Just keeping myself accountable

Jmoney711

I binged again hard, and have been eating a lot these past couple of days. Luckily I have been very active, I walk 15000 steps a day and went on a mountain bike ride with my dad. but not active enough to burn off the sheer amount of calories I’ve consumed. I’m 5 foot 10 inches male and 20 years old. I was 148 pounds but after this week I’m sure it will be about 153-155. It sucks because I’ve worked really hard and have made great progress but I can’t keep falling into these binges cause they are not benificial to my well being mentally and physically, I have no one to blame but myself I ate the food I made the decision, I could’ve easily said no but I chose to eat until my stomach hurt and until The thought of food became disgusting to me. Does anyone have advice for me on this subject?

harper16

How much weight are you trying to lose? How many calories are you eating a day? Are you eating back your exercise calories?

You are already towards the lower end of your BMI.

Jmoney711

I don’t eat back exercise calories mainly because the fitness trackers are way off most of the time. when loosing I eat around 1800 - 2000 calories a day while being very active and I loose a good amount of weight. I want to get down to 140 maybe it’s gonna be hard to drop to that weight.

harper16

Jmoney711 wrote: »

I don’t eat back exercise calories mainly because the fitness trackers are way off most of the time. when loosing I eat around 1800 - 2000 calories a day while being very active and I loose a good amount of weight. I want to get down to 140 maybe it’s gonna be hard to drop to that weight.

If you aren't sure start by eating back half your exercise calories. Healthy weight loss is .5 lbs a week. When you enter your info into mfp what does it set your calories at?

KrissFlavored

Chances are, most of the weight on the scale will be simply water.

I dont know how much you have lost but you likely didnt eat enough to put on any significant amount of weight. Certainly not 24,500 calories over your maintenance and activity level.

People binge for a variety of reasons. However, there comes a time when you need to seperate a binge from a couple of days of letting go and having fun and learning that those days can be insignificant if you return to normal eating habits after.

So, if there is a special occasion or something of the sort, letting go and having a good time should not be considered a binge or demonized. Life is about the little moments and we are a culture that does that with food. It's okay to let go and eat once in a while, you just need to make sure you have significantly less days of those then regular days.

But people do binge for emotional reasons. They lack coping skills and eat to compensate for that. Sadness, boredom, anger, etc.

Or they binge because their diet has been very restrictive in one way or another. Such as they dont allow themselves to eat the food they binged on regularly, or they have restricted their calories too low and have been working out too much and not giving their body enough calories, or sometimes both.

They binge because old habits die hard and the practice of self moderation is learned over time.

Rather then think you were too weak and play the should of, would of, could of, game, log everything you eat during a binge moment, and be accountable. You may of made the decision to eat but did you log it? Did you see those calories being added to your log? If you did... would that of possibly made you stop sooner? And if it didnt, ask yourself why? Maybe it is because you havent had it in a long time, maybe it's because you were bored? If you can recognize the deeper issue, you can then have a game plan.. okay I'm bored, let's find something else to do, that's away from the food, or if you know you havent had it in a while, how about we start adding these foods into your diet in a controlled environment, where it's just you and you are more motivated without outside influences perhaps?

KrissFlavored

Jmoney711 wrote: »

I don’t eat back exercise calories mainly because the fitness trackers are way off most of the time. when loosing I eat around 1800 - 2000 calories a day while being very active and I loose a good amount of weight. I want to get down to 140 maybe it’s gonna be hard to drop to that weight.

By not eating your exercise calories, you arent eating 1800-2000... you're eating less then that, even burning 500 puts you at the 1300 mark to 1500 and 1500 is the minimum amount for a short sedentary male..

So that means you are under eating most likely and that's why you are binge eating

Jmoney711

Thank you both for the responses this means a lot. To answer your question I did log my binge, I do with all of them.

Also when I set my weight and activity level it says 2700 calories to maintain my weight.

I always felt like this was over estimated but idk

PAPYRUS3

I watched this Youtuber's experience and found it truthful and could be useful for you?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4bz-83qYEY

KrissFlavored

Remember that activity level on mfp does not include workouts or purposeful exercise.

It's just your day to day life outside of that, it's not TDEE, mfp uses NEAT.

If your just hanging around at home doing the basics, cleaning, errands, cooking, etc, you set yourself to lightly active and then log workouts.

If you dont trust the workout calorie estimates, the suggestion is to eat at least 50% and over a couple of months see where the dust settles.

If you are set to lose a half pound per week and after 2 months of eating 50% back you have lost 3 to 4 pounds then you know you're on track.

If not then you know how to adjust, but do so reasonably

Jmoney711

What should I do in regards to getting back to normal after my binges. Should I eat fairly low to reset or no.

Jmoney711

And I will watch the YouTube video thank you!

KrissFlavored

Jmoney711 wrote: »

What should I do in regards to getting back to normal after my binges. Should I eat fairly low to reset or no.

No, cause low is the reason you binged in the first place.

You need to set a reasonable calorie goal.. with a weight loss of .5lbs per week, then you need to eat back 50% of your workout calories..

And if you do binge, you wake up tomorrow and you eat the amount of calories you are told to eat.

If my calorie goal is 1790, and I binge eat and consume an additional 5000 calories, then I wake up tomorrow and I eat 1790 calories. I eat back my exercise calories and just continue on.. this experience is for the rest of your life, it doesnt stop once you hit goal, so, if I ate too many calories and gained a pound, then oh well... I'm 34, I'm sure between now and when I die, I'll lose that pound.