So, How many calories did you actually put away?

I did a quick count and found that I was easily between 8000-9000 a day. Before I had assumed it was only between 3000-4000. I had a notorious habit of eating chocolates almost steady at work. It's horrifying to think that I used to buy those huge boxes at Costco (that would have like 48 boxes of smarties in them) and go through that within two months at work. I would also snack on the cakes that would be brought in, grab a donut in the morning and again at lunch. That wouldn't include the chocolate I used to eat at home and on weekends. I went out alot with friends (several times a week) and would order things like the spinach dip, french fries with wings (I'd often order 2-3lbs of wings at a time). When I would get home I used to sit on my butt and watch TV. It's no wonder that I made it to nearly 340lbs. It's actually a miracle I didn't end up weighing more than I did when I decided to give my lifestyle an overhaul. I'm also lucky that I haven't developed any serious problems because of my weight.

I think about my old habits and I feel disgusted with myself. I have trouble actually believing that I used to do that and honestly, it's something that I never want to forget. It also serves as a reminder to keep doing what I'm doing.

When I first started tracking calories, I came here and put in a typical day's worth of food, snacks, sodas, treats... anything that I would eat within a 24 hour period, including midnight snacks.

The tally was 12,000-13,000 calories per day.

ETA: Check out my open diary on 10/17/14 and I put in what a typical day would have been for me.

Wow.... holy sodium, Batman! :noway: I bet mine was even worse - I ate so many chips and crackers and salty stuff that I'm surprised my blood still flowed through my veins.

I'm VERY lucky that I have low blood pressure, or that would've been added to my diabetes as something to battle.

When I think about the things I used to scarf down... (shudder) The weekend before my diabetes diagnosis, I had eaten an entire Sicilian square pizza from L&B Spumoni Gardens in New York. It was the size of an entire cookie sheet and at least two inches thick. Sixteen slices. I kid you not.

And I wondered why my leg infection wasn't getting better that week.... wow, wow, wow. :noway:

I was inclined to go with the "not sure, never counted" crowd, but on further reflection I know how fast I gained (and it was really fast--I'd guess I put on nearly 20 lbs per year over the 5 year period I was gaining, ultimately gaining about 90 lbs). I also was pretty sedentary during a lot of that period. So looking at the numbers, my TDEE would have varied from about 1600 when all that started to about 1750 at my heaviest (using Katch-McKardle and estimated body fat). So if I was putting on about half a pound a week, I would have averaged about 1850 to 2000 calories.

All estimates, of course, but ones that seem consistent with what I recall.

Pretty scary numbers, and it definitely shows why my abruptly going from an active lifestyle to a sedentary one (related to some personal issues I was struggling with), plus just careless overindulgence from time to time and emotional eating added up so rapidly.

I was obviously eating enough to maintain/gain weight at 250+ lbs, so not an insubstantial amount. I've toyed with the idea of trying to log a "typical" day of my old eating habits for laughs, but when I look back at how I ate (around the clock, with numerous high-calorie snacks throughout the day) it makes calculating all of it a headache, because there was so much randomness. Plus, since I've been on more or less the same kind of structured meal plan for over a year now, I can't accurately think back to how I used to eat.

Probably one of those things I'm better off not knowing.

My worst day on here has been about 3500? Which was either Christmas Day or a day with takeaway pizza in. So probably 4000 is my limit, when I was drinking heavily at uni a few years ago.

I don't know for sure, but my meals were much denser and larger. Here's a sample normal day-

Breakfast
Cornflakes 2cups
Whole milk 1 cup
Coffee creamer 1/4 cup
Peanut butter covered banana

Mid morning
3 large homemade oatmeal cookies

Lunch
Chicken bacon ranch 12" sub with avocado from subway
2 subway oatmeal cookies
Sweet tea

Snack-
Buttered popcorn
Classic coke
Apple

Dinner
1/2 box of hamburger helper
Peas
Salad with lots of ranch
Buttered bread
Beer

Dessert
Share a pint of ice cream with hubs, while watching tv. Spoons in the pint, no bowl needed.

Over the years I've gradually decreased my intake as the weight kept piling on. The weight is due to decreased activity, of course - desk job, little opportunity for recreation, bad knees, walking at a snail's pace with little kids. But the decreased intake clearly wasn't enough to compensate for the massively lower level of activity. And since I didn't know my "budget", I'd go on these radical "I'm going to lose it all" diets eating 500 cals/day, and then of course give up and go carb-crazy a week later.

Doing the math:

I was gaining 12 lbs a year before I started counting - that's an excess 100 cals per day. I'm currently netting 1450 and losing just under 1.5 per week. That means my deficit is about 650.

So I was eating net calories of 1450 + 750 = 2200 of mostly healthy food. I say net because I was exercising a few times a week, but eating more on those days because workouts make me hungry.

It's actually possible to get very fat eating normal amounts of good quality food, and while trying hard to lose weight. I've been battling my weight my whole life but kept gaining. This site has been a true revelation.

I am diagnosed with binge eating disorder though I alternated between bingeing and eating nothing. On my worst binge day i could total up to 15'000 - 20'000 :embarassed: . I would get heart palpitations and be very out of breath from over eating so much, i would wake up with hot sweats, I was many times unsure if I would wake up at all. It was bad, really bad :frown:

On a typical day It was probably 3'000 - 4'000 all in one big scoffing fest usually in evening.

At my worst it was full scale binge day after day for whole day :sick:

Every now and again when i was thinking darkest thoughts about my future and will to live, I would try extra hard to get a grip and live on salad for a while or stop eating altogether until my hands shook from lack of food. I found moderation eluded me because as soon as i ate anything it was like I became possessed by a little munching demon :devil: I would go out any time day or night to get my fix.

Thankfully that is over. Finally after decades of searching I found my freedom from the craving through high fat low carb lifestyle.
I have binged since I was a child. It got worse and worse over the years.
Sometimes i would order a family take away from two different take aways and do a binge shop from local store. I would frantically eat as if possessed until i could not force another bite then 20 min later would be ready to go again and so on until over a 24 hour time span it would all get eaten, every bit. That was some serious self abuse. I put in log on an unused day July 12, 2014, to see how bad it was. it is a miracle I survived but i built up to that level over decades. It probably could kill someone who had not adapted to such self abuse over decades.