When You Go Over Your Daily Calorie Allowance Significantly - How Do You Deal With It?

feisty_bucket

People do this regularly, but it's known as calorie cycling. With the banking technique, you just track it, carry over the balance to the next day, and eat less in the future. The are no "mistakes" so much as "eating in advance."

MlleKelly

Log it, save it, sigh a little, and move on. The next day I'll focus on more water, more veg, more exercise, but that's about it. We all overindulge sometimes, but don't beat yourself up for going over one day out of seven. Stop thinking of food and exercise as forms of punishment

limetree683

Log it all. Don't hate myself for it, don't feel guilt (chances are I was eating something I love ). And resolve to be back on track not the next day/week or month, but remind myself I can make better choices for the next meal that day.

If I'm surprised by the amount, I might review the diary to see where the bulk of the calories were and how I would handle it next time. For example, if I ate large amounts of a particular dessert throughout the day I would remind myself that next time I should log my one portion for, say, a post dinner dessert, and build the rest of my meals around that, and not eat large portions throughout the day. That way I get to try it but without it ruining my progress.

BigBigBertha

I ate 1,500 calories over on Friday night at a friend's house. It was the end of a very long week and I arrived starving and tired.

In the past days like this have led to giving up, but this time I have resolved to simply forget it. I have stayed within my goal for the following two days and I'm feeling pretty happy about that. I am also looking forward to challenging myself to act differently next time I'm in a similar situation... If nothing else I will try to learn from it!

mygalsal76

I am new here, but someone made a suggestion on another thread that sounds excellent if one is prone to slipping is to log your food in advance (if possible). Of course, that doesn't account for the occasional binge. But it seems like it may be helpful.

AnnPT77

If I go way over goal, I run the numbers in my head, and that always reduces the stress. It's a minor delay, not a derailment.

Here's an example: Let's pretend your daily deficit is 500 calories, or half a pound loss per week. So, 700 over goal is 200 over maintenance.

You've lost nothing on the day you ate beyond goal, because you ate at/over maintenance. That's one day delay in reaching your ultimate goal weight. You ate 200 beyond, so you used up roughly 40% of the next day's contribution to weight loss, too. So, in total, you delayed ultimate goal weight by a whopping 1.4 days.

Big whoop-tee-doo, right?

As long as eating beyond goal is only an occasional thing, you'll be fine. The majority of your days determine the majority of your results, pretty much. It's not as if you're going to toe the calorie line every single doggone day for the rest of your life, right?

nowNOTthenmylife

one day messing up is not a deal breaker. make note as to what caused your to overeat and do a better job the next day. The key is to never give up.

tracefan

Never beat yourself up for extending your calorie intake once in a while. Just continue doing what you're doing Tomorrow is another day.

robertw486

I don't even look at daily goals as a blip in the radar. Weekly and longer term goals are much more important to me. Going by daily goals just adds another restriction, and disregards the days you stay under goal. I've found that eating to my natural hunger cues (while remaining mindful that I don't want to just eat everything all the time) makes for below goal and above goal days on a regular basis.

dia_nruf

Pick yourself up and dust yourself off and move forward. Put one step in front of the other to get to your weight loss goals. Remember no one is perfect. There will be times when temptation gets the best of any of us. What one does before and/or after the binge fact will make the difference. The choice is yours to make???

Francl27

700 calories is not even one day of deficit if you're set to lose 2 pounds a week... 1.5 day at 1 pound a week. So you lost one day of progress. Big deal...

sastacular

After reading all of your responses I have completely changed my perspective on my thoughts to the original question. I really need to focus on the bigger picture and did as suggested - logged and moved on. I hope this thread can be useful to others feeling the same guilt!

niamibunni

Unless it becomes a daily thing, don't worry

yourhiddengem

Like two weeks ago I had a day where I ate over 1500 more than normal. At first I was kind of upset about it but then I realized nothing bad happened that week. If anything it actually motivated me to do better the next 10 days (until today lol).

So pretty much just log it, and do better the next day. And pretty soon you'll see that one day in the grand scheme of things doesn't make or break anything.

MikeAV8s

Ha, I ate1700 over today. I knew I would. No big deal. Back at it tomorrow. Probably cut 250 calorie a day for a few days to make up for it. No harm, no foul.

lexylondon

Orlistat and exercise!

elaineamj

This past weekend I had 3 social outings in a row... I was well over my normal by almost a 1000 calories. I track on a weekly basis though. I had banked a couple hundred calories on Friday, and today I banked another 400 calories. On top of that, I upped my workouts to 2 hrs a day for 3 days. I ended the week being within my net calorie goal.

Its been so much better since MFPers recommended tracking weekly net calories and banking my calories for bigger meals.

Merkavar

I forget it and move on. I don't eat less for a week to counteract it or anything like that.

But I guess it depends on why you went over and how frequently it happens.

Once in a blue moon, forget it and start a new day with no guilt.

More frequently but the reason was a special event, Christmas, wedding etc forget it and move on.

Every month and for no good reason maybe look at the reason or cause of why you over ate and try to fix it but still carry on the next day, you might gain some weight but I can only imagine if you lost control and over ate then cutting your calories to compensate would make you lose control more and over eat more and get into a cycle.

Your only human, you make mistakes.

FitOldMomma

Give yourself a break. I finally realized that giving myself kudos for all my hard work is much,much better than feeling guilty about something I ate. If I really want to eat something and go over my daily calorie allotment I just do it, knowing it's only ONE day and overall-it won't have any impact on me reaching my goal. Seriously- encouraging self talk and thoughts really keep you on track.

I've lived 50+ years feeling badly about my weight and would think negative thoughts about my lack of self control. Since changing my outlook and deciding once and for all that I'm a decent person who deserves a healthy body and life...life is amazing.

getlessheavy

get mad - kick the neighbor's garage door.