[tea2]

To give credit where it's due, I found this link on a blog I read called Fit to the Finish.

http://www.womenshealth.gov/news/english/642452.htm.

Apologies if it's been posted before.

I don't think I fall off the wagon to the degree that happened in the experiment; that's a pound a day! But I might fall off to the point where I gain a couple of pounds in a month every once in awhile. That is a bit scary.

[LiannaKole]

Wow. If just that changes how those people's bodies work with fat, that just confirms that I'm going to have to be very vigilant with food for the rest of my life. I don't think I've had many months where I eat 5000+ every day (if any, I hope), but I am a compulsive overeater. It ain't going away, either.

Thanks for bringing up the article! Very informative.

[Ive Had Enough]

I don't think I was breaking 4k calories on my worst day. Sheesh.

[tea2]

I suppose I'm wondering whether it applies to correspondingly smaller binges and episodes of gaining weight--whether going over maintenance calorie counts and gaining a lesser amount would affect body composition to a lesser degree. If so, where is the line? For example, I lost about 40 pounds and then gained 20 back over a year. I've lost 10 of that so far. So is that new fat different than it was before? It certainly seems harder to lose this time around.

While I see your point (IHE) that this is a sort of artificial forcing of an eating pattern on the subjects and doesn't cover every person who binges and/or gains back weight, I'm pretty sure there are people whose eating patterns fit this more closely and they *do* have periods of gaining a bit more than 1 or 2 pounds--maybe 5 pounds in a month, say. That's a little less than half the gain over a month in the study, so presumably the same effect is there to a lesser degree.

[deetermined2]

Part of the reason that it might have been easier the first time around is that it is difficult to maintain muscle mass while dieting. All too often some muscle is lost along with the fat, which leaves less muscle to burn up calories.