Secret lives of bingers and nighttime noshers

One woman from San Francisco summed up her eating problem this way: "I rarely overeat when I'm around other people.... All my friends marvel at how 'good' I am. They don't know what goes on behind closed doors! When I'm home alone, I have very little self-control," she says. "I will devour anything that isn't nailed down ... and I feel disgusting afterward."

Such habits aren't rare.

Many people "attempt to control their eating during the day and then lose control at the end of the day when they're starving," says psychologist Gayle Brooks, clinical director of the Renfrew Center's Florida office. The center treats eating disorders and has clinics throughout the East Coast. "That's when this can move into compulsive behavior."

This "disordered eating" -- a form of compulsive overeating -- is considered less serious than the better-known disorders, anorexia or bulimia. Although there appears to be a spectrum of disordered eating, two types in particular are under study.

One is binge-eating disorder, which involves compulsively eating up to a day's worth of calories in two hours or less. The other is night-eating syndrome. People with this syndrome either eat at least 25% of daily calories after dinner, as a bedtime snack, or wake up at least three times a night to eat. These extra calories add up, not only to unwanted pounds, but also to an increased risk for heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, sleep apnea and certain types of cancer.

Exactly how many people are affected is unknown. But clinical experience and a few studies suggest that about 2% of the general population has disordered eating. That means these syndromes occur more frequently than anorexia and rival the incidence of bulimia, says University of Pennsylvania psychologist Kelly C. Allison. Plus, Allison says, plenty of people "suffer from these things at a sub-clinical level as well."

Though binge eating and night eating may seem similar, research suggests that they are two distinct conditions. An occasional bout of overeating or a couple of midnight feeding frenzies are not likely signs of illness. But when such episodes are frequent or severe, there may be a problem. Here are some ways to assess -- and possibly control -- problem eating:

* Ask: Am I in control? Craving food well beyond satisfying hunger is a warning sign of disordered eating. So is difficulty stopping. So if you find yourself frequenting all-you-can-eat restaurants or regularly standing in the kitchen sampling the chocolate cake, then the chips, then a spoonful of ice cream and so on, you might have a problem.