How long does it take to recover from a binge?

I binge ate the other day, and I was wondering how long it generally takes until your weight is accurate?

Replies

  • ShayCarver89
    ShayCarver89 Posts: 239 Member
    2-3 days usually. Most of that "gain" is water weight. Some people take as long as a week, but for me personally its usually 2 or 3 days.
  • mgookin
    mgookin Posts: 92 Member
    It just depends on the amount of binge for me. My body will be bloated and hold onto water up to a week. I just weigh daily like normal and just make a note in my diary or something xx days after xxxx calorie binge.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    You are probably best not worrying about it. The thing is at any given time you can have overlapping reasons for water retention and it could take weeks to get back to what you think is accurate.

    It is better to put your trust in the other scale... the food scale. Verify you are in a deficit by logging accurately and weighing your food. If you are in a deficit you are losing fat weight regardless of what the bathroom scale is showing you.

    You should look over your plan and make sure you are not pushing yourself too hard or depriving yourself and that is the reason for your binge.
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    NovusDies wrote: »
    You are probably best not worrying about it. The thing is at any given time you can have overlapping reasons for water retention and it could take weeks to get back to what you think is accurate.

    It is better to put your trust in the other scale... the food scale. Verify you are in a deficit by logging accurately and weighing your food. If you are in a deficit you are losing fat weight regardless of what the bathroom scale is showing you.

    You should look over your plan and make sure you are not pushing yourself too hard or depriving yourself and that is the reason for your binge.

    ^This.
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Your weight is always accurate, minute by minute. ;)

    Also, if you truly had a binge, please try to figure out why: Have you set yourself too low a calorie goal to be sustainable? Losing slowly but steadily is usually a faster route than targeting a fast rate loss rate that you can't achieve in actual reality. Have you eliminated foods you enjoy, that you could fit into your eating in manageable portions to avoid cravings? Have you found how to stay satiated on reduced calories? Is the eating about some underlying problem (lack of sleep, stress, emotions, boredom, social triggers, etc.) that could be dealt with more directly?

    Best wishes!

    Also this. I can't stress this strongly enough. Getting to the root of why you're binging is a big help. Also, whatever you do, don't try to compensate for binges by over-restricting. Doing that will just lead to further binging. After a binge, just go back to a regular, sensible deficit, and let things sort themselves out.