Am I right? Is my binge day what's screwing up my weight lo

nevadjinn

I upped my calorie intake as suggested and I got down to a nice 125 lbs. Then I had my weekly binge day and shot back up to 132 lbs It's stayed like that for a couple days. I realize that before I started having weekly binge days I was losing weight just fine and since I've been having them, even though I attempt to compensate for them with exercise, my weight always climbs back up whenever I lose. So am I too hasty in thinking that my binge day is what's sabotaging my weight loss? I'm thinking I'll replace the binge day with one day a week eating enough calories to maintain my current weight but making sure to avoid eating more calories than that because it seems that to do so causes weight gain. Good idea?

nevadjinn

If that is the case and I should stop the binge days, should I spend my exercise calories this week on compensating for Friday's binge or just forget about it and start fresh but just not have another binge day?

abby459

Well I think that would depend o what your binge day consists of?? It is like one bad meal....or a whole day over 7000 calories every week?? There is a big difference between the two. Also, have you changed anything with your workouts?

Jo2926

what do you mean by binge day? What do you eat/how much?

Sidesteal

How hard are you binging (estimated calories) and are you weighing in the day after binge day?

nevadjinn

I eat 1200-1440 extra calories. I weigh in every day, so I know that the weight gain it causes is consistent.

kimber_av

wow. I would cut back on the binge days. every other week? or if you want to keep a cheat day have it just one cheat meal.
dont go too far over your limit.
Ex. say your daily intake is 1500 and you want a binge day. try and stay around 1800? an extra 300 sounds like a nice desert haha.
and keep tracking to make sure it isnt just your binge day tahts messing you up. Im not sure how bad one day could be for you. every body is different

Jo2926

I eat 1200-1440 extra calories. I weigh in every day, so I know that the weight gain it causes is consistent.

The day after could just be water weight. Over the week as a whole is your weight steady/going up/going down?

Sidesteal

I eat 1200-1440 extra calories. I weigh in every day, so I know that the weight gain it causes is consistent.

Extra as in, above maintenance, or extra as in, above your usual deficit? Also, what is your daily deficit set at, roughly?

nevadjinn

The weight gain seems to stick. Like, I can lose a couple pounds but then I put it back on with my next binge so it never really goes away and I never really lose weight.

Karen_145

That's a ton of extra calories. I agree that you should probably stick to one binge meal, and try to compensate for it with exercise, lower calorie meals the rest of the day, or just binging lightly. If you're eating out you can often divide your portion in half and save the rest for later. This will give you the taste that you want but far fewer calories.

nevadjinn

Extra as in above my deficit. Calorie goal is is 1440, who is about a 250 calorie deficit. Used to eat 1200 calories a day but got advice to increase.

kittycarson

You may want to consider a binge "meal" once a week instead of an entire day of binging...That was my plan as well until a good friend informed me that I should stick to the "meal" instead. Now I do Saturday night Binge Meals...It still keeps me motivated throughout the week and gives me plenty to look forward to. Hope this helps.

adjones5

Thats what my problem was, I would have saturday as a cheat day and just eat literally anything I wanted. The next day I would get on the scale and it would take me until friday to get rid of the extra weight. I would recommend just having a cheat meal instead of an entire day, thats what helped me.

Jo2926

The weight gain seems to stick. Like, I can lose a couple pounds but then I put it back on with my next binge so it never really goes away and I never really lose weight.

Ok. So you need to address the binge then I think. I'm interested WHY you have a binge day?

Sidesteal

Extra as in above my deficit. Calorie goal is is 1440, who is about a 250 calorie deficit. Used to eat 1200 calories a day but got advice to increase.

If your math is correct, you're eating at a 250 deficit x 6 days = 1500 deficit, and then binging back most of it.

I would say you should reduce your binge day to maintenance level.

nevadjinn

I have a binge day because I get sick of always being careful of what I eat and I want to have a little while where I can just not worry about it and eat whatever I feel like.

Matttdvg

1200-1400 calories isn't going to make you gain that much. As a general guide (it varies from person to person, obviously) a 3500 calorie deficit over a week will result in a 1lb loss (a deficit that MFP calculates for you). Adding an extra 1200-1400 calories to that won't result in a drastic gain like that, it'll just reduce your deficit and therefore reduce your loss a little.

Unless you're making huge miscalculations with your calorie intake, the weight you have gained certainly isn't body fat. It could be a whole load of things. Water is a common one. Especially if your binge day is high sodium, water could account for a lot of the gain. Weight fluctuates a lot and is a terrible measure of fat loss (and what we really want to do is lose fat. We say we want to lose weight, but we don't. It 's the fat we want to lose - weight loss is just a side effect). Don't worry about daily changes in weight. Focus on long term changes. If weighing yourself everyday is resulting in you worrying about these fluctuations - stop. Just weigh yourself every week. And look for trends over an even longer period.

jakejacobsen

if your binge day has a ton of sodium and not enough water to flush it out it can make you retain water and water weighs a lot

nevadjinn

I think I will reduce my binge day to maintenance level or at least to no more than 300 calories over my deficit. Thanks everyone. Your advice will keep me from talking myself out of this improvement :-)

dragonflybird

My trainer said that I can have a binge meal, not a binge day, but a meal.

juliesummers

Thats what my problem was, I would have saturday as a cheat day and just eat literally anything I wanted. The next day I would get on the scale and it would take me until friday to get rid of the extra weight. I would recommend just having a cheat meal instead of an entire day, thats what helped me.

SAME. For a bit, Sunday was my "binge day" (For me binge days consisted of fruit, beans, lentils, flaxseed, oatmeal, etc., just in whatever quantities I wanted rather than extreme moderation) and it would take me the entire week to lose the weight I put on from Sundays (even though my "binges" just brought me up to about 1700 cals for the day), so I cut that out.

dlyeates

WOW!!! 1200-1400 EXTRA?!?! That's like double your calories. To me that seems a little ridiculous. And I could definitely see that messing with your weight loss. All that food takes time to come out of your system and could take a few days to ....*ahem* eliminate. So if your binge is on Friday and you gain 3 or so lbs (which would be about right for the amount of food you are probably putting into your body) then it could take a few (3-4) days for that to get back out of your system. Which then puts you around Tuesday or later in the week and then you have a new binge on Friday. I would definitely think doubling your calories once a week would stop any weight loss.

I had my first binge day about a week ago (about 1200 calories over) and it took almost 5 days to get back to my "starting" weight from the day before the binge. Between the sodium, alcohol and needing to just get it out of my system through the natural elimination processes it's no wonder it wreaked havoc on my system.

I concur with others suggestions that you have a cheat meal or add a dessert but doubling your calories could easily mess with your weight loss.

Sidesteal

1200-1400 calories isn't going to make you gain that much. As a general guide (it varies from person to person, obviously) a 3500 calorie deficit over a week will result in a 1lb loss (a deficit that MFP calculates for you). Adding an extra 1200-1400 calories to that won't result in a drastic gain like that, it'll just reduce your deficit and therefore reduce your loss a little.

I appreciate the premise of your post, but OP is at a 1500 calorie deficit over 6 days. In this particular example (assuming his/her math is correct), he/she is literally binging back almost all of the deficit.

Jo2926

I have a binge day because I get sick of always being careful of what I eat and I want to have a little while where I can just not worry about it and eat whatever I feel like.

I'd think about keeping a binge day but doing it less often - once every two or three weeks. That way you get the same feeling of freedom, which you wouldn't get with a handful of extra calories. But I would also factor in some extra exercise either side of it, to lessen the impact.

You need to find a balance that works for you, and which you can stick to.

good luck

nevadjinn

So I think I'll use this week's exercise calories to "pay for" Friday's binge but in the future have a binge meal instead of a binge day. Sound good?

sleepytexan

Depends -- what is your weekly loss goal set to? You are about my weight, so if you have it set to more than 1 lb./week, you could actually be eating too little . . . anyway,

You could try a little adjustment to the system.

This is the way I do mine - I'm just 1 lb. from goal.

I set my weekly weight loss goal to 1 lb, but have 1 day a week (refueling day) where I eat up to 2x BMR, or up to 1200 extra calories. That makes an average across the week of 1/2 lb. loss instead.

It also allows me to eat a decent amount of calories on my non-workout day, as I could never stay at 1400 cals--ha.

I lost 12 of my 15 lbs. in 2 mos at 1 lb loss/week, but then plateaued for a month. I went to 1/2 lb. week for 3 weeks, then maintenance for 3 weeks, but just stayed the same. Finally what worked for me was to put my activity level up to "very active" and switch to this spike system as described above. It has helped me lose 2 lbs. this last month, and finally break the plateau.

All in all, the amount of calories I eat each day does not vary that much, bc I work out 6 days (usually burn bt 500- 1200 cals a day) and then have my spike / refueling day on my rest day.

blessings.

inlander

I think, based on my own experience with weekly bingeing, you ought to try to binge every two weeks or once a month instead of every week. When I allow myself a binge day once a week, I essentially erase all of that week's hard work.

Matttdvg

1200-1400 calories isn't going to make you gain that much. As a general guide (it varies from person to person, obviously) a 3500 calorie deficit over a week will result in a 1lb loss (a deficit that MFP calculates for you). Adding an extra 1200-1400 calories to that won't result in a drastic gain like that, it'll just reduce your deficit and therefore reduce your loss a little.

I appreciate the premise of your post, but OP is at a 1500 calorie deficit over 6 days. In this particular example (assuming his/her math is correct), he/she is literally binging back almost all of the deficit.

Even then, that's just going to negate a weight loss and result in maintenance. It isn't going to lead to a 7lb weight gain.

sleepytexan

1200-1400 calories isn't going to make you gain that much. As a general guide (it varies from person to person, obviously) a 3500 calorie deficit over a week will result in a 1lb loss (a deficit that MFP calculates for you). Adding an extra 1200-1400 calories to that won't result in a drastic gain like that, it'll just reduce your deficit and therefore reduce your loss a little.

I appreciate the premise of your post, but OP is at a 1500 calorie deficit over 6 days. In this particular example (assuming his/her math is correct), he/she is literally binging back almost all of the deficit.

Even then, that's just going to negate a weight loss and result in maintenance. It isn't going to lead to a 7lb weight gain.

This may or may not apply to the OP, however, if your overall caloric deficit is too great for an extended period of time, you CAN gain weight from binging, and the binge does not even have to be big. It could be 5 cookies. This is how fat people stay fat even when they are "starving".

read here:

700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing">http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing

stubbysticks

I would definitely think doubling your calories once a week would stop any weight loss.

Only for those who don't have much left to lose. I double my calories once a week & my last 25 lbs says it doesn't stop any weight loss. However, I'm still 40 lbs away from my goal weight so I'm burning much more than the OP.

To the OP, Sidesteal is right, the amount you're going over is probably enough to offset your deficit from the other 6 days. I definitely appreciate having a day where you don't want to plan or measure your food, because I do it. And if you are ok with maintaining your weight, then you seem to have found the perfect balance for it. But since you indicated you do still want to lose more, you're going to have to either put some limits around that day, or increase your burn through the week somehow to make up the difference.