Is it ok to go over your calorie intake??

Go4Me2

I had a big lunch and I only have like 64 calories left for tonight. I'm not hungry right now but may be later on and I really don't want to go over but....

bclarke1990

Weight loss is calories in vs calories out. I'm sure you can answer your own question . Have a smaller dinner with mostly vegetables and just get back on track tomorrow/

mandipandi75

If you want to offset your lunch, you can... exercise.

whitesmokes

Exercise would be a good way to get some of that budget back. Go for a walk and keep your dinner light. Tomorrow is another chance to try.

eep223

I usually look at my weekly total. I don't sweat it if I go over for the day, but I try to make it up over the next couple of days, whether that be through smaller meals or more exercise. If you find yourself in this position frequently, you definitely need to add more exercise (to me, that's so much easier than cutting more calories!).

kami3006

You could exercise some, eat up to maintenance today, shave off some calories over the next few days to balance out the overage (many folks look at weekly calorie totals), or just log the rest of your day normally and start over tomorrow.

FGTisme

I would eat dinner, even if it means going over your calories for the day. You can always make it up over the next few days, like others have said. I personally would not want to risk getting too hungry tonight/tomorrow morning, resulting in a big overage binge.

TeaBea

If your dinner calories are still less than your maintenance calories.....you still made progress. OR maybe you are under your calories for the week. Don't let one slip side track you. Under goal for the day (or week) it still progress.

Ninkyou

You're not going to get arrested by the calorie police for going over.

So you go over today. It just means your weekly deficit is smaller than expected and you may lose less than anticipated. But you'll still lose - Science tells us so.

As long as you don't make a habit of it, it's fine. The odd day of being over calories is really a drop in the bucket, to be honest.

Michael190lbs

If I'm hungry and at or near calories when trying to lose weight I typically get on my bike for 50 min or go for a run then eat so my advice is go workout then eat something good

Go4Me2

I went over by 300 and sum calories. Too late to walk

lorrpb

Eat dinner, then cut back a little each of the next few days. Otherwise there could a very small (less than 1 lb) impact on your loss this week.

rankinsect

Or eat dinner, and don't cut back on any other days (I don't like "punishing" myself like that). Even if you ate at maintenance today, you would delay reaching your final goal by a day.

In the grand scheme of things, a significant amount of weight isn't gained or lost because of a single day, but by the accumulation of hundreds of days. Patterns of overeating are bad and will derail weight loss. A few isolated days of overeating won't. The whole population doesn't become obese because of Thanksgiving, even if almost everyone eats well above maintenance that day.

So is this an isolated day, or one point of a pattern? It's impossible for us to know that - we lack any other data points. If it is a pattern, we can talk about ways to break out of that pattern. If it's an isolated day, there's no problem, just get back on track tomorrow.

brower47

I sometimes go over. Don't worry about it. Just take a breath and you'll figure out what's right for you. It's a process and trying to take stress out of the situation will help a lot. Good luck!

Kalikel

It's up to you. You can overeat or stick to the goal. Either way is fine. Personally, I'd have my dinner, as I'd have learned my lesson when I saw the 64.

Overeating is going to happen for the rest of your life, so it's good to put some thought into how you want to deal with it. Right now, you can ignore it and just keep losing. But when we are done losing weight, we have three choices:

1. Never, ever overeat.
2. Overeat, ignore it, gain weight.
3. Overeat, then cut back or work out more to undo any weight gain.

One day won't generally make a big difference, but overeating...it's something we should get used to dealing with while we lose. IMO.

blankiefinder

As I was losing, sometimes things would come up, and on those days I would choose to eat at maintenance. Like let's say Thanksgiving, Christmas, or just a day that I was particularly hungry or wanted a treat. There is nothing wrong with eating at maintenance once in a while, or even over, on occasion.

Go4Me2

I only gained half a pound

blankiefinder

Go4Me2 wrote: »

I only gained half a pound

So you ate 1750 calories over maintenance? Or you are retaining water from excess sodium, or you still have food in your system, or it's a normal fluctuation...

Go4Me2

I dunno. I log in on Tuesdays.

lifeandleaves

Don't beat yourself up about it. Life is not only about staying under your calorie goal. Just eat dinner and get back on the wagon tomorrow. Even if you go a bit over your goal, you will.still probably operate at a deficit. When you "complete" your diary it will show.you your projected weight and if you don't go way overboard it will probably still predict weight loss.

lemonychild

you're not going to gain anything with 300 extra cals. 1 pound = 3500 .. seriously NOT THAT BIG OF A DEAL