Does one bad day destroy a good week of dieting?

Typotart

So I've been eating around 1300 (only roughly around, I'm trying not to be obsessive like I was on my last weight loss journey) for the week. Yesterday though, you know how it is on a Saturday. Someone mentions getting an Indian in, suddenly you're devouring chips, cheese, spicy chicken, more naan bread than you should, two ciders... And then you've got the audacity to add some cheeky biscuits and chocolates in there.... Sigh. Disaster!

The scales have jumped up five pounds. Now, I doubt my binge was THAT bad, but...

How much damage have I realistically done to my weight loss? I know this is hard to say. I'm 5'6", female, 25... I've been really sedentary over the Christmas holidays, but usually I'm in the Uni gym 3-4 times a week, either weight lifting with some cardio or swimming (poorly).

I'm a little nervous. I don't want to get obsessive about this, there was a long time I was only eating 1000 calories for around a year and all sorts of wrong dieting behavior. But I have put on a stone, and I need to something about it.

seat151

I allow myself 1 'naughty day per week, usually a reward for being good.

Typotart

seat151 wrote: »

I allow myself 1 'naughty day per week, usually a reward for being good.

That's reassuring! How do you find it impacts your weight loss? Also, are your 'cheat' days as bad as what I described?

nighthawk584

unless you ate 17,500 calories above your maintenance, you didn't gain 5 lbs of fat. More than likely water weight. Don't sweat it, get back on track and you'll be fine.

Lietchi

How bad can it be? Fat gain is a question of maths, 3500 kcal over maintenance to gain a pound (more or less). Only you know how much you ate, but I can't imagine you consumed more than 5000 calories yesterday, so one pound of fat gain at the very maximum, probably less. Compensated partly by your deficit the previous days.

So most of those 5 lbs will be water retention and food waste in your digestive system, which should go down the following days.

Typotart

Lietchi wrote: »

How bad can it be? Fat gain is a question of maths, 3500 kcal over maintenance to gain a pound (more or less). Only you know how much you ate, but I can't imagine you consumed more than 5000 calories yesterday, so one pound of fat gain at the very maximum, probably less. Compensated partly by your deficit the previous days.

So most of those 5 lbs will be water retention and food waste in your digestive system, which should go down the following days.

I feel a little bit embarrassed, I think I've panicked over nothing. I can't find out the calories of my takeaway for the life of me, but looking at my diary, I think I ate around maybe... I'm going to say 2300 - 2400 at a maximum calories (but then again, people tend to be bad judges of just guessing at calories).

I shouldn't even be checking the scales after an indulgent day really, they're not going to be accurate!

Thank you for the replies folks, that helped bring my head down and get myself level.

lemurcat2

Typotart wrote: »

Lietchi wrote: »

How bad can it be? Fat gain is a question of maths, 3500 kcal over maintenance to gain a pound (more or less). Only you know how much you ate, but I can't imagine you consumed more than 5000 calories yesterday, so one pound of fat gain at the very maximum, probably less. Compensated partly by your deficit the previous days.

So most of those 5 lbs will be water retention and food waste in your digestive system, which should go down the following days.

I feel a little bit embarrassed, I think I've panicked over nothing. I can't find out the calories of my takeaway for the life of me, but looking at my diary, I think I ate around maybe... I'm going to say 2300 - 2400 at a maximum calories (but then again, people tend to be bad judges of just guessing at calories).

I shouldn't even be checking the scales after an indulgent day really, they're not going to be accurate!

Thank you for the replies folks, that helped bring my head down and get myself level.

Glad you are already feeling better.

I'm just going to note that it sounds like your day was at maintenance or maybe a bit more (depending on how active you were that day). When I was losing, I found it helpful to have one indulgent meal per week (sometimes Indian), and my general rule was that the day should be around maintenance. That didn't affect my losses (I ate a little less on other days to allow for it, but even if not it was one neutral day with 6 deficit days, so the effect would have been small). Understanding that this was something allowed and a weekly thing, not me being "naughty" or "going off plan" or whatever, made it easier to eat what I wanted but also to stick within my maintenance cals and not feel like since I'd blown the day already I should eat and eat (since who knows when I could again). Something like that might be helpful for you.

lynn_glenmont

Typotart wrote: »

So I've been eating around 1300 (only roughly around, I'm trying not to be obsessive like I was on my last weight loss journey) for the week. Yesterday though, you know how it is on a Saturday. Someone mentions getting an Indian in, suddenly you're devouring chips, cheese, spicy chicken, more naan bread than you should, two ciders... And then you've got the audacity to add some cheeky biscuits and chocolates in there.... Sigh. Disaster!

The scales have jumped up five pounds. Now, I doubt my binge was THAT bad, but...

How much damage have I realistically done to my weight loss? I know this is hard to say. I'm 5'6", female, 25... I've been really sedentary over the Christmas holidays, but usually I'm in the Uni gym 3-4 times a week, either weight lifting with some cardio or swimming (poorly).

I'm a little nervous. I don't want to get obsessive about this, there was a long time I was only eating 1000 calories for around a year and all sorts of wrong dieting behavior. But I have put on a stone, and I need to something about it.

If you log the food you eat, even on Saturdays, you'll know how much damage you have done. There's no way for us to know from your vague description of what you ate, and without knowing your maintenance level or having the details on your weight, activity level, etc., to determine your maintenance level.

sijomial

Typotart wrote: »

I shouldn't even be checking the scales after an indulgent day really, they're not going to be accurate!

Actually I think it's better to realise that the scales are accurate.
They accurately give you a snapshot of your total body weight at the moment you step on them.

They accurately weigh the entirity of you and that includes the water retained from a higher sodium meal and the weight of food still in your system.

What a single data point doesn't tell you is your long term trend.

dramaqueen45

I have found that if I want to indulge I best do it at the beginning of the week and never the day before a weigh in, because inevitably the food will be high in sodium which of course causes water weight gain (and most restaurant foods have a lot of sodium as do things like pizza, etc). So if I step on the scale after a day of going off and I have gained 3-4 pounds it can be very discouraging- like I ate really good all week and how does one day do this??? So in the past it's been enough to derail me for several days or even weeks. Just stay off of the scale after a bad day, period. I agree with the post above - it's a snapshot of where you are at the time. It fluctuates day to day and I know some people like to weigh daily so they can see a trend and adjust accordingly. I try to have my weigh in day on Monday so I can keep on track for the weekend. Otherwise, I can eat too much over the weekend and throw myself off for the week.

tinkerbellang83

dramaqueen45 wrote: »

I have found that if I want to indulge I best do it at the beginning of the week and never the day before a weigh in, because inevitably the food will be high in sodium which of course causes water weight gain (and most restaurant foods have a lot of sodium as do things like pizza, etc). So if I step on the scale after a day of going off and I have gained 3-4 pounds it can be very discouraging- like I ate really good all week and how does one day do this???

I have found the opposite, that by weighing on that day/following days, it becomes less discouraging, if I know I've been eating in a deficit the rest of the week and I know I've had something that is more sodium/carbs, or if I've had a particularly gruelling workout, it normalises it and then is not something I fear, rather I just accept that it's not an accurate picture of my effort, which is the same for a weigh in that shows a larger loss than normal.