I wouldn't really call myself a binge eater, but I've had three really bad days since October when I started. They were all special occasion days (my birthday, best friend's wedding, best friend's birthday), not that that's any excuse, ideally I'd like to enjoy special occasions without excess eating. But, I didn't just binge because I totally gave into random cravings or anything. And I've had no problem jumping right back on plan the next day.
Anyways, that's besides the point.
Each time, I ate well over my daily calorie limit. Well over my maintenance limit even. Nothing like an epic 7000 calories in an hour or anything, but going by the calories in/calories out rule, definitely more calories had gone in than came out. However, each time that I've had one of these mini catastrophes, my weight stayed up 2-3lbs for a few days, then went back to normal and I'd keet losing normally. The major excess of calories never seems to make a difference on my weight.
Please don't think I'm thinking "binge weight isn't real weight so it's okay to binge." I'm just curious why it works that way.
My guess that it was the extra sodium in whatever you ate that showed the weight on the scale and had nothing whatsoever do do with the calories you consumed.
You have to eat 3500 extra calories to gain a full pound, but only pure fat has enough calories for a pound of food to = 1 lb of fat. So unless you're eating Crisco, you're not going to keep the "whole" weight of your binge food (or the whole weight of any food or drink you take in).
To gain (and keep) three pounds of binge weight, you'd have to eat 10,500 calories in that binge (the weight of the food is what you'll see on the scale, but only the calorie portion will contribute to "real" weight gain).
To illustrate - if you drink a quart of water and step on the scale (before you pee) it will look like you have gained 2 lbs. Of course you didn't, because water has no calories and you will lose it all when it leaves your body (when you pee).
But say instead that you "binge" (over and above your maintenance level of calories) not on a quart of water, but ona quart of a sweetened drink like Kool-Aid or regular soda. You will still gain 2 lbs (until you pee), but you could "keep" some of that weight. If there were say 500 calories in that quart beverage, you would gain (or "keep" might be a more accurate way to think of it) only one seventh of a pound (about 2 ounces). So when you pee, you'll lose 30 ounces of the quart and keep about 2 ounces.
With solid foods, it's not just the weight of the water you lose (and most solid foods do contain some water), but also the weight of the fiber (cellulose - which cannot be digested so it's not burned, it becomes part of the bulk of "poo") so with solid food you have to wait not only until you pee, but until you poo out all of the unused parts of the food. Which is why it can take several days before the "gain" is lost. The gain you experience right after eating liquids and solid food isn't a real gain, it's just the combined weight of the parts you can make a part of you (the part that provides calories), and the parts you can't (such as extra water and fiber).
Also (as if this wasn't complicated enough) there's also the fact that more or less water can be stored or released based on diet changes. For example, extra sodium or less water in your diet can cause you to hold on to more water than you would otherwise. A lower-carb diet than you're used to can cause you to hold on to less water than you would otherwise (and of course, TOM, exercise and other factors can play a role too).
People tend to think that everything happens within a short period of time. True weight gain (added fat to our bodies) happens with a continuous excess of calories over time. Since we never move exactly the same way every day (calories out) nor do we eat exactly the same everyday (calories in) there is no way to know exactly when or what the body will consider storing for energy.
As others have mentioned, sodium and water can all play a part as can the weight of the food in your body, as it can take up to three days to process ingested food.
Basically, the body does what it does and it rarely coincides with our sense of timing. If you averaged your calorie intake over a month's period you would have a better idea of the calories in and how it affects your loss or gains.
It's true. A binge doesn't cause weight gain in the long term because it's a temporary fluctuation in calories. If somebody gets the stomach flu and doesn't eat for three days, they may be down in weight for a bit, but will be back to normal weight quickly.
So if you binge for a day or you starve for day, it doesn't really matter. It's the pattern of eating over time that matters.
Kind of off topic, but since this is the forum focusing on eating problems...
One of the comforts I had with having binge eating disorder is that my weight didn't go up & up & up. At my worst when I was consuming up to 5,000+ cals per binge and bingeing 2-3 times per week, I only gained about 15-20 pounds over the span of a year. I wasn't chronically overeating. But my binges were so extreme I did gain weight.
The most I ever gained was right before treatment. I was binging practically every moment of the day for a week and gained three pounds. And I know I had waaay more than 10,000 extra calories. I think I ate 5-7,000 calories every day that week. I think my body wasted a lot calories or perhaps my metabolism was higher.
By the way, I'm recovering from BED now, but I still have my moments.
Why isn't binge weight usually "real" weight?
