Results of binging for one meal

  • I binged the other day and - by myself - ate an entire large thin hamburger pizza from Dominos (with extra cheese no less), along with two Ghiradelli chocolate bars. Admittedly it took me about two hours to eventually get all the pizza down my gullet, but I counted it as one meal. I've repented in sackcloth and ashes since then, but I figure that I gained at least a pound of fat from this *ahem* incident. I'm just wondering if I'm calculating a one pound weight gain as about right. I mean, can one gain two pounds from overeating from one meal (within reason)? I know I had to have consumed at least 3500 calories above and beyond my maintenance level, but I don't think I approached 7000. The chocolate bars were 450 calories apiece, but I don't know what the calorie count for that thin pizza was (nor do I want to know).
  • Relax. It's one meal. What I do after I binge is not weigh myself for two days, while returning to consuming a healthy, calorie-controlled diet. Weigh yourself in a few days, and you will see that you haven't ruined your efforts.

    It's easy to get upset and worry about exactly how many calories you took in and how much weight it will cause you to gain. I have been guilty of it many times before. Relax. You're doing a great job, and one slip will not kill you.
  • It'll be okay, hun. You said you didn't want to know the calorie count for the pizza, so I won't say, but I'll reassure that your whole binge cost you 3500 or less. Like EmLay said, one meal won't ruin your weight loss. I'll wager that just about everyone who has experienced any significant weight loss has slipped up or had binges before! I know I have, but I get right back on the wagon and then I start losing again.
    Depending on your normal daily calorie deficit, it may only take you a few days to negate the binge calories so that your weekly average is at or below maintenance. (Don't stop eating or go to an extreme calorie deficit!) Just do your best to make your next meal healthy, and then the next, and so on. Don't step on the scale right this instant, but wait a few days for things to level out.
  • Sometimes my body likes the extra calories (but I haven't done pizza and chocolate YET!) and doesn't punish me like I expected. I eat when I'm hungry (even though I do have a set diet I add in more as needed) but on days I exercise more, my nutritionist told me to eat more. Scared the heck out of me but I added about 400 calories x 3 days a week and since I started that, my weightloss has jumped to 3lbs a week these last 2 weeks after having very small losses for the month prior.

    Don't sweat this one binge. But don't do it again for a long while! And if you were lucky enough to not gain (or maybe even lose!) please don't assume that whole pizzas and chocolate bars are the way to go. It's not!
  • Its one meal. Don't worry too much. You may have gained a bit, but more than likely, its probably water weight unless you eat like that all the time. Don't worry too much. It happens to everyone.
  • When I have an off-plan meal, which always involves overeating, I always gain four pounds, though usually it doesn't all show up till the second day after. And then usually by the fifth day I'm back to where I was before the cheat. But I think there's probably about 3 1/2 pounds of water weight in there.

    Right now I am half way back to my pre-cheat weight from a few days ago. Sigh... I hate having to lose the same pounds repeatedly.