Is it a binge if I was hungry?

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brainzap
brainzap Posts: 145 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Today I was ravenous and ate 2000 instead of my usual 1200 but I was hungry and I ate cherry tomatoes, broccoli, shrimp, greek yoghurt, avocado, and comte cheese. Does it still count as a binge if I ate that much but was actually hungry? Do I have to make up for it tomorrow?

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  • iulia_maddie
    iulia_maddie Posts: 2,780 Member
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    2000 calories is not a binge. It's most likely lower than what you need to maintain your weight at 5'8''.
    1200 calories is too low, which is why you were ravenous today. You don't look like you have lots of weight to lose, so if i were you i would up my calories.
  • tonytoo
    tonytoo Posts: 307
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    2000 calories is not a binge. It's most likely lower than what you need to maintain your weight at 5'8''.

    This. Just forget about it and carry on tomorrow.
  • bregalad5
    bregalad5 Posts: 3,965 Member
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    I eat 1,800-2,000 most days. You'll be fine!! As long as you're under your TDEE you won't gain. If you're worried, do a little extra exercise tomorrow. For your height, 1,200 is probably too LOW and that's why you're still hungry :smile:
  • 1ConcreteGirl
    1ConcreteGirl Posts: 3,677 Member
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    2000 calories is not a binge. It's most likely lower than what you need to maintain your weight at 5'8''.
    1200 calories is too low, which is why you were ravenous today. You don't look like you have lots of weight to lose, so if i were you i would up my calories.

    yup
  • whierd
    whierd Posts: 14,026 Member
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    Omg, 2000 whole calories? You eat clean, so it was really only like 1500 calories though.
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
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    2000 calories is not a binge. It's most likely lower than what you need to maintain your weight at 5'8''.
    1200 calories is too low, which is why you were ravenous today. You don't look like you have lots of weight to lose, so if i were you i would up my calories.

    yup

    ^this


    ETA: And what exercises are you doing to make progress towards your goal of looking "powerful" and "good in a swimsuit"? Hopefully, some strength training of some type.
  • zumbajheri
    zumbajheri Posts: 200 Member
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    If you don't set your kcal to a reasonable deficit, you're setting yourself up for failure because it'll zap energy to work out, you'll be hangry, and you'll risk losing what muscle mass you currently have. TDEE -15/20% is the norm around here.

    Look into heavy lifting, sounds like you're looking to build muscle from your profile. You look thin already, perhaps adding muscle will help you reach your goal of looking strong as well.
  • SteelySunshine
    SteelySunshine Posts: 1,092 Member
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    Your highest weight was 120? Does that mean you weigh less than that now? If so you shouldn't even be trying to lose weight. And it would be a good idea to talk to a doctor and get a referral.
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
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    2000 calories is not a binge. It's most likely lower than what you need to maintain your weight at 5'8''.
    1200 calories is too low, which is why you were ravenous today. You don't look like you have lots of weight to lose, so if i were you i would up my calories.

    ^^^^ this

    the word "binge" is so misused and overused. a lot of people say "I binged" when really they should say "I overate" - overeating means eating more food than your body needs, but the amount of food is fairly typical... bingeing involves much larger amounts of food.

    A lot of overeating and bingeing is triggered by undereating, and this is a basic survival response. IMO this is the number 1 reason not to be on a too low calorie diet, because you will feel hungry, you will feel tired and miserable... and at some point your survival responses will be triggered and you'll overeat, or even go on a binge. Other survival responses to too low calories (e.g. slowing of the metabolism) kick in later on, but the main thing that screws people up on low calorie diets before they get that far, is the overeating/bingeing response. And the excess calories from this will be stored as fat, because your body thinks there's a food shortage and doesn't know where the next meal is coming from. Additionally, people typically feel a ton of guilt over the binge and do penance for it by restricting their calories even more or doing more exercise without increasing their calories... which just triggers the whole overeating/bingeing survival response again and they get stuck in a cycle of excessive restriction and bingeing, and get nowhere. In fact if this goes on for a long time the excessive restriction may result in loss of lean muscle mass while the bingeing results in gaining fat, so the scale may be staying the same but their body composition is getting less healthy.

    IMO this is the number 1 reason to avoid eating too little. Eating enough to fuel your body stops the above from happening, and you can still have a small calorie deficit for slow and steady fat loss without triggering these survival responses. But a big deficit will trigger them sooner or later.

    BTW not all bingeing results from this, sometimes bingeing is purely psychological, but the above needs to be ruled out first, and some people are struggling with both at the same time - survival response bingeing is going to make psychological bingeing about 100x worse, so undereating should be avoided in all cases.
  • trud72
    trud72 Posts: 1,912 Member
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    healthy food like you had is not what I class as a binge! BELIVE ME! :blushing:
  • runningjen74
    runningjen74 Posts: 312 Member
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    So you want to look powerful and strong, and you're current weight/max weight is 120?? So you're really not looking to lose weight you are looking to build muscle and lose a bit of fat. 1200 won't be enough, and you need to lift heavy stuff. If you were hungry, not eating for emotional/other reasons, it's your body telling you to feed it better.

    There are lots of links telling you how to work out how much you should be eating - I suggest you start here. But bear in mind, if you're 120lb now, you're not looking to lose weight, you're looking to build muscle, so not eating at a deficit.
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/974888-in-place-of-a-road-map-2k13

    You should try and look at pictures of people at the same weight but different sizes - the difference is the muscle. You won't get there eating 1200 and not lifting. Eating at 1200 and not lifting, you may lose weight, only a small bit, but it is likely to be lean body mass and you'll look worse.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    2000 calories is not a binge. It's most likely lower than what you need to maintain your weight at 5'8''.

    This. Just forget about it and carry on tomorrow.

    I am only 5ft5 and I maintain on more than 2000 cals

    edited to add.... You're 5ft 8 and you want to lose 18lbs with a high weight of 120lbs?!

    Seriously?!

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