Also, I feel like a fraud because my ticker is still set at my pre-binge weight. Would you guys mind if I keep it where it is right now? I feel so bad right now; I can't stomach the thought of changing my ticker. Talk about hitting me when I'm already down.

Brain over Binge wasnīt my thing as well - it made me feel weak because it worked for everybody and I just failed. Life without Ed is my favorite. I like to blame somebody else rather than beating myself up...

I am at my highest right now as well. I did a shake diet and lost a lot of weight and then started to have a 30 day binge with a few diet days in between. I have no more clothes that I am comfy in and I wear the biggest muffin top ever right now. I have been asked if I am pregnant from my co-worker and my doc told me yesterday that I am heavy (REALLY???). The last days have been very heavy on me.

You know what though? I am thankful for gaining the weight. It is my wake up call. Usually I justify bingeing because I only gained a couple pounds and I could bounce right back by restricting.

I now start to realize that this lifestyle is insane - bingeing is nasty and makes me feel like a dog. I am going to allow me my favorite foods in quantities I want and try to not see them as a binge but rather a day of treats (like my husband does - he is a normal eater and would never stop eating a bag of chips until it is empty). I just donīt want to lose control

Xena - thanks so much for all your support. I see what you mean -- we can use these binges as wakeup calls. I have learned that bingeing really is the path to rapid weight gain. I canNOT do it anymore if I want to maintain my weight. It simply is not compatible with weight maintenance.

I am telling myself that it took me 9 months to reach my goal weight, and then I have been maintaining within 10-12 pounds for another year. If I give in to the urges to binge today, and if I continue to binge this week, I am giving up all the hard work that I have put in over the last ~2 years. I have worked MUCH TOO HARD to undo all my hard work in a few weeks! I need to remind myself of the endless exercise, struggles, sacrifices, working out and walking, going to bed instead of eating when I really wanted to eat...all that hard work and sacrifices over the last 2 years to reach my goal weight. And I've already undone a lot of my hard work. If I keep up at this pace, I will have undone 2 years of hard work in a month! I WILL NOT ALLOW THAT TO HAPPEN. I need to remind myself of this when the urge to binge hits!!

SMurphy - hang in there - you can make Day 1! We'll try to get through the day together!

doingmybest- i'm so sorry to hear what you're going trough because i've been in the same situation few times. especially during long holidays and exam period when i wpuld return to school weighing 10+ pounds more than i did before the break. i was miserable and embarassed to see my friends and professors.
i can't tell what will help you, but untill i changed the thinking in my head i couldn't stop binging. first i had to stop pittying myself and then decluttering my minds. is there something that's making you anxious, nervous and you're trying to ease it by binging? i know everyone has problems these days but it helps if you do little mental check and insight to the real cause of your binge spree. maybe you should go out for a walk, just get away from the "crime scene" and as far as the clothes...you can try wearing loose clothes for a while like skirts and dresses and tunics so your colleagues won't notice your rapid weight gain soon and it will give you a little time to get back into your old clothes.

You can do it! The one thing that helped from Brain over Binge was when she wrote that only YOU can get up from the couch and eat the food. I am so scared to be at home over the weekend, alone and having urges. I usually gave up without even trying to fight them just cuz I couldnīt take the urges anymore. I wanted to shut them up - so I ate.

The thing is that the urges will ALWAYS come back if I donīt try to ignore them. This is explained in "Ditching Diets". Recognize the binge and get excited because this is an opportunity to make a change. Change does not happen during the times where you donīt have an urge, change ONLY happens when you have urges and you learn to deal with them. Surprisingly they disappear, even though I thought they never would.

I try to really pay attention to my thoughts. I have a note book with notes that I took after reading each of these books. I read them whenever I feel an urge and then I need to change my thought pattern. Not "YAY I want Ice cream" but rather like this:

"Ok I want Ice cream.
Do I really want Ice cream or do I want to start a binge/stuff myself?

Alternative 1:
If I really want Ice cream I go to the scoop shop around the corner, get two scoops and go home. I will feel good about not bingeing but enjoying my favorite food.

Alternative 2:
If I go to the grocery store I buy 2 pints instead of the planned one pint, grab a bag of chips, some candy and stuff my face. It is like an alcoholic in a liquor store. I know I will not only buy the planned food. The next morning I will feel bloated, horrible and have gained a lot of weight."

So basically the book explains how to think yourself through binges. I always use these steps now and think:

What are my choices? What happens AFTER I choose the ice cream. Usually I only thought about the great taste, the huge portion of ice cream etc. but by thinking more about what happens AFTER the binge I can face reality.

Hang in there Doingmybest79! Let this be the wake-up call you need, and try to picture yourself a few months down the line using this as inspiration for someone else - you slipped up and binged, and now look at you getting it under control and being much healthier and happier.

I think the previous poster that suggested you relax the calorie limit you have for tomorrow is a good idea, instead of fasting leading to more binges. What has helped me get back on track after days of binges is to try and break the cycle. I decide in advance what to eat tomorrow (and make it food that I love) - even if it is not healthy food, if I can plan the meals in advance then it is still healthier than just eating everything I can lay my hands on. Then, when the urges come I focus on the fact that I am having so-and-so for lunch instead and it is only in an hour and won't that be great and so much better than whatever I want right now. I often eat a larger portion than usual and I make sure to enjoy the dickens out of it and then I start to focus on what deliciousness I am having for dinner. Maybe even make your normal mealtimes earlier so you don't have to hold out for so long and set an alarm as you work from home (my workplace has set mealtimes). If I can break the cycle even for a few hours then I find it easier to hold up my will power and to get back on track.

I admit, however, that I am writing this right now as I am fighting the urge to walk to the supermarket and buy 5 different things that I am desperate to stuff my face with. And this is after a small loss this morning, it's like my body can't stop trying to sabotage my weight loss. This leads onto my next suggestion - post on here for support to get you through the desire to binge. Post every 5 minutes if it helps. Be strong and good luck.

I love this - thanks for the idea! I think it really might help me!!

And hang in there, EskaDee! Just think - you don't want to end up like me, up 15 pounds in a week! It truly can happen so quickly and easily, it's shocking! It's a very slippery slope! You can do it - just hang in there!

Doingmybest- I hope you are able to get back on track!! I know it's so discouraging to have multi-day binges, but the sooner you get back on track the easier it will be to do so. I bet you are holding more water than you think though. I just gained 8.5 lbs from a 2 day binge- 4 of those are gone now. If nothing else- stop so you can see the big woosh of water go away. Good luck today!

Made it to day two... 4 lbs gone this morning which is encouraging, but I'm still up 4... Hopefully that goes soon and I didn't do too much damage- I guess time will tell.

Happy st Patrick's day to everyone also!

Danzingurl - Congratulations on making it to day 2! I know you have it in you to get through today binge-free! So happy to hear that you saw a whoosh of water weight today! Hope it continues tomorrow!

I am still on plan today; I ate a larger than normal lunch but still well within my calories for the day. Usually, I save most of my calories for the evening, but I figured this is not the day to allow myself to be hungry in the afternoon!

I wish food didn't taste so GOOD! Or that we didn't have to eat it so that we could abstain from our addiction. I just want to eat all the yummy food in the world!!

And I still CAN'T BELIEVE I gained SO MUCH weight in just a week! My thighs are HUGE!!!!!!!! HUGE!!!!!!!!!! Mother nature is a BEAST!!!!

I am happy report that it's 2PM, and I'm still on plan today! I am determined to get back on track today! Hopefully posting here will keep me on track and accountable!

I think I'm going to allow myself to drink as much diet soda as I want today, too. I think one of the many triggers of this binge was restricting my diet soda. Diet soda GREATLY helps me to fight mental cravings, makes me feel like I'm indulging in a treat, and fills my tummy with carbonation so that I physically don't want to binge. But lately I've been alarmed with the stains and acid erosion on my teeth, which I think is largely attributed to my massive diet soda consumption (usually 3 cans per day, often 4). But if it keeps me from bingeing, I kinda have to choose the lesser of the two evils, YKWIM?

I also read that diet soda can hinder weight loss (read some statistic about women who drank diet soda gained weight around the waist 5-6 times more than women who didn't drink diet soda). So I thought I would try to reduce my consumption with the hope that it would lead to faster weight loss.

Do you find that diet soda helps you to prevent bingeing? Or does it slow your weight loss/cause you to gain weight?

I am doing fine with diet soda - I never noticed a difference in weight loss. It helps me to prevent bingeing as well. I love Le Croix flavored water more though at the moment.

You are doing great!!! I am proud of you. Imagine how good you will feel tomorrow morning.

I'm so sorry about all the trouble some of you are having with binging lately. I can easily put away 8,000 calories on a binge day and last year, during a30-day period, I gained 30 pounds

It took me nearly 3 months to lose the weight again. 15 came off quickly so that was probably water weight, but that still means I gained 15 lbs of fat.

While we all want to lose weight, sometimes the best thing for binge eaters like us is to temporarily forget about weight loss and just focus on breaking the binge cycle permanently. There are lots of books that can help with this. Try to set up a daily plan, like eating 3 and 2 or 3 snacks at specific times of the day. Eat as much as you need to at these times, but when done, that's it. No more til your next eating time.

Once the binge cycle is broken, then maybe focus on weight loss. It is hard, I know. Believe me. I am only at the end of Week 16 binge free so I know I could fall off the wagon at any time. But I have found that a regular 3 meal/2 snack meal cycle has helped a lot, among other things.

Same here! The worst thing I could do is trying to eat intuitive. For me my intuition is to eat as much crap as possible (it was like that since I am little). I learned in therapy to eat 3 meals and 2 snacks. I set times in the morning, pack my food, sometimes even leave cash at home or even my credit card (I know this sounds crazy, but food es EVERYWHERE) and just stick with it.

Congrats KittyKatFan on your weight loss so far. I am so happy to see that you broke free from bingeing and lost the weight.

BTW I love Pinterest to keep my mind busy from thinking about bingeing.

Thanks, guys for the advice. Thanks, Xena, for the kind words!

I am having crazy thoughts running through my head -- "just binge one more time, before you have to get completely back on the wagon. Just this once more, and then you can start fresh on Monday." I'm trying to stay strong! It would be so easy to cave in! I am trying to remind myself of the consequences -- it's a slippery slope -- one binge led me down the path to a 15-pound gain! But it would be so easy to just give in right now!!! I am hanging on by a thread! One of the really bad things about this binge week was that it changed my habits -- bingeing became a habit again, instead of something that I do not do!

The child in me is stomping her food and saying, "I wanna binge! I wanna eat whatever junk is available in the world! Go ahead and eat it today, because for the rest of my life, I'll have to go back to eating sensibly if I want to maintain my slimmer body."

It's so crazy that my mind is saying just binge one more time, when I'm already up 20 pounds! Why, oh why, is the mind so crazy?!?

I have my dinner all planned out. (I don't snack because it gets my mind too preoccupied with food, and I would prefer to have larger meals than snacks.)

Kitty - I am so amazed and inspired by your progress! I have been watching your progress and am truly inspired. I hope I can be like you soon!

When you guys retain water weight after a binge and then lose it, does it make a difference in the way your clothes fit? And do you lose any in your thighs, or just your tummy? I'm wondering if any of the pudge in my thighs could be due to some water weight, or whether it's truly fat gain. My thighs look SO HUGE today. Could some of this be water bloat, or does water bloat typically reside in the tummy area only?