Thread: Help grasping when and how weight is gained / lost? I feel so hopeless!

I lost 106 lbs, then battled starvation as I was so scared to go back that I refused to eat, but now I struggle to get the right balance.

I feel like when I have a "bad weekend", I'll drink a 2 liter of pop, eat pizza, wings, etc. and I stop on the scale on monday and somehow lose 2 lbs. Then I eat great for a few days, make sure I am intaking only about 1400-1600 calories a day, and BOOM I gain 5 lbs in 5 days?

I honestly seem to lose more weight when I eat poorly, and gain it when I eat well, which gives me only two prospective thoughts:

1. Weight gain is like sleep- its not what you did yesterday that matters, but instead its the day before- or in weight loss, maybe a week before?

2. If you eat too little calories you might go into starvation mode and actually pack on more lbs. I should be at about 3000 calories, so 1400-1600 may be a little too low

Are either one of those accurate? It's driving me absolutely mad, and I'm afraid I'm getting close to starving myself again just because foods scaring me again since it's so unpredictable. Maybe someone can give me some insight so I can successfully maintain?

A lot of people have erratic weight, and it is almost always to do with hormones such as cortisol retaining or shedding fluid. Also when you eat sugary and starchy things it causes you to produce more urine to flush out that extra sugar, hence the unexpected drop in weight the day after a bit of indulgence. But you can be sure that in terms of *fat* which is the important element of your weight to watch, calorie balance and fat loss/gain are much more closely linked than your total body weight. Weigh yourself weekly. If you stay at your right weight, then you can continue to have these treat days. If you put on weight and it stays on more than two weeks running, it's time to stop the treat days while you get your weight back down.

Thanks for the idea of looking at it week-to-week instead of day-to-day.

I'm still going to weigh myself daily, but I don't let myself worry about d-2-d and worry more of week to week.

I'm still confused as heck though. Last night I went to an all-you-can eat buffet, and ate probably 6 pieces of pizza, 4 cinnamon rolls, some breadsticks, pasta, and 2 sodas. Weighing myself this morning? I lost FIVE POUNDS to a new all-time low weight?? maybe its time to look at this as not just maintaining and bring it to a different forum...

Your help was great though- I think I now know what I'm personally going to do, but my curiosity is still stirred as to the weight loss process.