Recover From Binge Physically & Mentally

hskywalker98

so this past weekend (more like four days), I don’t know what happened, but I just completely fell off the track of focusing on my fitness. I ate without tracking, and then I saw myself gain weight/lose definition, which only made me feel less motivated, at which point I decided to just eat more. It was absolutely terrible where I just ate just junk food nonstop for four days and now i’m ten pounds above where I was on Friday. How can I recover physically to get back to where I was last week? And how can I motivate myself to actually do this, because seeing the progress of my last four months of hard dieting just undone so quickly is incredibly discouraging

RunnerGrl1982

Hey there! Welcome to the MFP forum.

First off, take a deep breath and let yourself relax a bit. You may or may not be getting down on yourself too much. 4 days of poor overeating is not going to undo the 4 months of hard work you have put in.

Have you been restricting your calories too much that led you to this episode? Give yourself some time, more than likely you did not gain 10lbs of fat, and most of that will diminish over time.

Just pick yourself up, dust yourself off metaphorically speaking and get back to your regular routine. You can do it! Try not to let one bad weekend get you down, it happens to all of us now and again. The best course of action is to continue moving forward.

Just my bit of 2 cents here...

Danp

Put it in perspective

a year is 365 days

your binge lasted 4 days. That's like 1% of your entire year so not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things so don't let it make you spiral.

AnnPT77

A few thoughts.

First, just let it go. It happened. You can't un-happen it. Don't try to "make up for it". That's a way to start a bad cycle, so don't. Just get back on a healthy track.

The actual results will be, I predict, less than 10 pounds. What you're looking at may include some actual gain, but most of it is water weight, and extra digestive system contents. Every gram of carbs you eat holds onto a few (I always forget, but it's like 3 or 4) grams of water while you're metabolizing it. That's not fat gain, it's just how healthy digestion works, so don't worry about; just wait it out, and it'll drop off once the whole process is done.

A similar thing happens when you eat more sodium/salt than normal. Your body needs extra water to balance out your electrolytes, but when it's done playing with your electrolytes, it'll drop off. Again, not fat, don't worry about it. Drink a normal, healthy amount of water (don't dehydrate, don't overhydrate, don't try to game it).

The above two things can cause scale-weight fluctuations if you eat noticeably more carbs or sodium than usual, even within your calorie goal. Still no big deal, nothing to worry about it, just wait it out.

Now, for those 4 days, you ate physically more food than normal. Where do you suppose it went? Yup, into your digestive tract. When you weigh yourself, you're also weighing the stuff in transit in your digestive tract. Eat/drink more than normal, and it weighs more than normal. Digestive transit varies, but can (according to research) take up to 50+ hours. So, you've probably already moved some of that food through your system and out, but some of it's still in there, riding through your digestive system. Guess what? Also not fat, so not worth worrying about.

So, in a few days to a week, the scale will finally show you the actual fat-gain results of your 4 day over-eat-fest. I strongly predict that it will be less than 10 pounds, probably lots less. (You might read this thread for the amusement value: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10603949/big-overfeed-ruins-everything-nope . It's a case study of this kind of situation, a little shorter, but similar, with complete details.)

One thing you should do (besides stopping worry, guilt or other psychological drama about things you can't change): Think about why this happened: Have you been over-restricting? Did you lack sleep? Have alcohol-induced disinhibition? Get bored? Have social situations where you're used to overeating (social triggers)? Try to eat to soothe emotionally? End up in a situation with extra tempting food? Give in to old habits you want to change?

Spend about 10 minutes, no more, thinking about why it happened, and whether the extra eating it was worth it. If it wasn't worth it, to you personally**, then use some of that 10 minutes to decide how you're going to handle similar circumstances in future in ways that are more in line with your goals. If the problem isn't hunger, then the solution isn't food. (That is, if sleep, boredom, emotion, etc., then find the solution for the root problem.)

Rehearse that new script in your head a few times, as vividly as possible, almost like a mini-movie, and commit to following your new script next time you hit similar circumstances. Then stop thinking about it. It's profitless.

(** Personally, I will by choice eat extra on my birthday, certain holidays, and a few other situations, even knowing I may have to lose a couple pounds afterwards. It's a choice.)

For the future, recognize what it means to reach that point when over-eating "made me feel less motivated, at which point I decided to just eat more". So, you go out of your house one morning to drive to work, and your car has a flat tire. Do you drive a nail into each of the other 3 tires? I'm thinking probably not. Or, you're on vacation, driving your car, and are 350 miles from home. You take a wrong turn, and get lost. Do you turn around and drive back home? I'm thinking not.

If you over-eat in an unplanned way, once you realize what's going on, just stop and get back on track as soon as you can. Don't drive a nail into the rest of the tires. Don't try to make up for it. Just get back on track. Pretty much all of us have a day here or there where something goes wrong, i.e., it wasn't a well-thought-out, intentional choice. So what? It happened. There's no need for guilt, drama, or anything like that. Take the opportunity to re-evaluate your plan briefly. Then just get back on track.

You mention being demotivated by having gained weight and lost definition. You now know that most of that weight wasn't fat at all, but water retention and extra digestive contents. And the lost definition was just puffiness related to the water weight, plus some abdominal distention related to the extra food. It's just temporary, or very nearly all of it is. You have to eat 3500 calories over your maintenance calories to gain a pound. That's a lot of food. So, if you over-eat one day, and look puffier and feel kinda gross, it's not mostly fat gain. Just get back on track, really. It'll be fine.

Truly, you'll be OK. The majority of your days determine the majority of your outcome. Four days is a tiny fraction of your life.

Best wishes!

nowine4me

Too steep of a deficit and binging are two sides of the same coin. Try taking a smaller deficit, and see if that helps eliminate the urge to binge. Or set yourself to maintenance until you get your head back in the game. Anything to prevent backsliding further.