overeating for... how long?

I feel worse than it is, most likely, but I'm left at my boyfriend's alone for 5 days while he's at a conference, and I've been PIGGING OUT, since I'm all alone. And most of it is at night too, while I'm sitting around in front of the computer: hot chocolate, nuts, ice cream...

How much of a difference is this going to make? I feel so disgusting and disappointed and my stomach hasn't been thanking me either :(

My question: how long would I have to over-eat for to make a serious difference, and how long would it take to lose whatever I've gained?

I'd like to go back home and still fit into my clothing...

It doesn't matter how long you eat, it's how much you eat/how many calories you consume. If you consume 3500 calories more than you burn, that's enough to gain 1 pound. If you've been consistently piggin' out for 5 days, I'd expect to gain a good couple of pounds... unless you're anorexic and your definition of "overeating" means adding a few extra croutons to your dry salad.

My advice: stop piggin' out. Find other ways to keep yourself busy and console your loneliness.

Love and Alohas,
Ihilani Kapuniai aka MzTenderheart 

are you just overeating because you are alone & bored? instead of worrying about how much of a difference this is going to make, maybe concentrate on discovering why you are doing it. maybe its time to embrace your feelings about loneliness. im not saying distract yourself from the loneliness as you are already really doing that by overeating. but you may need a different perspective.  loneliness happens to all of us but how you go about dealing can be different for everyone so i can only give you some advice. it'll be up to you to discover what you need to do for yourself.

five days won't make much of a difference (even if you are overeating by 1,000 cals per day, which is a lot, the most you'd gain is 1 1/2 pounds) but if you do it for a month or two it really can start to add up.  I know this from experience -- I gained about 40 pounds in 6 months.  And the worse thing is that by the time I really started to notice it, the damage was already done...!

When I first started couting calories I severely restricted myself for about a good 2 years. Needless to say when I moved back home a switch seemed to go off and I started overeating/binging. And I used to pride myself on being so self controlled, not understanding why people binged. Yeah, bite myself for that one now. Anyways, I have been doing this a couple of times a week for about 1.5 months and have gained a good ten to fifteen pounds. Pitiful yes...but I have to admit to it. So...since it has only been five days you should be good. Just find an activity you like and start burning those cals. Get back on track and get out the damn apartment.