Binge

Majda1234_wechange · July 2013

Okay so i really need a little support, here's the story:
I am 168 cm and in till December i weighed 68 kg then i decided to go on a diet restriciting myself to about 1200 calories and started exercising a lot. Till April the 1th i weighed 55-57 and by May i had 52 which is what i was completely satisfied with. I was eating healthy and normal and exercising since the beginning of the May, not a single binge, not a single unheealthy food , not a single sweet and i even had no temptations, knowing what food is healthy and what food my organism needs made me have absolutely no desire for unhealthy not even when the summer started and everyone were eating ice creams and such. But the beginning of the previous week i started eating A LOT, though it was one day and it was healthy food and around 2500 calories which in my case(where i should eat 1800 to maintain) didn't seem a lot so i put it behind me, the next day ate normally and day after i had another "binge" but again healthy food so i didn't feel guilty or anything.Then till Sunday i ate normally but went at my sisters place and i normally ate breakfast, a snack, lunch, a snack and dinner and didn;t exercise that day (although i do exercise every day i stopped during Sundays that week since my fitness club stopped working on Sundays) and then went to the store with my sister and bought bunch of sweets,me not touching any of them while the rest of the family ate wasn't the tiniest problem.I started doing some math and sudden;y had a sugar ice cream craving, it was HUGE.So i went down to the store and bought an ice cream thought it was okay but i am an extremist and when i ruin my day by just one sweet bite what usually happenns is i go on a NO STOPPING day so since my craving didn't stop i went down to the store and bought chocolate bisquits, two salty chips,choco grisines and some other cookies and ate it all in a metter of minutes but no that wasn't enough for me, then i ordered gyros and feeling a little bit sick and of course stuffed i just lied to bed.It was a 5500 calories binge that i would pass the next day but then i has a very greasy potato pie for breakfast the next day and bought an ice cream and then ate a whole box of ice cream for 4, all of it just while i was going home, on the way from my sisters and then got home where there are no tempatations since we all eat very healthy, no one as strictly as me but in moderation even my sister usually does but when the family comes as on Sunday they relax but again in moderation.However i got home, was still hungry and ate something under 300 made it to about 2500 calories and started typing in myfitnesspal again which i haven't done in a long time but i was always counting in my head just so i can orient myself.However 2500 wasn't THAT bad but i was bad that i did it the day after a binge and in such an unhealthy way.But even though i was hungry after i stopped and decided just to do one training more and 2500 will be gone,which is what i did and the next two days i was doing great and back on track, no desire for unhealthy normal trainings and everything UNTIL yesterday when my twin sister(not the one we went to one, this one i live with ) and i went on a birthday party at my friends's place.I didn't drink enough or eat enough that day because i was in a hurry and didn't have the time so when she offered a cake and me being really hungry i decided to take it, but as i said i am an extremist.However i didn't ask for another piece since it seemed rude, right after that we were supposed to go running but since i was hunry i decided to take an ice cream that had 400 calories and i felt so bas that the momment we started running i stopped and went home to eat.Thought it was better to go home and eat something healthy then buy more unhealthy just to satisfy hunger but as always when a binge days starts i cannot stop.I overate and felt stuffed and my sister too since we pretty much did all the things together so i decided i am not going to training and i NEVER EVER miss training and didn't go, instead went and bought an ice cream for 4 and ate it with my sister and had cookies with it and then ate some more afterwards and anyway of course felt bad after, it was around 4-4500 calories and now i don't know what to do.After the sister's binge i balanced it all out in the next two days so i wasn't in a surplus with calories but now i am and believe it or not, this morning i stepped on a scale and weighed 3 kg more which is rediculous after only one day of binging (since i calculated on myfitnesspal that everything got balanced out till yesterday).My huge problem is that i can't do it in moderation, it is either sweets in or sweets out. Do you have any idea what i should do? And how to get my weight back? I feel terrible like i have no control over my life.Missing the training and eating that much really freaks me out, i am REALLY satisfied with my weight but i a, completely terrifed of loosing it.

Chadomaniac · July 2013

Sounds like me when I lose my mind while cutting because im so restricted and just end up eating everything I look and and not giving a ### about it... haha I don't think its too serious , you need to start incorporating the foods you enjoy into your daily eating . Then you wont go on a binge run . You don't have a history of any binge eating do you?

Majda1234_wechange · July 2013

No i was really skinny and never dieting about a year ago then i switched schools and friends and i then started having the same unhealthy habits that they had and started gaining weight, went up about 10-15 kg and stayed liek that for a few months but decided to go back to skinny but i had no idea how since i have never rstricted myslf with food before, then discovered myfitnesspal and boom the weight started dropping. I was super happy when i fell on 52 kg and even though a lot of people says i am a bit too skinny i like the way i look so i don't really care.
But that is the problem if i so much as have a piece of sugar it ruins my entire day, i just cannot control it.It feels a if i am not myself in those moments, i litrerally loose my mind as if the world is going to end tomorrow. Today i have absolutely no desire for sweet or uhealthy or whatever but i am afraid it will happen again in a few days. And how is it possible to gain 3 kg in just a day? Will it go off? I am on the edge of started to count again but my doctor said it is an unhealthy habit that i have to completely loose.What do you think i should do? I know i am boring and all but i am really scared and my main problem is i feel as if i a loonatic and no one else does this because i don't think it is normal to eat 500 calories for a person my weight and height

And could there be some specific reason why it is happening now since last week when i led a completely normal lifestyle for months? Did you ever have a 5000 calories binge?

i just need an approval that it is normal and that tohers do it too.

freemystery · July 2013

Don't beat yourself up, this position of guilt and panic isn't doing you any favours.

Understand that what you did to get the weight off December-April is not sustainable. You may want to think about better balanced lifestyle choices that allow for you to have a little of the things you enjoy... It's not the "bit of sugar" that's the issue here, it's the fact that you're imposing such strict limits on yourself that sets the context for the disaster. For your own sake step back, stop panicking and breathe.

Find a health/fitness role model, some guys on here who have been steadily losing weight for months or years, some of them over 100 pounds so it's working. They know their stuff. You must accept to lose weight and keep it off, it will be a slow process. There will be no extreme calorie restrictions and unattainable fitness programmes. The weight WILL go. It will go slowly. You will be more content because you won't be constantly hungry or tired. Your weight won't yo-yo. You will find that you're more able to stop after one cookie. You won't be that mindset where 200 extra calories means you HAVE TO write off the whole day as a failure.

I am concerned at some of the things you describe which sound close to ED behaviour.
You sound very intense about this and there's nothing wrong with that but I do feel that the obesssive overtones work against you here, your doctor is right. "I feel as if a I'm a lunatic", "It feel as if I am not myself in those moments" these are worrying statements. Don't weigh every day. That way madness lies.

I am sure that far more knowledgable people than I can help you with nutrition and fitness... the main thing your post did for me was to set off alarm bells. I used to work with EDs and your posts echo some of the things I heard in the clinic. It's not a happy place. Please go easy on yourself.

FeelingLessChubby · July 2013

I think what you need to do is realise this is just temporary, and make a commitment - for example, I'm going back to my training/way of eating tomorrow, and that's that. You are stronger than you think you are.

In relation to the binges - I got a very strong impression that finding healthy substitutes for sweets would be something that could work for you. For example, Weight Watchers have loads of recipes for things you can do with bananas, which are healthy and low in calories (banana cocoa smoothies, frozen banana chips etc). You could also google healthy sweets or healthy sweet snacks.

In time, when you feel you've regained control over the binge, you'll find yourself feeling satisfied after a normal portion of sweets. Believe me, I know how you feel... I have a sweet tooth from hell and I used to eat everything sweet in sight, like it was calling my name or something... one time at office birthday I had SIX Krispy Kreme donuts... I'm aiming at the same weight as you are so I can relate there as well, and after 2.5 months of being on MFP my taste buds have completely realigned themselves - I now feel happily satisfied after just one cookie. So it's not impossible.

There's never been a dieter who didn't have a binge, so don't be too hard on yourself! As many binges as there are, there are twice as many chances to start over, I promise.

Finally, maybe it's time to recalculate your TDEE and see how many calories you should be now consuming, it may be too low or too high at the moment, so you could ensure you get the right number.

Good luck, let us know how you're getting on

Majda1234_wechange · July 2013

Ok, thank you all for the support. Also i forgot to mention though it may be important that i have started to consume A LOT of sugarfree gum in the past few weeks, around 100 a day and also a lot of coke zero and pepsi max whixh i have never ever consumed during my diet. i would have an occasional gum but that was it and i have read that artifical sweeteners such as aspartame could have some kind of binging impact on organism.

wannabpiper · July 2013

You'll see many discussions on this site about sugar addictions. I have the same issue; when I eat a cookie or starchy things like bread, cake, etc., I start the roller-coaster of binging. For this reason I try to stick with proteins - I consciously eat proteins as I would ditch them altogether if I didn't. When I get the urge to binge on carbs, I recognize it as the start to something bad and make myself eat a few proteins and the urge - believe it or not - fades away. The protein does something to my brain chemistry that tells me I don't crave the carbs anymore.

Good luck, and you might try indulging in a hard-boiled egg, a cheese stick, a hunk of chicken, etc., when the urge hits to eat that cookie.

Majda1234_wechange · July 2013

Yesterday i almost had another binge episode but what stopped me is that on that exact day i called a nutritionist that told me to write down everything i eat. So i ate normally the entire day and was feeling proud, at the end of the day my sister asked me to go for a run which i rejected ( and i usually never ever reject training and a day never passes without some kind of activity but this one did) so maybe that demotivated me. Anyway i ate the last portion of fruit and that was supposed to be it, 1800 normal amount of kcal for me but then i wanted to eat A LOT i had such an urge and there was absolutely no way to resist until i remembered that i had to write down what i ate so somehow i managed not to eat, i only ate a handful of mashrooms, wrote it down and already felt a bit bad for breaking my plans but that was it i managed it and i feel rather proud. Thank you all for the support.

freemystery · July 2013

Hey good going! Well done, great progress. Give the new way some time to embed, it took me a few weeks to stop going nuts every time I had chocolate or a piece of toast but you will get there. Try not to feel so bad about it, I know it's easier said than done but there is no need to be so harsh on yourself!

wilsoje74 · July 2013

Ok, thank you all for the support. Also i forgot to mention though it may be important that i have started to consume A LOT of sugarfree gum in the past few weeks, around 100 a day and also a lot of coke zero and pepsi max whixh i have never ever consumed during my diet. i would have an occasional gum but that was it and i have read that artifical sweeteners such as aspartame could have some kind of binging impact on organism.

100 a day???? I think the artificial sweetener will affect you negatively at that much excess!!

Majda1234_wechange · July 2013

Yes i know, i have decided to stop consuming gums and coke since in that amount God knows how bad it can affect me. However it has only passed three days and it is REALLY hard for me but hopefully it gets easier at least that is what i keep telling myself.

quirkytizzy · July 2013

It sounds like you might need some work on not demonizing certain foods or food groups. It's good to know your trouble spots. Having panic and anxiety attacks like the world might end when you have a high-sugar day is not healthy. That is contributing to the circle of restriction/overeating. If you can work on that, you will find yourself in a better place to choose what you need to be healthy.

Majda1234_wechange · July 2013

Yes, i am aware of that and i am afraid of eating disorders this way but managing the urge to binge yesterday has given me the absolute courage. Today i had loads of temptations since there was bunch of foods in the house because of my sister's birthday but because of the fear to fall for yet another binge i did not consume a single sweet thing.

jade2112 · July 2013

DSM-IV Diagnostic Criteria Binge Eating Disorder

1. Recurrent episodes of binge eating characterized by BOTH of the following:
a. Eating in a discrete amount of time (within a 2 hour period), an amount that is definitely larger than most people would eat during a similar time period.
b. Sense of lack of control over eating during an episode.

2. Binge eating episodes are associated with three (or more) of the following:
a. Eating much more rapidly than normal.
b. Eating until uncomfortably full.
c. Eating large amounts of food when not hungry.
d. Eating alone because of being embarrassed by how much one is eating.
e. Feeling disgust with oneself, depressed, or guilty after overeating.

3. Marked distress regarding binge eating is present.

4. The binge eating occurs, on average, at least 2 days a week for 6 months.

5. The binge eating is not associated with the regular use of inappropriate compensatory behaviors (e.g. purging, fasting, compulsive exercising).

Majda1234_wechange · July 2013

I do see all the statements as correct, expect d. Eating alone because of being embarrassed by how much one is eating. I have actually done it in company both times, although i was the only one actually eating but people were around me while i did it. Also i have done it twice this week but not for 6 months since this is absolutely the first time it has happened to me. Hopefully it never will again.

Majda1234_wechange · July 2013

I had another binge yesterday, i had severe diarhea throughout the day and ate healthy and normally.I was supposed to go to my training at 7 and when i went i was so exhausted, perhaps from the so much diarrhea and went home and had HUGE craving for a bunch of sweets that i right now have at home because of my sisters birthday party.So i decided no, i won't take that and i ate 500 g of cheese with 3 packf of tuna and bunch of hole grain bread and turkey breast BUT i was still craving it so i went and ate half of family ice cream and a bunch of cookies, after a small "break" i went and ate half of bread with pretzels and stuff.Could the diarrhea cause this huge binge? I don't know what to do and eat today, i am feeling really bad right now but there is absolutely no movement on the scale, could itt be that through my diarrhea i lost all the ingredients i took in through the day?

be_patient · July 2013

wow, have you heard of paragraphs!? just joking

If it makes you feel any better, I'm in excess of about 11500 calories...I'm getting rid of it by doing
daily goal-100 calories for as long as it takes, and exercising as well.

just chuck out all the junk food in the house, and spend your money on workout clothes instead

Majda1234_wechange · July 2013

But isn't that super unhealthy? I cannot get rid of it, the birthday is today. I have 3000 excess calories, i cannot exercise however if i do not eat i feel sluggish, without energy and can't work out.

tjthegreatone · July 2013

Okay so i really need a little support, here's the story:
I am 168 cm and in till December i weighed 68 kg then i decided to go on a diet restriciting myself to about 1200 calories and started exercising a lot. Till April the 1th i weighed 55-57 and by May i had 52 which is what i was completely satisfied with. I was eating healthy and normal and exercising since the beginning of the May, not a single binge, not a single unheealthy food , not a single sweet and i even had no temptations, knowing what food is healthy and what food my organism needs made me have absolutely no desire for unhealthy not even when the summer started and everyone were eating ice creams and such. But the beginning of the previous week i started eating A LOT, though it was one day and it was healthy food and around 2500 calories which in my case(where i should eat 1800 to maintain) didn't seem a lot so i put it behind me, the next day ate normally and day after i had another "binge" but again healthy food so i didn't feel guilty or anything.Then till Sunday i ate normally but went at my sisters place and i normally ate breakfast, a snack, lunch, a snack and dinner and didn;t exercise that day (although i do exercise every day i stopped during Sundays that week since my fitness club stopped working on Sundays) and then went to the store with my sister and bought bunch of sweets,me not touching any of them while the rest of the family ate wasn't the tiniest problem.I started doing some math and sudden;y had a sugar ice cream craving, it was HUGE.So i went down to the store and bought an ice cream thought it was okay but i am an extremist and when i ruin my day by just one sweet bite what usually happenns is i go on a NO STOPPING day so since my craving didn't stop i went down to the store and bought chocolate bisquits, two salty chips,choco grisines and some other cookies and ate it all in a metter of minutes but no that wasn't enough for me, then i ordered gyros and feeling a little bit sick and of course stuffed i just lied to bed.It was a 5500 calories binge that i would pass the next day but then i has a very greasy potato pie for breakfast the next day and bought an ice cream and then ate a whole box of ice cream for 4, all of it just while i was going home, on the way from my sisters and then got home where there are no tempatations since we all eat very healthy, no one as strictly as me but in moderation even my sister usually does but when the family comes as on Sunday they relax but again in moderation.However i got home, was still hungry and ate something under 300 made it to about 2500 calories and started typing in myfitnesspal again which i haven't done in a long time but i was always counting in my head just so i can orient myself.However 2500 wasn't THAT bad but i was bad that i did it the day after a binge and in such an unhealthy way.But even though i was hungry after i stopped and decided just to do one training more and 2500 will be gone,which is what i did and the next two days i was doing great and back on track, no desire for unhealthy normal trainings and everything UNTIL yesterday when my twin sister(not the one we went to one, this one i live with ) and i went on a birthday party at my friends's place.I didn't drink enough or eat enough that day because i was in a hurry and didn't have the time so when she offered a cake and me being really hungry i decided to take it, but as i said i am an extremist.However i didn't ask for another piece since it seemed rude, right after that we were supposed to go running but since i was hunry i decided to take an ice cream that had 400 calories and i felt so bas that the momment we started running i stopped and went home to eat.Thought it was better to go home and eat something healthy then buy more unhealthy just to satisfy hunger but as always when a binge days starts i cannot stop.I overate and felt stuffed and my sister too since we pretty much did all the things together so i decided i am not going to training and i NEVER EVER miss training and didn't go, instead went and bought an ice cream for 4 and ate it with my sister and had cookies with it and then ate some more afterwards and anyway of course felt bad after, it was around 4-4500 calories and now i don't know what to do.After the sister's binge i balanced it all out in the next two days so i wasn't in a surplus with calories but now i am and believe it or not, this morning i stepped on a scale and weighed 3 kg more which is rediculous after only one day of binging (since i calculated on myfitnesspal that everything got balanced out till yesterday).My huge problem is that i can't do it in moderation, it is either sweets in or sweets out. Do you have any idea what i should do? And how to get my weight back? I feel terrible like i have no control over my life.Missing the training and eating that much really freaks me out, i am REALLY satisfied with my weight but i a, completely terrifed of loosing it.

THIS is a real life example of what I was talking about on another thread when I mentioned dieting being a risk factor for disordered eating and even full-blown eating disorders. And someone accused me of scaremongering.

OP - this could have been me last year, almost word for word! Gone from being 'normal' to a too-restricted diet, to disordered eating and the associated misery.

Your body has been starved for so long and knows it, and although you probably think it's all a mental battle you are fighting hard against your body. You probably were 'okay' on 1200 for a while because eating so little suppressed your appetite and your body learned to work with what little it got. Now it's fighting back - to protect you!

I used to think like you that the bingeing was the problem. The problem is the rebound restriction. You do not have BED. If you are struggling at 1800, that is because your maintenance calorie amount is probably closer to 2500. It sounds like a lot...I know. Because all these dieting sites in my opinion underestimate the bmr and tdee of young, active people a lot. You probably move around a lot during the day anyway unlike most deskbound sedentary older adults, you probably have more muscle mass, and you exercise a lot.

If you can handle the stress, run a trial: increase your calories to where you are comfortable and don't feel restricted - maybe try a week at a number you feel is insane: 2200. This will allow you a big piece of cake and many of the other treats you denied yourself during the restricting phase. You will probably put on a bit of water weight - one way to avoid the mental stress is to ditch the scale for the time being.

I say this because that's how I fought my demons. I allowed myself to eat all the food I was craving, and everday I binged I woke up the next day resolving not to feel guilty but to eat more! (I still worked out as usual at the gym). I found surprisingly that the urge to binge vanished. I still overate some days, but nothing out of control. My all or nothing thinking also vanished, surprisingly. I didn't weigh myself for months. When I eventually re-weighed my weight had stabilised at 5 pounds higher than my low (probably not realistic for me) weight.

I still have bad days and bad weeks; I'm even coming to the end of a bad month! But I have completely lost the binge mentality. I am eating far more than MFP recommends and yet my weight has stabilised. Don't put all your trust in calculations of calories in and out. The error margins are huge. There is a lot of guesstimation.

Lastly, I've accepted that the scale is not everything and the number or look in my head (influenced by unrealistic body standards in our society) may not be what my body feels is optimal.

Other people may tell you different things and advise you to man up and gain self control - clearly you have that in bucket loads or you'd never have got this far. You may have to be behave a bit counter to the diet mentality to protect your mental state.

All the best.

tjthegreatone · July 2013

But isn't that super unhealthy? I cannot get rid of it, the birthday is today. I have 3000 excess calories, i cannot exercise however if i do not eat i feel sluggish, without energy and can't work out.

Do not try to work off the excess calories. You'll get into a cycle of trying to balance excess calories eaten with more restriction and exercise (you will always be in the negative and you will never win the battle - trust me on this one!)

Do your normal workout if you can. Eat breakfast. Write off the last few weeks completely and just start afresh today.

jen_zz · July 2013

You'll see many discussions on this site about sugar addictions. I have the same issue; when I eat a cookie or starchy things like bread, cake, etc., I start the roller-coaster of binging. For this reason I try to stick with proteins - I consciously eat proteins as I would ditch them altogether if I didn't. When I get the urge to binge on carbs, I recognize it as the start to something bad and make myself eat a few proteins and the urge - believe it or not - fades away. The protein does something to my brain chemistry that tells me I don't crave the carbs anymore.

Good luck, and you might try indulging in a hard-boiled egg, a cheese stick, a hunk of chicken, etc., when the urge hits to eat that cookie.

I agree. I was actually having a carb binge this morning - cereal, bread, crackers, then I had some cuttlefish snack and I immediately felt so full I just stopped eating.

Majda1234_wechange · July 2013

Yeah, i have tied to eat what i crave for the past few days to see what my body needs and it was basically A LOT of margarine and bread.I take it as my body needed bread.My calorie intake was around 2500-3500 which is a lot and for the past week i have gained a kg but now it kind of stabilised, i tend to eat 5 meals a day without limiting any foods. I feel bad for eatingso much and gaining already in such a short periods but i pretty much ate till i was full, only once i felt stuffed but the rest of the days i just ate till i was comfortably full. I am really trying to get some kind of healthy long term life eating plan. I am only worried about the junk that is now stored in my body as fat whilist i could have ate some healthy foods and pack on muscle but then again perhaps i needed some fat on my body

lauren3101 · July 2013

Wow, I found that hard to read. I narrowed it down to you severely limit your diet usually, and now you've snapped and had a couple of binge days and you've gained 3kg?

Firstly, that gain is not going to be fat, it's going to be mostly water with a little bit of fat. If you stick to your usual way of eating it will come off as quickly as it went on.

Secondly, I think your problem stems from you limiting yourself so much and demonizing food groups. One piece of cake is not unhealthy. One ice-cream is not unhealthy. By cutting them out completely, you are going to crave them eventually, and by labeling them as a 'bad' food, once you have one, you think 'I've blown it', and that messes you up for the day.

I also noticed you over-ate when you missed a meal? I do that too - if I let myself get hungry, I eat everything in sight. It's like a trigger for me.

I'm unwilling to say you have a problem with binge eating as your willpower seems to be usually very good. I think it's a combination of too much restriction and getting hungry. It happens. Treat yourself a little more.

Majda1234_wechange · July 2013

Yes, you seem to understand pretty well what i was going through. But people already started noticing the weight ven though it was literally one kg, the weight fell of after a few days of normal eating. Can some of the unhealthy food i ate go to muscle if though i haven't been regulary exercising? Since i am trying to comfort myself somehow and see the good side of overeating week, i basically ate sweets, bread and margarine...very small amount of healthy food choices.

lauren3101 · July 2013

Yes, you seem to understand pretty well what i was going through. But people already started noticing the weight ven though it was literally one kg, the weight fell of after a few days of normal eating. Can some of the unhealthy food i ate go to muscle if though i haven't been regulary exercising? Since i am trying to comfort myself somehow and see the good side of overeating week, i basically ate sweets, bread and margarine...very small amount of healthy food choices.

See, you are still worrying about 'unhealthy' food. You need to get over that habit. You overate, it happens to all of us and one food type is not unhealthy. Hell, one whole day of sweets and crisps and cake and chocolate is not unhealthy in the long term, it's when you do it every day that it becomes a problem. If your diet is generally good, one day of snacking is not going to damage you in any way. As for muscle, the food you ate is not going to 'turn' to muscle, neither is it going to 'turn' to fat. As I said, it's mostly going to be a water gain.

johnrossmckay · July 2013

This may sound stupid but I limit what I can get when I have an urge.

I carry no cash. All groceries on credit. I can't buy chocolate bars from the machine at work if I have no cash. I can't eat all the chocolate chips, maple syrup, peanut butter or pizza pops if there are none in the house. It doesn't stop the binges but it limits them.

Get rid of sugars and foods that prepare quickly. Individual yogurts, high fat cheeses, frozen entrees that microwave quickly.

Does that make any sense?

Majda1234_wechange · July 2013

Yes, you seem to understand pretty well what i was going through. But people already started noticing the weight ven though it was literally one kg, the weight fell of after a few days of normal eating. Can some of the unhealthy food i ate go to muscle if though i haven't been regulary exercising? Since i am trying to comfort myself somehow and see the good side of overeating week, i basically ate sweets, bread and margarine...very small amount of healthy food choices.

See, you are still worrying about 'unhealthy' food. You need to get over that habit. You overate, it happens to all of us and one food type is not unhealthy. Hell, one whole day of sweets and crisps and cake and chocolate is not unhealthy in the long term, it's when you do it every day that it becomes a problem. If your diet is generally good, one day of snacking is not going to damage you in any way. As for muscle, the food you ate is not going to 'turn' to muscle, neither is it going to 'turn' to fat. As I said, it's mostly going to be a water gain.

But the problem is, it wasn't one day it was a whole week although i am back to my routine now, some if it must have already turned into fat since have already noticed i had gained weight, even though it is one or two kg i am pretty skinny so it shows off quickly and what i am just wondering was at least some of it muscle.

Majda1234_wechange · July 2013

This may sound stupid but I limit what I can get when I have an urge.

I carry no cash. All groceries on credit. I can't buy chocolate bars from the machine at work if I have no cash. I can't eat all the chocolate chips, maple syrup, peanut butter or pizza pops if there are none in the house. It doesn't stop the binges but it limits them.

Get rid of sugars and foods that prepare quickly. Individual yogurts, high fat cheeses, frozen entrees that microwave quickly.

Does that make any sense?

Yeah, i usually have none of itat home but there has been a cellebration previous week so i did have that kind of food but usually i binge on whole grain bread and other healthy stuff so i do not even gomuch over my calorie limit and it is healthy.

R_Queenie · July 2013

Two things: First, I can relate to the "wanting to eat everything" feeling. Before I was counting calories / logging my food, I am sure that i had days where I hit insane calories. Since I have been tracking I have definitely had some "over" days. BUT, I have also recognized that sometimes it's not even hunger - it's just cravings.

I know this because I try to think of what I REALLY want to eat - and it's not a "single item"...it's this, and that, and some of that, and all of that. (Read as ice cream, pizza, bag of chips, bowl of sugar-cereal, crackers....keep going, etc. etc) By the time I list what I think would appease my "hunger" it's ridiculous - and no ONE item is going to make me feel happy / content. Like a serving of any of those things would just be an insult to what I want to taste. So since none of that sounds like something that would really "fix" the hunger (and I'm not eating it ALL --b/c who wants to log that much food???), I generally just drink some water and go to bed.

Second, almost all of those foods (high sugar, low nutrition) leave me feeling "empty" and unsatisfied. Leading to more bad food choices. So I've learned which foods I can "handle". I can eat a reasonable amount of pizza (I also may eat more than reasonable - but I will STOP and it won't lead to another bad food choice.)

I CAN NOT have doughnuts for breakfast!!! It leaves me hungry / craving / and bad things will happen...mostly because I will feel like crap all day and want to eat that feeling away. So i just don't do it. I know my limits.

That being said - I have stepped on the scale (I do daily) and had an increase of a few pounds. This is not always related to food. It's related to water. So relax and try to enjoy mostly healthy foods - and occasional "treats" that don't cause you to fall completely off the wagon.

Best of luck.

Oishii · July 2013

Your BMI is 18.4 when you're at 52kg. While you may like this, as you've not been at this weight for long, your body may be striving to bring about homeostasis (keeping your body a certain weight) and this is sending you hunger signals to try to rectify what it perceives as a problem. This can happen at all kinds of weights, so I'm not saying the body is always 'right' to tend towards a certain weight, but as you are underweight by some definitions, if I were you I would be vigilant for signs that I was, in fact, too light.

When I reached my goal weight I would be very, very hungry a lot of the time, until I finally realised that my maintenance calories were actually over 2500kcal. You are young and active and 1800kcal may still be a calorie restriction for you, even if it 'shouldn't' be. Restriction naturally triggers 'binges', so maybe you need to rethink your daily intake a little too.

Majda1234_wechange · July 2013

Your BMI is 18.4 when you're at 52kg. While you may like this, as you've not been at this weight for long, your body may be striving to bring about homeostasis (keeping your body a certain weight) and this is sending you hunger signals to try to rectify what it perceives as a problem. This can happen at all kinds of weights, so I'm not saying the body is always 'right' to tend towards a certain weight, but as you are underweight by some definitions, if I were you I would be vigilant for signs that I was, in fact, too light.

When I reached my goal weight I would be very, very hungry a lot of the time, until I finally realised that my maintenance calories were actually over 2500kcal. You are young and active and 1800kcal may still be a calorie restriction for you, even if it 'shouldn't' be. Restriction naturally triggers 'binges', so maybe you need to rethink your daily intake a little too.

Actually i have been really skinny my entire life, literally my BMI was a bit underweight and never watched what i ate. But last year i have gained all the pounds when i switched schools and therefore in the new company started eating unhealthy and adapting their unhealthy living habits and stopped exercising. That may be too low, i have been thinking about it too that is why i expereminted last week and ate what i wanted when i wanted and found out that i have been intaking around 2500 but there were three days where i ate 3500 or more and felt stuffed, ate a bit too much on those days but on the 2500 i only felt comfortbly full and for the entire week i have even been eating unhealthy, like sweets and tons of margarine( probably cause my diet did not contain any fat so i required it) and at the end of the day when i type what i ate i see that it is around 2500 and i literally had no desire to eat more, anyway i have gained a pound after that week( and it already got noticed by a few people because i am skinny so it gets noticed easily) which is probably of the overeating days.However maybe 2500 is what i should be eating but the problem is i haven't been exercising that entire week so that may have also caused the weight gain. I wanted to try that intuitive eating thing but now that i have gained a pound i am scared to continue with it. Because basically when you count all the calories, i am 7000 calories over my calorie limit of the week so i am really scared of gaining more weight.The 5 kg i alked about before fell off literally the day i went back to my 1800 meal plan and i am back at my normal weight two days after ( although i still look fatter than last week somehow). So what is your advice? Should i continue with intuitive eating or have the 5 meals a day just upper my calories and aim for 2000 or more?I didn't really feel like i was starving my body then since i never felt hungry with the 5 meals a day plan, also my goal is to build muscle so i tihnk it would be better to stick to it since that means clean eating and intuitive includes unhealthy food too( like margarine or sweets now and then), although i eat healthy most of the time.

Binge

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