Binged today, but did cardio...question

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  • jennifershoo
    jennifershoo Posts: 3,198 Member
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    The fact that you exercise that much to "erase" a binge is a red flag. Just chill out and move on. Understand why you binged in the first place and try to avoid a similar triggering situation.
  • nestingdoll
    nestingdoll Posts: 21
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    A wise man once said that you don't lose all the weight over night, and you also don't gain all the weight back over night. If I have a binge day (which is very very very rarely) I will look at my net calories for the week to date. If its the beginning of the week when i binge, then I make it up the rest of the week with a little more exercise each day. If it's at the end of the week when I binge, i look at my net calories for the week and make sure I have the calories available to go on that binge.

    Don't kill yourself on that elliptical, in the future look at your calories for the week instead of for the day. If you think you need to burn more calories through exercise then go ahead and work out a little more each day and earn more calories for the week to make up for your binging.

    Very good suggestion- to look at the calories per week instead of per day...then I wont be killing myself to burn it off. Thank you for giving a different perspective to looking at this...I am new to all of this, so I really appreciate it.
  • benol1
    benol1 Posts: 867 Member
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    My experience with exercise machines is that they over-estimate calorie burns. For a much more accurate result, use a heart rate monitor.
    As for your strategy of binge eating and compensating by exercising to burn the extra calories - its not sustainable in the long run.
    Try and adopt a healthy eating regime and a sustainable regular exercise plan.
    kind regards,

    Ben
  • jennifershoo
    jennifershoo Posts: 3,198 Member
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    I'm just amazed that your typing this while working out.

    I say go for it. Stay on that machine. Maybe you can iron some shirts or do dishes too while your at it.

    "In the middle of" meaning that I've done 3 sets:
    Elliptical Trainer 30 329
    Elliptical Trainer 30 320
    Elliptical Trainer 30 362

    and on the laptop now, but will continue two more sets of 30 mins until i burn off the remainder of the 700+ calories...that's what I meant.

    No stop. That's an eating disorder behavior.
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
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    at 170 pounds, your goal of 1200 is too low. eat at a higher number and you'll find yourself bingeing less. either way, it's one day. hit the stop button and go watch Misfits on Hulu

    haha! thank you for the suggestion, i will do that :)
    i appreciate the constructive comments and not the sarcastic ones that try to bring me down. thank you lots ^_^

    they're all constructive. they're all sarcastic. just because the medicine tastes bitter doesn't mean it won't help you
  • nestingdoll
    nestingdoll Posts: 21
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    calories in / calories out. Sounds like the perfect plan to me. Sometimes I go for a walk so I can eat a donut. (did that today in fact)

    awesome...calories in/calories out....nothing else then i can keep exercising back to my goal which is 1200 calories per day...woooo

    it is important to note that 1200 calories diets are pretty low for any adult...and it is already a considerable deficit. My point: you don't need to exercise all the extra calories off because the worst you have done so far (considering the 1000 calories already burned) is eat at maintenance level - that will not cause weight gain and will hardly affect your loss for the week.

    EDIT: you should research TDEE and consider changing to that approach for calculating calories - it will let you eat more every day and helps stop the hunger that makes you overeat.

    True, thank you for providing a different perspective to look at this issue. I guess I felt I had to make 1200/day because I wanted to lose weight by end of August...so that's why I've been strict and giving myself a bit of a hard time with following the daily goals. However, like you mentioned, it's only one day, and it probably maintained my weight rather than added to it.

    I will look up the TDEE thing on google, thank you for the advice. I went with 1200 I think when I first created the MFP profile.
  • nestingdoll
    nestingdoll Posts: 21
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    My experience with exercise machines is that they over-estimate calorie burns. For a much more accurate result, use a heart rate monitor.
    As for your strategy of binge eating and compensating by exercising to burn the extra calories - its not sustainable in the long run.
    Try and adopt a healthy eating regime and a sustainable regular exercise plan.
    kind regards,

    Ben

    I've heard that too and was afraid that may be the case with my machine :((

    I will go to get a heart monitor either tomorrow or monday. Any brands to suggest?
  • MB_Positif
    MB_Positif Posts: 8,897 Member
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    My experience with exercise machines is that they over-estimate calorie burns. For a much more accurate result, use a heart rate monitor.
    As for your strategy of binge eating and compensating by exercising to burn the extra calories - its not sustainable in the long run.
    Try and adopt a healthy eating regime and a sustainable regular exercise plan.
    kind regards,

    Ben

    I've heard that too and was afraid that may be the case with my machine :((

    I will go to get a heart monitor either tomorrow or monday. Any brands to suggest?

    Honestly, if you already have potential issues with binging and over exercising, I wouldn't recommend a heart rate monitor. It will exacerbate your disordered thinking. Seriously, I was coy in my last response, but just try to keep things simple. Trust the process. It works. I lost 50 pounds in a year on here. I have maintained most of that loss for the past year. I'd be at my goal by now if I hadn't had a wrench thrown into my life called Chiari Malformation which caused me to need brain surgery 4 months ago. I was at about 1400-1500 calories per day while I lost all of my weight. I only worked out about 45 minutes 3 days a week the whole time. It's so much more simple than people make it.
  • harlanJEN
    harlanJEN Posts: 1,089 Member
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    wait, you've burned 1000 calories on the elliptical today and you're still on the damned machine? are you trying to set a record or something? get off the elliptical and do something productive like read a good book. 3000 calories isn't that big a deal, especially if you (allegedly) have burned 1000 calories in exercise. relax, you haven't done anything "bad to your body".

    This. You've switched one extreme act (binging) for another (over-exercercising on the ellipical). Chill out. It's one day. Stop trying to kill yourself on the elliptical to punish yourself for eating.

    All of this x 1000

    You CANNOT achieve anything this way. You are stressing your body, mind and spirit.

    Eat at a modest/ moderate calorie deficit
    Train to meet body composition / fitness goals
    OVER exercising in order to EAT = endless cycle of FAIL

    My TDEE today was 2500 and today was a non -workout day. I've eaten 2300. I'm GOOD with that. .My daily deficit is on average, 300 -500 cals. I strength train.

    You will see from my ticker my loss. I've lost 5 sizes. I had pizza and beer today. Totally planned.

    PLEASE educate yourself. Please take care of yourself.
  • CometMeebru
    CometMeebru Posts: 122
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    Do you still have sensation in your feet?
  • bornofthorns
    bornofthorns Posts: 143 Member
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    This sort of concerns me because I feel as though you have an unhealthy view of both food and exercise. Yes, it is calories in/calories out. Yes, exercise is a good thing. BUUUUT, food is a good thing. To be honest, OCCASIONALLY, a lot of food is ok, too. I know we all tend to have this Draconian, hardcore view of food. Like it is some sort of enemy to destroy. The truth is good is not the enemy, food is the ally. Excess fat is the enemy!

    That being said, you win the War of the Weight, by winning the Battles of the Bulge one step at a time. The more steps you take correctly, the closer you get to your goal faster. This you know. That being said, besides for these physical battles of exercise, calories, carbs, etc is the mental mastery. You have to be able to look at a single instance - one meal, one workout, one drink, etc - and see how that works into your long-term plans. So what it sounds like is that this single instance of eating satisfied something that you wanted. That is good. If you satisfy your wants from time-to-time it makes it much easier to steadily satisfy your needs. Same with exercise. If you really love rocking that elliptical for 4 hours, then have at it. Something tells me you don't like it THAT much. So long-term, maybe you do an extra 15 - 20 minutes three times this week and counter your binge. I just don't want you to hate food or hate exercising so much that it reverses and starts to consume you. That being said...good work overall and keep up the good work!
  • javajunco
    javajunco Posts: 81
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    I dunno. I think there are a lot of folks overreacting here. 1.5 hours of cardio really isn't overexercising. I do more than that every day, even if sometimes it's just walking.

    On the other hand, you want to make sure that you don't do so much today that you are unable to do any tomorrow. And be careful not to injure yourself!
  • anemoneprose
    anemoneprose Posts: 1,805 Member
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    I dunno. I think there are a lot of folks overreacting here. 1.5 hours of cardio really isn't overexercising. I do more than that every day, even if sometimes it's just walking.

    olympic athletes do more than that. but that is not related to disordered thinking, because that involves structured training towards a goal. they eat enough food to support that activity. it's monitored, etc.

    the problem isn't the amount of time exercising, it's the motivations and emotions around it. (and the not-enough food)

    OP the advice you've gotten is right on. You are not eating enough, which is why you ate a lot of food at once. If you set your regular daily calories to a higher level, you're much less likely to eat 3000 cals in one day/go.

    If your regular foods that make up those calories are filling - protein, fibre, fats - this will help you stay fuller longer, too.
  • MB_Positif
    MB_Positif Posts: 8,897 Member
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    I dunno. I think there are a lot of folks overreacting here. 1.5 hours of cardio really isn't overexercising. I do more than that every day, even if sometimes it's just walking.

    On the other hand, you want to make sure that you don't do so much today that you are unable to do any tomorrow. And be careful not to injure yourself!

    It's not. OP clearly has some disordered thinking which is why I am concerned about the potential pattern of binge/exercise. What happens when she eats 5,000 calories in a binge? Elliptical for 5 hours to "fix" it?
  • CoderGal
    CoderGal Posts: 6,800 Member
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    I binged today and ate almost 3000 calories...my food diary for today Jun 22nd is public and you can view it for reference. However, I exercised and burned 1000+ calories from exercise, and am still in the middle of exercising. Will the cardio exercise (elliptical trainer) help in erasing the bad that I did to my body with my binge, or will it only burn off the calories?

    Thanks in advance for your help.
    By not eating enough regularly and causing yourself to 'binge' and feel emotionally bad enough to make this post and exercise excessively over 1000 calories in one day (purely for the reason of guilt), which can potentially cause injuries, particularly if you're not eating enough....you are causing bad...the food wasn't bad. The food was fuel trying to fuel a under fueled stressed out body.
  • sugaree1202
    sugaree1202 Posts: 184 Member
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    Is your goal to eat 1200 net calories (net = consumed - workout calories) or 1200 total calories?

    If you are feeling the need to eat more calories, it will be helpful to increase what you are eating. Like other commenters said, eating 3000 calories, then burning 1000 is still eating at less than maintenance since you are probably eating at a 1,000 calorie deficit already. The net calories you consume is just as important as the total (or gross) calories you consume. For example, on my rest days I consume 1,200 calories - net and gross since I don't have any workout calories to figure in. On workout days, I burn 600-1,000 and consume around 1,400-1,600 gross/800-600 net calories with a goal of 1,000 net but find it difficult to eat that much since I'm eating much more clean foods than I used to. The more activity you do, the more fuel your body needs. You didn't screw everything up in one day, but it might be a good odea to reevaluate your calorie goals on workout days. Good luck!
  • lithezebra
    lithezebra Posts: 3,670 Member
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    You can eat at least 1500 a day and still be losing. Why not recalculate your goals and create a plan that is easier to stick to? If you overexercise one day, it can be hard to do anything the next day. Get some rest, maybe take a rest day, and start over with the goal of eating enough to stay active throughout your weight loss process.
  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
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    wait, you've burned 1000 calories on the elliptical today and you're still on the damned machine? are you trying to set a record or something? get off the elliptical and do something productive like read a good book. 3000 calories isn't that big a deal, especially if you (allegedly) have burned 1000 calories in exercise. relax, you haven't done anything "bad to your body".

    This. You've switched one extreme act (binging) for another (over-exercercising on the ellipical). Chill out. It's one day. Stop trying to kill yourself on the elliptical to punish yourself for eating.
    ^ This.

    One binge is not the end of the world in terms of weight loss. It's something that needs addressing, but not by turning exercise into punishment, or into a get out of jail free card. Binging is not good for your body, especially if it's something you do often. Exercising won't negate that, even if you do burn some of the excess calories off.

    It's also worth being aware that binging is a natural physiological and psychological response to calorie restriction, and it might be that 1200 calories a day is too low for you. Eat to fuel and nourish your body; exercise for fitness, and cardio vascular health, and to feel good, and to maintain muscle mass, and all the other benefits. Don't exercise for punishment or to "fix" disordered eating. That's a feature of bulimia.
  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
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    i appreciate the constructive comments and not the sarcastic ones that try to bring me down. thank you lots ^_^
    I don't see anyone here trying to bring you down, just a lot of people concerned for your health.
  • lithezebra
    lithezebra Posts: 3,670 Member
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    i appreciate the constructive comments and not the sarcastic ones that try to bring me down. thank you lots ^_^
    I don't see anyone here trying to bring you down, just a lot of people concerned for your health.

    I don't think that telling her that she's bulimic, in danger of being bulimic, or "disordered" is constructive.

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