Depressed over cheat day

HvymetalMG

After a wedding last night I feel pretty crappy that I've undid 4 months of work and progress with the amount of alcohol and crap I ate.

While I know one day of crappy eating physically won't do anything (I hope?) I can't help feeling like a failure. To put it in perspective in addition to taking 4 shots of whiskey and having about 4 glasses of whiskey on the rocks I ate 3 scoops of ice cream with cake, cookies, and had about 6 pieces of pound cake and rice Krispy treats in that damn chocolate fountain.

I know a cheat meal is okay once in a while but did I go overboard? Trying to motivate to get to gym and feel zapped of energy. I hate this.

Anyone ever in same boat and what to do?
Thanks

Ironandwine69

You probably did.
But today is a new day and you hit restart.
Life is too short to be spent on a diet every single min of every single day. It's okay to go overboard for special occasions. Unless you have special occasions every single week, you will be fine.

Clody80

a day of going overboard is not the end of the world. Make it a good day today and leave it behind. Good luck! xx

Annie_01

Are back to the weight that you were 4 months ago? If not you haven't undone 4 months of work.

So after 4 months you made one wrong choice. I don't know about you but I have certainly made more than one wrong choice in my life and yet somehow I have managed to survive.

I think that the only wrong choice that you can make in regards to weight loss is to go back to eating the way that caused you to gain weight in the first place. Have you done that...are you giving up???

So today...you pick up where you left off before this wedding you went to and start again. In the grand scheme of things...it is only a few hours of wrong choices vs the many hours left of your life.

At least that is how I think of it.

Annie_01

I just skimmed through the past week of your food diary. You are eating fairly low calorie for a male...on average less than 1500. Maybe that is why when you finally allowed yourself to eat more you went berserk. IDK...that happens to me sometimes when I have gone for a period of time with too large of a deficit...I GET HUNGRY...then I can't eat enough to satisfy me.

cbl40

We all do it. The beauty is today is another day. Remember how it made you feel and try to make better choices next time. It's okay. You did not undo 4 months. You may have gained some water weight and feel bloated but you can get that off. Good luck!

amusedmonkey

Yeah, a couple of days ago I did a 5000 calorie day. It was a bit disappointing, but I was too hungry to care. I got over it pretty quickly because 5000 calories means about 3000 extra calories above maintenance or just about a week of work for me. Nowhere near the 4 months you are talking about. If you lost any more than 1-3 pounds in these 4 months there just aren't enough hours in the day to undo the work, let alone one evening. Yes, you've probably overdone it, but it's not as bad as you imagine.

88olds

Well, unfortunately I have significant experience with hangovers. You'll feel better later. Maybe not until tomorrow.

Since you ask for advice, here's some. If you feel like going to the gym go. Do what you can. Go for a walk if that's all you can do. You'll feel better if you get some blood pumping.

Forget about trying to make up for yesterday by doing extra. You don't need to try to undo it. You can't. You don't need to punish yourself. You're just human.

Going foreword, drop the concept of cheat. You are not a failure. Either you went in without a good plan or you failed to execute the plan you had. A good plan is one you will actually follow.

Events like weddings, invites to dinner parties, cookouts, those are tough. You don't say, but if you were part of the wedding party, there's a lot of pressure to be part of the group. You were in a challenging environment.

So I don't suggest calling it cheating, but some days you're going over calories or macros or however you track. Next time make a better plan that allows you to go over within limits. Shots are always a bad idea. BTW log what you ate and drank. Do your best to put a good faith number on everything you listed here. That way you will remember for next time. Pretending it didn't happen is the only real cheat.

LenGray

Sometimes life gets in the way The important thing is, did you have a good time? Did you hang out with people you cared about and do things that made you feel closer to them? If so, I wouldn't sweat an extra week or two of work.

For example, yesterday my dad and I went to an art fair. We had a good time and went to a local pizza place where we demolished a whole large pizza and order of toasted ravioli. I also had chocolate cookies, candy, and a chocolate milkshake. Did I go over my calories? *kitten* yes. Was it worth it? Totally. Having fun with my dad and dorking out without worrying about my calories was awesome.

The important thing is to get back to good today, not mess up your good memories with regrets about the day before

JeromeBarry1

I had several days like that in April. It took a couple of weeks to get rid of all the extra water and fat that I may have collected and get my weight back down to where it was when I started. That's how this works. Up, down, and not linear.

LZMiner

Weddings are fun! You're supposed to have a good time! Agree with all the above posters...you just move on. New day!

snowflake954

You don't even say if you had fun at the wedding. I hope you did--that's what occasions with family and friends are for. I don't get the guilt. It's the wrong mindset. You go to a wedding (I imagine they don't happen every week), have a good time, let go and the next day get back on track. Life is to be enjoyed--don't ruin a good time once in a while. Now get serious and get back into your weightloss routine. Drink alot of water and in a few days you'll be back to normal.

themunchkinmaker

I just took a week off from diet and exercise, and every day was an epic cheat day. In seven days I gained back five pounds. Worth it.

I've been on the shame spiral before too, and breaking that cycle isn't fun. Sometimes I just ride it out until I'm back in the right mindset, but that usually takes a few weeks. Other times I invoke a "combo-breaker" by doing some kind of monster workout (I really like power lifting). Those usually snap me out of it.

These days I try to keep in mind that I'm making deliberate choices for my life, and sometimes fitness doesn't get priority. When I own my choices, I own my feelings too. That goes a long way toward preventing cheat-guilt, the subsequent depression, and the vicious shame spiral.

theflatpick

Over Easter, I erased a weeks worth of progress. But made it up the following 10 days. I felt like you, depressed and almost embarrassed. "Cheat Days" is a bad concept for me. If you feel like you have been depriving yourself of something, just leave calorie room for it and have it. You can fit alcohol in your calories goals. If you just crave ice cream, eat it, count the calories and cut something else out. That way it does not depress you. If you call it a "cheat day", you totally let yourself go and go wayy overboard. Some folks will disagree with my thought on the imfamous cheat day, and that is fine, it if you can make it work, power to you. But I see it as a really bad thing.

CorneliusPhoton

There is no way you undid 4 months of work. Maybe you end this week not losing much weight, but that's the extent of it. You just delayed his week's loss. You get right back in the saddle and keep going and lose that pound next week.

donovanwoodworking

Log the day and press on. Today is a new day!!

HvymetalMG

Thanks to 5 hour energy and everyone's comments I made it to the gym this am. New day as you all say. Thanks!

rupertdrew

Stop calling it a "cheat day" for a start. You're a human being that likes to eat cake and ice cream. There is no cheat day it was just a "high calorie day". It's the word "cheat" that has negative connotations of guilt and failure.

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Geocitiesuser

HvymetalMG wrote: »

After a wedding last night I feel pretty crappy that I've undid 4 months of work and progress with the amount of alcohol and crap I ate.

While I know one day of crappy eating physically won't do anything (I hope?) I can't help feeling like a failure. To put it in perspective in addition to taking 4 shots of whiskey and having about 4 glasses of whiskey on the rocks I ate 3 scoops of ice cream with cake, cookies, and had about 6 pieces of pound cake and rice Krispy treats in that damn chocolate fountain.

I know a cheat meal is okay once in a while but did I go overboard? Trying to motivate to get to gym and feel zapped of energy. I hate this.

Anyone ever in same boat and what to do?
Thanks

Hi OP. I just had a cheat day too. Read: Binge. It doesn't happen very often sometimes, but sometimes it does. This is the third time in a year, which believe it or not, is an improvement. I know I set myself back a good 3 weeks (5-6lbs of pure fat easy). If a pound of fat is 3500 cals and all.

No use feeling depressed about it though. There are more important things to worry about. Chin up, hop back on the cardio machine. Get back in the gym. Double and triple down. Keep at it. You had your recharge, now it's time to blaze into the future with all of the force and determination of a locomotive.

sarahannelily

Completely agree with the consensus of opinion here. "Cheat days" happen, and a friends wedding is the perfect reason for one. Hopefully you enjoyed yourself, and not having to think about calories and macros whilst celebrating isn't a bad thing. Just continue on as if it didn't happen, don't drop your macros or calories lower to "make up" the difference. Likely you might have gained back a couple of lbs, some of that will be water weight, and will shift quickly, but your weight is always going to fluctuate, depending on hormones, salt intake, amount of sleep, exercise, water intake, etc etc.
So don't worry about the scale, just keep doing what your doing.