rather than on anything you ate.
You do not have to stop feeling ashamed. That is not available tonight. What you can do is refuse to act on it, which is a much smaller ask. Feel awful and eat breakfast anyway. That combination is the whole trick, and it is not a paradox, it is just difficult.
If it helps to say it to somebody, Beat's helplines are open 3pm to 8pm, Monday to Friday: England 0808 801 0677, Scotland 0808 801 0432, Wales 0808 801 0433, Northern Ireland 0808 801 0434. You do not need a formal diagnosis, calls are free from UK landlines and mobiles and do not appear on itemised bills. Beat does "not operate a crisis service" and its staff are "not medically trained".
If you are in danger tonight, Samaritans is 116 123, any hour.
Then, in a few days
When this episode is not the loudest thing in the room, do one thing with it. Look at the note you wrote and find what the day before it looked like: how long the gaps were, what happened, whether it followed a day you were pleased with.
Most binges have an address, and it is usually an afternoon. That is what [restriction and the binge that follows](/guides/food/restriction-and-the-binge-that-follows) is about, and it is the difference between having twelve separate disasters and having one pattern you can work on.
Common questions
**Should I fast or skip meals tomorrow?** No. It is the single most reliable way to make tomorrow evening worse. National guidance tells clinicians to advise against trying to lose weight during treatment because it is likely to trigger binge eating, and skipping meals after a binge is that advice in miniature.
**Should I exercise it off?** Not as compensation. Using exercise to cancel out food is a compensating behaviour and it belongs in a conversation with a GP rather than in the morning after.
**Should I weigh myself to see the damage?** No. Whatever the number says, the outcome is the same: a new set of rules, which is what starts the cycle again.
**I binged three nights in a row. Have I ruined it?** No. Three nights is a run, and a run has a cause, usually an afternoon with no food in it or an event you have not accounted for. The response is unchanged, which is the next meal at the normal time, and then a look at the pattern.
**When should I see a GP about this?** If it is happening regularly, if it is distressing you, or if anything follows it to compensate. The NHS says to see a GP as soon as you can, and [how to stop binge eating](/guides/food/how-to-stop-binge-eating) has the words to open that appointment with.
Sources
- [NICE guideline NG69, Recommendations](https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng69/chapter/Recommendations). The advice against dieting during treatment, and regular meals and snacks.
- [Beat, Binge eating disorder](https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/get-information-and-support/about-eating-disorders/types/binge-eating-disorder/). The shame and restriction cycle, and the distinction from bulimia.
- [NHS, Eating disorders](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/eating-disorders/). The instruction to see a GP as soon as you can.
- [Beat, Helplines](https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/get-information-and-support/get-help-for-myself/i-need-support-now/helplines/). Numbers, hours, and what the service does and does not do.
