Negative calories

ftsolk

Suppose you go out for brunch and get carried away. Next thing you know, it's a little after noon, and you have no calories left. In fact, you've gone over your goal. You're also in a position where you're not likely to be able to excercise that day.

How do you figure out dinner, etc if you have no calories left? I'm used to planning based on what I have left, and when I have nothing left to spend on a meal, I almost always just continue to go overboard.

Sued0nim

Pick a decently lowish cal dinner, log it and move on

Life happens

esotericrrh

Just eat a reasonably low cal dinner and then eat at more of a deficit for the next few days.

MsAmandaNJ

In that situation, I'd go with lots of water and a light dinner. As long as you stay within your limits for the week, it's not going to be a terrible thing. Will you have ten minutes where you could get some exercise in?http://www.allyou.com/diet-fitness/at-home-workouts/at-home-exercises

Sloth2016

Honest answer? Those are the days that I renew my personal relationship with God - I say a prayer and then go to bed early.

If I can get a walk in or better still a trip to the gym, I can get more calories in the budget, but that isn't always an option.

BusyRaeNOTBusty

Sued0nim wrote: »

Pick a decently lowish cal dinner, log it and move on

Life happens

Yup.

kshama2001

ftsolk wrote: »

Suppose you go out for brunch and get carried away. Next thing you know, it's a little after noon, and you have no calories left. In fact, you've gone over your goal. You're also in a position where you're not likely to be able to excercise that day.

How do you figure out dinner, etc if you have no calories left? I'm used to planning based on what I have left, and when I have nothing left to spend on a meal, I almost always just continue to go overboard.

Dr. Judith Beck covers fixing the "I already blew it, why get back on track now" thinking in this book on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for overeating, which was available in my library system, so perhaps yours as well.

The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person

Can thinking and eating like a thin person be learned, similar to learning to drive or use a computer? Beck (Cognitive Therapy for Challenging Problems) contends so, based on decades of work with patients who have lost pounds and maintained weight through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Beck's six-week program adapts CBT, a therapeutic system developed by Beck's father, Aaron, in the 1960s, to specific challenges faced by yo-yo dieters, including negative thinking, bargaining, emotional eating, bingeing, and eating out. Beck counsels readers day-by-day, introducing new elements (creating advantage response cards, choosing a diet, enlisting a diet coach, making a weight-loss graph) progressively and offering tools to help readers stay focused (writing exercises, to-do lists, ways to counter negative thoughts). There are no eating plans, calorie counts, recipes or exercises; according to Beck, any healthy diet will work if readers learn to think differently about eating and food. Beck's book is like an extended therapy session with a diet coach. (Apr.)

auddii

Best comparison I heard was comparing overeating to forgetting to brush your teeth. When you forget to brush, do you just keep not brushing and then maybe you'll start again fresh next week? Or, do you brush them again the next chance you get?

Brush it off, eat the dinner you had planned before you went to brunch. Log everything you ate today. Plan your meals for tomorrow and get right back to your deficit.

Angierae75

Yup. One bad day doesn't have to derail anything. Eat a lighter dinner, go for a walk if you can, if not, log it, and move on. A slightly smaller loss that week (or even a gain) is not the end of the world.

solieco1

I like the weekly calorie report. Seems to keep me level headed if one day is up.

lemurcat12

I focus on calories for the week, not the day, so I'd factor it into my week. If I didn't--and assuming I was trying to keep a deficit--I'd eat a light/low cal dinner that would leave overall calories below maintenance.

I'd also definitely not beat myself up over it, but I would review the reasons why it happened, so it would be less likely to happen again.

hila_13

Low calorie dinner (less than 300 cal). Then I set my calories goals lower over the next 2 days to make up for it.

Unknown

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leanjogreen18

Eat low cal dinner then I subtract that from the next few days calories so my weekly deficit remains.

kgirlhart

If I eat so much at lunch time that I use up all of my daily calories then I am usually not hungry again at dinner time so I wouldn't eat. But if I am hungry then I will just eat something light. I also like to look at my weekly calorie goal, so the odds are I have eaten under by 100 or so calories already a couple of days that week so I may have a few extra calories to spend. I would also try not to worry about it too much unless it is becoming a daily habit. If you go out for brunch once a month or so and get carried away it really isn't going to affect you too much in the long run.

queenliz99

Go to bed

Alluminati

Hi!

Lumi_1992

It happens occasionally, as people have said, just have a fairly low cal dinner and start afresh tomorrow

alyssa0061

I only have 210 calories left for the day and I still have to have dinner. I've gone over my calories the last 3 days, anywhere from 57 to 200 calories. But 4 days ago I was 426 calories under. A couple hundred under the days prior to that. It all evens out. I will go over again today. I'm not worried, I know I'll make up for it on the weekend. I have weeks at a time where I'm consistently under my calorie goal and occasionally I have a week where I can't manage to stay under even one day. Just as my weight fluctuates, so do my calories. All I care about is the average.

Jeyradan

solieco1 wrote: »

I like the weekly calorie report. Seems to keep me level headed if one day is up.

lemurcat12 wrote: »

I focus on calories for the week, not the day, so I'd factor it into my week. If I didn't--and assuming I was trying to keep a deficit--I'd eat a light/low cal dinner that would leave overall calories below maintenance.

No affiliation or anything, but I found an app called Poundaweek the other day. It calculates your calorie needs for a week based on height, current weight, etc., and then divides them by seven to give you a daily limit. If you go over, it adjusts the other days downward. If you log under, it adjusts them upward. (It also tracks macros.) I've found the results pretty interesting!

(What I do is use the "quick add" function at the end of each day to just plug in the calories and macros I get from my MyFitnessPal log. I could see its usefulness in helping people over "oops, I slipped up and overate" bumps, though!)

trigden1991

If you are on a deadline for weight loss then I' d say call it a day and fast till tomorrow. If you're in no rush, eat a low calorie dinner and try to be more active tomorrow.

RoxieDawn

I have many ONE meal days that take all my cals. I don't even bother to eat to more if I am over by what ever time that meal came. And I certainly do not increase my deficit over the next day or two or three to make up if you decide to eat again later on. I need those calories on those days.

This is most likely not ever gonna be first time life happens.. Life is social, and social usually means eating with family and friends that will not be in line with your diet.

Strategize how you must to stay on point with your deficit.

snickerscharlie

Just eat a ton of celery for dinner. I've heard so many people claim that celery has 'negative calories' - that it takes more energy to chew and digest than you get from actually eating it. Eat enough of it and you could, in theory, burn off all the extra ones you had for lunch, too!







(Btw, I'm kidding. Although celery is pretty low calorie, it's not magic. )

OP: Log your day honestly and move on.

Even though I track my food on a daily basis, I look at the overall weekly picture of my intake to determine where I stand. If I have a high calorie unplanned meal (like the pizza we decided to order last night because life happens!) I will simply adjust my intake today a little as well as walk a bit more to compensate.

This process of weight management is only as difficult and stressful as you choose to make it.

jadefitnow

reminder: this isn't just about one meal, one day. It's about changing the way I look at food. There will always be the occasional party/meal/vacation to contend with and I can't stop "eating to live". If your overall pattern is healthy, the overindulgences of a day won't add up.... (and that's a reminder to myself)

Unknown

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savithny

If you've used your calorie allotment, you still have 500 or 1000 calories before you hit maintenance.
I plan a light dinner and try to stay within maintenance, log it, and do better the next day.

RhapsodyWinters

ftsolk wrote: »

Suppose you go out for brunch and get carried away. Next thing you know, it's a little after noon, and you have no calories left. In fact, you've gone over your goal. You're also in a position where you're not likely to be able to excercise that day.

How do you figure out dinner, etc if you have no calories left? I'm used to planning based on what I have left, and when I have nothing left to spend on a meal, I almost always just continue to go overboard.

As long as you eat a low calorie dinner, you shouldn't gain. It's okay to occasionally eat maintenance calories. Just plug maintenance in the calculator and see how many calories you can have to stay at your current weight.

sgt1372

Get on my rower when I get home and row the excess off - 100 cals/2k meters @ 10 mins.