I lost 70 pounds, now gained 10 pounds and binge eating

flagrantavidity wrote: »

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In late October, I would get cravings for sweets, something I never used to have trouble with. Normally I would be satisfied eating a half cup of low cal vanilla ice cream (1/2 Cup @ 80 Cal) with some PB2 and unsweetened cocoa powder on top - about 140 calories, or a skinny cow ice cream sandwich at 150 calories.

Now I find myself eating the ice cream, the skinny cow, a fudge pop, then craving more sweets I end up grabbing a clif bar, then by the time is all said and done, I have eaten a chocolate bar, and a few other things... I still log everything and end up eating way too much. This happens in the evenings, after dinner.

I can't eat sweets in moderation. Many people learn how to do this. I can't and I know I can't, so I don't have them in my house. That's my form of control.

I eat an apple if I want something sweet. Other than apples, I don't have loads of fruit in my house because I will eat it all immediately as if it were donuts or ice cream -- I bought some strawberries this week and went right through them. It's the sugar. I do eat a variety of fruit, melon, grapes, etc., but only in a restaurant.

You might be like this, too. I've found that the more sugar I eat, the more I want it.

What helps me: make sure I have some fat in my diet, like avocados and almonds in a salad. i've also bought sugarless gum. Orbit brand tastes like gum with sugar.

Maybe go for a walk after dinner or go to the gym. Try to do something else so you aren't heading to the fridge. Good luck!

Note that amusedmonkey's "trick" or "set-up" is really smart. I say that because I did exactly that when I was starting out on MFP and was trying to cut down on nuts and trail mix and sweets and snacks. My rules involved pre-packed 28.35g bundles of snack "goodies" and while the first pack was "free" every subsequent pack involved more and more walking up to and including walking to the store 2km up the hill before eating the fifth one.

Having said that, the base issue is that you lost hard and fast and primed your metabolism for a rebound. Your body based on hormonal signals is rebounding now that the starvation event is over.

The cravings WILL be more intense than they were before because your body is working against you and TRYING to regain the amount of fat and muscle it used to have!

Un-managed, this hormonal upheaval is likely to continue till you regain your former weight plus, the classic, 10%. This is not about to easily stop on its own and it is not caused by some imagined inherent weakness (other than being human...)

There is some conjecture that this is because your body is trying to replace lean mass lost. Unfortunately during this rebound regain you are primed to store fat first. As such when you reach your former weight you will have slightly less lean mass than before and you will be "primed" to continue regaining till you've fully regained your previous lean mass.

It is best to avoid triggering this condition known as post-starvation hyperphagia

You may or may not be able to overpower these signals with will-power alone. However, the longer you manage to hold the line the better off you'll be as there is a possibility that these signals will diminish over time, especially if you allow for some controlled regain.

My advice is that since you've got lemons: it's time to make the absolute best lemonade that you can.

You are in a bulk and you're starting from a pretty lean position. As such you are actually in a great position to bulk!

So, concentrate on strength building and using the caloric surplus to develop the most amount of muscle that you can.

At the same time, of course, do everything you can to keep this weight increase AS SLOW AS POSSIBLE. Aim for something very very slow and controlled like 1-2lbs a month.

The hope is that if you allow for a slow increase of mostly lean mass over a long period of time the hormonal signalling may diminish, you may be able to stabilise, and you will at the very least have used the extra calories to built lean mass. Which would be GREAT and set you up to be able to deal with a much smaller and slower cut down the road!

To research this further look for information on post-starvation hyperphagia. Also look into adaptive thermogenesis and exercise muscle efficiency.

TL/DR. Reduce cardio by a lot since it may help curb your increased appetite a little bit and it is no longer burning as many calories as it used to. Replace "slow cardio" with higher intensity cardio. And, more importantly, add as much strength training as you can tolerate. Minimize your caloric surplus. At the margins try to generate any surplus with protein and carbs and less so with fats. Use the tricks you learned while losing to make it through. When you crave ice cream...eat chicken breast with garlic and onions and mushrooms (or some other lean protein and low cal carb combination: sugar free 0% yogurt and all-bran buds come to mind) and used the "rules" amusedmonkey suggested to get through.