compulsive eating, an eating disorder characterized by continuous or frequent excessive eating over which an individual does not feel he or she has control, and which usually leads to weight gain and obesity. Eating is not connected to hunger, and food intake may be rapid or secret. Compensatory behaviors like purging, laxative use, or excessive exercise do not occur. Generally the amount eaten at any one time is not large; when it is, the disorder is usually called binge eating.
