Binge Aftermath - Logging & Moving On

jillyrose0711
jillyrose0711 Posts: 46 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I've always had a bit of an issue with binge eating certain things - tortilla chips, pretzels, and lemonhead candies are three of the biggest culprits. Along with occasionally overindulging in alcoholic beverages after a long day at work. Now that I've started logging my food more regularly, these kinds of incidences have been less frequent but do still sometimes happen during periods of stress (I'm moving to a new city in less than a week- major stress eating and drinking going on!) and last night I had a couple too many beers, woke up with a hangover, and attempted to cure it by eating everything in sight.
A few weeks ago, this probably would have sent me into a days-long period of cravings and failing to log my foods out of shame or apathy OR over-restricting to make up for it, but today I just quick-added 1000 calories and moved on with my day. I still have 750 calories for the day & I'm feeling pretty hopeful that I can stay on track =)

My questions for you all... do you have issues with emotional/stress/binge eating? What are the foods that you find yourself overindulging in? How do you deal with the aftermath of a day or two of terrible eating- do you keep logging everything? Do you have a "tomorrow is a new day" sort of attitude and start fresh with logging food the next day? Thoughts?

Replies

  • cantobean
    cantobean Posts: 287 Member
    Good questions. I tend to just let it go, don't log it, and know that tomorrow will be better. But it depends. Sometimes I will try to log it and just live with it.

    I wouldn't call my eating behavior "binging". Occasionally I eat too much for one reason or another (stress, social setting, hunger, temptation, etc.).

    I try to keep it all in perspective. One meal or one day isn't going to have a huge impact on my fitness goals.
  • aurorareigns
    aurorareigns Posts: 167
    There's been 3 days in the past month that I've binged. I didn't log in everything and instead put that I ate 4000 calories.

    Now I'm moving on (I only put 4000 cals so that it's easy to see which days I've binged)
  • deluxmary2000
    deluxmary2000 Posts: 981 Member
    Alcohol and Mexican food are my triggers. Mexican food because I have e absolutely NO SELF CONTROL when it comes to chips with salsa or guacamole. And alcohol can lead to a binge because like you said, it doesn't just ruin my calorie count the day I drink it, but also the following day because after a few drinks the night before all I want to do is lay around and eat greasy comfort food the next day.
    If I get way off track then I just stop logging and start over immediately the following morning.
  • allsg
    allsg Posts: 4 Member
    Sweets and savoury snacks have always been the 'triggers' of my binges. I suppose I am the kind of person who finds comfort in being uncomfortably full. I log everything, because I still want to be aware of how much I'm shovelling down my throat, on which days, and try to find an answer as to why I binged. Recently, my binges have become more frequent because I was really restricting and being hard on myself. I started being a stickler about my macros after discovering IIFYM, I would spend hours staring at my macros and planning my meals ahead of time so that I could stick to them, I started calorie cycling because I wasn't losing that 1 pound/week and thought I was plateau-ing, I started photographing everything I ate because I thought it would help, but I just felt suffocated by the numbers and it was too much. I watched a video of a girl who had BED, and she said that binging can occur when we're depriving ourselves of vital nutrients, which can happen when we're over-limiting our daily calorie intake. Consequently, our primal instincts kick in along with our innate drive to survive and we binge. I learned that, even if my goal is to lose weight, fixating myself on the numbers makes me feel mentally restricted, and makes me want to give in to binging. So ultimately, try to keep in mind that you're also on a journey to a more confident and happier you, as opposed to thinking that you're simply in a gruelling uphill battle to a lower number on the scale.
  • jillyrose0711
    jillyrose0711 Posts: 46 Member
    Sweets and savoury snacks have always been the 'triggers' of my binges. I suppose I am the kind of person who finds comfort in being uncomfortably full. I log everything, because I still want to be aware of how much I'm shovelling down my throat, on which days, and try to find an answer as to why I binged. Recently, my binges have become more frequent because I was really restricting and being hard on myself. I started being a stickler about my macros after discovering IIFYM, I would spend hours staring at my macros and planning my meals ahead of time so that I could stick to them, I started calorie cycling because I wasn't losing that 1 pound/week and thought I was plateau-ing, I started photographing everything I ate because I thought it would help, but I just felt suffocated by the numbers and it was too much. I watched a video of a girl who had BED, and she said that binging can occur when we're depriving ourselves of vital nutrients, which can happen when we're over-limiting our daily calorie intake. Consequently, our primal instincts kick in along with our innate drive to survive and we binge. I learned that, even if my goal is to lose weight, fixating myself on the numbers makes me feel mentally restricted, and makes me want to give in to binging. So ultimately, try to keep in mind that you're also on a journey to a more confident and happier you, as opposed to thinking that you're simply in a gruelling uphill battle to a lower number on the scale.

    I really identify with the feelings you describe here & I do need to remind myself now and then that it's not all about the numbers. This was a really helpful reply, thank you
  • allsg
    allsg Posts: 4 Member
    Sweets and savoury snacks have always been the 'triggers' of my binges. I suppose I am the kind of person who finds comfort in being uncomfortably full. I log everything, because I still want to be aware of how much I'm shovelling down my throat, on which days, and try to find an answer as to why I binged. Recently, my binges have become more frequent because I was really restricting and being hard on myself. I started being a stickler about my macros after discovering IIFYM, I would spend hours staring at my macros and planning my meals ahead of time so that I could stick to them, I started calorie cycling because I wasn't losing that 1 pound/week and thought I was plateau-ing, I started photographing everything I ate because I thought it would help, but I just felt suffocated by the numbers and it was too much. I watched a video of a girl who had BED, and she said that binging can occur when we're depriving ourselves of vital nutrients, which can happen when we're over-limiting our daily calorie intake. Consequently, our primal instincts kick in along with our innate drive to survive and we binge. I learned that, even if my goal is to lose weight, fixating myself on the numbers makes me feel mentally restricted, and makes me want to give in to binging. So ultimately, try to keep in mind that you're also on a journey to a more confident and happier you, as opposed to thinking that you're simply in a gruelling uphill battle to a lower number on the scale.

    I really identify with the feelings you describe here & I do need to remind myself now and then that it's not all about the numbers. This was a really helpful reply, thank you


    No problem at all. I wish you all the best!

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