This subreddit is a huge proponent of CICO, and for a good reason. CICO is scientifically accurate, it paints a very easy picture when it comes to understanding weight loss. and it is generally the first step to get started.
However there is a lot more when it comes to CICO, particularly the CO part of CICO. When I first started my weight loss journey 4 years ago, I thought CICO was just Cal In Cal Out. I thought the CO part (other then exercise) was the standard number of calories my body would exhume REGARDLESS of what my CI was. For 4 years it went like this, I would restrict calories for 1-2 weeks, lose around 70000 calories and be happy. Then it would happen, the inevitable of an eating disorder. I would feel extreme hunger, extreme cravings, terrible desperation and I would binge and eat 7000 - 10000 calories in one or two days.
Once my binge was completed, the dread would set in. I lose 7000 calories in 2 weeks, and ate 10,000 in 2 days. Meaning I lose no weight, I negated everything. All my efforts for the past 2 weeks were worthless. Money on expensive protein and fibre to fill me up all gone down the drain. This feeling was terrible it would spiral me into sadness. I stopped counting calories, stopped weighing myself, went back to my overeating until a few months had passed and I was ready to start again. I told myself this time was different, this time I would not binge. But I binged, again. This cycle continued for 4 years.
This year, I was ready to start again. Except I heard a quote that struck me, "Doing the same over and over again and expecting something to change is the definition of insanity." I decided this time, WHEN I binge, I will continue recording my weight and calories to see what happened. Naturally, for as long as I could I put off my binge. Infact at 2 weeks binge free I genuinely thought maybe I was stronger now and I could actually put the binge off.
I am an obese person with an eating disorder. So I binged. 7000 calories in 2 days. Initially, the same dread of failing filled me up. I binged more, and more and felt worse and worse. I lost track at some point but all my binges combined were somewhere around 15,000 cals. Around 4 pounds, to recap I had lose 2 pounds the week before. When I finally checked myself on the scale, the numbers didn't lie. I had gained 4 pounds. Usually at this point in my life, I quit restricting, quit counting, quit weighing, all because the knowledge of negating what I did made me feel like a failure. This time however, I told myself I would counting calories post binge. For upto 4 days, I ate my baseline tdee around 2000k. On the 5th day, I went back to 1200-1500 cal restricting. The next morning, I did a giant dump. And I mean GIANT dump. I lost 1.5 pounds in the dump alone. For the next 2 days, I did my normal restricting at 1500 cals. I lose 2.5 pounds within those 2 days. 4 pounds in total.
The feeling of dread I had was gone, I felt so happy. The realization that my efforts the week before did not get negated, was the only thing I needed to not give up. For the first time in my life I did not give up.
My point of this post is, when people are new to this sub and to weight loss, they instantly get tunnel vision of my CICO. This results in entering the terrible cycle I entered for 4 years. Folks, it is NOT all math. I mean yes, the very underlying physiology is all math, please do not come at me for that. But the CO part of CICO is SOOOO much more complicated then you think it is. Your body will hurt you by trying to hang on to as many calories as it can, but once it knows that you, it's hooman soul, is safe and not devoid of food, it will "Calorie Out" those extra calories as soon as it can. I'm not a nutritionist so I can't go much into it, but I will link a very good video that helped me understand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDhM-ATlsJA. This video basically explains that CO part of CICO being so much more complicated than many things it is.
tl;dr you did NOT negate anything you did when you binged/overate. Go back on your restricting the next day, and it will fix itself in your poops and your energy expenditure. You did not fail. Let your body decide the math, not your brain.
DISCLAIMER: I know for a lot this is common knowledge, but for new obese people with ED, who get tunneled vision about CICO, who constantly fail at CICO and cannot lose weight, this is for YOU friend.
submitted by
/u/starberryic
[link] [comments]
from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/szJHe5G
