Why do I do this to myself

n_green_l

I have 8lb to go, and I walked 12000 steps today. I've been good this week. And what do I do? Eat half a circle of camembert when I get in with crackers and now feel absolutely sick. I have 400 calories left for today and me and my husband are supposed to have some wine and a take away for a date night . And now I feel rubbish and crap. I lost 3lb this week and now I know I'm gonna put it back on because I'm a pig. Its only 3pm.

Feel so bad about myself, and wondering whether to go and walk another 10000 steps to burn what I've eaten off.

Why do I eat normally and then binge out of nowhere? I'm not even interesting, to lose 0.5lb a week I have 1560 cals so I have no excuse for this. How do I stop this?

Starting to wonder if I have a real problem with bingeing.

Dogmom1978

It’s probably happening because your deficit is too high for the amount you have to lose.

If you only have 8 lbs to lose, a reasonable goal is .5 a week. If you lost 3 lbs this week with only 8 total left, that rate of loss is WAY too high and makes me think your deficit is much much higher than it should be. How many calories are you eating per day? What is your rate of loss set to in MFP? What is your daily deficit?

n_green_l

I'm eating 1560 a day which I put myself on sedentary as working from home. I've upped my activity though so walking 10-20k steps a day and some home workouts. I try to do 1560.

My daily deficit is 500 cals as put 0.5lb loss a week

Dogmom1978

Something isn’t right with your tracking if you are losing 3 lbs a week though with only 8 lbs left to lose. Your activity level could be off, you could be eating less than your claiming, you could be underestimating exercise calories etc.

Unless you had a cheat day/meal recently and the 3 lbs was water weight, I would double check the tracking, activity level etc

jrh_this_better_work

That surely is discouraging. To stop it, you need to get to the root of WHY. And while you're discovering it, try to manage each micro decision.

I don't have an issue with binging in general, so I can't totally relate. But I have had moments of what another weight loss program calls Storm Eating. You come in at the end of the day and just want to eat ALL THE FOOD. The hope is to learn how to stop in the middle of a storm; how to realize you're in that mode and how to pull out of it. I don't have the answers yet, but I'm working on it.

chocolate_owl

If you're doing 10K steps minimum per day, that's ~400 more calories burned. If you're in a 250 calorie deficit (0.5 lbs/week) on 1560 calories, you're actually in a 650 calorie deficit. If your deficit is 500 calories like you say, it's even more. Then there's days you do 20K steps! If you're not eating to fuel that, your body is basically begging you to feed it properly.

That said, is binging a new behavior for you, or is it something you've occasionally done prior to trying to lose weight? If it's an old behavior, it's important to get to the root of what triggers it, possibly through therapy. If it's new, this could be indicative of disordered eating - you restrict by not eating enough to fuel your activity level, and then you binge because you're so darn hungry. Is the idea of eating, say, 2000 calories to support your activity scary? Do you feel anxious? Is sticking to 1560 calories a very important thing for you to control?

I think just eating more will help, but if you're having strong, negative emotions related to your calorie intake, you might consider taking a break (no calorie counting) or seeking therapy before this spirals into a bigger issue.

AnnPT77

n_green_l wrote: »

I have 8lb to go, and I walked 12000 steps today. I've been good this week. And what do I do? Eat half a circle of camembert when I get in with crackers and now feel absolutely sick. I have 400 calories left for today and me and my husband are supposed to have some wine and a take away for a date night . And now I feel rubbish and crap. I lost 3lb this week and now I know I'm gonna put it back on because I'm a pig. Its only 3pm.

Feel so bad about myself, and wondering whether to go and walk another 10000 steps to burn what I've eaten off.

Why do I eat normally and then binge out of nowhere? I'm not even interesting, to lose 0.5lb a week I have 1560 cals so I have no excuse for this. How do I stop this?

Starting to wonder if I have a real problem with bingeing.

Go out for your date night, and enjoy it. If you're literally queasy (not just psychologically distressed), order food accordingly. If you're not very hungry, eat lightly. Otherwise, just eat what you'd normally eat on a (sensibly managed) date night. Enjoy your husband's company, and keep your focus on that.

Eating half a circle of camember is not a moral failing. It's not a sin you must expiate, via exercise or otherwise. Really, it's just cheese (tasty cheese at that 😉!). You ate a little more of it than you planned. It's no big deal.

I agree with others: If you're losing 3 pounds in a week (on average), your deficit is more like 1500 calorie daily. Real world results are what count, not "calculator" (really "estimator") theories. Calculators mostly say I should eat 1500-ish to maintain. Based on 5 years careful calorie-logging experience, I know I need 2100-2200 to maintain. Believe your results (when averaged over a couple of months, since individual weeks can be uneven, even with consistent behavior).

So, how big a camembert was it? Around here, a lot of them (medium sized) are around 8oz. Half one of those would be maybe 350 or so calories. How many crackers? Maybe another 150 calories?

Three pounds of fat loss would be 10,500 calories. In that context, 500 calories - heck, even 1000 calories - of camembert and crackers . . . that would be negligible. Even at an actual 250 calorie deficit, it would be a loss of two days of progress toward goal. That's not exactly the end of the world, is it? 😉

Sure, you'll maybe see a scale jump from extra sodium (above normal) and carbs (ditto). But that's a water weight effect, not carbs, and it will disappear. (In that regard, you might be amused by this thread: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10603949/big-overfeed-ruins-everything-nope).

Getting serious here, but meant in the kindest possible way: The passages I bolded in the quote are concerning. Food does not determine your worth as a person. Would you say - even think - things like that of your best friend if she ate some extra cheese and crackers? I'm doubtful. That level of melodrama about it is completely optional, not helpful, feels bad, and can even (via stress) increase water retention and show up as extra weight on the scale (still not fat, though). Soooooo counterproductive, in so many ways.

The majority of our days determine the majority of our progress. You ate some cheese and crackers. (I hope it was tasty, and that you enjoyed it. Camembert is *good*!) It'll be fine.

Enjoy your date night. Consider whether your deficit is in reality too big, or whether you're forcing yourself to eliminate yummy foods you could enjoy in moderation. If any of that, revise your plan. Otherwise, just treat the camembert/crackers as a learning experience, and go on with life, without self-recrimination or drama.

Best wishes, sincerely!

elisa123gal

crackers and cheese in the house is a welcome mat for going over. I agree, that half wheel isn't being a pig.. it is just tasty and with crackers.. we all could do that. Don't call yourself a pig. Just get the tempting stuff out of the house...go on your date. eat.. start again tomorrow. You're almost at goal.. feel proud.

n_green_l

Thank you all.

Yeah it was about 350 calories of cheese and the crackers came to 200.

I beat myself up so much about what I eat and it's probably not healthy.

Today is a new day and I'm keeping within goal today, and staying at a 0.5lb weight loss goal a week.

MaxCat1000

Just chiming in to say look at your rolling seven day average calories (on my phone, it's under Nutrition - calories, and you need to look at Week, and under Settings make sure it says 7 Days rather than a day of the week so that each day it will average the past seven days.) Some days you will be over in your calories, but averaged over seven days, maybe you're only 100 calories over per day - that is negligible! Your daily exercise probably takes care of that. (and you're not alone with the cheese - today I had a half container of Boursin cheese, but was able to adjust the rest of my day so I wound up only about 100 over - I can live with that.)

VeryKatie

So you're not eating back your exercise calories. You should. You're hungry because you're eating less than you think on days you succeed and then its too extreme and you're too hungry to resist the next day. You said sedentary on your settings and then go walk 20k steps without adding it in (since you keep trying to stick to the 1560 sedentary goal)...