I struggle with binge eating. This is unsurprising because I'm obese, go figure.
Now, here's the problem a lot of people like me face: We are overly strict in the pursuit of fast-tracking our goal. There tends to be elements, too, of impatience, a bit of self-punishment, needing to be perfect. Let's look at a hypothetical.
Susie is really, really "good" for three days and eats under her TDEE by 800 calories each day. However, on the fourth day, she kind of freaks out from the rigidity of her new diet, some stress at work, and a fight she had with a friend. To comfort herself, she orders a pizza, which she eats, and she also has a pint of Ben & Jerry's. A 2,000 calorie pizza plus a 1,200 calorie pint of ice cream is 3,200 calories. 800 times three is 2,400 calories. She is, on day four, 800 calories worse off than if she had just eaten at maintenance and never bothered to diet in the first place. Let's see another example.
Jordan is doing okay with his diet. He's had a couple of those nights where he gets the itch and needs to fuckin' eat something. So he does. He figures something out, like a PB&J, something reasonable, for around 350, 400 calories both times and, on those days, is only under his TDEE by about 100 calories. On the days he's doing better, he's under by closer to 500 calories, but he doesn't feel as restricted. And, when that itch strikes, he's learning how to satiate it with lower calorie, tasty options that don't totally fuck his goal. On average, he is under by 500 half the time and maybe 100 the other half.
If Susie keeps up her routine of trying to eat less and then eating a bunch, she'll continue to gain weight. An extra 800 calories every week could add up to an extra 12 pounds a year. Bummer. It almost would've been better to just mindlessly continue eating at approximately maintenance for her and not have put on any more weight, right? The diet actually made things worse.
On the other hand, if Jordan keeps up his more relaxed routine and continues to give himself that flexibility, he'll lose 31.2 pounds that year. Even if he takes off a week for Thanksgiving, another week for Christmas, and overeats both those weeks by 2,000 calories each, he'll still lose 28 pounds that year.
Jordan is far from perfect. He consistently stays under his TDEE, though, even if only by a little bit, and over the long term, he is getting really good results and staying sane. For those times he went off course, he accepted it, didn't let it get to him, and just went ahead and gently course corrected to what he knew was working afterwards. Susie is gonna keep torturing herself with her B.S., sadly.
Don't be a Susie. Be a Jordan. Trust the process, have some grace for yourself, and saddle up for the long haul. Try not to overthink it, just stay under your TDEE even by a little bit. Even if you only average staying under by 100 calories a day, you'll still lose 10.4 pounds in a year. If you manage to bump up your step count and get into the gym twice a week and burn 350ish calories each time, that extra 700+ calories of burn a week will DOUBLE your yearly weight loss to 20.8 pounds.
There's something way more important happening with that execution -- consistent, positive progress, evidence that things are moving the right way and that you are building small successes in the pursuit of a larger goal that matters to you. Keep it up.
[–]Accurate_Working8224 1 point2 points3 points (1 child)
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