OMG!!! I went overboard on my calorie count!!!

wshill7

Tonight I was exhausted from work and I went in to grab dinner at restaurant and I didn’t expect a major overload calories!!! This is first time I went way over. But I’m still monitoring my daily meals. Seems like I “slipped” out of bounds. Am I being too hard on myself? Need your support!!!

denjan333

Hey don’t let one day or one meal phase you. It’s a process. Usually a long one. This should be a time that you’re building new habits and learning to really care about yourself. No need to be harsh for eating extra calories in one meal. Just keep going with your logging. Don’t try to make it up or starve yourself either. Just let it go.

andreadahlgren6213

Wow - I came on to this board to look for the same thing. I have been doing really well for the past 8 weeks and then I’ve had about five disappointing days of choosing sweets and letting my caliries pile up. I’ve kept up with my exercise, but the pms cravings took over and I feel down about it.

Thanks so much for the encouragement - this really is a long journey and it will necessarily include ups and downs. I’m learning new habits and sometimes the old ones will sneak back in. Learning to be gentlebwith myself, avoid al or none thinking and focus on my successes.

I so appreciate knowing that I’m not the only one having bumps in the road and I appreciate the reminder that these bumps are not signs of failure.

Here’s to a wonderful community!

wshill7

Thank you. I was thinking of the same thing, should I reduce my meal intake for tomorrow or not. This app really helps me keep an eye out on my calories and I noticed that I’m trimming down! I feel good!

MikePTY

Yes you are being too hard on yourself . Those days are a normal part of the process and bound to happen. I would not reduce your intake from normal tomorrow. Just try to get back on track with a regular day at your goal.

BachataDancer

I actually find when I screw up every once in a rare while it's a good thing and gets me over a hurdle. You're going to do better tomorrow!

VeroniqueBoilard

In my book, if you logged it and keep going the next day, you are still showing up and doing everything right so no need to worry.

No idea if this will help you, but mentally if I don't want to give up I think: I eat 1250 calories a day, for me that's a 1000 calories deficit per day. Add to that my exercise calories + working + two walks a day and caring for my young kids, maybe 500 calories. So If I eat 2750 calories in a day, I'm just eating at maintenance. That's not ideal, but no need to panic. Just do better the next day I would need to eat 2750+3500 calories a day to gain a pound! That would be very hard!

Good luck

wshill7

Oh really? I’m working on losing weight instead. I can eat at least 1720 calories per day. If I do any activities it’ll increase a little bit but my nutrition and movement trainer adviced me to stay at 1720 as much as possible. It’s working. I’ve started 35 days ago.

corinasue1143

It’s an experience! Learn from it. You’ll start home from work really tired again some day. What will you do? The same thing? Or—— maybe have something prepared that you know is waiting for you at home. A favorite TV dinner, or frozen leftovers that can be easily heated up. Or maybe a meal at a restaurant on the way home that you’ve already researched and know that it will fit your plan. Or maybe a grocery store. Just figure it out now so you’ll be ready. Congratulations on your good work so far.

zebasschick

i agree - figure you went over once and move on.

cbihatt

You’re doing fine. Going over you calorie target once in awhile is no big deal. It’s what you do the majority of the time that matters. Consistency over perfection.

88olds

Log everything and move on. The process is more important than the numbers. In the course of a week, what happens at any one meal won’t count for much.

But be sure to log it and remember. I found that I disliked tracking overages so much that I worked harder to avoid them.

And it’s just not possible to do anything as long term as weight loss and not make mistakes. Mistakes can be anything from fatigue caused lapses, bad plans, bad judgment, loss of concentration, to misread menus or NI, or simple math mistakes. Good news is calorie counting doesn’t need to be perfect to work.

Terytha

Happens to most of us. I did awesome for months, then had a high calorie trip and went out for pasta and cheesecake on my anniversary. That one meal was over 3000 calories. The whole weekend was brutal. Took two weeks to get rid of the extra 5 pounds.

But I mean, weightloss is a long process anyway. 2 weeks is not such a huge setback. I've dropped like 30 pounds since then, so it's not like even a few bad days ruins you forever.

LyndaBSS

wshill7 wrote: »

Tonight I was exhausted from work and I went in to grab dinner at restaurant and I didn’t expect a major overload calories!!! This is first time I went way over. But I’m still monitoring my daily meals. Seems like I “slipped” out of bounds. Am I being too hard on myself? Need your support!!!

Forgive yourself. Just go back to your plan with the next meal.

wshill7

Thank you for your encouragement and support!!! I truly appreciated. Hugs to y’all!!! Wish the same goes for you!

cmriverside

I would add that,

1. One meal or one or two Days don't really mean anything in the long term goal to lose weight. If you are set at 1700ish for weight loss, your Maintenance calorie range is around 2300. To gain, that would need to be around 3000, and not just for one day, it would need to be over a period of many days. Any weight gain on the scale after an event like this is going to be temporary, so just move on.

2. If I try to "juggle" numbers it quickly becomes a mess. If I over eat on one day, I don't try to "make up" for it on the next day. Why? because then I'm chasing my tail AND if I under eat, I'm just going to be really hungry the next day and over eat and round and round we go.

Just move on and eat your normal amount today. Skip that whole binge/starve cycle.

ToadstoolBetty

Only one day won't hurt. The worst that will happen is you'll even out everything and not lose anything this week.
Don't weigh yourself till about 4 days time though otherwise you'll see that day on the scale. When you weigh yourself (unless you have a condition like thyroid) you see 2 to 3 days earlier on the scale.

koalathebear

As people have pointed out, we all have times when we fall off the wagon or get close to the edge of the wagon. I've been on the journey since Jan this year and I've exceeded a few times - it doesn't seem to have made much difference in the scheme of things.

On the days when I've gone over, I've been tempted to not record the spillovers in my diary ... but then i have always gone back and recorded it anyway, just so that I am honest with myself and I'm glad I did because it shows that in the end - it's ok as long as you are aware and you try to fix things later.

I've usually compensated by eating less the next few days or exercising more - overall it evens out. I think if you find that you're going over consistently, then you might need to look at whether you're eating enough/exercising too much/stressed/not finding snacks that fill you up enough etc.

Don't be too hard on yourself!

corinasue1143

Ok, my turn to confess. I got distracted last night and forgot to eat supper. About 1 am I remembered, but decided it was too late, so went to bed. This morning I had a regular breakfast. I had a regular lunch, was still hungry, so I had a big cinnamon roll and 2 bowls of ice cream. Oops! Over 1000 calories for lunch. I had a regular supper tonight to get back on track ASAP. Definitely over calories today. Will it hurt in the long run? No. Is it a good idea? Probably not. Is it sustainable? No. Several days like this and I would be gaining! But I’m already back on track, so I’m not worried. Life is good!

ETA. And I already know. I have a tendency to forget to eat, then get hungry and overeat. I KNOW I have to watch out for it. This is the first time it’s happened in years, BECAUSE I know it’s a problem for me.

DelicatelyDrifting

Think about it this way. If you are supposed to floss everyday and you accidentally miss a day of flossing. Is it better to quit or to pick yourself back up and floss the next day?

You floss the next day! So forget about what you did and move on.

healingnurtrer

DelicatelyDrifting wrote: »

Think about it this way. If you are supposed to floss everyday and you accidentally miss a day of flossing. Is it better to quit or to pick yourself back up and floss the next day?

You floss the next day! So forget about what you did and move on.

This is great! I agree. Sticking with it is more important than never making a mistake.

Slow and steady wins the race.