I've come to the realization that having my calories too low hurts more than it helps.

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  • bbell1985
    bbell1985 Posts: 4,572 Member
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    Geocitiesuser wrote: »
    bbell1985 wrote: »
    Man. I'm 5'4" and 140 and consider my 1500 calories to be poverty macros. It's not a walk in the park. I don't know how you did it.

    Exactly. I kept powering through at the cost of my well being until eventually the hunger was literally insatiable. A lesson hard learned!

    Word. Why don't you have a re-feed day? My Saturdays are 2030 and it makes life so much better.
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
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    Geocitiesuser wrote: »
    CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »
    Geocitiesuser wrote: »
    Ironandwine, IF is a lot different than this situation. IF is something planned, and controlled, and usually involves a 500 calorie meal on the fast day. What I was describing was multiple 250 calorie days in a row to offset weekend calories, losing control, then repeating the process. IF is a diet style. Not eating to undo calories eaten from a surprise binge is a haphazard eating disorder that is not sustainable. The two can't really be compared. One is planned and thought out, the other poor eating habit.

    thats one type of IF when you eat 500 calories for a few days and regular calories the other days. There are other types.

    Planned vs bad eating habits. The two aren't comparable.

    you can plan to eat bad,not saying everyone does it but.just saying there are more than one type of IF. But I get what you are saying
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    Good for you for getting back on the right track, OP. It's a hard lesson to learn. I had a time when I went way too low to make up for high days as well. That's a tough cycle. I don't require myself to eat the same number of calories every single day now but I do use +/-200 cals as the limit as far as my variations go now.
  • leejoyce31
    leejoyce31 Posts: 794 Member
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    Is there a chance that these recent urges to binge are stemming from something psychological instead of food restriction? I am sincerely wishing you all the best. My heart goes out to you. I know this is physically and emotionally challenging.
  • lilolilo920
    lilolilo920 Posts: 184 Member
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    *stands up and slow claps*
    This is great. Good for you!!
  • JennifrClaire
    JennifrClaire Posts: 141 Member
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    That's a more extreme version of my own experience. Super low-calorie eating, to get past a plateau, after losing most of the weight I wanted too lose, didn't work at all. I had already read, countless times from countless sources, that it wouldn't.
    I thought it had to work: 800 - 900 calories a day, with at least 800-900 calorie cardio burn? Science, duh.
    But no.
    Undeniably, unbelievably, no weight lost, plus my family thought I'd gone mad.
  • EmbeeKay
    EmbeeKay Posts: 249 Member
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    I have experienced this, not to as large a degree, but I have learned over restricting leads to over eating. Every time! Don't beat yourself up for "learning the hard way"... in a case like this, where the price is not too great, you can afford to let it be a lesson learned by personal experience.

    I wish you the best of luck in the rest of your journey!
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    edited May 2017
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    JeromeBarry1 wrote: »
    You'll feel better about the whole operation if you set your weight loss goal to 0.5 lb per week. Psychologically, it's easier to face a higher calorie target.

    ^^^This.

    OP, now that you finally realize the damage you've been doing, slow your rate of loss right down to allow yourself to break the vicious cycle you've set up for yourself. The closer you get to goal, the smaller your weekly weight loss needs to be anyway or you will simply end up in a rinse/repeat cycle yet again.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited May 2017
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    Geocitiesuser wrote: »
    So, starting with a fresh slate. No more fasting days trying to make up for binges. No more super low calorie days or going below 1500. From now on I am going to make sure I ingest 1500 calories a day no matter what. I'm convinced that this will solve my diet will power issues, and that this is the way forward.

    Good plan. I'd add that at the level of activity you have outlined, and being close to goal and a guy, that still seems pretty low, but at least is a better place to start. I think it's quite likely that bingeing is related to overrestricting and would add that beating yourself up for it tends to play into the same cycle so try to be more understanding of yourself.
  • stanmann571
    stanmann571 Posts: 5,728 Member
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    Geocitiesuser wrote: »
    Ironandwine, IF is a lot different than this situation. IF is something planned, and controlled, and usually involves a 500 calorie meal on the fast day. What I was describing was multiple 250 calorie days in a row to offset weekend calories, losing control, then repeating the process. IF is a diet style. Not eating to undo calories eaten from a surprise binge is a haphazard eating disorder that is not sustainable. The two can't really be compared. One is planned and thought out, the other poor eating habit.

    I did that accidentally for several months a few years ago, It wasn't till I sat down with a nutritionist/dietician and kept a solid diary, that my counselor advised me that my fatigue was due to starving myself for days on end and my weight gain was from the binging one day of 8 or so. I was put on a "feeding plan"
  • Mike_take2
    Mike_take2 Posts: 2,150 Member
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    Great post! Thanks for sharing and best of luck on your continued success
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,996 Member
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    Great post. Thanks for sharing.
  • MichelleWithMoxie
    MichelleWithMoxie Posts: 1,817 Member
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    I get what you're putting down. Right on dude. And everyone saying it's some sort IF that you're talking about - fuckthat. Binge/restrict cycle is no GD IF routine.

    Good luck! :smile:
  • crushingitdaily12345
    crushingitdaily12345 Posts: 577 Member
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    Love this post. And @Geocitiesuser ... I miss geocities... lol
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
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    MichSmish wrote: »
    I get what you're putting down. Right on dude. And everyone saying it's some sort IF that you're talking about - fuckthat. Binge/restrict cycle is no GD IF routine.

    Good luck! :smile:

    no one is saying that a binge/restrict cycle is an IF routine.its an eating disorder. big difference.
  • MichelleWithMoxie
    MichelleWithMoxie Posts: 1,817 Member
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    CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »
    MichSmish wrote: »
    I get what you're putting down. Right on dude. And everyone saying it's some sort IF that you're talking about - fuckthat. Binge/restrict cycle is no GD IF routine.

    Good luck! :smile:

    no one is saying that a binge/restrict cycle is an IF routine. its an eating disorder. big difference.


    That's my point.

    And yes, some were comparing it to some form of extreme IF'ing.
  • JohnnyPenso
    JohnnyPenso Posts: 412 Member
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    Geocitiesuser wrote: »
    After losing 130lbs, I plugged my new stats into the calculator, and for 1.5lbs of fat loss per week MFP told me 1500 cals + exercise cals per day. This isn't a lot of food (I'm 6' and was like 185lbs at the time). It's not a lot of food, but it's sane, and doable. With exercise on most days that would be in the vicinity of 1800 cals a day.

    In my infinite wisdom I decided that I needed to "double and triple down" because it was the home stretch.

    There were lots of days where I ate 1500 cals and did not eat back my exercise calories. There were also a lot of days where I was only eating about 1200 calories.

    For weeks that was fine. I got to my lowest numbers. But something was happening... I was not performing well in workouts, and my hunger was slowly growing. I was still losing fat, but it was coming at a price that I didn't realize. Eventually the food cravings got so bad that I ended up going on a binge three weekends in a row. During the week was self inflicted punishment of fasting days, banking calories, trying to make the numbers work out, but all the fasting was making it worse, my hunger was insatiable.

    For the first time 130lbs of fat loss I lost control of sanity and will power. For the first time maybe in my life, I went on food binges not because of emotional reasons, but because I was honestly and truely hungry to the extent of losing control. I was not eating enough calories to support myself in a healthy manner, and in many ways I was "starving" myself. I put that in quotes because I'm sure I could survive at those calorie levels, but the amount of exercise at my size with that low of calories was effecting me negatively.

    So, starting with a fresh slate. No more fasting days trying to make up for binges. No more super low calorie days or going below 1500. From now on I am going to make sure I ingest 1500 calories a day no matter what. I'm convinced that this will solve my diet will power issues, and that this is the way forward.

    You can't starve yourself and expect good results. Treat your body good, and your body will treat you good. Weight loss means nothing if you don't have health to go with it. I've put on 20lbs these past three weeks. Some I'm sure is water, and I am certainly ashamed, but it's time to move forward, and to move forward in a more sane manner. No more fast fat loss.

    That is my rant.
    Interesting story, thanks for sharing. I'm not sure how you can get by on even 1500 though. I'm 55 and weight 163 and get to the gym 3-4 times a week lifting weights and my maintenance level is 2400/2800 calories. I'd think you should be closer to 1800-2000 to lose 1 lb/week.

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