binge confessional

kariev

Cathlete
Alright, bad confession. So i decided that i would do CC#2 After this workout i did workout#2 from coremax. I normally take the weekends off to recover but I was feeling good. Had my post exercise workout shake then i was STARVING an hour later. So i made myself a huge salad with grilled chicken. Well after that i was still starving and i just wanted to EAT! so i ended up eating about 2500cals of granola cereal. I feel defeated and terrible. I can't believe i did this. I was doing so well controlling my eating binges. It has been almost 2 months since i binged. So now its time to analize why i did this. For the most part i think its undereating (1500 cals/day) and intense exercise. All the cardio coach workouts and living on salads i guess completely depleated my body even if i had a cheat meal on turkey day. My workout schedule from the past week was:
monday: CC#8 on the elliptical
tuesday: pyramid upper body
wednesday: CC# 6 on the treadmill
thursday: GS legs and workout#1 of coremax
frday: CC#4 on the elliptical
saturday: off
sunday: CC#2 and coremax workout #2
Any advice. I just don't feel like i will ever get this extra weight off. Its so frustrating to me.
 
You have got to let this go and stop beating yourself up over it!!!!

Now the workout is pretty similar to what I have done in workouts, just that I eat a LOT more. My calorie intake is between 1800 to 2500 calories. By doing that, I lost 48 lbs since June.

I am not sure what a typical day of eating looks like for you but from what you mentioned, I am assuming that not only is your calorie intake too low but also your protein intake and your "good fat" consumption . If I go all low fat, I go on terrible binges which caused dramatic weight gains for me over the past years, until a light bulb went on for me.

Please, don't punish yourself now by restricting your calories in response to your binging. Just move on from here, go on a sensible and sustainable food intake and over the time you WILL lose weight!!! I promise!

It may take a little bit of experimenting, Cathe's nutrition program is really great to track not only your calorie/protein/carb/fat intake but also vitamins, etc. If you do it for a few months you will get a pretty good handle on what works for you. Not every person is the same and there really is no one size fits all recommendation.
 
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You have got to let this go and stop beating yourself up over it!!!!

Now the workout is pretty similar to what I have done in workouts, just that I eat a LOT more. My calorie intake is between 1800 to 2500 calories. By doing that, I lost 48 lbs since June.

I am not sure what a typical day of eating looks like for you but from what you mentioned, I am assuming that not only is your calorie intake too low but also your protein intake and your "good fat" consumption . If I go all low fat, I go on terrible binges which caused dramatic weight gains for me over the past years, until a light bulb went on for me.

Please, don't punish yourself now by restricting your calories in response to your binging. Just move on from here, go on a sensible and sustainable food intake and over the time you WILL lose weight!!! I promise!

It may take a little bit of experimenting, Cathe's nutrition program is really great to track not only your calorie/protein/carb/fat intake but also vitamins, etc. If you do it for a few months you will get a pretty good handle on what works for you. Not every person is the same and there really is no one size fits all recommendation.

Great post from Carola <hugs> :)

ITA with everything said. This is so counter-intuitive for most of us but I finally got the body I wanted when I stopped living and dying by the numbers. Because I don't restrict my diet I rarely overeat or binge, even on Thanksgiving I ate what I wanted and was happy but was not one of those rolling around the dining room moaning for a Tums. I truly believe that part of weight loss/fitness/wellness success is to have an easy and gentle mind towards ourselves. Even if you did scold and harangue yourself into losing the last few pounds you might not keep them off because most of us don't have long term success when our behavior is guilt-motivated. Be gentle with yourself. The pounds will come off! :)

I'm five feet high and I eat around 2000 calories a day (roughly, I don't count them often but when I do that is where I generally land). A typical workout week looks like right now, while I am on a total body rotation.

S: CC and 15-20 extra legs
M: P90x Total body
T: P90x Total body and 10 minutes extra abs
W: CC or my own elliptical HIIT (45-60 minutes)
TH: Barry's Bootcamp Full body/Power 90 total body
F: Yoga, 30-45 minutes

HTH!

Sparrow
 
You have got to let this go and stop beating yourself up over it!!!!

Now the workout is pretty similar to what I have done in workouts, just that I eat a LOT more. My calorie intake is between 1800 to 2500 calories. By doing that, I lost 48 lbs since June.

I am not sure what a typical day of eating looks like for you but from what you mentioned, I am assuming that not only is your calorie intake too low but also your protein intake and your "good fat" consumption . If I go all low fat, I go on terrible binges which caused dramatic weight gains for me over the past years, until a light bulb went on for me.

Please, don't punish yourself now by restricting your calories in response to your binging. Just move on from here, go on a sensible and sustainable food intake and over the time you WILL lose weight!!! I promise!

It may take a little bit of experimenting, Cathe's nutrition program is really great to track not only your calorie/protein/carb/fat intake but also vitamins, etc. If you do it for a few months you will get a pretty good handle on what works for you. Not every person is the same and there really is no one size fits all recommendation.

Thanks for the positive post. Being 5'3 and 120lbs, i know for my activity level i'm not eating enough. I should try to up it to 1800cals per day and see what happens. My protein and fats are high and i tend to eat more low carbs. My typical diet looks like this:

breakfast (7a.m): 2 kashi blueberry waffles, 1 whole egg, 1/2 cup egg whites, 1 slice of soy cheese, coffee with 2Tbsp of half and half with splenda. I make the waffles and eggs into an egg sandwich. This is about 360cals. I think to clean it up i need to remove the coffee creamer, soy cheese, and splenda

snack (10a.m.): 12 raw almonds. About 90cals

lunch: 3 or 4 cups romaine lettuce, 3 cherry tomatoes, 1/4 yellow pepper, 3 raw brocholii florets, .5 cup alfalfa sprouts, 3 carrot sticks, 4 slices cucumber, 4 rings of onion chopped, 4 oz of turkey lunch meat (boars head brand), .5 cup fat free shredded cheese, 2 Tbsp reduced fat 3 cheese ranch dressing, 1 medium apple. This is about 400cals or so. I think i should eliminate the fat free cheese, use real chicken instead of lunch meat, and use real oil and vinegar instead of the ranch dressing. I also usually have a diet soda so i need to get rid of that

snack: 12 raw almonds about 90cals

dinner: same as the lunch salad instead i have grilled chicken on top; diet soda again i need to rid this from my diet

dessert: 1 medium apple with 1Tbsp of natural peanut butter.

I notice that processed foods are making it back into my diet as well as artificial sweeteners. I think that i have steared clear of the clean eating diet in fear that it will make me feel so restricted but at this rate, i think that my body is craving due to not eating enough and fake sugar. I normall get around 60grams of fat per day and about 140 grams of protein and the rest from carbs which come from lots of greens and apples. the only bread i get is in the morning with my waffles. I workout first thing in the morning on an empty stomach so mabe i should eat an apple or something before hand. After all the years i have been doing this, i feel more lost than ever! Your right though, i can't cry over spilled milk but i think its time to reanalyze everything in my diet b/c its not working. all this undereating makes me crave junk and then i want a cheat meal each week. i have been doing really well doing this until today. could it be too much cardio?
 
Kariev-you and I (and many more) have been thru this over and over again, haven't we??? You hit the nail on the head, when you said it's mostly from OVER restricting yourself. In our PMs, you've said this very same thing before, haven't you?

I know how hard this is. You KNOW I know how hard. (and here my kids would say, "I know that you know, that I know you know" lol) Like Carola said, somehow, we HAVE to come to terms with simply eating to fulfill our body's needs and not get all caught up in the exact precise numbers of things. Personally, my greatest successes come when I simply eat and NOT count carbs, cals, fat, protein, etc. BALANCE! It's in there somewhere.

Now.....pick yourself back up. You'll be fine. WE WILL BE FINE!

Gayle
 
Ok Kariev: I must say that now looking at your stats, you should definately not be so hard on yourself! Have you always been your current size? what has your fitness journey been like? your bio is a little short on info :) lol! and all I know is from our checkin ;)

I am 5' nothing, and weigh about 178 (or at least that is what it was BEFORE T-day), so I have a long way to catch up to you! and looking at your sample menu puts me to shame, seriously! Not just the past few days, but in general... I would be happy to be even remotely close to my 10 year low of 145! I am an Endo, so stocky, never petite in stature, and have never looked "skinny", but more "athletic" ~ to me that's just a polite way others call you chubby... so I continue to press forward in hopes of being a shadow of my former self!

hang in there!
 
Ok Kariev: I must say that now looking at your stats, you should definately not be so hard on yourself! Have you always been your current size? what has your fitness journey been like? your bio is a little short on info :) lol! and all I know is from our checkin ;)

I am 5' nothing, and weigh about 178 (or at least that is what it was BEFORE T-day), so I have a long way to catch up to you! and looking at your sample menu puts me to shame, seriously! Not just the past few days, but in general... I would be happy to be even remotely close to my 10 year low of 145! I am an Endo, so stocky, never petite in stature, and have never looked "skinny", but more "athletic" ~ to me that's just a polite way others call you chubby... so I continue to press forward in hopes of being a shadow of my former self!

hang in there!

I lost 35lbs about 10 yrs ago. Right now i'm 5-7lbs over where i'm normally at. I'm not happy where i'm at but i may be being too self critical. I like being between 112-115lbs but i'm having the hardest time doing this. When i was this weight i was doing more cardio, roughly 130 hours per week (over the course of 5 days) and i was doing an upper/lower body split. I believe my diet was around 1800cals and i only did cheat meals on special occasions like b-days and holidays. Mabe i need to go back to what i knew worked. At this point its the diet that needs to be in check not additional workouts. I to have endo tendencies and look athletic which is why i like keeping my weight low b/c when i gain weight i just end up looking bulky. I set really high standards for myself thanks to all the media surrounding me from mags and television. I wear anywhere from a size 2-5 but at my leanest i was a 0. I guess what i look at is where i was and where i'm at now.
 
I lost 35lbs about 10 yrs ago. Right now i'm 5-7lbs over where i'm normally at. I'm not happy where i'm at but i may be being too self critical. I like being between 112-115lbs but i'm having the hardest time doing this. When i was this weight i was doing more cardio, roughly 130 hours per week (over the course of 5 days) and i was doing an upper/lower body split. I believe my diet was around 1800cals and i only did cheat meals on special occasions like b-days and holidays. Mabe i need to go back to what i knew worked. At this point its the diet that needs to be in check not additional workouts. I to have endo tendencies and look athletic which is why i like keeping my weight low b/c when i gain weight i just end up looking bulky. I set really high standards for myself thanks to all the media surrounding me from mags and television. I wear anywhere from a size 2-5 but at my leanest i was a 0. I guess what i look at is where i was and where i'm at now.

I'm right there with you. I'm currently about 125 pounds. I say about because after Thanksgiving's obese feast I admit I'm a little scared to see what the scale says! :eek: :D This summer I lost weight and got down to 115 pounds and was size 0. I was eating clean and working out. I had added running into my rotation and for the first time I was seeing real results. I was very happy and didn't feel like I had sacrificed much to get there. But then what do I do? I go and binge eat and gain a lot back. I can understand about beating yourself up because I do that daily, depending on my mood. Right now I'm trying to get back on track, which for me means stopping my daily binges (yes, daily, so sad, huh?!). Someone else said you can't out exercise a bad diet and that is me to a T. My exercising is consistent, 6 days a week, but the my diet leaves a lot to be desired. When I was a size 0 and 115 pounds my diet was clean, I didn't binge, allowed myself 1-2 cheats per week and I was happy. Now I'm just wallowing in self-loathing and can't wait to get back to where I was this summer. I'm a work in progress.

What worked for me when I did lose weight was upping the cardio, lifting heavy, running and most importantly, eating clean. It's hard to get back into that mindset when, for the last few months, I've been doing all of the above except clean eating. That's the hardest part for me.

Sorry for the long post - if you get anything out of this, just know that someone else is in your shoes as well. :D :p
 
I am not an expert but this is what I have found to work for me after lots f trial and error. Low carb with lots of exercise does not work for me. I get exhausted and also go on binge eating trips.

Looking at your sample menu, I would leave out the fat free soy cheese from the breakfast, it does not add much nutritional value. Add piece of fruit instead. I don't know if you eat the same for breakfast every day, you may want to alternate maybe with Day 1 your Waffles and eggs, Day 2 Oatmeal with protein powder plus yogurt/fruit/ground flax seed and wheat germ, Day 3 Cottage Cheese w/ fruit and flax seed (if you prefer veggies maybe cottage cheese with tomatoes, green onions and slice of ezekiel / whole wheat bread).

I am a big believer in enjoying little pleasures because life is not all about depriving yourself and you will start sabotaging yourself if you are too strict all the time. Instead of half and half why don't you put fat free milk in your coffee, maybe with a splash of cinnamon.

On your lunch I would replace the lunch meat with grilled chicken, poached / grilled salmon, or any left over proteins from your dinner. Many ready-made salad dressings contain high fructose corn syrup, which in many people triggers binge eating through fast increase in blood sugar and then fast crashing though increased insulin output.

My favorite salad dressing is really easy to make.

1 cup balsamic vinegar
1.5 cups extra virgin olive oil
3 - 6 fresh garlic cloves (minced or crushed)
1 Tbsp agave nectar or maple syrup
salt, pepper

You can make it ahead of time and store it in a glass or plastic container for use during the week.

I would get a little more variety for your snacks. Almonds are good but twice a day as a snack is a little overdoing it. Definitately cut out the diet soda, it is not good for you and it can trigger binging.

If I were you, I would probably include some grains and legumes.

The Cathe nutrition program is really great, it has thousands of sample menus, even if you only want to sign up for a month, it's $ 10 but it is really helpful.

Here is a sample of what I eat

Breakfast: Oatmeal with Jay Robb vanilla protein powder, berries, flax seed, Fage yogurt, green tea

Snack: Cottage cheese with fruit or veggies, fresh veggie juice green tea

Lunch: Salad w/lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, green onions, bell pepper, cucumber, fennel, etc (whatever is in season) grilled / poached chicken or fish plus balsamic vinegar dressing, 1 slice ezekiel / whole grain bread water and tea

Snack: Fruit with plain yogurt or celery with wedge of cheese or handful of raw trail mix, herbal tea

Dinner: Grilled or poached protein with blanched veggies or brown rice and lentils mixed with grated veggies (leeks, broccoli, carrots) and a splash of creme fraiche plus mixed salad

I am not big on supplements but it really helped when I added a high potency probiotic powder and omega synergy (mix of healthy oils).

Cheat days don't work for me, I think about nothing but food if I allow myself a cheat day. Cheat days are a sure fire method to have me fall off the band waggon and go on a binge. So I started to plan on little cheats every day. They keep me happy and now I even forget about them and just occassionally eat not so clean food.

Just cut yourself some slack. No one is perfect. You can't eat perfect every day. By expecting to do so you will set yourself up for failure. Plan little pleasures every day and be kind to yourself and your body.

HTH
 
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Thank you for such an informative post hiitdogs. The reason i eat almonds 2 times per day is that i'm a physical therapy student and i'm at the mercy of my CI right now out on my clinical rotations so i just needed something to put in my lab jacket. Plus i like having larger meals and smaller snacks so i figured splittin a serving of nuts would be a good option. Any suggstions for other things? I've tried protein bars but they are unsatisfiying to me. This morning i'm a bit bloated which i hate! So i'm going to drink lots of water. I'm going to work on replacing lots of things in my diet. It sucks that i did this. I think that the hardest part was that i have been binge free for almost 2 months and then bam! it happened. Its like i let myself down.
 

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