I messed up!

DeborahKilpatrick

On day 6 of a new start here... It was all going so well until last night. I woke up in the night hungry and night time eating is a bad habit of mine anyway. I tried not to, drank water but couldn't get back to sleep as was too hungry. I had eaten all my calories for the day. I ended up getting up and binging, eating 1000 calories extra!!!
I logged it but I don't know what to do. I really want to get even a slight loss this wwwk... Should I eat a bit less every day to make up for it?

TavistockToad

what is your deficit set to? probably at least 500 cals a day, so all you have done is reduced your deficit slightly for last week.

i work on a Monday to Sunday week, so i would forget about it and start again today. maybe save some cals for a pre bedtime snack if you're hungry in the evening?

DeborahKilpatrick

I've only set it to a 0.5 weight loss per week so not sure what the deficit is but it's definitely at least 500 less than I ate before as I was overeating.
I think I do need to save some calories for a bedtime snack!

TavistockToad

DeborahKilpatrick wrote: »

I've only set it to a 0.5 weight loss per week so not sure what the deficit is but it's definitely at least 500 less than I ate before as I was overeating.
I think I do need to save some calories for a bedtime snack!

so your weekly deficit is 1750... so even if you ate 1000 extra, you are still in a deficit.

coolbluecris

No don't try to eat less each day to make up for it!
I tried that last week after I ate 1033 cals extra. I was determined it would be easy. I got this I thought.

But it stuffs up your daily routine, your sweet spot of number of meals and types of foods. I ended up bingeing even more. Like, seriously more. Then I craved junk food, whereas I wasn't craving it before.

So forget it and move on

RAinWA

DeborahKilpatrick wrote: »

I've only set it to a 0.5 weight loss per week so not sure what the deficit is but it's definitely at least 500 less than I ate before as I was overeating.
I think I do need to save some calories for a bedtime snack!

You learned something important - need to schedule calories for a bedtime snack. That's actually good information for you to have.

You are less than a week into calorie counting and you should expect to have some blips along the way as you get the hang of it. You'll learn what foods help keep you satisfied and what eating times work best for you. Might help to make notes in your diary of when you get hungry, what foods fill you up, etc. so you can see a pattern emerge.

I would just continue on and not worry about it. Whether you see a loss this week or not, if you are on track the other days you are still in a deficit for the week and, over time, your weight will go down.

DeborahKilpatrick

Thank you! OK going to forget about yesterday and get on with what I've been doing... Just one blip in a week isn't too bad I suppose!

88olds

If it were me, I’d try to stick to my plan for the rest of the week. Think in terms of keeping your process in place. Maybe look at how you have your calories spread out during the day.

Despite what a lot of folks think, there’s nothing wrong with planning some evening snacks. I leave about 50 calories for just before bed. I don’t always use them, but I find that “just say no” is anxiety provoking. Not what I need at bedtime.

It’s only day 6. Give yourself a break. It doesn’t get mentioned much, but there is a significant calorie counting learning curve.

Weight loss is mostly about problem solving. So what are you going to do to avoid this? How do you think you ended up eating 1000 calories?

Would this help? Could you make yourself a planned emergency nighttime snack? But it has to be something substantial and appealing without being a trigger. But you should be able to plan something in the 200-300 calorie range. It would be a lot better than 1000.

Would knowing it’s there if needed help you sleep through the night? And after midnight, it counts as tomorrow. Maybe you can mitigate some of the downside. Keep working. You can solve this. Experiment and give it time.

mariececilia10

I think logging the binge is a success in itself, as that can extremely difficult to do. I’m another vote for moving on from it without trying to compensate throughout the week. I’ve had more success doing that than I ever had with trying to make up for the extra calories. And, over time, the binges have decreased in both the number of calories consumed and the frequency because I know I’m not going to do anything to compensate for the extra calories consumed and I want to take the smallest amount of my weekly calorie allotment as possible. The bingeing does still happen, but with every binge comes a lesson learned, or, at least reinforcement of something I already knew and a bigger push for me to tackle the trigger.

DeborahKilpatrick

Guys you all helped me so much yesterday. Thank you!!!! Without your support and great advice I could easily have gone back into a binge cycle. With a day in between my binge and now I realise that if I had tried restricting my calories to maje up for it it would definitely have continued. I ate dinner later last night as I finished work at 8.30 so I wasn't hungry at night. Also managed not to go to the cafe at work for snacks before then and went to the gym for half an hour. Feel better today!!! Thanks again x