The thyroid hormone hypothesis for binge eating disorder suggests that thyroid hormone concentrations vary with the binge-purge cycle.

“There's the so-called thyroid hormone hypothesis. That one's a tricky one. It turns out that cortisol and thyroid hormone concentrations vary according to when the binge purge happened. So, there were some studies that looked at thyroid hormone levels and they found elevated thyroid hormone levels. Thyroid hormone is involved in metabolism and not just the burning of energy, but the use of energy in converting it to different tissues of the body, cartilage bone, fat, and muscle, et cetera.”