Cant seem to stop!

Im a mess.... lost weight (20lbs) but cant lose anymore due to my binge/starve cycle and dont know how to get off it.

I eat approx 600 cals/day during the week and exercise at least an hour/day. Then screw it all up on weekends with a binge friday night and all day sunday 9anything from 2000-4000+ cals). its like clockwork and i cant stop it. Im gaining 6-8 lbs every weekend then punishing myself (with diet and exercise) to take off the weight by friday only to do the same thing over the weekend again. I panic all week about having gained over the weeknd and then ruin it again.

Feel out of control and no idea how to stop.

eat at least 1200 every day. give yourself a few weeks, and your body will get back on track. Stop starving yourself, and stop binging. take a few small steps at a time, and you can do it!

i agree that you definitely need to eat at least 1200 cals per day. if you eat this thru week you will feel more satisfied therefore this may help you not to binge on the weekends.

That is a very bad cycle to be on.  You are probably doing more harm to your metabolism than you think.

I'd highly recommend talking to your doctor about it.  Maybe they can give you tips or point you to a specialist that can help you deal with this.

I hear you on this. I may not restrict as much as you throughout the week, but the binge weekend cycle that you are on is one that I am trying very hard to stop as well. I find that I will do so well and then I will have a binge that will last a couple of days and all my hard work is lost and then I start again and over ond over. I am trying to see what causes these binges and what to do to stop them, but like you the happen every week. Lets work through this together. What do you think? Should we band together and take a stand against the cycle? Let me know. A little encourgment and help could not hurt and this way, we can turn here and try and stop the cycle.

I'm only trying to maintain, yet I was/am in a similar situation.  Binge eating, then fasting, really doesnt feel good.  Today I havn't and don't plan on continuing that.  I've found that for myself all I had to do was 'bite the bullet' once, that is, even though I'd eatten all 'my' calories, instead of waiting so long and being starving again, I'd just go over my calorie intake, and make sure I didn't have that 'starving' feeling.  When thats not there it was/is very very easy to not binge. 
600 day sounds like what I was doing except amplified 10x.
Just 'bite the bullet' once and even though you binge over the weekend, force yourself to eat 'normally' the following week so you don't feel starving by the weekend!  If that works, then just try to maintain for another week, if you get out of the cycle, next time you try to lose weight, don't cut below 1200.

Thanks for the replys.... they all make so much sense, I guess i know what i have to do its just breaking the cycle.

My partner says im obsessive and its ruining the relationship.

Starting today. Will try for 1000 cals per day and 1200 from next week without a binge at the weekend. Im still weighing 5lbs more than last friday and worried i wont lose what i gained from last weekends binge.

your body is probably very confused!! if you are starving it during the week then giving it a feast for 2 days, your metabolism might be slowing down during the week to compensate for not having enough fuel, then confused on the weekends on how to ramp up quickly enough. i read recently that your metabolism for the day is based on the last 1-2 days of history for your body. so on saturday it might be thinking 'okay i'm only getting 600 cals again today..so i'm going into sleep mode to save fuel'...but then you feed it 2500 cals and it struggles to process everything. this is proably why you are gaining so much weight on the weekends.

you'd be WAY better off taking those 8000 cals you are consuming (600 per day x5 and then 2500x2) per week and spreading them out over the 7 days. so try to eat 1200 cals per day average. actually most articles say your body probably needs that much in order to not freak out and lower your metabolism thinking you might be starving/in famine mode. our bodies will take care of us when WE cannot.

when i was losing i was consuming about 1300-1600 cals per day average, working out and burning 2500 cals per week, bascially keeping my cals during the week to about 1400 per day and then on weekends eating about 2100 cals a day and i still lost 20 lbs. so the fact that your body is gaining so much weight from the weekend binges (which mine never did) tells me that your metabolism is not working correctly. try to help it and be more consistent!

that is very useful info marae, that helps me out too.