Resisting breaking the diet?

seashellbabe

Hi everyone, hope you're all having success with your weight loss adventures! So I was wondering if anyone has the same problem I have, and if anyone has any advice to how to break it. I'll be going great for between a day and a week with my diet. Eating at a calorie deficit and everything. But as soon as I get an excuse to go out with friends (I'm a 19 year old college student so this happens a lot) or I go out with family, I throw my diet away and ingest absolutely way too much junk food. I just think like "Ah screw it it won't hurt that much, I'll start again tomorrow" and tomorrow comes, I restart, and the process continues. I have battled a binge eating disorder (and came out victorious ) and I've put on about 25 pounds since my thinnest during senior year of high school (I'm a 5' 11" male who currently weighs around 155 pounds and at my lowest I was all skin and bones at 130). I'm just wondering if anyone has any advice because I know this isn't healthy and I feel disgusting afterwards. I'm not trying to lose a lot of weight, just to get back in my happy area of around 145, but I know this behavior is not healthy and it'll sabotage my fitness adventures, yet I can't seem to stop. I'm thinking maybe if I weigh myself everyday it'll keep me from doing it. Anyway, any advice would help. Thanks!

varshasidhu1

Look up intermittent fasting.. may work for you as you dont have to cut out junk food completely and can still lose weight. Theres a few facebook groups about it as well

middlehaitch

How much weight are you trying to lose per week? With your stats and the 10 vanity lbs you should only be on a 250 calorie a day deficit with the aim of losing .5 lbs a week.

If you have your goal set at more than that, change it, you will have more calories to play with.

Another thing you can look at doing is working from your weekly goal. This will give you the chance to have some low days, 1500 cals, and some higher ones for when you are socializing.

Do log all days, low and high, even if you go over by thousands of calories and have to do a bit of guessing, it will be valuable information for the future.

It is good to know what your maintenance is, just so you can look at your numbers and be rational about what is going to give you a weight gain.

Remember, to put on a pound you need to overeat your maintenance by 3500 cals.

Cheers, h.

vkr2q7

A couple tips I got from my trainer (because I'm also a serial starter and stopper):

1. Remember that on average it takes 3 days of sticking with your diet and excercise plan to recover from one day of eating poorly

2. Plan your indulgences! Every two weeks I treat myself to a bad meal. It makes it a lot easier when I'm struggling with my diet to know that if I just keep going for another week, another couple days or however long I have until my next "cheat", then I'll get to relax for a night.

Obviously these tips won't work for everyone, but they've really helped me and I hope they help you too!!

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld

Just make it fit your weekly calories, no guilt, no shame.

kommodevaran

You are using terms like going great, breaking diet, junk food, disgusting, sabotage, excuses... I think you have to work on your relationship with food. Eating is a basic need. Food is good. Eating is pleasurable. Social eating is fun. You can control behavior with sheer willpower - for a while. Between a day and a week sounds just about right for a behavior like eating.

Changing how we think about food isn't easy, but it can be done, and it's necessary to maintain health and weight. I have never had an eating disorder, but I had disordered eating, and I have found a lot of help online and in books. Logging food and participating in discussions here on MFP has been very helpful. Counting calories evolved into mindful eating, and mindful eating opened up for more relaxed and intuitive eating. Google, but be critical to what you read. I would especially recommend

What is Normal Eating?

Isabel Foxen Duke's blog

Weighing every day can be a good idea, and it can be unnecessary. You have to figure that out yourself.

crb426

You are already quite thin for a male at 5'11" and 155. What about focusing not on a calories deficit, but on exercise? Tone up your muscle. Then you can eat more food and indulge a bit with family and friends. Just be sure that you are focusing on healthy behaviors and not disordered.