Anyone experience this?

I lost a ton of weight recently. Went from about 275 to about 148ish this past year (from March to October)

Anyway, I completely lost my cool this Holiday season  and did some major damage from Thanksgiving on to just a few weeks ago. I binged a lot. I ate on one occasion non-stop for a whole day (pizza, donuts, nuts, cookies, cereal, chicken etc.) Had at least 4 other days that I ate til I almost busted.

This was the first time I experinced binging like that. I'm convinced I developed a terrible eating disorder. I feel I have a firm grasp on it now though. This is all new to me and I take this Holiday experience as a powerful learning experince.

On to my question, I know I packed on a ton of weight as a result of my wrecklessness. My body simply looks different; I'm not as lean as I once was. My hip bone isn't as pronounced  as it once was and I have a little belly now too.

But here's the thing, the scale tells me I'm still pretty low in weight. This morning I was at 151 or 152. This is still up from my lowest weight, but not by much. Here's the thing though, I feel like my body fat percentage is much higher now at 152, then when I was originally 152. How can this be?

I'm completely confused. Am I just being irrational perhaps? Maybe I just forgot how much fat I actually had when I originally at 152? Perhaps I was just used to being super lean at 148ish and am shocked now that I have so much more body fat?

Can one's body composition vary greatly?

Yes I have had almost the exact same experience as you.  I lost a lot less weight, 40 lbs 2007-2008, and I'm almost the exact same weight as you now.  I was down to 145-147, then went on a two week vacation and enjoyed myself thoroughly, all while not working out.  When I got back I was 151-153 but I felt a TON fatter.  People kept saying that I looked the same, but I had the same feeling as you- I felt not as lean, like I had a belly, etc.  But it doesn't make sense really with that little weight gained.

So a few things happened.  First of all, I just kept working out and eating right, and eventually my stomach got flat again...I think all of that eating and drinking bloated me up.  After a month and a half or so, I'm down a couple of pounds (but not to my previous weight) and feeling like I look close to how I did.  The most important thing I did though was to get my bodyfat measured.  Not by a scale or something like that, but I actually got dunked in water, hydrostatic testing, which is supposed to be one of the most accurate ways to test your bodyfat.  I found out that I am 3% below the "ideal" body fat for my age, gender, etc. 

Finding that out gave me a LOT of peace of mind, and also let me know that I had been going a little crazy.  It's easy to get carried away.  Remember that it's restricting yourself so much that leads to that binge mentality.  Good luck to you!

Wait, am I reading this right? You lost over 100 pounds in 6 months? That's way more than you can lose safely, which means you probably lost quite a bit of muscle in that 100+ pounds. Which means that when you started eating more, you gained mostly fat. That could definitely alter your body composition. From personal experience, I weigh about the same as a friend of mine but I'm 4 sizes smaller. It's because I've got a lot more muscle and less fat.

well the scale not going up could be from losing muscle...muscle weighs more than fat so it is possible to only gain a pound or two but still look physically different...what you may want to try is a full body cleanse, which would help get rid of excess junk left behind, drink lots of water and continue like nothing ever happened...if you feel afraid this will happen again then join a support group to get some feed back from people who have had the same experience. dont beat yourself up over one mix up, maybe make room in your calories for a treat or two during the week so you dont feel like your on lock down..good luck!

I recently gained back some weight too. I got, at my lowest 126, down from over 180. Teetered between 127 and 129 for a looooooong time. Then this holiday season I gained a little, up to 133. And I felt FAT. I'm finally back on track now. Back under 130 (now if I could just get to my ultimate goal weight of 115!!). Looking back I really really felt fat at 133. Way fatter then I felt when I was loosing weight and got to that weight. And I think the reason is because the first time I got to that weight it was a victory. I was feeling good and confident because I was loosing weight so every little pound was an improvement from where I started. But then going from getting as low as 126 to 133 that WAS NOT and improvement. That was a gain, so........I think thats why I felt so much fatter at 133 recently then when I did before. Hope that helps!

Original Post by mortalmonkey:

I lost a ton of weight recently. Went from about 275 to about 148ish this past year (from March to October)

Anyway, I completely lost my cool this Holiday season  and did some major damage from Thanksgiving on to just a few weeks ago. I binged a lot. I ate on one occasion non-stop for a whole day (pizza, donuts, nuts, cookies, cereal, chicken etc.) Had at least 4 other days that I ate til I almost busted.

This was the first time I experinced binging like that. I'm convinced I developed a terrible eating disorder. I feel I have a firm grasp on it now though. This is all new to me and I take this Holiday experience as a powerful learning experince.

On to my question, I know I packed on a ton of weight as a result of my wrecklessness. My body simply looks different; I'm not as lean as I once was. My hip bone isn't as pronounced  as it once was and I have a little belly now too.

But here's the thing, the scale tells me I'm still pretty low in weight. This morning I was at 151 or 152. This is still up from my lowest weight, but not by much. Here's the thing though, I feel like my body fat percentage is much higher now at 152, then when I was originally 152. How can this be?

I'm completely confused. Am I just being irrational perhaps? Maybe I just forgot how much fat I actually had when I originally at 152? Perhaps I was just used to being super lean at 148ish and am shocked now that I have so much more body fat?

Can one's body composition vary greatly?

HOW did you lose all that in 6 months?

Stringent, disciplined calorie counting and exercising 6 times a week.

Original Post by mortalmonkey:

Stringent, disciplined calorie counting and exercising 6 times a week.

 How many calories did you restrict yourself to? How tall are you?  I'm VERY impressed with that type of discipline! Good for you!

Like you, I lost weight last year and then completely blew it over Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I didn't actually binge, but I did eat waaaaay too many sweets.  I was horrified to get on the scale after New Years to see that I had gained 10 pounds in a little over a month.  Two weeks of eating reasonably and a bit of exercise and I have already lost 5 pounds of it.  That tells me that it was mostly water.  Water always accumulates on my tummy first. 

So, I would say that you will find that much of what you gained will be water too.  That it really is just bloat.  But the binges might be an indication that you were a bit too strict in your diet before and you should slack off a bit.  I suspect you are looking to maintain more than lose now anyway.

Here are my average calorie counts per month. In July and August I was doing hardcore strength training, thus the bump in calories.

I'm 6' tall and weighed 275 back in January of last year. I now weigh 152ish and was at about 146ish at my leanest (this was back in November.)

Check my profile for pics, though I have not uploaded any pics of me in the 150s or 140s. I will shortly though.

March 1539
April 1582
May 1646
June 1778
July 2024
August 2200
Sept 1958
October 1870

I did at least 30 minutes of cardio (treadmill) each day (6 days a week) as well.

clharr,

Yes, I know some of the weight I gained was water weight, but without a doubt, I put on at least 5 lbs of real weight. I gained about 15 lbs, but I already lost 10 of those lbs. The last 5 remained as pure fat.

Here are I am at a pretty low weight, though I can't remember how much I weigh. But you can see my hip bone well pronounced. Mind the gynecomastia :(

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y19/mishimak azama/IMG_4346.jpg

besides some fat you probably put on you can also retain a lot of water eating like that, huge sodium levels and skyrocketing insulin we bring the whole fat burning process to a halt.  honestly, you should probably be happy it was only about a 4 pound gain.

I don't know, because I'm a chick, but I know my fiance can easy gain and lose muscle. He works out for a week and immediately starts looking more buff. He stops and loses it all. If you stopped your work out routine over the holidays as well as put on some extra treat weight, I would believe you might look a bit softer. But I wouldn't worry about it too much. Once you get back to normal so should your body. =)