Techniques from bouncing back from a cheat day/meal?

bruhaha007

Many of us have those occasional meals or days where we fall of the wagon intentionally or unintentionally. What is your technique for bouncing back? Personally I will do a 24 hour fast/cleanse one day that week to counter it.

cityruss

Just carry on as normal, I'm not fond of self-flagellation.

Nothing that happens on an occasional basis will have any appreciable effect on long term goals.

usmcmp

I thought you were a hard gainer? A cheat meal is going to help you gain.

For someone dieting a 24 hour fast/cleanse is a great way to start the binge and starve cycle. It's far better to just return to normal. Maybe a little extra water or focusing on extra vegetables. Restricting after cheating is more likely to lead to continued cheating rather than finding a sustainable method that doesn't need cheat meals.

KateTii

I just carry on as usual. What's the worst that's going to happen? The "worst" thing is maybe my weightloss is slower that week - that's it. Trying to fast/cut back etc. seems like it would cause another "bad" day at best and be the start of an eating disorder at worst.

AnvilHead

A "cleanse" does absolutely nothing beneficial. Unless you ingested poison or narcotics, there's nothing to "cleanse" that the body isn't perfectly capable of handling on its own via the liver and kidneys.

My technique for bouncing back is to simply log it and move on, no big deal. I wouldn't do a 24-hour fast for *any* reason. I don't believe in suffering unnecessarily, and fasting for 24 hours is suffering to me.

withoutasaddle

If it's a series of binge days I usually do a 24hr fast to snap the mentality cycle, then carry on as normal.

Francl27

Nothing. Back on track the next day. If I try to make up for it, I always end up so hungry the next day that it's just a vicious cycle. Of course if I'm really not hungry I won't eat to my goal but yeah... that very rarely happens to me.

booksandchocolate12

I agree with "carry on as usual". I will add that I find it much more difficult to carry on as usual after a cheat day than a cheat meal, so I don't do those.

MommyL2015

Just get up the next day and pick up where you left off. No reason to fast, nothing to cleanse. I find it easier the day after I've eaten too much because I'm generally not all that hungry for most of the next day anyway. I don't have intentional cheat-type days, but I do have days where I'll just eat stuff and not care about calories.

rileysowner

I just go back to my calorie goal the next day.

richardgavel

I would just go back to normal as soon as possible. My thought pattern there is to not extend abnormal eating patterns, whether they are "bad" or to compensate for the bad.

emmycantbemeeko

I just go back to square one each day.

Taking it in 24 hour blocks helps me mentally compartmentalize in a way that I find somewhat liberating. No one day is going to make or break my long-term success, and I don't struggle with bingeing, so recognizing that it's okay to eat over my deficit or even over maintenance once in a while so long as it doesn't cause me to stop trying the next day helps me stick to the plan the majority of the time, seeing steady loss while still getting to live in a functional way.

If I'm at a holiday event, party, or unusually awesome restaurant I can eat something without stressing that it's going to ruin everything. I don't go nuts, but I sometimes go over my target, knowing that tomorrow I'll be back to a deficit. It may slightly slow my loss over the long run, but I'd rather get to my goal a few weeks later and get to eat my mom's amazing cooking while I'm visiting, or have dessert on vacation.

This way of eating doesn't work for everyone, but for me, it's a key to sustainability. The perfect is often the enemy of the good- striving for absolute perfection, whether through never deviating from the plan, or through trying to make up for deviations by extreme reductions on following days, would definitely set me up for burn out and failure.

I'd rather lose slightly lower and actually lose it all than lose fast for a while and then give up over a frustrating cycle of overeating and extreme restriction.

Cleanses are, as mentioned, physiologically pointless and potentially damaging bunk, aside from anything else.

AnnPT77

Pretty much as others have said, just go back to my healthy routine.

I'll do the arithmetic in my head to figure out the impact (delay in days to goal, or time to lose the small gain), and use that information to keep things in proportion. If I know I have a special occasion coming up, sometimes I'll reduce my eating slightly for a few days in advance, eat lightly the other meals on the day of the event, and/or get in some extra workout time to balance things out, but that's about it.

There's no point in doing anything more extreme, IMO; it would just perturb my physical and emotional state unnecessarily, and could have a tendency to encourage further irrationality about eating.

One big difference I see as I age (I'm 60) is that my stamina isn't what it used to be. Doing something like a fast or a cleanse seems like an especially poor idea in that context.

cafeaulait7

I avoid having the leftovers around. If I had a lovely big lasagna or tiramisu as a big treat, it will call my name the next day, too, so better that it's not nearby! I usually get my big treats at restaurants or buy in single servings.

arditarose

If I'm trying to lose, and I have gone over by say...500 calories, I might subtract 100 calories day for 5 days. I might go for a run and say, that's all folks. If I'm maintaing, the same. If I'm bulking...gainz.

codsterlaing95

I'm honestly starting to think this guy is a troll.

arditarose

codsterlaing95 wrote: »

I'm honestly starting to think this guy is a troll.