Advice after binging on meat and vegetables page

[campanella]

Yesterday, I ended up eating about 1.5 heads of cauliflower - I'm talking huge sized heads, I counted 7.5" in diameter. (That was in addition to a whole day's worth of food). I thought that would be it, but today... I ended up with a ton of vegetables yesterday, not much meat, and I thought I'd have just a little chili for breakfast. Somehow I couldn't stop eating, I went through, I am not exaggerating, about 5 cups (about 1200 calories' worth, more than I'd been eating in a whole day).
To put this amount in context, I am only 5 feet tall, and sedentary.

My reaction was terrible. I thought the bloat from the cauliflower was bad, but the worst part was that I could not sleep all night, and the splitting headache I woke up with. Today was a hundred times worse, with the amount of meat. All my limbs and body blew up to what felt like a huge size, my legs ached - dehydration, I guessed, and I drank a huge amount of water already, a tiny relief - the headache was excruciating, I felt like I was burning up, I practically had to waddle, and most of all was the dizziness, a terrible dizziness set in shortly after I finished.
I had about 1 cup mashed pumpkin before the chili problem, and tonight I had a bowl of steamed spinach, although I had to make myself eat it, I still feel sickeningly full of food. And the dizziness is still here, and the headache. It is worse than any virus.


I've already pretty much identified that it happened because I restricted for too long, but I want to fix what is done. The scale shows 3 lbs heavier and I certainly look and feel it. I worked hard for every 5 lbs...

But what should I do now? Should I eat breakfast tomorrow? Fast? Have tea? Wait until I feel hungry, or eat anyway? Should I eat high carb or low carb, should I exercise? Thanks for any help.

[jfreaksho]

If 1200 calories is more than you normally eat in a day, you're probably not eating enough.

I'm not an expert in eating disorders, but usually the recommendation is to eat three meals and no snack. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong here.
Eat protein, and some fat for breakfast, enough to keep you satisfied until lunch.
Drink lots of water. Tea if you like. No sweeteners.

Yes, you should exercise. Start walking, about 3-5 hours per week, or more if you can.

Finally, stop trying to fight your body. Give it good foods in the amounts that it wants. It sounds like your calorie restriction is backfiring on you, so stop, at least until you get yourself back under control. Get healthy, then start thinking about your weight.

[sbhikes]

Finally, stop trying to fight your body. Give it good foods in the amounts that it wants. It sounds like your calorie restriction is backfiring on you, so stop, at least until you get yourself back under control. Get healthy, then start thinking about your weight.

Seriously. Stop fighting your body!

Go for a nice walk. Don't eat if you aren't hungry. Eat if you are. Read the Primal Blueprint or at least read all the Start Here stuff. It's possible you binged from chronic calorie restriction or perhaps you binged because you deny yourself fat or perhaps you have a binge eating disorder. Reading the Primal Blueprint will be a good start, but do get help if you have an eating disorder.

[MarissaLinnea]

Restricting calories makes me binge like crazy. I agree with above. Eat if you actually feel hunger in your stomach in the morning. If you don't feel hungry, then don't eat. Pick up and start eating when you feel the hunger, drink lots of water. You'll likely feel much better in a day or two when you have had a chance to, ahem....poo it out.

[Isabel1989]

Just my 2cents worth of thoughts on the "eating minimum 1200kcal"... I am actually starting to doubt this number and how was it derived. Personally, I have always struggle with my carlories intake/output and have been extensively tracking my calories for a good 6mths. I am not fat to begin with, just wanting to achieve a lean body state via going primal.. i started out as 155cm and 52kg and BF25%, asian..exercising on average 4 times a week. When I eat 1000kcal a day for 2mths, I did decreased my weight slowly (but significantly by 2kg), but my sports performance dropped significantly.


Then I read online and up my calories intake to minimum 1200kcal a day (max 1400 on days I exercise) for the next 3mths.. Yes indeed I feel a lot better, my sports performance improved, but I also realised i am getting fatter and my body fat increase (gained 3kg and BF27%).. during that period i was strictly on primal, maintain my fat intake at 50-60g (high fat make me fat,so I concluded my body don't take fat well), carbo 40-50g and protein made up the rest..

It is onli recently that I figured out my actual BMR is below 1200kcal (1188kcal to be exact).. So based on some online calculation I should only eat on avg 1100kcal of food a day to achieve consistent weightloss without compromising my health.. What's worse is come calculations even stated my BMR as 1600kcal (one plate of beef steak from my actual BMR)

Moral of the story: listen to your body... If u think eating more that 1200kcal makes u fatter while being strictly primal given no medial conditions whatsoever, then maybe the main culprit is your food intake

[BrittanyK]

I joined this site after being a long time lurker hoping to ask just this question! I frequently overeat / constantly snack paleo friendly foods but because I am a recovering bulimic I have problems with that full and bloated feeling. Overeating cauliflower doesn't feel quite as bad as binging on a pot of spaghetti but it can be uncomfortable still for sure. Don't restrict yourself more though. In my experience if I continue to restrict after a "binge" I get STARVED....and binge again. Wash, rinse, repeat. Breaking the cycle is hard but get into the habit of it. It helps to just...eat the next day if you want, because then you won't be STARVING and binging again, you know?

[Drumroll]

Short-term caloric restriction (like a week or less) can be extremely useful for ridding yourself of stubborn fat. But long-term caloric restriction is setting yourself up to fail. Your body will eventually tell you that you need to eat more, and as a result, you will binge.

The right way to do it would be to alternate short-term caloric restriction (maybe three days or so) in between longer term periods of eating at least to your basal metabolic rate. The weight loss will be slower, but you will be more able to maintain it, and you won't crash and burn with resultant binge periods that reverse the progress you have already made.

[Knifegill]

I usually binge once a day. Feels great! A 3000 calorie-meal hits the spot every time. Then - a 20 to 23 hour fast. Feels great! I don't do it every day. Now that it's winter I'm hungrier, so I'll eat a little something when I get home from work. But it's easy in the summer. For me. A young-ish male.

[Sabine]

I've already pretty much identified that it happened because I restricted for too long,

But what should I do now? Should I eat breakfast tomorrow? Fast? Have tea? Wait until I feel hungry, or eat anyway? Should I eat high carb or low carb, should I exercise? Thanks for any help.

See how you feel in the morning.

If you are hungry, eat. A little. Wait. See how you feel.

If you are not hungry, wait. See how you feel. When you get hungry, see above.

Then get back to normal, but with not so much restriction. You've already figured out what went wrong for yourself. Act on your knowledge (of course, that IS the hard part). Good luck.

[campanella]

Thanks for the suggestions. Yes, due to my lack of exercise and small size, I really can't eat 1200 calories a day without gaining weight. I will try about 1100 on some days of the week and restricting on other days.

Another sleepless night. I still feel dizzy. My stomach still feels way too full to put anything else in it.