Help:Binged and scale went up !

hestavi · October 2019

I weighed myself on Saturday morning at 195 pounds. Sunday I went on a ridiculous binge: I'd had a pretty stressful week. The next day I weighed at 198.6 pounds. I thought:no biggie, just eat healthier today. But I wish I could explain what possessed me as I basically went on a binge Monday and Tuesday, weighing in at 206 pounds(my starting weight from 3 months ago) by Tuesday night.
Yesterday I ate at around a deficit of 500 calories, but now I'm terrified to look at the scale. I'm slowly trying to get back to exercising after a long month of work stress, but now I feel like so demotivated. For figures, my least optimistic estimate would be 12000 calories over three days. My sedentary TDEE is around 1600 calories. Will this weight go down at all? I feel pudgy and bloated now

kimny72 · October 2019

You've probably still got food moving through your digestive system, and if any of it was salty you are probably retaining water as well. It might take a week or so to wear off.

Whatever you do, don't try to "make up for it" by under-eating, because that can lead to a cycle of binge leading to under-eating leading to binge leading to under-eating. Just eat at your regular deficit, stay hydrated, and accept the fact you might have set yourself back a week or two. Weight loss isn't a straight line of perfection from high to low - it's a rollercoaster ride with ups and downs.

If bingeing is a problem for you, it might not be a bad idea to consider speaking to a counselor or therapist - there can be deep subconscious reasons why some struggle with it, and some of us do need help getting our relationship with food and our bodies on track.

Take a deep breathe and just keep moving forward

springlering62 · October 2019

It happens to all of us. Just treat today as “the first day of the rest of your life” and move past it.

I had a train wreck the past month. Some days, several hundred below, some days waaaay over and yesterday nearly three times my daily allotment. That one was due to a toxic combo of greed and boredom.

My weight has yo-yo’d up and down, including, of all the darn unexpected things, a new (albeit brief) low. Salt, unexpected carbs and fats, all that can make you feel like a stuffed turkey one minute and a leaking water balloon the next.

Got up this morning and just got back on track just like I have every other time I’ve screwed up. It’s all you can do, but IF you do, it’s all you HAVE to do.

LyndaBSS · October 2019

Forgive yourself and move on. Life happens. If you are truly afraid to get on the scale and continue to binge, however, I'd suggest that you consider talking to a therapist.

Binging or not, you should log everything you eat in the food diary.

Good luck!

lgfrie · October 2019

11 lbs up after a 3 day binge ... sounds pretty normal. I've had a few of those. One of mine was 14.5 lbs. The world will continue to turn, and the sun will come up in the morning like it's supposed to.

You probably didn't eat 12,000 calories over maintenance in 3 days. That would be an astounding amount of binging. Let's call it 7,000. 2 pounds.

So 9 of the 11 pounds you're currently up are just water, retained by your body to balance the excess sodium and carbs from your binge. If you get fully back on your diet, most of that water will be gone in 4 days, and all of it within 10 days. That means for the next four days, you will see unusually high scale numbers that won't really start budging in a major way until you've got your binge at least 3-4 days in the rear view mirror. So now that you know that, you don't have to fear it.

Meanwhile, if you just get back on your diet, you'll be back to even as far as actual fat loss goes, in a week, or two at the most.

A 3 day binge is nothing in the grand scheme of things. A 30 or 90 day binge with continuing scale avoidance is a whole different animal - that's how diets die. You had your binge, like every dieter ever. You'll have another at some point, by the way. For now: feet on scale, fingers on the keyboard entering data into the food log, and move on.

Embrace the terror of the water weight gain. Live through it by getting on the scale everyday starting now and observing when the water drains off over the next week, so that you get familiar with how water retention works and don't have to fear it next time.

ponycyndi · October 2019

Honestly, that happens to me every month. Go right back to your normal routine. That's the only way, to move forward, and keep going. So I only lose weight 2 weeks out of the month, at least I'm not gaining fore those 2 weeks.

kshama2001 · October 2019

hestavi wrote: »

I weighed myself on Saturday morning at 195 pounds. Sunday I went on a ridiculous binge: I'd had a pretty stressful week. The next day I weighed at 198.6 pounds. I thought:no biggie, just eat healthier today. But I wish I could explain what possessed me as I basically went on a binge Monday and Tuesday, weighing in at 206 pounds(my starting weight from 3 months ago) by Tuesday night.
Yesterday I ate at around a deficit of 500 calories, but now I'm terrified to look at the scale. I'm slowly trying to get back to exercising after a long month of work stress, but now I feel like so demotivated. For figures, my least optimistic estimate would be 12000 calories over three days. My sedentary TDEE is around 1600 calories. Will this weight go down at all? I feel pudgy and bloated now

The only way I can manage work stress is by regular exercise, so I encourage you to get back into exercise ASAP

I make it a priority and successfully created the habit of exercising every work day. It fits my scheduled to do it at lunch.

NovusDies · October 2019

hestavi wrote: »

I weighed myself on Saturday morning at 195 pounds. Sunday I went on a ridiculous binge: I'd had a pretty stressful week. The next day I weighed at 198.6 pounds. I thought:no biggie, just eat healthier today. But I wish I could explain what possessed me as I basically went on a binge Monday and Tuesday, weighing in at 206 pounds(my starting weight from 3 months ago) by Tuesday night.
Yesterday I ate at around a deficit of 500 calories, but now I'm terrified to look at the scale. I'm slowly trying to get back to exercising after a long month of work stress, but now I feel like so demotivated. For figures, my least optimistic estimate would be 12000 calories over three days. My sedentary TDEE is around 1600 calories. Will this weight go down at all? I feel pudgy and bloated now

Do not punish yourself for eating too much food by eating too little. This will likely cause you to rebel eat again.

The scale will go up at times even when you do everything "perfectly". Read this:

https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/

You should log what you eat. It keeps you from believing the worst which is a common theme for people who overfeed.

You need to make sure that stress was the only reason you went overboard. If you are trying to lose weight too fast it can cause you to rebel. The name of the game is not speed it is sustainability. It is better to go slow and get there than to go fast and keep running into overfeeds that wear you down mentally until you quit.

There can be a great outcome here if you can stay objective about it. You can potentially learn how to avoid it. You can also learn when the scale goes most of the way back down that this kind of thing does not hurt us as bad as we imagine. You do not need to be perfect to achieve your goals. That kind of thing is only reserved for elite athletes. We are normal people that can get everywhere we want to go as long as the majority of time we are doing goal-oriented behavior. The occasional stuff does not matter.

Help:Binged and scale went up !

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