How soon does a "bad day" reflect on your scale/clothes?

sibeluver03

I had a bad day yesterday. I do low carb in addition to counting calories. I started the day off not good, but not bad either. Had a bigger than normal breakfast. Then I ate an entire bag of pork rinds. So while my carbs stayed low, my calories were way up. I ended up becoming super bloated and only ate two cheese sticks and a few slices of chicken lunch meat for dinner. I did drink a lot of water. But I feel guilty now about the extra calories. It was about 400 calories over my daily limit. I know it'll be okay, but it's hard having slip ups. Today is a new day though. I'll do better this week.

So for you, do you see your slip ups reflected on the scale or your clothes every time? Or can you sometimes get away with bad days without any gain?

FitnessOCD

I get Buffalo Wild Wings every other week w/ beer and finish off with Sweet Frog. Never see a single lb gain.

MarylandRose

I'm still eating in a deficit, so if I eat 500 calories over the goal in MFP, then I ate at maintenance, and wouldn't see a fat weight gain. Depending on what I ate, I might see a water weight scale wobble, but that'll correct quickly with a return to my normal routine the next day.
I am not 6 oz away from not fitting in my clothes...I have to gain a few pounds (which would take my eating way over goal for a few days) before I see/feel a change there.

If you're eating in a deficit and your goal in MFP is 1lb weight loss/week or more, you won't gain 'real' weight from being 400 cals over on a single day. Even if your goal is only .5 lbs (250 cal deficit), I wouldn't expect to see much change unless you were right at goal every other day that week. ie, if you were 75 cals under goal Monday-Saturday and then ate +400 on Sunday, you're still at -50 net for the week.

TavistockToad

sibeluver03 wrote: »

I had a bad day yesterday. I do low carb in addition to counting calories. I started the day off not good, but not bad either. Had a bigger than normal breakfast. Then I ate an entire bag of pork rinds. So while my carbs stayed low, my calories were way up. I ended up becoming super bloated and only ate two cheese sticks and a few slices of chicken lunch meat for dinner. I did drink a lot of water. But I feel guilty now about the extra calories. It was about 400 calories over my daily limit. I know it'll be okay, but it's hard having slip ups. Today is a new day though. I'll do better this week.

So for you, do you see your slip ups reflected on the scale or your clothes every time? Or can you sometimes get away with bad days without any gain?

400 calories probably isnt even maintenance so it wont show on scales or clothes.

if you're bloated you may need more water or fiber in your diet.

WinoGelato

It all comes down to math. What rate of loss did you select when setting up MFP? If you chose 1 lb/week, that means you have a 500 cal deficit built into your daily goal. Going over by 400 cals means you are still in a deficit for the day... even if your rate of loss is 0.5 lb/week you have a 250 cal/day deficit built in or a 1,750 cal/week deficit built in - so again, being over by 400 cals means you are still in a deficit for the week.

It is also helpful to not assign moral labels to foods or eating habits. Food isn't good or bad, it's just food. Eating an entire bag of pork rinds (while not appealing to me) isn't bad, it's just a choice you made and now you need to get back into your regular plan. Drink lots of water to offset the extra sodium intake and get back to logging as normal.