Cheat meal turned into 4 day binge!? Help?

At 5'4", 20 years of age, you are at a healthy weight at 120 lbs. Also, at 20 years of age, you should probably be eating more than 1600 calories; that sounds low. Perhaps your binges are your body telling you that you need more food.
Instead of losing weight, have you tried a gym routine a few times a week to tone your muscles? It sounds like this is more in the lines of what you need.
Don't let one comment ruin your self-worth and alter how you view yourself. Watch your relationship with food.

TenderBlender7 wrote: »

<snip> How do I get back on track after losing control like this? <snip>

We have to take the emotion out of it, and simply just get back on track. Calorie counting, in your case. Those "negative" feelings can be turned into useful data that you can utilize. In those 4 days, you've learned that there is still room for improvement in the self-control department, this is data.

Also, binging can signify restriction. Is this something you may have done prior to those 4 days?

Half of this battle I think is just us knowing ourselves, becoming our own therapist, learning our next move.

Tender,
First and foremost. Don't beat yourself up on falling off the wagon. It happens to EVERYONE at one point or another. Hop back up on that horse and keep going. Second, the extra pounds gained due to the binging will probably be easy to lose once you get back on track. In the past I have seen my weight jump and drop 5 pounds within days due to my eating habit or lack of exercising. Since watching my calorie, fat, protein and carb intake I have seen the pounds melt off. I do cardio and strength training 6 days a week with Sunday being my cheat day IF I feel like it. Regarding my cheat meal, and maybe this can help you, the reason we binge can be due to either we have nothing to do but eat OR we love the taste of what we are eating and can't stop OR we are not satisfied. What I do for cheat meals is make something that I love to eat but count those calories to be sure I don't go overboard. For example, my wife and I would make homemade nachos. 20 tortilla chips, one avocado, 4 ounces of cheese, olives, 1 tomato, and 8 ounces of beef taco meat. Total calories for each of us is about 750. So when you cheat, you need to think you are cheating but stay within your calorie intake. We also do our cheating at lunch time so the carbs don't sit in our stomachs all night. Also, stay busy so you don't get caught up in eating. Don't eat while watching TV. Stay busy and eat on a normal schedule. And don't forget to drink your 64 ounces of water.
I am by no means an expert at this. You and I are totally opposite. You are a lot younger and I am a guy. I am speaking from years of experience in gaining and losing. I know what works for me and you know what works for you. The good news is that you have LOTS of time to become as FIT as you can possibly get. Keep working at it. My motto is simple. MOVE more EAT less. Good luck. BTW... 1600 is a good maintenance number. Spread those out throughout the day. Start tracking your calories again.

Dennis

Been there done that more times than I can count.

The most practical advice I can give you is, no matter how badly you want to lose weight, do it in a slow reliable manner. I would starve myself then have a "refeed" which turned into a binge every time for weeks. Mathematically it wasn't worth it and so I started eating a more reasonable diet, and instead of cheat meals I would just have an extra 500~ calories every Sunday.

As defeating as it can feel, I think this affects a lot more people than you might realize. Just take small steps and try to be less restrictive and try to find some joy in eating and in yourself. If you make every minute of every day about food like I did it can really consume you and take a toll on your life; not to mention stress makes weight loss harder.

TL;DR It's all about just working on being happy with yourself and taking it one day at a time.