Bad day yesterday & 2 dinners planned today
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100togo2020 wrote: »Well, got on the scale this morning... I’ve gained FOUR lbs. LOVELY! All the progress I was making, goneeee.
Thank you all again. It’s time to regroup and start all over again.
A four pound gain that happens overnight is almost guaranteed to be water/waste fluctuation, not fat. You would have to eat 14,000 calories over maintenance to gain 4 pounds of fat.5 -
100togo2020 wrote: »Well, got on the scale this morning... I’ve gained FOUR lbs. LOVELY! All the progress I was making, goneeee.
Thank you all again. It’s time to regroup and start all over again.
A four pound gain that happens overnight is almost guaranteed to be water/waste fluctuation, not fat. You would have to eat 14,000 calories over maintenance to gain 4 pounds of fat.
Yep this. Don't extra restrict today, just eat how you were and carry on. Even little over/under cycles can turn into bigger problems or at the very least prolong the "wave."3 -
100togo2020 wrote: »Well, got on the scale this morning... I’ve gained FOUR lbs. LOVELY! All the progress I was making, goneeee.
Thank you all again. It’s time to regroup and start all over again.
There’s no need to regroup and start over - you just continue on. The “Starting over” mindset will get you every time.
The best advice I received early on was this - if you were driving from NY to LA and you took a wrong turn and ended up in Texas, you wouldn’t go back to NY and start driving again, you would just get back on the right route and keep driving.14 -
100togo2020 wrote: »Well, got on the scale this morning... I’ve gained FOUR lbs. LOVELY! All the progress I was making, goneeee.
Thank you all again. It’s time to regroup and start all over again.
One bowl of restaurant soup will have me up two pounds the next day because of the sodium - don’t fret, it’s almost certain you didn’t really eat 14,000 calories over your maintenance levels yesterday, which is what it would take to gain four pounds of fat! Give it a few days and I bet it comes right off.
I wanted to add, if you need to eat out a lot, it’s helpful to start visiting places with tasty, helpful options instead of cheap pizza and drinks. I focus on fish places with grilled fish, and some locally-owned ethnic restaurants here also have inexpensive low calorie options. It’s much easier when you aren’t fighting the menu! Also, don’t be afraid to make your needs known: I have the waiter remove the bread or chips after my husband gets what he wants. You don’t have to let restaurants make it so easy to overeat!4 -
As already mentioned: nothing to apologize for.
The need to regroup is in reference to you rethinking your approach and options.
Not in reference of doubling down and starting up again.
Over restricting super hard and overindulging super hart will get you nowhere good... and will get you there super fast.
You have to put some limits into place. Limits in terms of how much you restrict and how much you overindulge and limits on the frequency.
You've described a structural problem that you have to think through: caloric value of drinks and food and frequency all combined = a lot of optional calories you have to handle to the degree that they can't be handled
(without even more issues) during the rest of your week.
The structural change has to happen within the context of your eating out and entertainment budget.
The mechanics problem of your 4 lbs is easy: your best course of action is to continue with a moderate deficit as if nothing has happened.
Playing catch up and using excessively restrictive deficits will make things worse.
Giving up will make things worse.
When I was eating at a substantial deficit, I would not have done my recent restaurant meals within that time span without modifications to what I ordered.
Or I would have done so in the context of a vacation or Christmas break where I was expecting at best to maintain.
If restaurant eating were inevitable and I needed to control calories, I would politely but ruthlessly specify exactly what I wanted to rest and how I wanted it cooked.
Doesn't mean I would get it but I would at least try!!!
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Work travel with lots of restaurant meals is hard. Not gonna lie. The hardest working boss I ever had traveled hard - around the world for over a month at a time, never in same place more than 2-3 days, highly scheduled (I.e. all meals were work meals with customers and/or employees). I learned a lot from him. He had several travel rules, most learned the hard way. Many stories.
Anywhoo, about food his travel habit was fresh fruit at breakfast (because it maybe the only time all day you can get it), salad for lunch (lowest calorie option he could get), and regional specialty at dinner. Moderating alcohol is a huge help in getting a handle on calories.
Best to you, OP. It will take some adjustment, but it can be done.4 -
Rest = eat
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100togo2020 wrote: »I was doing so good until yesterday... I had a bad lunch. I tried logging the whole thing but let’s just say, 3 margaritas, 2 slices pizza, plus bread bread bread. I was over 1,000 calories feels like. I tracked it, it shows about 480.
Today- I have two dinners. I will def limit my intake and calories at the first one. 2nd dinner, it’s 13 course, small portions but I wouldn’t even know how to log that in. I am so close to cancelling but I feel bad my friend made reservations and already paid etc. Of course, there will be a lot of wine.
I don’t know how other professionals handle it. I have a lot of lunches and dinners- that’s what makes me stop every time. Struggle is real!
Yup - I go to a lot of bars and restaurants to chat with neighbors and our work friends. There is always a healthier choice you can make! Do it for your mental and physical health!
When there is a lot of wine - I do one glass wine then the next seltzer ... try it! And seltzer can be in a wine glass 😉2 -
Adding to @PAV8888's point... you will eventually get a feel for logging certain types of food from restaurants. In the meantime you should throw out a caution flag for a restaurant lunch that is under 800 calories for something from the normal portion of the menu. That is just the entree. There will be plenty of cases where it naturally falls lower and many more where it will be MUCH higher. The caution flag is just for you to go back over it again and do some more research to be sure you have it right. My flags are more specific based on the menu but I still do this. If I am expecting 1300 calories and it is 1100 or less or 1500 or more I dig back into it and try to verify it another way.
He does that by sending me pictures and making me guesstimate the calories!
I think my original guess with one of the Spaghetti Factory ones was 'a lovely meal with your Dad, and therefore no calories'. Apparently that was wrong. There was also much conversation over the amount of pasta. We did eventually agree that 2500 seemed a good estimate (me: total guess; @PAV8888: basing it on estimated cups). 5 -
@100togo2020
I gained 2.2 pounds yesterday. I had lunch out at a restaurant. I selected grilled fish and a 2 sides of steamed broccoli. I chose to drink some black coffee and water with it. My entire meal was under 450 calories. I finished yesterday comfortably inside of my calorie goal and I had nearly 20k steps between exercise and just moving about.
It was a textbook day for weight loss. I did everything right. The scale still went up 2.2 pounds. However, not one ounce of it was fat. I know this from experience.
Read this:
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/
I also know from experience that the real damage happens between the moment you erroneously conclude that you failed and the moment you actually start over. That is when you might start thinking like I once did that it didn't matter if you eat all the food because you are starting over soon. For me soon was never soon and I did regain weight and it usually came with friends.
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Thank you all again. A lot of great information! I appreciate you all taking the time to help me understand.7
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@NovusDies that's quite active! Plus you get a (manly) hug for that; cause it still sucks even if you know it is not fat!
@Nony_Mouse; you talked about the fight club?!?!?!
🙀
Actually many friends have helped with logging over the years. Including picture logging of meals out or buffets. Without them i would still be thinking that shot glass type mini desserts are 50 Cal each, maybe 75!... 😹4 -
100togo2020 wrote: »3 margaritas, 2 slices pizza, plus bread bread bread. I was over 1,000 calories feels like. I tracked it, it shows about 480.
Not to pile on, but this sounds much closer to 1000 calories than to 480.
My internal calorie logger puts it over 1600 depending on how many servings 'bread bread bread' means.
OP if you came up with 480 you probably need to work a little harder at logging. You can't just choose the cheapest calorie entries in the database and expect that to work.
That is a really good tip. When I do log( I don’t any more) I used to use the most favourable entries. I didn’t realise to double check user created entries. I’m a bit more experienced now....1 -
Log it,learn from it, plan for the future, forget about it2
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Got on the scale today, got rid of the 4 lbs (water rentention). What a lesson to learn, two slip ups, took me 4 days to recover. I know scale isn’t everything and it will fluctuate but I have a lot of weight to lose. Every pound matters and the # matters to me. It’s a sense of accomplishment. I just love the feeling, it motivates me to do better.8
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100togo2020 wrote: »Got on the scale today, got rid of the 4 lbs (water rentention). What a lesson to learn, two slip ups, took me 4 days to recover. I know scale isn’t everything and it will fluctuate but I have a lot of weight to lose. Every pound matters and the # matters to me. It’s a sense of accomplishment. I just love the feeling, it motivates me to do better.
I'd really suggest you stop thinking of water fluctuations as something you need to recover from.
Those pounds really don't matter, the weight you're trying to lose is fat, the swings up and down are water, the trend is your fat loss. When you drop a great deal quickly that also isn't a true reflection of fat loss, i.e. if I drank no water on a long hike, then I'm going to be quite dehydrated, if I weigh the day after I'll likely be a lot lower than my average weight, that doesn't mean I achieved anything in terms of fat loss, it just means I need to drink some water.
I've been monitoring my trend whilst I've not been calorie counting as I'm on a program to help with my binge eating that discourages counting calories during the program and requires me to weigh 1-2 times per week instead of daily.
If I still got emotionally attached to the number on the scale my emotions would be a rollercoaster. This is my Monday and Friday weigh in's since Christmas when I started the program. The dotted line is my trend.
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+1 @tinkerbellang83 said.
I know you keep getting told you are doing something wrong or thinking about things the wrong way and that has to suck. Please stick it out. If it helps you are not learning anything that I haven't been forced to learn from my own mistakes.
The bathroom scale is a horrible motivator. I suggest you try to take pictures and measurements to help gauge your progress. More importantly I think you should read this thread:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1275030/whats-your-most-recent-nsv/p1
NSVs are really what most of us are after not a new number on the scale. I can do so many more things now that I could do over 200 pounds ago. That is so much meaningful than a number on the scale.
Weight fluctuations are annoying but they are part of how your body works. They are nothing to be concerned about unless they cause or are caused by a medical problem.
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^^ What those smart people said.
4 pounds that comes on overnight and goes away in 4 days is not fat and has nothing to do with fat loss. That four pounds is guaranteed to be water and waste. You’re not here to lose water and normal bodily waste, right?
I would suggest going back and rereading this thread. You don’t seem to be listening to the things folks are telling you.2 -
i can only say what the others said - if you knew you were having a big 13 course dinner, why did you eat and drink so much at lunch? And surely you aren't forced to go to 2 dinners? That is just crazy.
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Oops - sorry - I didn't see a load of posts (only looked at first page). Just think about it and make some changes - consistency is the key - not eating loads for a few months, then restricting hard on a 'diet', then getting bored of it and going back to eating loads. You have to rethink your eating habits FOR EVER (yikes!)1
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Pipsqueak1965 wrote: »i can only say what the others said - if you knew you were having a big 13 course dinner, why did you eat and drink so much at lunch? And surely you aren't forced to go to 2 dinners? That is just crazy.
The big lunch was the day before the two dinner day
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1 = Jan 6 -> 7: Italian Rest Meal: 2535 Day's Total: 4124 TDEE (Fitbit, unadjusted): 2756
4 = Jan 7 -> 8: Fish & Chips Rest Meal: 1275 Day's Total: 2721 TDEE (Fitbit, unadjusted) 2746
2 = Jan 10->11: Italian Rest Meal: 2450 Day total 3467 TDEE (Fitbit, unadjusted): 2374
3 = Jan 19->20: Buffet Function: 3500 Day total 4086 TDEE (Fitbit, unadjusted) 3146
MFP settings calibrated to lose @-150 when going over goal by about 200--cause I like being a rebel and almost always in the red. Goal is maintenance/sure go lower/say no to regaining!
From the speed of up and down, most of the movement is "water weight" and "food in transit"
Note that there is some active adjustment. For example the fish and chips the day after the Italian, I ordered lightly battered, patted the fish and chips dry, got coleslaw without the dressing and used it as a sandwich filling for the side bun and butter, used a scale, including for the ketchup and kept the day within my TDEE (yes, it is a casual restaurant I've been going to for years and yes, I use a scale when I eat there and have reduced down from 6 to 8 pieces of fish and 3 orders of chips in the years leading to 2014... to, well, 2 pieces of fish and one order of chips these days)
No one else has to do same or similar, but choices and adjustments do have to be made to make things fit: anything @ anytime, just not everything all the time.
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I know it must be hard if you have to go out, but if I have a week with lots of outings, I don't eat any bread with the meal, and go for small options - fish generally. No dessert - have a coffee instead. And no alcohol and lunch - that is a disaster 2
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@100togo2020 I was thinking about your struggle yesterday while listening to the "How To Identify Your Diet Cycle Triggers" episode of the Half Size Me podcast: https://www.halfsizeme.com/hsm411/
About half way in she starts talking about dealing with all the food events during the holiday season, which reminded me of all your work and social food events. You might find something useful in this episode.3 -
kshama2001 wrote: »@100togo2020 I was thinking about your struggle yesterday while listening to the "How To Identify Your Diet Cycle Triggers" episode of the Half Size Me podcast: https://www.halfsizeme.com/hsm411/
About half way in she starts talking about dealing with all the food events during the holiday season, which reminded me of all your work and social food events. You might find something useful in this episode.
Half Size Me is a great podcast!0 -
Thanks all. I’m vegetarian as well. 23 years.0
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100togo2020 wrote: »Thanks all. I’m vegetarian as well. 23 years.
Me, too, vegetarian 45 years. Pretty much all of the above advice still applies, except for the actual meat/fish.
Best wishes!1
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