Do occasional binges affect weightloss?

Eleonora91

The title's kind of misleading... I'll try to explain myself as much as I can with my knowledge of the english language. Forgive me if this has already been asked.


So, we know that, in order to lose weight, we've got to eat at a deficit. For the sake of this argument it's not important how much we exercise or how much we actually eat, just keep on mind that we have to be at a certain deficit by the end of the day to lose a certain amount of weight (at least theoretically, because we know that each body gives a different response to dieting and so on).

For example, if I want to lose 0.5 kg each week (following MFP's suggestions - which might be correct or not, but it's not about exact numbers now) I should be eating around 1400 kcals a day. Considering that my actual TDEE is around 1800 kcals, my daily calorie deficit would be around 400 kcals, which leads to a 2800 kcals deficit per week. Please correct me if I'm getting this wrong, but then, having a 2800 kcals deficit each week would lead me to a expected 0,5 kg weightloss.

Now, my question is: if I eat at this deficit for a week, and then have a single binge, which adds 2800 kcals to my daily intake (just to simplify our counts), does it mean that the deficit I've obtained throughout the week has been set to zero again? Hence I'm not going to lose weight that week, but simply mantaining?

Please keep on mind that those numbers are just here for example. I'm not trying to make everything fit into these counts, I'd just like to know if there's something that I haven't kept on mind or if my argument could actually be valid.
Lets point out that, personally, I am trying to avoid binges as much as I can because it's a bad habit for me, but since I know that it's not going to be like this forever, I would like to know how to behave when I'm not going to be on a diet, just to see what I can allow myself and what's better not to. Lets point out that I don't even believe in weighing once a week, I prefer to look at long term results, but it's more of a conceptual problem than a practical problem.

Thanks everyone.

p4ulmiller

In short, yes. Although your body doesn't "reset" in the sense that it doesn't know when midnight is, so doesn't suddenly think "Aha, new day, here's a bunch more calories for you to eat". It's over the longer term.

The best thing for you is to incorporate the foods you love in your day to day eating habits. I have a glass of JD each night, a MFP friend of mine eats ice cream every day. That way, neither of us are inclined to splurge.

Eleonora91

In short, yes. Although your body doesn't "reset" in the sense that it doesn't know when midnight is, so doesn't suddenly think "Aha, new day, here's a bunch more calories for you to eat". It's over the longer term.

The best thing for you is to incorporate the foods you love in your day to day eating habits. I have a glass of JD each night, a MFP friend of mine eats ice cream every day. That way, neither of us are inclined to splurge.

Thank you. I must say that I occasionally binge, for example going at the restaurant and eating pizza, or all-you-can-eat japanese food. I wouldn't know how to quantify the calories so I just don't log in those days, but this happens around once a month, I'm getting better at avoiding it as a habit and I can go without dramatically exceeding for longer periods.

I don't think binging is a major issue for my weightloss *at the moment*, but I was interested in knowing if exceeding once in a while can actually affect your struggles to keep fit, especially when you're mantaining and not actively losing weight.

p4ulmiller

Thank you. I must say that I occasionally binge, for example going at the restaurant and eating pizza, or all-you-can-eat japanese food. I wouldn't know how to quantify the calories so I just don't log in those days, but this happens around once a month, I'm getting better at avoiding it as a habit and I can go without dramatically exceeding for longer periods.

Just to put this in context, going to the restaurant isn't binging. It's simply eating a bit more than you normally would. Binging is a serious ED, usually accompanied with some mental disorder. What you are doing is living a normal, healthy social life and you must keep that up. You shouldn't think that you are on a short-term diet, but have embarked on a long-term health plan.

And those are the days where you MUST log your food. You must be accountable for what you eat. If you're not sure what to add, add 750-1000 calories as a "Quick Add". You're doing yourself a disservice if you just ignore the big calorie days.

Eleonora91

Just to put this in context, going to the restaurant isn't binging. It's simply eating a bit more than you normally would. Binging is a serious ED, usually accompanied with some mental disorder. What you are doing is living a normal, healthy social life and you must keep that up. You shouldn't think that you are on a short-term diet, but have embarked on a long-term health plan.

And those are the days where you MUST log your food. You must be accountable for what you eat. If you're not sure what to add, add 750-1000 calories as a "Quick Add". You're doing yourself a disservice if you just ignore the big calorie days.

I know, but I wouldn't actually put my disordered habits into this context since I'm trying to get rid of them (and I think I'm succeeding). That's why I said I'm not dramatically binging anymore... that's my most important long term goal, and I want to keep it up.

I would actually log those calories in, but I don't think that 750-1000 kcals would be enough to cover the whole lunch or dinner out. When those days happen, I usually eat a few snacks and a salad, so that even if I don't know my exact intake, I can approximate the whole day to a mantaining day. Even though I eat more throughout these days, I make up for it by behaving well for at least some weeks, so I don't think I am ignoring those big calories days, I'm just trying to mitigate a single random-eating day between several healthy eating days. I wouldn't say this makes up for it completely, but at least the effects of a single day are diluted on the long term.

sunsetzen

If you ate 1400+2800 in one day, yes you would have 0 deficit for that week. So it would be like maintaining.

Eleonora91

If you ate 1400+2800 in one day, yes you would have 0 deficit for that week. So it would be like maintaining.

Thank you, that sums everything up.
Which means that I have to eat 4200 kcals in a day to cancel a whole week... and, on reverse, if I'm willing to mantain, I could eat 4200 kcals in a day and "make up" for it by eating 1400 kcals the next week.

This is actually very interesting to me because when I have my meals out I don't think I reach 4200 kcals, but still think like it's been enough to gain instead than just mantaining.