Is this counterproductive or acceptable?

hoops1888

I’ve had a few days of the month where I’ve gone way over calories - this accumulated to around 5600 over. I had a fortnight to try and reduce this and I’ve managed to cut 2400 this week. My weigh in is on 26th April - I do monthly weigh in.

My question is, is this likely to go against me? I cut by 1000 one day which I know is harsh but surely a few days is not going to trigger starvation? I was planning on having another 1000 less day to reduce it further, just want to make sure that I’m not making the situation worse. I’m disciplined when it comes to binging so I know it won’t trigger any over eating by doing this.

vallary14

How do you cut 1000 calories a day? From your target? That’s a lot, just get yourself back on track and don’t give yourself a hard time over the days you went over.

kami3006

It's one thing to try to cut back some calories to save up for a big indulgence (a lot of folks do that for big holidays) but I think trying to play catch up like this is much more stressful than it's worth. Log what you ate, pick up from here and keep moving forward.

RoxieDawn

Trying to lose weight (5600 calories worth) that would have occurred in the past to make up for it in one week does not make sense to me.

Depending on how these calories were eaten and depending on your activities these days, exercise you may have overeaten maintenance slightly and most likely did not gain anything, it takes the body a lot more to over ride your weight loss as in consistent over eating like this to put these overages as 'weight gain'. You can take your weekly deficit and deduct the amount you over ate from that to see how much slower you would have ideally lost that week.

I think you are trying to correct something in reaction to your action that is not necessary in the long run.

L1zardQueen

This will not turn out good for you. It is called punishing yourself for overeating. Do this over and over again and turns into binge cycle.

Just log what you ate, own up to it. Do better tomorrow.

hroderick

Change your habits = Change you life. Do your new healthy habits every day. Anything else will be de-motivating.

NovusDies

I think one of the worst things you can do with unplanned overages is fail to enjoy them. Stressing yourself and your body to 'pay for your sins' wipes out any benefit they may have provided you. In the future, when possible, it is better to plan so that you can have some of the food you ate that caused the overages without having as much impact.

Oh and nothing you have done to erase the deficit will do you any physical harm so you are in zero danger of starvation.

kommodevaran

A few days of undereating will trigger (many) days of overeating, as you have experienced, so, yes, it will go against you, and no, nobody is that disciplined, so I suggest you neither think you are, nor berate yourself for not being.

MrSmooth2017

Although its quite easy to go over on calories, you shouldn't cut them by so much so that they are too low.

For example if your target is 1600 calories a day (to loose weight) and you have had 3000 calories for four days (ie 5600 over what you want to have) and your maintenance is 2400 (ie the amount you could have to stay at the same weight) then you have only actually gone over by 2400 Calories in reality. Over the week on average (assuming the same figures) to stay the same weight you would need 16800 calories. You would have consumed exactly the same (1600 x 4)+(3000 x 4) = 16800, even though you were over on those days.

Over the month assuming you were on track you would still have lost weight.

This is why a few days of overeating or cheat days don't effect you as much as you think.

If you were going to reduce your calories by 1000 in this example you would be literally starving yourself. Not a good idea.

If you do want to bring it back a little, far better to do a little more exercise for the next few days and maybe cutting 100 calories instead.

Obviously I'm basing these figures on a guess, only you know your actual figures, but to summarize;- Stop worrying.

amusedmonkey

I would only consider very low calorie days if they're already part of your strategy and you knowingly planned for them. Trying to "make up" for high days is a recipe for all kinds of issues. I do low calorie days sometimes, but I only do them when I'm in control and it's typical to my strategy, trying to do them to regain control after feeling like I've lost it has a "punishment" vibe to it. Not good. Move on and just do your thing as if the past month was uneventful. It's not just about the binges, it's about the mindset. It's less likely to last if you're constantly stressing about what you deem as an imperfection and making up for it.