Please help, I am desperate for help, I can't afford to gain another pound!

Hello to all!

To those of you who managed to lose weight again after a relapse how did you remotivate yourselves? I lost weight, at a decent rate, then became obsessed. Lost a bit more, then started binging first weekends then during the week, now I pretty much can't go a day without binging. I'm so depressed & stressed out I've gained about 15 pounds in a week! I feel so helpless and I feel like I can't gain another pound without freaking out, but I also can't bring myself to exercise or stop eating. Everyday is a constant struggle/ negotiation which I seem to be losing...  ( no pun there!)

I need help...   

First and foremost you need to remove potential binge foods from your home environment. Thereafter, what you need to do is create a list of specific, attainable goals, and moreover, the reasons that you are striving to achieve them. Finally, you need to come up with a solid plan that addresses both diet and exercise that will ultimately satisfy your objectives, and more importantly, endow you with good habits for life. 

It is almost impossible for you to gain 15 pounds in a week. Some of that is likely water weight, or even just the bulk of undigested food in your body.

If you're having problems bingeing, you might want to figure out your maintenance calories and eat that much for a while. Binges are often triggered by undereating, so right now you shouldn't try to cut your calories drastically. I'm guessing when you "became obsessed" with calorie counting you went on a drastic diet that essentially starved your body, which is what is causing your binges. Eat at maintenance until the bingeing stops, and then cut your calories by NO MORE than 500 a day.

 I know exactly what you mean... I was there too.  For me I set goals and a reward for every week... and not a food reward.  I don't set goals for how many pounds to lose a week because you never know what your body is gonna do.  Instead I set my goal for food intake and exercise... I start my exercise goals first because they are easier to get started. The eating goals just sort of happen because I lose interest in the unhealthy food as I workout and see the pounds drop.  When I start losing weight from exercise it motivates me to eat right too. It took me about a month to get motivated but now I'm on the right track... It also helps to get around people who can motivate you and celebrate with you for every pound you lose. Plus its good to be accountable to someone. 

Start off slow and don't make your goals unattainable. I started with walking 3 days a week and increased to everyday as I felt better.  I have two small kids so the gym isn't possible so I do the ball core training, workout videos, and walked.  I lost 60 pounds that way. I gained 20 back but I just started my fitness and eating healthy plan again (I moved and I'm a stress eater lol).

And don't deprive yourself. Its okay to eat your favorite foods, but remember in moderation and 1 serving size a week or less. Obviously less is better. 

Oh and take supplements... you crave and eat more when you are lacking vitamins and minerals.  That might help with the binges. When you get a craving drink 16oz of water or more and wait 20 mins if the craving is still there eat a small serving of fruit/veggie and 2 or 3oz of a lean protein like chicken. It helps a ton and speeds up your metabolism.

The goal of a cutting diet is to improve body composition by losing fat while preserving as much muscle as possible.

Essential Rules

- Workout with weights 3 times a week.
- Drink about a gallon of water each day.
- Eat at least 1g protein / lb of lean body mass a day.
- Eat some fruit, veggies/salad, and some essential fatty acids (EFAs) every day.
- Above that eat whatever you want, preferably a wide variety of foods.
- Adjust your food intake so that the desired rate of weight change is maintained.
- The rate of weight change should not be above 3lbs/week, 1-2lbs/week is recommended.

IMO, any diet (resp. cutting method) that follows the above rules is optimal for cutting, any further details will not have significant effect on body composition. If you already have a meal plan, just check if these rules are followed and adjust if not.

Measuring Progress and Adjusting Food Intake

- Weigh yourself once a week, always at the same time (e.g. right after waking up).
- Don't panic if your weight stays the same or even goes up for one or two weeks.
- If your weight does not go down for more than three weeks, slightly reduce calories.
- If your rate of weight loss is above the recommended value, slightly increase calories.
- The change in daily calories from those adjustments should not exceed 500 cals.
- After adjustment, stay on the new value for at least three weeks before adjusting again.

If you have never done a cutting diet, it's always better to start with more calories and reduce slowly until the desired rate of weight change is maintained. If you stay patient, you will not have to adjust very often. With more experience, you will not have to count calories anymore, but as a beginner it is probably a good idea.

Unessential Factors

Since many questions revolve around further details of cutting diets, here is a list of factors that I believe to be of insignificant effect for body composition:

- Cardio and fat burners,
- Meal timing and meal frequency,
- Protein / Carb / Fat distribution throughout the day,
- carb / fat ratio,
- Sodium intake,
- Moderate alcohol intake,
- Use of supplements resp. meal replacements,
- "Clean" food vs. Junk food (sugar and saturated fat).

All these factors should be used as tools to make the diet as convenient as possible. Many people e.g. have an easier time dieting with eating more calories and doing cardio or taking fat burners. Some people like myself have an easier time without cardio and fat burners. In my experience, the end result (body composition improvement) is not significantly influenced. Another example is protein supplements. I e.g. use whey powder to meet my daily protein intake out of convenience. I could just as well get all my protein from other sources. A third example is meal frequency and timing. This tool should be used to reduce hunger as much as possible throughout the day. For some people that means eating 6 times a day, for others it means eating only once or twice a day.

Psychological Tips and Tricks

- It is possible that you will not "see" changes in the mirror until your bodyfat gets rather low. Don't panic, as long as the rules are followed, everything is right on track.

- If at all, only assess your physique right after a workout. At other times it's too dependent on water retention, and the mind will play tricks on you (telling you your progress sucks, etc.).

- Have a cheat day (pig-out day) once in a while, where you eat what you want. I had one every week on my last diet. Don't feel guilty about it, as long as the rules are still followed, everything is allright.

- Don't take the whole thing too serious. It's better to not care about it so much. See it more as being the coach of another person, rather than yourself.

Bulking

The goal of a bulking diet is to improve body composition by gaining muscle while keeping fat gains as small as possible. Although this is a cutting guide, for bulking, the only thing that changes is that the rate of weight change X is positive (body weight increases).

The critical factor is the value of X. Everyone has a different ability to gain weight with a certain ratio of muscle vs. fat gain. This ability is dependent on factors like genetics, age, training experience, etc. The ratio will decrease the higher X is, but not in a linear way. The trick is to find the optimal value for X, where the ratio is still close to optimum. Unfortunally, this is solely a matter of experience. My advise would be to increase calories by 500 over maintenance and check if weight goes up while fat gains are still tolerable. If no weight is gained, increase calories again. If fat gains are too high, decrease calories.

Frequently Asked Questions

This section tries to answer the most frequently asked questions of the "How to lose fat for Noobs" thread (see link section) on the bodybuilding.com "Losing Fat" forum as well as questions I recieved via PM or on other threads.

Q: How do I determine how much calories I should consume?
A: You can just go by what you currently eat and reduce from there as described in the guide. Alternativiely, use a calorie calculator like the Total Metabolism Forecaster, see link section.

Q: Is it important to get the same amount of calories resp. macros every day?
A: No, it's OK to eat a little less one day and more the next.

Q: I lose more than 3lbs a week, is that OK?
A: Some people get away with losing more, especially when at high bodyfat. As long as strength is OK and all other essential rules are followed, no problem.

Q: How do I determine my lean body mass for calculating my protein intake?
A: You have to take your total body weight and subtract your fat weight. If you e.g. weigh 200lbs and your bodyfat is 20% (=40lbs), your lean body mass is 200lbs - 40lbs = 160lbs. If you don't know your bodyfat, just take a guess. When in doubt, just eat a little more. However, if for some reason, you can't eat as much protein, just eat a little less, most people will still do fine.

Q: Does it matter where I get my protein from and what are good protein sources?
A: Generally, it does not matter. You can get your protein from meat, fish, eggs, cheese, protein powder, etc. Although there are differences in quality (regarding muscle sparing effect), they can easily be made up for with just a little more quantity.

Q: I work out less/more than 3 times a week, is that OK?
A: Yes, as long as all other essential rules are followed. Some people get away with less, some do better on more.

Q: I lost a lot of weight in the first few weeks but weight loss has slowed down, why?
A: The initial weight loss was probably mostly water loss. Stay at the current intake for at least another 3 weeks. If weight loss stalls, slightly reduce calories as described in the guide.

Q: Can I increase muscle mass while losing fat?
A: Yes, depending on your genetics, training experience, and age, it is possible. The only essential rule that changes in this case is total caloric intake resp. rate of weight loss. You will have to find the sweet spot where you still gain strength in the gym while leaning out. In this case, you can measure progress not by rate of weight loss but e.g. by measuring waist size. Or you can just try to maintain a smaller rate of weight loss and still go by weighing. Depending on what is more important to you at the time, you can adjust calories to lean more towards fat loss or muscle gaining. However, it's a lot easier to concentrate on either muscle gain (bulking) or fat loss (cutting).

Q: What about keto diets?
A: Principally, keto diets (very low carb diets), as long as they follow all rules, would be fine. IMO, some people have a problem preserving muscle mass on a keto diet. For other people it works great. I don't think keto diets provide a significant advantage other than maybe being more convenient for some people.

Q: What about post workout nutrition?
A: I would not intentionally starve myself of protein after a workout. A meal containing some protein or a shake is perfectly fine.

Q: Apart from body composition, what about health?
A: First of all, it is important to distinguish between the goal of optimal body composition and the goal of optimal health. For the former, the guide provides all essential rules. For the latter, opinions vary a lot between experts and over time (see e.g. saturated fat, GI, food processing, cholesterol, etc.). Therefore, IMO the best way to go is to eat a wide variety of foods.

Q: How can I lose fat in certain areas of my body?
A: Although there are theories that spot reduction is possible to a certain degree, generally IMO it's not feasible. You can only reduce overall bodyfat and wait for the problem areas to come in.

Q: What are the rules for weight training on a cut?
A: None other than on a bulk. For an easy workout routine, check link section.

Q: What exactly is your cutting diet?
A: My cutting diet is somewhat extreme since I only eat one big meal a day plus a 100g whey protein shake (see link section). That's just the most convenient way for me. However, every other diet that follows the essential rules is also perfectly OK.

Q: Should I eat differently on workout days than on off days?
A: That's not necessary, I would only eat a little more on workout days if you are very hungry (out of convenience).

Q: Does this guide also work for girls?
A: Of course!

Links

How to lose fat for Noobs: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=1 13693871
Simple Workout Routine: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showpo...&p ostcount=285
Wavelength Cutting Diet: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showpo...1& postcount=33
Total Metabolism Forecaster: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=1 14980801
Minimum Nutritional Requirements: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=1 13310851

should be reducing your daily calorie intake (what you need to maintain) and -100 to 300 calories from it. if you eat less than 400+ calories than a day for what your body needs to maintain, it'll just go into starvation mode. Your body will use your muscles as energy, and everything you eat will be stored as fat (not a good thing).

the healthier the food you eat, the more complex carbs/sugar/starchs you're eating which means it takes your body more energy to break down - meaning you'll be losing fat faster than if you're lets say... eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with white bread. Try to reduce how much condiments you use on your food (can up to a lot of calories)

Also if you eat healthy you may notice you get more gassy than usual - this is normal, since your body is using more energy to break those complex carbs/sugars down, your body is producing more gas. So in a way it's a great indication that you're eating healthy :)

just take some rolaid, tums or anything to help get the gas out of you faster - take 1 tablet after each major meal.

instead of measuring weight (a real big no no) measure your waist/hips/shoulders/calves/biceps/forearms that kinda of thing. log it and measure those areas every 3-5 weeks. Those are the numbers that truely count.

If you're exercising, your weight may not change that much due to you gaining muscle (hooray!). If you're gaining muscle, that means your body will burn more energy! Definitely a good thing.

If you feel like binging - grab some water and drink 500ml of it right away (specially if it hasn't been 3 hours or longer since you last ate)

Try to have protein in each meal you have, protein makes you feel full!

If you feel like chips have cheechas or light popcorn instead (don't add any extra butter/margerine/salt to it)

If you like grapefruit, have one a day, the enzymes in it, are to help aid weight lose - plus a ton of other health benefits.

Steam your veggies, use Pam for cooking meat, and stay away from fast food and caesar salads (the croutons, cheese and fatty dressing aren't going to help)

if you MUST have pizza, try to get whole wheat thin crust, and don't load on too many fatty toppings. Stick to fish/turkey/chicken/veggies/fruit.

In my opinion, don't waste money on those 100 calorie snacks you see in the stores - they're not filling, and full of empty calories,carbs and sugar.
have whole wheat bread with 50% less sugar jam - maybe be more calories but it's filling (again healthy food takes longer to break down, hooray!)

oh also if you do cardio try doing HIIT (high intensity interval training) start with 5min warm up, a full 1 minute speed burst (go as fast as you can), 1 min slow, 1min speed. Do this until a full 10 minutes is up (this doesn't include warmup or cooldowns). By the end you should be sweating. You can do it on a bike, elliptical trainer,sprinting. Basically anything - you don't need a machine to do this. What HIIT does is you wont burn as many calories as LIT (low intensity training (30+ cardio)) but boosts your metabolism rate for the entire day :D

Never do more than 30 minutes of HIIT.

Hope this helps you.

until you address what's leading you to binge, you're not going to be able to resolve your weight issue.  one thing at a time.  don't get distracted by the number on the scale, because that's clearly a symptom, not the problem.

btw, i used to be an emotional eater - i'd just eat and eat and eat.

with what i posted earlier is how i lost 62lbs.
How i stopped being an emotional eater is like i said, keep water around you. if you get bored and feel the need to snack, drink it. If you get angry don't eat, clean,workout - do something to use for your outlet.

if you're sad, don't eat any ice cream or cookies, go for a walk, clear your mind, listen to music either fitting your mood or to lift your spirits, do something to keep you distracted.

this all takes time, lots of time. so the most important thing is to control your binging, then eat healthy and continue to eat healthy. that's the real key factor in this.

i'm unsure of what you eat, but i know from personal experience when i ate junk food, it made me feel more guilty, depressed and bad about myself.
when i started eating better not only did i feel healthy, but i had less mood swings, my skin became clearer, i didn't feel guilty when i ate.

again, hope this helps.

A GALLON OF water wow i dunno if i could leave the bathroom if a dranked me a gallon. i drink about 80 ounces and thats alot to me.

thanks for posting this Audreyhaddict >.< ..everyone's answers helped me  too..

I'm in the same situation...lost 60 lbs... doing it the healthy way...but deprivimg myself too much..now I'm a binger... ..i just open the fridge and take a "bit" of everything...feel full & even sick but just keep on eating..like it's the last day of my life or something  s:   ...So...gained 10 lbs back... I don't know how to motivate myself again...because everytime I do...It lasts 2 or 3 days and then I'm back on binging...and eating out of boredom...Even though I exercise 5 times a week...I feel terrible...and disappointed ... those 10 lbs were the hardest to lose!....
>.<
ah...
good luck.

:D

.

 I didn't read all the replies so if this sounds redundant I'm sorry.

 However, I know exactly how you're feeling. Exactly. I come from a line of women who have weight issues, all being severely overweight to the point of obesity. For years, since junior high, I've struggled with weight issues which I believe stem from this genetic fact. I've gotten inspired, then discouraged, then inspired, then I'd quite because I was told "you're just a big girl". There's a difference between being healthy and unhealthy, whether you're unhealthy overweight or you're unhealthy too thin.

 A few years ago I met my now fiance and just being with him inspired me to want to change myself for the better. I started realizing that I'd want children one day and I'd want to be healthy and able to play with them. So I started turning things around.

 Through these past couple years I've come to realize that it's not only a lot of hard work and dedication, but being very patient and listening to the advice you seek. I am still having a problem with my calorie intake - I'm probably not getting enough to lose the last ten pounds I desire and that's my struggle. To listen to what I know is right.

 Keep at it. Keep going. If nothing else, you're keeping yourself healthy and able to stick around longer for your new little ones. Good luck .

Thank you everyone for your replies, especially for your input yomie, all your advice is sound. I suppose I just need to be more patient with weight loss and myself and after being able to lose weight so fast (and gain back) I suppose I'm so confused and weary about it all now! But i will try my best to improve... I might even just start by getting myself to the gym this week, then hopefully the eating will follow suite. 

I'm glad this helped minutexwaltz, it's really hard to see your hardwork diminish before your eyes, and it's never worth it!I also eat like I'm never going to eat again like it's the last supper or something LOL! 

Kotey I do binge on junk and it does make me feel depressed and so upset with myself and ultimately disappointed in my self control. i just don't know how to eat and not lose or not gain, maintenance has become a mystery to me now, thanks to my warped sense of weight. 

Anyway, thanks everyone for your help, I will let you know how it all goes...