Uh Oh! Went Over Normal Calories! What To Do?

XxSammyBooxX

Part of eating clean is eating the right amount of calories that fit YOU. The amount of calories you eat depends on a lot of things, age, weight, height, gender, activity level and so on. In order to maintain, lose, or gain weight, you have to stay in your calorie zone. But, let's say you go over your calorie zone. WHAT DO YOU DO? Well, if you're me, you probably freaked out. You probably thought you were going to gain weight or something like that.

Last night my family stopped by Zaxby's. Typically Sunday is my "indulge" day. I knew Zaxby's isn't the healthiest option for indulging, but my family was buying. I tried my best to not eat as many calories. However, I wasn't aware until after I had calculated the calories that their money mustard (which is heaven by the way) had a whopping 150 calories! Just for sauce! I knew I had gone over 1,200 calorie budget. I felt horrible!

I panicked and tried to find some way to get rid of those additional calories. I knew exercising wasn't a good idea. Sunday is also my rest day, and I was going to have to get up the next morning and get back to the usual grind. After some research, I found out that going over you recommended calories every once in a while is actually a GOOD thing!

You need to indulge and go over every once in a while for a couple of reasons. 1, it's good for you mentally, and 2 it's good for you physically! You can't deprive yourself of the foods you love completely. When you come off a diet and you didn't take ANY time to indulge, you're going to go overboard! So take time every 8-13 days to enjoy yourself, and to stay sane. Also, going over a little bit helps your metabolism. Your body recognizes the additional calories, so it will kick up the calorie burning!

The only thing that comes out of indulging every once in a while is that it might set back your weight loss a day or two. The best thing to do after cheating is to move on and forget it, then get back to kicking butt and eating clean the next day! So, if you ever go over, don't sweat it, but don't cheat all the time!

-Sammy

T0M_K

XxSammyBooxX wrote: »

Part of eating clean is eating the right amount of calories that fit YOU. The amount of calories you eat depends on a lot of things, age, weight, height, gender, activity level and so on. In order to maintain, lose, or gain weight, you have to stay in your calorie zone. But, let's say you go over your calorie zone. WHAT DO YOU DO? Well, if you're me, you probably freaked out. You probably thought you were going to gain weight or something like that.

Last night my family stopped by Zaxby's. Typically Sunday is my "indulge" day. I knew Zaxby's isn't the healthiest option for indulging, but my family was buying. I tried my best to not eat as many calories. However, I wasn't aware until after I had calculated the calories that their money mustard (which is heaven by the way) had a whopping 150 calories! Just for sauce! I knew I had gone over 1,200 calorie budget. I felt horrible!

I panicked and tried to find some way to get rid of those additional calories. I knew exercising wasn't a good idea. Sunday is also my rest day, and I was going to have to get up the next morning and get back to the usual grind. After some research, I found out that going over you recommended calories every once in a while is actually a GOOD thing!

You need to indulge and go over every once in a while for a couple of reasons. 1, it's good for you mentally, and 2 it's good for you physically! You can't deprive yourself of the foods you love completely. When you come off a diet and you didn't take ANY time to indulge, you're going to go overboard! So take time every 8-13 days to enjoy yourself, and to stay sane. Also, going over a little bit helps your metabolism. Your body recognizes the additional calories, so it will kick up the calorie burning!

The only thing that comes out of indulging every once in a while is that it might set back your weight loss a day or two. The best thing to do after cheating is to move on and forget it, then get back to kicking butt and eating clean the next day! So, if you ever go over, don't sweat it, but don't cheat all the time!

-Sammy

i always clean my food before i eat it.

cerise_noir

OP.. going over calories is no big deal. When we sign up to mfp, we chose a loss rate. If we choose 2lbs per week, we are 1000 cals under our daily maintenance calories, 1.5lbs per week we are 750 under, 1lb per week we are 500 under, .5 per week we are 250 under. We have to be under by that number every day for a week to lose that amount of weight. In order to gain 1lb, we'd have to eat the above calorie numbers on top of our maintenance every day to gain.

Tomk652015 wrote: »

XxSammyBooxX wrote: »

Part of eating clean is eating the right amount of calories that fit YOU. The amount of calories you eat depends on a lot of things, age, weight, height, gender, activity level and so on. In order to maintain, lose, or gain weight, you have to stay in your calorie zone. But, let's say you go over your calorie zone. WHAT DO YOU DO? Well, if you're me, you probably freaked out. You probably thought you were going to gain weight or something like that.

Last night my family stopped by Zaxby's. Typically Sunday is my "indulge" day. I knew Zaxby's isn't the healthiest option for indulging, but my family was buying. I tried my best to not eat as many calories. However, I wasn't aware until after I had calculated the calories that their money mustard (which is heaven by the way) had a whopping 150 calories! Just for sauce! I knew I had gone over 1,200 calorie budget. I felt horrible!

I panicked and tried to find some way to get rid of those additional calories. I knew exercising wasn't a good idea. Sunday is also my rest day, and I was going to have to get up the next morning and get back to the usual grind. After some research, I found out that going over you recommended calories every once in a while is actually a GOOD thing!

You need to indulge and go over every once in a while for a couple of reasons. 1, it's good for you mentally, and 2 it's good for you physically! You can't deprive yourself of the foods you love completely. When you come off a diet and you didn't take ANY time to indulge, you're going to go overboard! So take time every 8-13 days to enjoy yourself, and to stay sane. Also, going over a little bit helps your metabolism. Your body recognizes the additional calories, so it will kick up the calorie burning!

The only thing that comes out of indulging every once in a while is that it might set back your weight loss a day or two. The best thing to do after cheating is to move on and forget it, then get back to kicking butt and eating clean the next day! So, if you ever go over, don't sweat it, but don't cheat all the time!

-Sammy

i always clean my food before i eat it.

Hey, me too!
Don't think for one second that if I drop my oreos, I won't be dusting them off.

cathipa

No one should panic or freak out and try to figure out how to get rid of calories from one meal of over indulgence. That sounds like a eating disorder in the making. It is one meal. So what. It will not set you back unless you eat a ridiculous amount of food and even if you see the scale go up some its most likely water weight. Set a reasonable calorie goal (1200 is too low for most people) and stick to it. Then when the occasional indulgence occurs you don't worry about it.

WinoGelato

cerise_noir wrote: »

OP.. going over calories is no big deal. When we sign up to mfp, we chose a loss rate. If we choose 2lbs per week, we are 1000 cals under our daily maintenance calories, 1.5lbs per week we are 750 under, 1lb per week we are 500 under, .5 per week we are 250 under. We have to b under by that number every ay for a week to lose that amount of weight. In order to gain 1lb, we'd have to eat the above calorie numbers on top of our maintenance every day to gain.

Tomk652015 wrote: »

XxSammyBooxX wrote: »

Part of eating clean is eating the right amount of calories that fit YOU. The amount of calories you eat depends on a lot of things, age, weight, height, gender, activity level and so on. In order to maintain, lose, or gain weight, you have to stay in your calorie zone. But, let's say you go over your calorie zone. WHAT DO YOU DO? Well, if you're me, you probably freaked out. You probably thought you were going to gain weight or something like that.

Last night my family stopped by Zaxby's. Typically Sunday is my "indulge" day. I knew Zaxby's isn't the healthiest option for indulging, but my family was buying. I tried my best to not eat as many calories. However, I wasn't aware until after I had calculated the calories that their money mustard (which is heaven by the way) had a whopping 150 calories! Just for sauce! I knew I had gone over 1,200 calorie budget. I felt horrible!

I panicked and tried to find some way to get rid of those additional calories. I knew exercising wasn't a good idea. Sunday is also my rest day, and I was going to have to get up the next morning and get back to the usual grind. After some research, I found out that going over you recommended calories every once in a while is actually a GOOD thing!

You need to indulge and go over every once in a while for a couple of reasons. 1, it's good for you mentally, and 2 it's good for you physically! You can't deprive yourself of the foods you love completely. When you come off a diet and you didn't take ANY time to indulge, you're going to go overboard! So take time every 8-13 days to enjoy yourself, and to stay sane. Also, going over a little bit helps your metabolism. Your body recognizes the additional calories, so it will kick up the calorie burning!

The only thing that comes out of indulging every once in a while is that it might set back your weight loss a day or two. The best thing to do after cheating is to move on and forget it, then get back to kicking butt and eating clean the next day! So, if you ever go over, don't sweat it, but don't cheat all the time!

-Sammy

i always clean my food before i eat it.

Hey, me too!
Don't think for one second that if I drop my oreos, I won't be dusting them off.

Yep, it's all about perspective... Additionally to the OP,, many people look at their total calories over the entire week rather than daily, knowing that some days are going to be a bit over while others are naturally under. It is the long term trend that counts, not one day or one meal.

Gaining this perspective early on will help with situations like holidays, birthdays, and other special events.

Also, for future reference, if you know where your family is planning on going you may want to pre log some of your food to see how it would impact your day.