You guys might want to look into leptin and refeeds -- I have written pretty extensively on the topic.
Here is a summary article:
http://www.avantlabs.com/magmain.php?issueID=3&pageID=51
That was written 1.5 years ago, so I will add a little addendum from an upcoming article that will be in IronMan:
"Supplementation
Despite its effectiveness, the refeed is still not the ideal approach, as even if you do it perfectly, you are still halting fat loss while overeating, and for many, it is ends up far worse than this. Without the workout, the excess calories are likely to spill over into fat, and many people just lose it once they start eating, and end up on a 2 day binge of sugar and fat and undo days and days of discipline and progress.
IMO, it tends to promote binge behaviors, in general, if one is prone and not careful, which can carry over into drugs/alcohol, thrill seeking, sex, or whatever your ???poison??? may be. They all operate through the same reward and reinforcement pathways, and the initial increased sensitivity of reinforcement of such behaviors is well documented in the literature, in animals and humans. Combined with the fact that your diet has increased receptor sensitivity to reward, in addition to reinforcement, you could be Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs (or half-way through a 30 pack and box of Marlboro Reds) before you know what hit you.
Thus, I recommend mitigating the extremes of this cycle by shooting for consistent repartitioning by dropping the overeating, and replacing the lost nutrient/???fed??? signaling with supplements, which also have the distinct advantage of having far fewer calories for the same degree of nutrient signaling (especially important as you get lean and need more refeeds)."