Went 5000 cals over maintenance

Milax19

So yes
Ughh Will this be a problem? Will it affect progress? I’m 35 days into my weight loss journey. I don’t feel that bad for some reason but again I’m just worried if it will affect the progress? I’m gonna hit legs in few minutes so maybe after that session I might feel bit better. Idk...😞
I did lose little weight from my waist, Will I gain this back cause I went over my cals?

tony56pr

Once or twice is not really gonna effect as long as you buckle down and dont keep doing it. You will likely "gain" a couple pounds however. Water weight/sodium retention and if you've been low carb and you ate a bunch of carbs will increase weight too.

cmriverside

I don't know, but at worst it will set back your weight loss a few days.

Probably won't matter a whole lot. You may retain a bit, but it's more likely it will drop back off in a few days.

Are your calories set really low? That's quite a bit over...although to be fair I regularly go over weekly maintenance calories by 2000-3000. As long as I stop doing it all is well, and I've been at this for a very long time so I know within a few hundred calories what my Maintenance is.

Do you know for a fact you're 5000 over? How did you get your Maintenance numbers?

Milax19

tony56pr wrote: »

Once or twice is not really gonna effect as long as you buckle down and dont keep doing it. You will likely "gain" a couple pounds however. Water weight/sodium retention and if you've been low carb and you ate a bunch of carbs will increase weight too.

Thanks for ur reply. I hope that... My carbs re set to 140 grams.

Milax19

cmriverside wrote: »

I don't know, but at worst it will set back your weight loss a few days.

Probably won't matter a whole lot. You may retain a bit, but it's more likely it will drop back off in a few days.

Are your calories set really low? That's quite a bit over...although to be fair I regularly go over weekly maintenance calories by 2000-3000. As long as I stop doing it all is well, and I've been at this for a very long time so I know within a few hundred calories what my Maintenance is.

Do you know for a fact you're 5000 over? How did you get your Maintenance numbers?

Thanks for ur reply! Yeahhh.... my cals are set to 1400 cals per day. The rate of losing is set to 0.2kg per week. I only have about 7 to lose weight. I’m not over weight or anything. I’m just unhappy about my body and I want that “toned” look. On Mfp it says my maintenance level without any activity is 1700 cals.

MikePTY

What did you eat to eat close to 7000 calories in a day? That is a lot of food. Sometimes when we have a big day, we think we ate 700 calories but maybe it was really only 3000-4000.

But assuming your numbers are correct, both in your calorie intake and your daily calorie levels, then yes, a binge that big will set you back some, since you are already at slim margins. It's unclear if your body truly absorbs all of the calories on a big binge like that, but even if it doesn't, it could still set you back at least a couple of weeks to get back to where you were beforehand. It is not the end of the world, but if you are targeting .25 KG a week, big days can really stop progress dead in its track.

Shortgirlrunning

Meh. Life goes on. It’s one day out of 35 so far. So 34 days on track vs 1 off day. Will it reflect on the scale and probably result in no loss/a gain this week. Probably. But so what? It’s just one day, it’s just one week without a loss. You move forward and get back on track.

Weight loss is about persistence, not perfection.

Milax19

Thank you guys for ur replies! I will keep moving forward...... I messed up yesterday and today but tomorrow I will do better. That’s a promise to myself. Thanks everyone x

lgfrie

Actually, having an insane blowout after 35 days is no biggie. That's less than 3 % of your days as off days. If you're fully on track the other 97 % of the time, you're doing great.

Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Dieting isn't about 100 %. It's really more about 90 %, or 80 %. And probably reining in the 5,000 to a somewhat less extreme number as you go forward LOL

lynn_glenmont

If it does affect your progress (progress toward what? You didn't say what your goal is), what are you going to do, just give up? That will affect your progress even more. The damage is done. All you can do is continue with your plan.

Edited to fix stupid auto correct.

AnnPT77

If you actually ate 5000 calories over actual maintenance, your maximum actual fat gain should not exceed roughly 1.4 pounds, or around 0.65 kg. If you're actually losing 0.2kg per week, it's at most a 3 week setback, and probably less.

For the reason I say "probably less", consider this thread: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10603949/big-overfeed-ruins-everything-nope

Again, this assumes you're right about your maintenance calories (note that calculators only estimate this, they don't really calculate it), and that you're right about how much you ate (here again, we're estimating).

You should expect the scale tomorrow to jump by more than 1.4 pounds, because scale weight increases not only because of fat gain, but because of water retention, and digestive contents in transit.

Several thousand calories of extra food has a physical weight, and until you metabolize what you can metabolize, and excrete (or exhale, or whatever) what you're going to excrete, it increases your scale weight. Digestive transit, per research studies, can take up to 53 hours or more. So that will be around for a few days. But it's not fat gain, so you don't need to worry about it, you just need to wait for it to be excreted, exhaled, etc.

Every gram of carbs you eat above your personal normal amount will require 3 (or is it 4, I always forget) extra grams of water to be stored with it, until your body's done processing it. (There are 3 grams of water for each gram of carbs you normally eat, too, but you're used to seeing those on the scale It's not that carbs are evil.). Again, this isn't fat, it's just water, and it will drop off the scale in a few days or so (individuals vary in this regard), so it isn't worth worrying about.

If you're not overweight, but want to be more toned, it may be that exercise (strength exercise, predominantly) will do more toward your goals than weight loss. Consider this thread:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat

If you're concerned that you've overeaten, I'd encourage you to spend no more than about 10 minutes considering (1) whether you truly wish it hadn't happened, (2) why it happened (this is the biggie), and (3) if you wish it hadn't happened, how you can influence things to avoid a repeat.

With respect to (1): Personally, I'm fine with eating over maintenance on true special occasions, even though (as a person in year 4+ of weight maintenance) I know I'll need to balance things out eventually. It's a different matter if the over-goal eating doesn't seem worth it in retrospect.

With respect to (2): Have you been over-restricting food choices (avoiding so-called "bad" foods that you enjoy, more than essential, for example), or cutting calories too far for your activity level? Was stress or boredom involved? Was there some habit or social situation that influenced you to eat more than you really preferred to eat? DId you feel extra hungry because of something about your eating schedule or the specific food choices (reviewing your food log can help zero in on this kind of thing)? Did you get too little sleep, or otherwise get fatigued? Did alcohol consumption or some other factor reduce your self-control? (If the root problem wasn't actually hunger, the best solution isn't food.)

With respect to (3): If you decide you really wouldn't want to repeat this, and can identify some triggers that led to the situation, then think of a different strategy you can use in similar circumstances in the future. Rehearse it in your head vividly a few times, like a mini-movie, imagining yourself doing the new thing.

So, 10 minutes thinking on #1, 2, 3. Then let it go, and get back on track. Wait out the scale a few days, and everything will be fine. :flowerforyou:

jhanleybrown

For me there are two things that work:
1) Get back on track the next day. (Dont turn a mess up day into a week, month...). Be super disciplined. Get back on track A.S.A.P. Start right now. Not later. N.O.W.

2) Smile and revel in your mess up day. Dont feel guilty about eating the entire pizza. Think, "Ok. Got that out of my system. Back on track. And DAMN that pizza was gooooooood." Close your eyes and remember how delicious the pizza was....

So get back on it. But you might as well enjoy it!