amart4224 wrote: »

I guess what I've learned from the past 4 months is that if I diet 5 days a week and binge 2, then I'm actually just maintaining 🤦🏻‍♀️ I've got to find something more sustainable.

That also means if you diet 6 days and allow one to cheat a little, you will be actually losing and it may be sustainable at this point in time!

Laurie what works does change over time and with the circumstances. TRYING and ADJUSTING is good. And there is nothing sacred about "a way". BUT, the fight is real with the over-eating episodes. And I am including me today and yesterday and the day before with lack of sleep.

Especially if they're common. Deficit can bring them about. Other issues can bring them about (stress, sleep and all the rest of it). But they're definitely something we all ought to seek to minimize... cause... well... maintenance does involve maintaining and eating close to goal everyday which will break down quite spectacularly if two or three out of 7 days are out of control!

It's one thing to have one day (well) over maintenance and another to be hitting two or three in a row. (and I am differentiating here between over-maintenance vs not achieving a deficit... the two are different in this context)

If you plan it is it a binge? There is the technical definition of a binge. And there is our own definition. We don't all use the word the same way. And our hamsters often determine what is and what isn't--a +3000 Cal day for you may not be a binge and a +500 for me may be depending on how and why it happened.

I suspect that your three down one up pattern is probably a case where the deficit triggers the overeating. But when eating at maintenance and having uncontrolled up days? That may require some hamster detective work as to why that is taking place! Unless it involved naan, or ice cream

Lack of sleep. Or just plain old "not quite enough" sleep - plays a big role in my binge or binge-like eating. Part of me seems to think food will solve the "tired" issue. It doesn't usually. But sometimes, a good blast of chocolate or sugar perks the brain up in the final hours of extreme focus. But that isn't quite the same.

I am a Binge eater….what you consider a binge might not be what I think is one… when I binge it is like I am possessed….binging is not grazing all day or eating an extra helping of dessert…..one night this past week due to so many things going on I had a full blown out binge….binging is usually a few hours eating as fast as I can and it doesn’t matter what I consume….it can be up to or above 8 or 9 thousand calories….I gorge myself until I am physically sick and sometimes I cry while I eat….or I will hide my food or leave the house and eat in the car….last week I did all of this….I thought I was way past this in my journey but evidently not….I have been back to basics the past few days taking it one hour at a time….I hope you get yourself back at it…it’s just so not worth feeling like crap afterwards…..whatever it takes I will never go back the way I was two yrs ago…

This morning I managed to get up early - ! - Like my goal for a few weeks, and headed out with Laine not longer after 7, before the heat hit.

Beautiful morning, air was fresh and "green" smelling. You could tell it is going to be a scorcher, but not yet.

But it was early on a Sunday morning, in a part of the city that has many troubled people. So there was much evidence of too much consumption last night.

Had me thinking of how it all comes down to that one part of the brain that wants to be fed - with whatever happens to be your drug of choice. And how once it is let loose - even a little - it just can't stop until the body serving it is pushed beyond its limits and simply fails.

Looking at the fellow, hunched over on a bench, a faded t-shirt draped over his bones and the remnants of his "binge" scattered around him. Thank goodness he was still breathing. It hurt to see him where he was, I can only imagine what his life must be like and part of me thought that there but for the grace of God goes I.

Thank goodness my brain (the hamsters in my brain ? thank you for that perfect personification PAV) chose food and cigarettes to spin their wheels over. Alcohol is "fun" - but doesn't feed that part of me - neither does any drug I have encountered (but I'm cautious on that front too - just in case).

So what does it mean? How do we keep those particular hamsters in their cages?

I don't know.

But am pretty that figuring that out is the my final key to maintaining a manageable body weight.

I dream of lean, but understand that the best case scenario is that I'll eventually settle into a comfortably fit range that doesn't require most of my mental energy to maintain.

@MargaretYakoda

Only way to deal with that kinda freak is to DANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Woohoo.

Congratulations.

MargaretYakoda wrote: »

Hey all. I haven’t dipped my toe into this group much. Just lurked.

But I’m here with a whine.

I’ve lost over 60 pounds in 7 months. I am 4 pounds from Onderland.

And it’s freaking me out

I just had to say that to someone.

THATS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i remember it felt like i was going to be stuck at 200 forever and never dip to 199.

i was convinced my scale was broken.