Big OverFeed Ruins Everything? Nope.

LivingtheLeanDream

AnnPT77 wrote: »

. I'm encouraging "let it go, keep going, see what happens in a week or so, don't do it often", instead.

I totally agree with this^^

I have book marked this thread because its a good one. I just was wanting to say it didn't seem to work that way with me - I am a long term maintainer (didn't have to lose a massive amount, 20lbs got me to a healthy weight). But there probably is something different about over eating a bit for several days rather than in one day, probably the way the body expels the extra energy when its taken in quickly. I'm not knowledgeable in science but there probably is an explanation.

Thanks for your thoughts,
Ruth

AnnPT77

Another post-holiday bump to page 1, then back to obscurity until future eating-centric holidays! :drinker:

beulah81

Bump.

pink_mint

Thank you for bumping this! I love seeing this.

I am wondering when is a good time to start allowing or including refeed/ taking a break from calorie deficit days. I'm 2 months into my weight loss, and haven't lost enough weight yet (6 lbs so far) to where I'd feel confident doing this. But I'm wondering if it would be helpful.

As I understand it going a little off the rails with eating one day can help mentally (not feel so restricted all the dang time) and physiologically even bump your weight loss rate up a little. I'm just still so uncomfortable with my current weight/ appearance/ size and it's so slow going that it feels risky to do anything other than keep at that deficit every day until more significant weight loss is achieved.

Just wondering at what point others have Incorporated this (did you wait until you lost a certain amount?) and how often.

Unicorn_Bacon

@pink_mint I think the main point of this post is more geared towards people eating really well and then finding themselves at a party and eating a ton of sweets and food, having buyers remorse and thinking they ruined all their progress made.

The OP is basically showing how she spent a week, somewhat tracking calories to the best of her ability, even went thousands of calories over on 2 days, and by the end, when she returned to normal, she was still in the same place she was when she started. She didnt ruin anything.

Eating out once in a while can be doable with careful planning, and it can be done without ruining your deficit. You dont need to be a certain rate of success before you do this, but you need to be able to handle the water weight fluctuations that come with it and knowledge that you're fine.

AnnPT77

pink_mint wrote: »

Thank you for bumping this! I love seeing this.

I am wondering when is a good time to start allowing or including refeed/ taking a break from calorie deficit days. I'm 2 months into my weight loss, and haven't lost enough weight yet (6 lbs so far) to where I'd feel confident doing this. But I'm wondering if it would be helpful.

As I understand it going a little off the rails with eating one day can help mentally (not feel so restricted all the dang time) and physiologically even bump your weight loss rate up a little. I'm just still so uncomfortable with my current weight/ appearance/ size and it's so slow going that it feels risky to do anything other than keep at that deficit every day until more significant weight loss is achieved.

Just wondering at what point others have Incorporated this (did you wait until you lost a certain amount?) and how often.

Have you read the refeeds & diet breaks thread?

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1

I think that may be more helpful with your questions than this thread is . . . and more helpful than I personally can be. I never took a diet break per se, because I never felt particularly stressed nor did I plateau while losing. (I'm the OP of this thread, in case it isn't obvious. ) If you don't find what you're looking for in that thread, I'd suggest asking your question there.

I'm just a self-indulgent kind of person who occasionally likes to take a trip and eat freely, or eat something mega-special calorie dense at a restaurant, sometimes . . . and that sometimes puts me way over maintenance calories, as in the case reported. These are not diet breaks in the usual sense, nor are they "OMG I can't control myself" events, for me . . . they're just choices. I'm a sybaritic, hedonistic kind of person, which means I'm happiest with eating strategies that allow for that, within certain bounds, sometimes. (My bounds = maintaining a healthy body weight long term. I'm in year 4+ of maintenance, at BMI 21-point-something this morning, so it seems to be working. It might or might not work for others, with different personalities.)

As @KrissCanDoThis said, the point of my OP was to try to reassure people (of any personality type ), that if they eat a large number of calories on a rare day or two, it isn't going to be as big a weight problem as they may emotionally feel it is, or as big a problem as the scale may suggest in the first day or two after it happens. They won't "wipe out all their progress".

Best wishes!

NovusDies

pink_mint wrote: »

Thank you for bumping this! I love seeing this.

I am wondering when is a good time to start allowing or including refeed/ taking a break from calorie deficit days. I'm 2 months into my weight loss, and haven't lost enough weight yet (6 lbs so far) to where I'd feel confident doing this. But I'm wondering if it would be helpful.

As I understand it going a little off the rails with eating one day can help mentally (not feel so restricted all the dang time) and physiologically even bump your weight loss rate up a little. I'm just still so uncomfortable with my current weight/ appearance/ size and it's so slow going that it feels risky to do anything other than keep at that deficit every day until more significant weight loss is achieved.

Just wondering at what point others have Incorporated this (did you wait until you lost a certain amount?) and how often.

There are two ways for me to answer this. I slipped up several times in the first couple of months and ate too much. By design I waited 6 months and then took a diet/deficit break.

It helped that my plan was to bank enough calories each week to have a maintenance day every weekend. It always helped knowing it would never be very long before I got extra fun food. I could have had the fun food throughout the week with the same calories but I tend to find it more satisfying in big installments.

pink_mint

Ok I see 😊

Less of a strategic thing and more of a spontaneous thing. But of course people do it strategically too, per the other thread. Either way it's always good to be reminded that freaking out isn't helpful and nor is this idea of perfection.

@AnnPT77 that sounds like a very doable and enjoyable way to go about things. Gives me encouragement!

AnnPT77

Updating to cross-link a related-topic post from @steveko89.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10672255/examination-of-outlying-scale-fluctuation#latest

(Thought I'd cross-linked it before, but re-reading the thread shows that that thought was optimistic 😉🙄.

biancamuyis

Bump, great thread!

AnnPT77

For fans of this line of thinking, see also: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10844569/what-happens-when-you-have-a-bad-day-go-over-your-calories/p1

AnnPT77

Another recent post with a similar theme:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10893552/after-vacation-break-weekly-weigh-in-pleasantly-surprised/p1

AnnPT77

It was US Thanksgiving today, which many people celebrate in a very food-centric way. Maybe it's bad form, but sometimes I like to bump this (my own thread) after holidays like that. I hate to see people think that instant multi-pound gain (that's mostly water weight) is a fat-regain disaster, to beat themselves up, get discouraged, maybe even be tempted to give up.

If we just go back to our normal, healthy routine, the consequences - after things settle out over a couple of weeks or so - aren't likely to be as dramatic as we first think.

Key thing: Go back to normal, healthy routine. Don't do "I've blown it, might as well keep over-eating". That's like going out in the morning, finding that your car has a flat tire, puncturing the other 3 tires, and going back to bed. :flowerforyou:

Janellew86

I overate big time on my calories today, but less than a pound gained... Happy Turkey Day to all my US members.

shel80kg

Arrogantly, I thought my threads were the "bomb". This one tops anything I have tried on this platform. I did not realise that my obsession with the steady descent into thin hood would make be paranoid about occasional relapses with " me and my Twisties". How weird some of us are thinking that we are horrible people for taking breaks from our hard tasks and choosing to enjoy the "once in a while" treat and snack. It is not cheating. It is living. I missed out on a beautiful desert this week basically because I'm dumb. I would have munched a million more calories in the past without a blink so....what would be 600 or 700 calories amongst friends really cost me?Thanks for this thread.It has helped.

AnnPT77

Popular media coverage of diet and health usually makes me eye-roll or cringe. (Reporters seem to fall for trendy nonsense as often as the rest of us do!)

But someone posted a link on another thread that I thought had some nuggets of goodness in it, even though I did read it with low expectations.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/doctors-reveal-damage-thanksgiving-food_l_653aba36e4b01b411813a2d9

Basic summary: People with certain major pre-existing health conditions may experience negative consequences from just one big meal, and eating differently from one's routine can cause various types of digestive distress. Short of that, one unusual indulgent meal on its own, in a context of overall healthy eating, is unlikely to have significant health, metabolic, or body weight consequences. The doctors interviewed are more specific.

dydn11402

If i overeat for say, 2 days, I will gain 4 lbs. 1 will come off over the next day or 2 and then the rest is here to stay despite getting back on track with a calorie deficit. Very depressing. Every lb has be be clawed off, always.

shel80kg

An awesome thread.
I'm wondering if there are any peer-reviewed studies which explore how one might create some type of "resilience" with regards to withstanding the occasional deviation from the recommended caloric intake. I have often wondered if the body becomes complacent with low caloric intake and slows down (metaphorically speaking). Could it be the case that a caloric spike might activate the more rigorous digestive machinery and help with the longer term weight loss process? Thank you in advance for your thoughts and expertise.

AnnPT77

shel80kg wrote: »

An awesome thread.
I'm wondering if there are any peer-reviewed studies which explore how one might create some type of "resilience" with regards to withstanding the occasional deviation from the recommended caloric intake. I have often wondered if the body becomes complacent with low caloric intake and slows down (metaphorically speaking). Could it be the case that a caloric spike might activate the more rigorous digestive machinery and help with the longer term weight loss process? Thank you in advance for your thoughts and expertise.

Not sure how much you're asking about psychological effects vs. physical ones.

I can't think of anything about that "resilience" idea.

With respect to the other part, I think you might find some good info in these threads, including links to other resources:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1077746/starvation-mode-adaptive-thermogenesis-and-weight-loss/p1

That's about the flip side, i.e., the slowing down part, but it has implications for the spiking idea.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1

That's more about avoiding the slowing, or encouraging the spiking.

All of the above only if I'm understanding your question correctly, though, @shel80kg.

The full article is paywalled, the link is just the abstract, but I do think this next one speaks somewhat to the individual side of resilience and long term effects:

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1106561?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub 0pubmed

. . . but that's maybe a digression from the main point of this thread, and creeps over into this other one:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10610953/neat-improvement-strategies-to-improve-weight-loss/p1

shel80kg

Hi Ann*

I am guessing you tend to explain a significant dimension of weight management challenges as a function of psychological conditions, pathologies and learned responses. Although I do not disagree in a general sense, please consider that there can (and is quite likely) metabolic realities which may make weight gain more or less likely. I grow a bit weary with presuming that each body operates similarly and my previous question to this forum was rather specific. If one alters food quantity from low to high does the body benefit from this type of intentional fluctuation with reference to increasing or decreasing metabolic rate. I agree that my term "resilience" was ambiguous. My apologies. I was wondering if inconsistent food consumption can be one factor in creating a more sensitive and responsive metabolic process that may work in favour of legitimate and safe weight loss.