how much will 3 days of binging affect me

fitnessqueen91
fitnessqueen91 Posts: 166 Member
in Motivation and Support
I was doing so well, I've lost almost a stone, but over the past three days I've been binging a bit. I'm on my time of the month but no excuse. I went 2 whole weeks without binging but on tuesday, wednesday and yesterday i binged. on thursday i ate healthy and exercised a lot. i binged on vanilla ice cream, crisps, low fat chocolate mousse, chicken, potato waffles, chocolate, biscuits, rice. I've probably had 4000-5000 cals on eahc binge day. Eeek. I feel so out of control when I binge. I'm so worried this will affect me big time, even affect my dress size! I've gotten down to 11st 12lb (probably 12st now) and a uk size 10/12. I feel like a 14. Will this affect me majorly? I felt lazy too and I just have days where I enjoy pigging out in front of the tv, but i know its not good for me. Is there anyway I can stop cravings and impulsive behaviour on my time of the month?

Replies

  • kentwhale
    kentwhale Posts: 18 Member
    Thankfully I have passed the stage of the "time of month" (one of the few benefits of getting older) but I well remember wanting to eat chocolate & comfort eat more than usual at that time. If you really cannot resist then you have to accept that you will eat more for a few days a month & try & be prepared by not having ice cream, crisps etc in the house and if you binge then it will be on healthy food. If you really cannot do without chocolate then buy good quality stuff with high cocoa content which tends to be more satisfying on smaller amounts. Also you can plan for this by creating a deficit in the days leading up to your time of the month so you have some calories in the bank to play with. The other thing is if you go over for a few days you can try & go under the rest of the week to balance it out, but it sounds like this time you just have to forget it and get back on the horse. You can't do anything about yesterday, just concentrate on today & tomorrow. If you have put on a couple of pounds you can lose them, just like you have already done - you know how to do it.
    Just pick yourself up, dust yourself down and start all over again. Good luck :)
  • SrMaggalicious
    SrMaggalicious Posts: 495 Member
    It will effect you for as long as you keep thinking about it. It's done. It's over...move on...you'll have faster progress that way. You can't take back the three days, but you can take control of the NOW. Start now clearing out your mind and focus on wanting to be healthy and strong. Once yesterday has passed, I don't think about it. I can't do anything about it but I can do EVERYTHING about right now. Feelings of guilt, shame, regret etc. don't do s*** but make you regress. Put your hardhat on and get back to work....break's over!

    ETA: Inactivity breeds inactivity..same for healthy habits. You begin a healthy habit begrudgingly, but eventually, you do it because your brain has been wired to do it everyday, and it will become easier. 21 days make a habit...make it a good one.
  • kentwhale
    kentwhale Posts: 18 Member
    Also meant to say, I used to find long walks & drinking lots of water helped. When I was really active on a regular basis I noticed that all the usual symptoms used to be lessened, bloating & craving etc. I only just remembered this - as I said it has been a while.
  • gypsy_spirit
    gypsy_spirit Posts: 2,107 Member
    I encourage you to work on the reasons you are bingeing. Time of month will come each month and spending those days eating 4000 - 5000 calories a day will most definitely have an impact on your weight loss.

    The reasons for binges are numerous. My past reasons are not yours. The only way to overcome this is the find out what makes you binge. Once you do that you can work on eliminating this habit from your life. It is possible. Good luck.
  • fitsporation96
    fitsporation96 Posts: 117
    Hello,

    How many calories were you eating for weight loss? just wondering as if you were eating starvation calories it would be more likely your body will hold unto more water. Otherwise you should be ok, it will retain for a while but it will drop after that.

    Good Luck.
  • Cryptonomnomicon
    Cryptonomnomicon Posts: 848 Member
    People have already mentioned that you need to address the reasons or triggers for your binging and inactivity, I would look into this as 'binging' is largely a mental aspect of learning moderation as opposed to actual hunger unless you have set your deficit too high, than hunger and over-restriction of calories or foods could definitely contribute to these overeating sessions.

    Boredom usually drives people to eat to excess, so hobbies or some sort of activity that keeps your mind active and not just your body could help considerably.

    I also recommend reading this link concerning IIFYM, as it addresses eating in moderation but still getting to enjoy treats within reason...

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/817188-iifym

    Humans are largely creatures of habit so if you exercise regularly it will become a normal facet of life as opposed to a chore or a deed done in an attempt to lose weight. First we form our habits than they form us.

    Lastly 7000cals over maintenance is about equivalent to a 1 kg of weight gain on average.


    Good luck.
  • Calliope610
    Calliope610 Posts: 3,783 Member
    I would encourage your to continue logging - honestly and accurately - your binges. I also have had a bad couple of days - TOM cravings and emotional eating - but I logged all my food and found that even though I was turning to pizza, ice cream, cookies and sweets, I was only over my daily calorie allotment by 700-1000 calories. Take into account that I am eating at a 500 calorie deficit, I was actually only eating 200-500calories over maintenance. Multiply by 7 days and I'm looking at an extra 3500 calories.

    So, yes I will probably gain this week, but just a pound or so. And it will slow down my weight loss - by about a week or so, so the damage really is minimal.

    You may also find that 3000-4000 calorie binges are a gross overestimation. Sometime the perceived binge damage is more detrimental to your though process than the binge itself. Determine EXACTLY what and how much you eat. You will have a much better chance of correcting the behavior when you have more accurate data to review.

    The danger of these rare occasional bad/binging weeks is that they can morph into regular events. So it is important to determine the trigger or cause so that (not the food) can be addressed and hopefully eliminated. In my case, the cause was TOM (and I just accept that I WILL eat a 1/2 gallon of ice cream during that week) and my dog/walking partner was involved in an accident that required orthopedic surgery to repair 2 broken bones. A rough week, and I know why I chose to let my eating out of control. So I work on learning to better handle stress and worry.

    And to answer your final question -
    Is there anyway I can stop cravings and impulsive behaviour on my time of the month?

    You can't always stop the cravings, but you CAN change your behavior. Simply replace the bad/unhealthy/unwanted behavior with a good/healthy/desired behavior. It could be anything from taking a walk, to painting your nails to balancing your checkbook.

    Good luck.
  • wizzybeth
    wizzybeth Posts: 3,578 Member
    It won't be as bad if you get back on track now. And definitely look into whether you are restricting yourself too much - maybe increase your daily calories by 50 or 100 or so and see if that helps without slowing your weight loss.

    I promise you this: if you get discouraged and then give up - it will only get worse and be much harder to get back on track. Right now you may only have gained a small amount - if that - and it will be easy to get back in the swing of things....
  • ElkeKNJ
    ElkeKNJ Posts: 207 Member
    To me, it's either stuffing my face or being very cranky. Last month I chose the latter, but I was terribly unreasonable to my family. Lost some extra weight though...
  • plumbucket
    plumbucket Posts: 23
    Check out this post, which has links to outside articles:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/367938-women-we-actually-need-more-calories-during-certain-times

    Basically, you burn a some extra calories at the TOM.

    I personally tend to go a bit crazy when I interpret hunger as "having a taste for just a few cookies/chips/etc". I start with just a nibble and then it gets out of control.

    It's really hard to see through the hormonal haze, but, when I think I just want "one" cookie, I eat a snack of whole foods (a little leftover chili, almonds and chocolate chips [which kills my sweets cravings, btw], etc). Then if I'm still dying for some, I can usually stick to a tiny serving of the thing I was craving.

    Good luck! Even a few days of bad habits cannot outweigh continued positive progress.
  • wizzybeth
    wizzybeth Posts: 3,578 Member
    To me, it's either stuffing my face or being very cranky. Last month I chose the latter, but I was terribly unreasonable to my family. Lost some extra weight though...

    I try really hard not to take out my crankiness on my family and co workers. I have a lot of silent mental shouting matches though, lol..all with that Stepford Wife smile on my face, lol

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