Maintainer question... probably dumb.

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melimomTARDIS
melimomTARDIS Posts: 1,941 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Ive been maintaining a 60lb loss since July (woot).

Because of some crazy life drama I have had a few episodes of binge eating, and I typically restrict my calories to even out the week after a binge. ( I shoot for a weekly average of 12,000 calories)

Last night I overate my day's allotment by about 1,000 calories. The scale is still in line, if anything I weighed in lower than I expected. (despite insane sodium intake last night)... Do I still restrict in response to even out the week?

Or what? Unsure of how to proceed.

Replies

  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Let it go, be kind to yourself.
    Break the cycle of binge and restrict by forgiving yourself when life gets in the way of dietary perfection.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    Understand that your body is an amazing machine and it is extremely adaptable, particularly where energy adaptation is concerned. Your body's natural tendency is to maintain...it wants to maintain...your body doesn't like to lose or gain weight. You don't over-eat one day and pile on the fat...you have to consistently over-eat to put on weight just as you have to consistently under-eat to lose weight.

    I just finished a bulking cycle where I over ate consistently every day for 4 months...I was eating 3200ish calories per day and putting on about 2 Lbs per month. You don't put on fat or weight overnight.
  • melimomTARDIS
    melimomTARDIS Posts: 1,941 Member
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    Thank you for your timely and wise responses Cwolf and Sijo! and on a saturday no less. :) I know I have been in the maintenance game for a little while now, but I do still get tripped up sometimes on what to do in these situations.
  • melimomTARDIS
    melimomTARDIS Posts: 1,941 Member
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    sijomial wrote: »
    Let it go, be kind to yourself.
    Break the cycle of binge and restrict by forgiving yourself when life gets in the way of dietary perfection.

    after a binge I always want to restrict. Even it up, make it right. Do penance. What do you recommend as a replacement behavior? (Id love to stop emotional over-eating all together, but a particularily stressful event... including 3 houseguests, has woken the binge monster in me.)
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    I'm not an emotional eater so not best placed to walk in your shoes.

    What works for me is to allow myself high days and low days and as long as I'm in an acceptable (and fairly wide) weight range it all evens out in the end. In my view it's the feelings of guilt and penance that are the big issues to overcome.

    Diet and weight management is important to me but not so important it can be allowed to make me miserable.
  • Danni_peck
    Danni_peck Posts: 31
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    I would say even it out. That's what I do. Sometimes I have a higher-calorie day and I make up for it by evening it out.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,345 Member
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    sijomial wrote: »
    I'm not an emotional eater so not best placed to walk in your shoes.

    What works for me is to allow myself high days and low days and as long as I'm in an acceptable (and fairly wide) weight range it all evens out in the end. In my view it's the feelings of guilt and penance that are the big issues to overcome.

    Diet and weight management is important to me but not so important it can be allowed to make me miserable.

    ^^ well said :smile:
  • areallycoolstory
    areallycoolstory Posts: 1,680 Member
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    melimomTARDIS wrote: »
    sijomial wrote: »
    Let it go, be kind to yourself.
    Break the cycle of binge and restrict by forgiving yourself when life gets in the way of dietary perfection.

    after a binge I always want to restrict. Even it up, make it right. Do penance. What do you recommend as a replacement behavior? (Id love to stop emotional over-eating all together, but a particularily stressful event... including 3 houseguests, has woken the binge monster in me.)

    I did the same thing with exercise this week. Hadn't worked out properly during the week, so I ran last night after my workout. Now my knee and heel hurt, so it could mess up my regular run day tomorrow. Silly really. I didn't need penance. Nor do you to the degree you are talking about. Maybe instead of penance, just be kind to yourself, and agree to do better next time. Focus on all the stuff you are doing right and vow to continue. Losing 60 lbs and keeping it off? Truly awesome:-)
  • melimomTARDIS
    melimomTARDIS Posts: 1,941 Member
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    sijomial wrote: »
    I'm not an emotional eater so not best placed to walk in your shoes.

    What works for me is to allow myself high days and low days and as long as I'm in an acceptable (and fairly wide) weight range it all evens out in the end. In my view it's the feelings of guilt and penance that are the big issues to overcome.

    Diet and weight management is important to me but not so important it can be allowed to make me miserable.

    great philosophy!
  • melimomTARDIS
    melimomTARDIS Posts: 1,941 Member
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    areallycoolstory wrote: »
    melimomTARDIS wrote: »
    sijomial wrote: »
    Let it go, be kind to yourself.
    Break the cycle of binge and restrict by forgiving yourself when life gets in the way of dietary perfection.

    after a binge I always want to restrict. Even it up, make it right. Do penance. What do you recommend as a replacement behavior? (Id love to stop emotional over-eating all together, but a particularily stressful event... including 3 houseguests, has woken the binge monster in me.)

    I did the same thing with exercise this week. Hadn't worked out properly during the week, so I ran last night after my workout. Now my knee and heel hurt, so it could mess up my regular run day tomorrow. Silly really. I didn't need penance. Nor do you to the degree you are talking about. Maybe instead of penance, just be kind to yourself, and agree to do better next time. Focus on all the stuff you are doing right and vow to continue. Losing 60 lbs and keeping it off? Truly awesome:-)

    thanks! i am determined to be a continued success!
  • sohmui
    sohmui Posts: 108 Member
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    melimomTARDIS wrote: »
    sijomial wrote: »
    What works for me is to allow myself high days and low days and as long as I'm in an acceptable (and fairly wide) weight range it all evens out in the end. In my view it's the feelings of guilt and penance that are the big issues to overcome.

    Diet and weight management is important to me but not so important it can be allowed to make me miserable.

    great philosophy!
    I couldn't agree more. I no longer worry about high days. Low days compensate and it all evens out. I wasn't confident enough to do this while on weight-loss, but since reaching my goal a year ago it works very well and my weight varies by only 2-3 lbs up or down.
  • rainbowbow
    rainbowbow Posts: 7,490 Member
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    Agree- let it go. Punishing yourself i think is likely to create binging cycles where you binge, restrict to overcome the binge, then binge because you restricted.

    let it go- let it go- and start over tomorroooowwww~
  • kdiamond
    kdiamond Posts: 3,329 Member
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    Agree with all others. I'm 11+ years into maintenance and I have the same philosophy - keep it weekly, don't punish yourself for high days, stay healthy and active and it all evens out.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    sijomial wrote: »
    Let it go, be kind to yourself.
    Break the cycle of binge and restrict by forgiving yourself when life gets in the way of dietary perfection.

    This!
  • mymodernbabylon
    mymodernbabylon Posts: 1,038 Member
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    There's a great book I can suggest: Overcoming Binge Eating by C. Fairburn. It'll give you some good exercises to do around the emotional eating.
  • melimomTARDIS
    melimomTARDIS Posts: 1,941 Member
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    kdiamond wrote: »
    Agree with all others. I'm 11+ years into maintenance and I have the same philosophy - keep it weekly, don't punish yourself for high days, stay healthy and active and it all evens out.

    11 years! wow!
  • melimomTARDIS
    melimomTARDIS Posts: 1,941 Member
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    mymodernbabylon wrote: »
    There's a great book I can suggest: Overcoming Binge Eating by C. Fairburn. It'll give you some good exercises to do around the emotional eating.

    I will check this out. Most of the resources I have looked at seem to be slanted towards bulimia or anorexia, two things I do not deal with.

    I joined a weight loss support group (maintainers are welcomed too, thank goodness) to talk about these issues.

    But honestly, most of the members dont have the binge eating issue. they may eat a large portion of a high calorie food, but they arent like, eating an entire loaf of bread and jar of nutella in a sitting.
  • NoSFan
    NoSFan Posts: 11
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    kdiamond wrote: »
    Agree with all others. I'm 11+ years into maintenance and I have the same philosophy - keep it weekly, don't punish yourself for high days, stay healthy and active and it all evens out.
    11 years!! Truly awesome. Great job
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
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    I guess I disagree. DO be kind to yourself and it's no big deal. I often have a day I eat way more than others - I went over yesterday by 500 calories. But I'll make it up by the end of the week and my weekly numbers will be fine.

    If you went over by 1000, 150 calories under a day for the next week will get you back to baseline. I think in general I would do that. The problem with maintenance is that with a deficit, if you overeat you go maintain. With maintain, if you go over and you start gaining weight.

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