weight loss question...

I gained 7lbs over the weekend from binging...

am trying to sort myself out and eat 1000-1200cals per day this week of healthy foods and exercise daily in order to stop myself from further binges and to get my weight back to what it was.

How many days of healthy eating should it take to lose the 7lbs I managed to gain in just 3 days or is the gain there to stay??

I am on a binge/ starve cycle and dont want to starve myself to drop the weight as i know i will binge again if i do.

Any ideas?

Don't worry about the 7lb weight gain... most of it is probably just water retention. To gain 7lbs you would have had to eat about 24,500 calories more than what you burned off, which is pretty hard to do (albeit not impossible).

Don't go below 1200 cals or you're just going to do yourself more harm than good. It's going to mess up with your metabolism and actually slow down your weight loss (your body will start burning muscle instead of fat... which isn't what you want).

Drink LOOOOTTTTSSS of water over the next few days... like at least 12 glasses a day. It might sound like a lot but it will flush out your system, and you'll notice that you'll drop a few pounds (helps with water retention).

As for food - stick to lots of veggies and fruit, and complex carbs. Avoid red meat and other hard-to-digest foods for the next few days to give your system a break.

Don't think about 'making up' for your binge. Start now with a heathy approach. Check your allowance to maintain given your stats and activity level (including exercise) and eat no less than 500 calories less than that amount.

You should be eating more than 1200 for sure. Probably at least 1500 calories per day. A healthy rate of weight-loss is no more than 2lbs per week, so 4wks to get back on track.

ps. the 7lbs is not likely fat. Probably half or more is water weight.

Thanks for that.

Ok... starting on the water now.

I know you dont know my body but how long should it take to drop that weight. (definitely some water retention as definitely didnt eat  24,500 cals over weekend closer to about 14,000)

It really varies from person to person, there are SO many factors that affect weight loss, everything from height, to current weight, to weather! (people in colder climates have a higher metabolism).

Let's say you gained 2-3lbs over the weekend at the MOST, if you worked out and ate right for a couple weeks, that weight should be gone.

Sucks how easy it is to gain but how hard it is to lose...

Just repeating what was already said; don't go below minus 500 Cal a day. All you'd manage to do with that is slow down your metabolism and make weight loss more difficult and slow.

Thanks,

Ive been on this cycle for about 12 weeks. I lost 25lbs on a 1000 cal / day diet over about 3 months and then started the binge /diet cycle.

eat between 500-700 cals on weekdays then binge (usually secretly) on weekends and gain between 5-8lbs at least. feel sick and disgusting all week and try to lose the weekend weight only to find i binge again and have to go through the whole thing again. to make things worse im steadily gaining each week. Never quite losing the amount i gained from the binge.

Im a intelligent lady with a good job, partner and life but its getting out of control. starting to damage my relationship and social life.

500-700 cal a day is not enough no matter how small you are. You're most likely gaining weight because you're hurting your metabolism with such low calories, not because you binge. Your 1000 cal diet was also probably too low.

Try to stick with something that's 20% below your Base Metabolic Rate, you have better success.

Don't worry you didnt gain 7 pounds. Like everyone is saying some of it is water weight. But you also have to rememeber that food itself has weight. 1,500 grams of food (a normal amount) is actually around 3 pounds, crazy i know! After you have a BM, some weight will drop. It may take a few days to lose the extra food weight but dont worry, it will balance out :)

During your binge, how many calories do you think you ate? The severity of the binge affects the recovery time.