Breaking the binge / starvation cycle
Chocoholic55555
Posts: 173 Member
So over the last few months since I've been in maintenance, this has been my pattern;
- plan to stick to maintenance calories (for me, 1500 net).
- have an upset / tired related binge, go WAY over my calories.
- feel really guilty, plan to. reduce my calories massively for the rest of the week (at least) to compensate
- stick to a really low calories diet for a good few days
- binge again
........ and so on and so forth.
Having done a lot of reading, I've come across 2 interesting points that stick in my mind;
1) I read some stuff about "Eating like the skinnier you". Basically, if you eat the calories you should eat to maintain your weight when you're at your goal weight, then you will eventually be that weight.
2) Mel B aka Scary Spice (I think it was) under eats by 100 calories per day, saving 600 additional calories for a treat day on the weekend.
So here's my new pan;
- STOP dieting after a binge. I know it's not the ole cause, but I do think that deprivation must be a contributing factor when it comes to the binging.
- Eat my maintenance calories minus 100 calories every day. That means eating back all of my exercise calories, so not exactly depriving myself. Rather than saving these calories for a pre arranged day, I will save them for those days when I feel the binge coming on. Rather than thinking "it's all ruined" on that day and letting the binge take hold, I'm hoping that I might actually think "it's ok, I've saved 600 calories" and stop the binge monster in it's tracks.
What do you think? Will it work? Would it work for you?
- plan to stick to maintenance calories (for me, 1500 net).
- have an upset / tired related binge, go WAY over my calories.
- feel really guilty, plan to. reduce my calories massively for the rest of the week (at least) to compensate
- stick to a really low calories diet for a good few days
- binge again
........ and so on and so forth.
Having done a lot of reading, I've come across 2 interesting points that stick in my mind;
1) I read some stuff about "Eating like the skinnier you". Basically, if you eat the calories you should eat to maintain your weight when you're at your goal weight, then you will eventually be that weight.
2) Mel B aka Scary Spice (I think it was) under eats by 100 calories per day, saving 600 additional calories for a treat day on the weekend.
So here's my new pan;
- STOP dieting after a binge. I know it's not the ole cause, but I do think that deprivation must be a contributing factor when it comes to the binging.
- Eat my maintenance calories minus 100 calories every day. That means eating back all of my exercise calories, so not exactly depriving myself. Rather than saving these calories for a pre arranged day, I will save them for those days when I feel the binge coming on. Rather than thinking "it's all ruined" on that day and letting the binge take hold, I'm hoping that I might actually think "it's ok, I've saved 600 calories" and stop the binge monster in it's tracks.
What do you think? Will it work? Would it work for you?
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Replies
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Sounds fantastic!!! :Flowerforyou: Good luck!0
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its absolutely worth a try. keep us updated0
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Well, so far this week, so good! I went over my calories on 2 days due to social events, but we're talking a couple of hundred calories, no where near a binge. As long as I stay on track with sensible eating (ie no dieting but no binging) today, my averages over the week will be at my maintenance calories - yay! I just need to avoid the binge today.0
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This so sounds like me!! Do well for a few days and stick to calories - then overeat for several days and plan how to make up for it - usually by restricting. I have a new book I'm reading that addressed this issue - I'm hoping that reading and re-reading it will eventually help.0
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Update:
I've been keeping this new plan up since posting on 4th April & it's totally worked! It's been easier to stick to & I've now lost the 3-4 lbs I gained after over indulging & I'm back to just under my goal weight, yay!0 -
Update:
I've been keeping this new plan up since posting on 4th April & it's totally worked! It's been easier to stick to & I've now lost the 3-4 lbs I gained after over indulging & I'm back to just under my goal weight, yay!
So happy to hear that! You're doing amazing!
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I think it sounds very doable. Thanks for your input.0
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I started doing the TDEE less 20% thing. I'm not going to lie and say that it has cured my binge eating but it definitely takes the pressure off and food is less of an issue. The exercise I do means I can eat 1700 calories per day which seems so wrong to me after years of restricting to 1000-1200.
The emotional eating sometimes occurs but not as much. It hasn't been perfect for me because you lose very slowly (1 pound per week or sometimes none) and if I do have a binge it still puts me back where I started but I feel like it is slowly healing the food issues.0
