The Fat Loss TroubleshootThis is your place to troubleshoot your fat loss problems from nutrition to training. This section is led by Leigh Peele, author of "The Fat Loss Troubleshoot," the ultimate fat loss manual. If your results have slowed or stalled this is the place to come for advice for all your fat loss needs.
Hi All,
I need your help badly! Ive been dieting well for about 12 weeks or so now and have lost about 8lbs. It hasnt been easy, but the refeeds 2X/week have kept me sane.
I was hoping to postpone the diet break until after July since I love feeling light and lean when dieting and hate the bloated feeling and there is so much going on this summer, I wanted to avoid it. But this week on thursday we are going on vacation,and it seems in anticipation Ive started binge eating. The overeating gradually started last Wed, and led into Thursday and finally a full blown binge on Saturday. Not sure of caloric intake but definitely close to 3000. Today I attempted to diet strict as a starve day to accomodate for the extra calories and was unable to acheive it. No bingeing today, but overeating on clean foods.
What the heck is wrong with me? I really dont want to go on vacation this week feeling fat and bloated, but I dont think I will be able to "diet" either during those 4 days we are away.
Pleaes help me figure out an action plan! I dont want to come back and have gained all that I lost during 12 weeks of hard earned dieting!!! I am so nervous that with this mindset, I will end up bingeing all week!!!
Should I fast Monday-Wed and keep my calories super low?
Would it be better to just diet normally until we leave?
Would it be better to eat maintanence?
Thanks for your help in advance! i cant believe this is happening to me, I was so strong and committed, and now I feel like a failure.
Hi All,
But this week on thursday we are going on vacation,and it seems in anticipation Ive started binge eating.
really dont want to go on vacation this week.
i cant believe this is happening to me, I was so strong and committed, and now I feel like a failure.
You will notice that I selectively edited your post. I believe I pulled out the key problem.
The idea of vacation seems to make you feel that you will be out of control.
I would not bother trying to "fix" what ever has gone wrong up to this point. But maybe you should consider that the idea of dieting while on vacation is stressful to you.
Personally - I would skip the diet until after vacation. Eat at maintenance and eat as cleanly as possible and try to avoid anything that makes me feel bloated. For me that is pop and spicy food.
Then I would just enjoy my vacation knowing that while I might not lose, I wont gain.
I was hoping to postpone the diet break until after July since I love feeling light and lean when dieting and hate the bloated feeling and there is so much going on this summer, I wanted to avoid it. But this week on thursday we are going on vacation,and it seems in anticipation Ive started binge eating. The overeating gradually started last Wed, and led into Thursday and finally a full blown binge on Saturday. Not sure of caloric intake but definitely close to 3000. Today I attempted to diet strict as a starve day to accomodate for the extra calories and was unable to acheive it. No bingeing today, but overeating on clean foods.
What the heck is wrong with me? I really dont want to go on vacation this week feeling fat and bloated, but I dont think I will be able to "diet" either during those 4 days we are away.
Pleaes help me figure out an action plan! I dont want to come back and have gained all that I lost during 12 weeks of hard earned dieting!!! I am so nervous that with this mindset, I will end up bingeing all week!!!
Should I fast Monday-Wed and keep my calories super low?
Would it be better to just diet normally until we leave?
Would it be better to eat maintanence?
Thanks for your help in advance! i cant believe this is happening to me, I was so strong and committed, and now I feel like a failure.
When I'm out of control, if I remember to do an EatStopEat day (ESE) (Brad Pilon), it helps me. What I do is I eat dinner, then no nighttime snack, or any food until dinner the next evening... 20-24 hrs later. I drink water or black coffee, or if I want a nasty treat, I drink a diet coke.
What that does for me:
a. it calms me down
b. it is a "forced" distraction from food and the uncontrollable binge
c. It is an all or nothing, so it stops me from the binge
d. It makes me really grateful for the food I eat that evening, and I may allow something special: maybe salty, or oily, or maybe a larger than usual meal (my meals are 150-350 cal, so it might be a "double meal" treat).
This might really work for you because i read you saying you want to keep that lean feeling, and that for your vacation, you'll be able to eat your vacation food.
I notice that pre vacation and post vacation are really hard for me around emotional eating. So one more thing: for you and for me... after time after time of this same thing happening, I think we'll strengthen habits of recognizing our behavior, accepting our frailty and our human-ness, and we will have behavioral changes/tools like ESE to protect our hard-earned results. http://www.eatstopeat.com/lose-weight.html
I'm sure there are behavior things you can do to stop this process and safeguard against it in the future.
But I think you'll need to do the real work of looking at things honestly to see what if any emotional and psych components were involved and where they were coming from.
As someone who has dealt with binge eating in the past I have to second what Lisa said about identifying the triggers/thoughts/feelings and learn to cope with those things without bingeing. But I bet not having a proper diet break earlier in the game might have been another factor.
I would NOT do any kind of fast or "starve" day. that will most likely set you off for another binge. Personally, when I have done my diet breaks I don't feel bloated or really any different (or look any different) from when I am dieting. I think some of that is in your head. A proper diet break is not an "all out cheat" week.
I would just eat normally until your trip (either your previous diet levels or maintenece) and then go on vacation and do your diet break while on vacation and then for a few days after you get back so that you have a good full week of break. Just keep in mind that a break is not a binge.
I agree with Lara - restricting after a binge is likely to set you up for another binge. Move on with your planned eating, and don't let yourself get so hungry that you lose control... the stress of the vacation and/or eating on vacation is obviously a huge stressor for you... try to figure out what parts of it (the eating, the trip, the diet or lack of diet, control of food, etc etc) are upsetting you, and work from there...
I'd say relax, eat as well as you can but also have fun and forgive yourself if you're not "perfect"... not as easy to actually do as it is to type, but I hope you can manage to enjoy yourself...
I second what everyone's said about not restricting or doing a starve day before, and especially about figuring out what causes binges for you.
It might also help to remember the math of fat: 1 lb = 3500 calories, so 8 lbs = 28000. In order to gain back, in four days of vacation, the 8 lbs you lost, you'd have to eat 7000 calories a day. And that's not accounting for any sort of activity, so really you'd have to have a surplus of 7000 calories a day. I think that's highly unlikely. Just remember that any scale weight you gain while on vacation is like extra weight from the food itself and the water it holds.
Do try to relax and enjoy yourself. That's what a vacation is for.
__________________
They call me Amanda, that being my real name, and "They" being people who know me in person as I don't go around introducing myself in real life as "scribess." 'Cause that would just be strange.
I know exactly what you are going through. I myself have 2 settings, binge and restrict. Right now I am restricting but I have no idea how to eat in between. As for bingeing and getting emotional eating under control--I recently read a book called Shrink Yourself. It does a great job of helping you to dissect the reasons that we eat when we aren't hungry. He also has a number of exercises (which I have to admit I didn't do), however, I still found the book to be incredibly helpful for at least helping me to understand why I do what I do.
If you can, I would just go on your vacation and try to enjoy yourself and worry about dieting when you get back.
BTW, one of the "failure traps" the author points out is dieting for a specific event. I'm not saying this pertains to you because I don't know you're situation but it might.
As far as vacation goes, I'd say to eat at maintenance calories for your vacation but to try to make better choices (fruit instead of cake, for example, or light beer instead of regular) in terms of your diet.
Once you get back, look closely at your process. Are you logging all of your food? Are you planning ahead or just trying to wing it (which leads to the binge problem)? Have you been restricting too long because you wanted to put off your break? That could have set you up for the binge behavior right there.
If it's a matter of needing to track your food better but not wanting to put forth the effort for doing that, why not try Leigh's One Big Meal idea? You make one big meal that should last you the whole day. You can do this by making a big pot o' whatever (soup, stew, chili...there were a bunch of different things suggested) or by planning ahead and putting your "One Big Meal" onto one big tray in your fridge. For the course of the day, you are only allowed to eat what's in that meal (or on the tray). You figure out the calories and macros ahead of time, so that when you're following this plan, all you have to do is to remember to eat your one big meal and nothing else. It's a pretty easy way of tracking your food intake without having to think too much during the day.
__________________
"Do you choose to simply know the path, or do you choose to walk it?"
Your body keeps an accurate journal regardless of what you write down...
thankyou everyone, really, your input is very helpful. Most of this is definitely psychological. Its the anticipation of being off my diet, gaining weight, and losing control.
The problem is today, which is 2 days before we leave, I am still out of control. I just ate 2 bananas, a handful of cherries and 2cups of watermelon, a few crackers and 1/3 container cottage cheese. Although not a binge yet, I still feel the loss of control and worry about the rest of the day.
What can I do right now to stop this from getting worse? The last thing I want is to be in "binge mode" on the day we start our vacation.
I like the idea of Eat Stop Eat.....a modified version. For a couple of days perhaps? Perhaps just fast until 12pm and then just haev a normal lunch/snack/dinner/snack.
I should have foresaw this when I tried to postpone my diet break. Well, here it is, my unplanned diet break. Just need to find ways to avoid gaining tons during this time.
thankyou everyone, really, your input is very helpful. Most of this is definitely psychological. Its the anticipation of being off my diet, gaining weight, and losing control.
The problem is today, which is 2 days before we leave, I am still out of control. I just ate 2 bananas, a handful of cherries and 2cups of watermelon, a few crackers and 1/3 container cottage cheese. Although not a binge yet, I still feel the loss of control and worry about the rest of the day.
What can I do right now to stop this from getting worse? The last thing I want is to be in "binge mode" on the day we start our vacation.
I like the idea of Eat Stop Eat.....a modified version. For a couple of days perhaps? Perhaps just fast until 12pm and then just haev a normal lunch/snack/dinner/snack.
I should have foresaw this when I tried to postpone my diet break. Well, here it is, my unplanned diet break. Just need to find ways to avoid gaining tons during this time.
I know I am suggesting contrary to other suggestions here, and in the long run, it is good to know the "whys" ... However, ESE has really helped me STOP, in the short term, in the moment, when I was on a "can't stop" pattern.
I suggest you do 1 day only of ESE. It is not meant as a "starve yourself." It is meant as a break. Eat. Stop. Eat.
I suggest you start right now. Say, for example it is before lunch, and you would normally have today: lunch/snack/dinner/snack, and tomorrow you would have breakfast, snack.
I suggest you do not eat again until tomorrow's breakfast or mid-morning snack, whatever you just ate, and then eat the rest of tomorrow's planned meals. Make sure you get your protein in tomorrow. Drink a lot.
I think you will done with the binge, and able to then enjoy your vacation treats with the respect food deserves. You just need an immediate jolt, not days of starvation punishment. Like when the parent stops the child's tantrum by distracting with a different game. ESE will be your game for right now.
It is very powerful of you that you came here for help, and came back the next day for more help.
Do things to distract yourself from eating. Go on a walk. Take a warm bath. Drink some hot tea. Window shop (maybe not near food places).
Perhaps most importantly, get a journal and write how you feel, what your goals are, and what behaviors will help you accomplish those goals. Take some time to envision yourself in a bikini, favorite dress, etc. I agree with you that you're mostly having psychological stresses; so use psychology to your advantage and think positive.
__________________
They call me Amanda, that being my real name, and "They" being people who know me in person as I don't go around introducing myself in real life as "scribess." 'Cause that would just be strange.
Do things to distract yourself from eating. Go on a walk. Take a warm bath. Drink some hot tea. Window shop (maybe not near food places).
Perhaps most importantly, get a journal and write how you feel, what your goals are, and what behaviors will help you accomplish those goals. Take some time to envision yourself in a bikini, favorite dress, etc. I agree with you that you're mostly having psychological stresses; so use psychology to your advantage and think positive.
Yes!!! since you won't be eating, you'll have mental time for all of these wonderful things!
I have never experienced success with using intermittent fasting or skipping meals. for me, those kind of practices ALWAYS resulted in compensatory eating. the only exception was a very brief time last year (after lots of work on the real issues behind my emotional eating...) when I did lower calories 1100-1500 over a 6 week period, higher in protein, lower in carb. but during this time, I never fasted, or skipped a meal. when I transitioned back to a normal way of eating, i definitely put back a few pounds like leigh talks about in her books, but have since taken them off and am maintaining easily.
I would love to hear from people who currently use intermittent fasting/eat stop eat/ meal skipping who also feel they are at an optimal weight, have a peaceful relationship with food and rarely have serious binge eating episodes or serious emotional overeating.
I think there are lots of different paths to finding peace with food and living in a healthy body. I just don't know of any literature or professionals who advocate these practices as part of a comprehensive, evidenced- based path to recovering from food issues. they might very well work for people who have minimal issues with food, but I haven't seen them work really well for people who still have work to do.
also up your protein. It is more satiating. I know that there is more to it than being full or not being full but I think eating carb heavy things only makes matters worse.
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The BIGGER I get the smaller you look
I know I am suggesting contrary to other suggestions here, and in the long run, it is good to know the "whys" ... However, ESE has really helped me STOP, in the short term, in the moment, when I was on a "can't stop" pattern.
I suggest you do 1 day only of ESE. It is not meant as a "starve yourself." It is meant as a break. Eat. Stop. Eat.
I suggest you start right now. Say, for example it is before lunch, and you would normally have today: lunch/snack/dinner/snack, and tomorrow you would have breakfast, snack.
I suggest you do not eat again until tomorrow's breakfast or mid-morning snack, whatever you just ate, and then eat the rest of tomorrow's planned meals. Make sure you get your protein in tomorrow. Drink a lot.
I think you will done with the binge, and able to then enjoy your vacation treats with the respect food deserves. You just need an immediate jolt, not days of starvation punishment. Like when the parent stops the child's tantrum by distracting with a different game. ESE will be your game for right now.
It is very powerful of you that you came here for help, and came back the next day for more help.
Thanks. I will something like this i think. The problem with fasting all day today is it may piss me off as though I am punishing myself. Im not sure I want to view this break as punishment. Its something I need and deserve after months of hard work. I think perhaps i should fast until 8pm, and then eat a nice dinner at 8pm and then go to bed. This may be a better compromise and it may help me avoid binge eating from now until then.......
Starting tomorrow I will eat clean and count weight watchers points. It will be a break but allow me to watch my portions, but not worry about counting cals and carb grams. I will treat the entire vacation on ww points and allow myself up to 30pts a day, so at least it will keep me under a decent calorie level.......
Thanks. I will something like this i think. The problem with fasting all day today is it may piss me off as though I am punishing myself. Im not sure I want to view this break as punishment. Its something I need and deserve after months of hard work. I think perhaps i should fast until 8pm, and then eat a nice dinner at 8pm and then go to bed. This may be a better compromise and it may help me avoid binge eating from now until then.......
If you feel you are punishing yourself, I agree, you should not fast. Remember the benefits I listed:
a. it calms me down
b. it is a distraction from food onto other areas of interest, because food is out of the equation for those hours.
I can only do IF with calorie counting (which is not what ESE suggests). It is so easy to compensate (and then some) for 24 hours of fasting. I would rather steady and stable.
I can only do IF with calorie counting (which is not what ESE suggests). It is so easy to compensate (and then some) for 24 hours of fasting. I would rather steady and stable.
Well, yeah, I DO calorie count the 2 days.
Or, I know each of my meals is 200-350 cal, so I count how many meals I skipped today and tomorrow, and how many I have left for tomorrow...
ie, I skip nighttime snack, and then tomorrow I have dinner and evening snack.
I am just suggesting it as a way of shifting course from a binge out of control, so you have a chance to get back to your structure and program
This section is led by Leigh Peele, author of "The Fat Loss Troubleshoot," the ... i would pressume the the same could be said of women with binge eating.... Fortunately I'm paying attention to my body and it signals me to overeat at ... go too low for too long and bumping up carbs/calories to help it going.
Etana's plan sounds good if you have the right mindset for it. I don't know, but have in the past, and may again. It can be nice to not think about food for awhile.
The problem is today, which is 2 days before we leave, I am still out of control. I just ate 2 bananas, a handful of cherries and 2cups of watermelon, a few crackers and 1/3 container cottage cheese. Although not a binge yet, I still feel the loss of control and worry about the rest of the day.
I can't help on declaring this a binge or not, or how to control it.
However, whenever you start eating again, if you're legitimitely hungry, go ahead and have a steak or something. A menu such as the above would be, if I were eating it, a sign that I was trying to eat just a little bit (say, 1 banana) and then just built up too much momentum, while nothing was filling me up.
Always more successfull when I try to gauge in advance how much I need to eat, eat it, and then stop until the next meal, when I gauge again how I did last time (it's still tough!)
Thanks everyone. You guys are alot nicer than people on other forums I visit. I am downloading the podcast now as we speak! I think I just had to get it out of my system......and although I will pay the price with some water weight gain and maybe a little fat, it was a lesson learned. I need to take my diet break when I get the signs, and I got them a few weeks ago, but pushed my limit.
I am also feeling alot better psychologically, I really think this was a bad PMS, and I do believe the dieting is making the PMS alot worse than it used to be.
Tomorrow I will be in a better mindset to practice a little intermittent fasting in the mornings.....from 9pm to 12pm. I will do this on Tues and Wed. From Thurs-Sunday I will be away from home, but shouldnt be a problem with bingeing since I wont have easy access to food.
Hopefully next week I will be in a better frame of mind to resume the diet and get the last bit of weight off.
However, whenever you start eating again, if you're legitimitely hungry, go ahead and have a steak or something. A menu such as the above would be, if I were eating it, a sign that I was trying to eat just a little bit (say, 1 banana) and then just built up too much momentum, while nothing was filling me up.
Always more successfull when I try to gauge in advance how much I need to eat, eat it, and then stop until the next meal, when I gauge again how I did last time (it's still tough!)
I agree with EasyRhino. If I'm feeling really hungry, I try to reach for something that's going to satisfy me (like a steak or something with a pretty good protein macro) instead of eating something little and then needing more and more because I'm not satisfied.
__________________
"Do you choose to simply know the path, or do you choose to walk it?"
Your body keeps an accurate journal regardless of what you write down...
please help me troubleshoot my binge eating!
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