Can someone explain weight gain from binging?

kissedbytheocean
kissedbytheocean Posts: 131 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I keep hearing people say that as long as you don't eat 3,500 calories OVER (insert mysterious number) you won't gain any real weight. So, my question is... eat 3,500 calories over what?

I also read somewhere that you can gain 1 pound a week by just adding 500 calories a day to what you already normally eat. I've never heard that one before. Is that really true?

I ask all of this because I binged around 2 AM and ate around 2,000 calories. My first thought is to not eat until tomorrow since I'm already over my calorie limit, but everyone says to just eat healthy, small meals the rest of the day? What do I do? If I eat anymore today, am I going to gain weight?

Sorry for all the questions. This clearly isn't my strong point.

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    ok, so suppose your maintenance calories (to stay the same weight neither gaining or losing) is 2000.

    if you then eat in one week an extra 3500, you will gain a pound. you might eat the 3500 calories in one go in a binge, or each day you may eat 500 more than you should do, which would be 7x500 = 3500.

    with me so far?

    the flip side of this is, if you maintain at 2000 calories, but eat 500 less per day, you should lose 1lb per week. you can do this by eatign 500 less per day, or eating 250 less per day and exercising off 250 (250 + 250 =500) and by the end of the week you should have a deficit of 3500 calories.

    hope that helps!
  • IveLanded
    IveLanded Posts: 797 Member
    Ok, the math goes like this:


    it's about 3500 calories to gain or lose a pound. If you BURN an extra 3500 calories per week, you burn about a pound a week. If you EAT 3500 calories over whatever the minimum is for you, then you'll probably gain weight that week. It's all a general estimate. But I've found it doesn't take quite that much for me to lose or gain. And it could be a little different for you too. It's just a general ball park figure to help with weight loss.

    That said......what YOU should do is maybe think about not binging. Getting to the bottom of your relationship with food and changing it. I think that would be a more important thing for you to focus on instead of continuing with bad habits and just working around them. I don't know what your goals are but you probably aren't going to get there keeping bad habits.
  • kissedbytheocean
    kissedbytheocean Posts: 131 Member
    Thank you guys for simplifying it for me. I think I understand it all now.

    IveLanded, I know you're just trying to help, but I'm doing the best I can. I got wasted last night after fighting with my boyfriend, self-harmed until I was exhausted, and then binged for a few hours. Sometimes there's no "thinking about not binging". It's not as easy as 1-2-3 sometimes. I appreciate your advice though and, of course, you're right.

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