Big Weekend Meal...what's next?

jancarlomb

Hey guys, My first month in going mostly good but I just devoured a high cal meal. I usually have a problem over-ordering, part of the reason I'm here.

So far I find it quite easy to eat good, get good exercise and get a general cal deficit during the week. But then it hits the weekend and I think my good sense goes out the window and I slip a bit.

Now, I'm not all too stressed about the gluttony, I tracked everything as best I could and committed to add it to MFP as a learning experience. However would love to know what people do or possibly say in the days following your "cheat meal"/big meal/general overeating days.

I'm keeping positive but part of me is still saying "probably shouldn't have done that".

Any pointers would be good!

Strudders67

The first thing is to log it but not let it derail you. It happens; move on. A second thing is to perhaps see what you can do to minimise the impact next time. Are there lower cal options you could choose instead?

Plenty of people bank calories through the week, knowing they'll splurge a bit at the weekend. If you use the app, you can see your weekly average - many of us just aim for our weekly figure to be on track, rather than being a slave to the numbers every day. It may be helpful looking at that.

cmriverside

What's done is done and I just keep swimming. (Figure of speech, I don't actually swim because of over eating.)

If you've set yourself at a calorie deficit here on Myfitnesspal, then just go back to that on Monday and try to make a plan for next weekend. Life happens but if you continue to do that you'll stop your weight loss. Either plan for it, or mitigate it in some other way.

I had lots of days of over-eating during my 80 pound weight loss. Some people don't do that, some do. It took me a bit longer to lose the weight, that's all.

KrissDotCom

Understanding the math and using that as my pep talk has always been the better angle for me.

I've lost close to 50lbs already. That means I have successfully had a deficit of 175,000 calories since I started.

I know i would have to do a lot of eating to accumulate all those calories back and put that 50lbs back on, which is why in knowing that, if I get back on track, even a week later, I know that my progress is okay.

I also know that it takes 3500 calories above my maintenance to gain a pound. And sure, I could of consumed about 5000-6000 calories in one day.. but even if my weight loss was .5lbs per week.. its still only 2 weeks of deficit. Those 2 weeks are going to go by anyway, so i may as well say, I had a good day and just carry on, cause in reality, if you weren't losing weight you would of carried on the next day anyway only difference is you're carrying on making better choices for a calorie deficit instead of just continuing with consuming a calorie surplus. Isnt that better? absolutely, it means your still going to go down and not continue going up, and thats the long term goal of this... its not just getting the pounds off, its accepting that not every day needs to be perfect but you need to carry on each day there after and do so for the rest of your life.

I've had plenty of days during my loss of very high calories.. scale still keeps going down tho.

I enjoy the days where I'm stuffing an unholy amount of meatballs in my mouth.. lol... but I also give myself a congratulations for getting back to it, think of it as a non-scale victory.

Courtscan2

I just did that as well. Intended to have a stir fry for dinner last night, accidentally ate a whole pepperoni pizza. Ha - oops! So what am I going to do? Well.....I logged it, so that when I am analysing my data later, I have a realistic picture of what was happening to possibly cause any weight fluctuations. And I normally weigh myself and log it on a monday morning, but figured I will do tomorrow instead, as pretty much the sodium content alone will blow out the number on the scale, and I don't particularly need to see that. Today I will stick to my regularly scheduled meals, I won't try to under eat to make up for it, because....meh. Life happens. This is a long term thing, and one pizza won't make or break me, and is no reason to punish myself with deprivation today. Got up, worked out, business as usual.

joyanna2016

Definitely don't try to eat at an excessive deficit tomorrow to "make up for it" or somehow "make yourself pay for it". It's no biggie, just get back on that horse tomorrow. And, sometimes when you really and truly want some amazing food, eating it is exactly what you should do! This is a marathon not a sprint. Sure it may slow your rate of loss but you'll still move in the right direction on the scale if it doesn't happen too frequently!

AnnPT77

The majority of our days determine the majority of our progress.

Log it (even if you have to estimate), learn from it, adjust your plan if needed, then let it go and get on with your positive plan.

It's just food (you ate some), not a melodrama about good and evil (unless you make it one).

If I want more on a planned basis, I bank a small amount ahead of time, eat lightly otherwise on the day of the big event (unless it's a whole day plan), maybe get in some extra activity that day if convenient. If unplanned/unplannable, I just go on with life. Even in maintenance, it works out, as long as I don't go way over goal very often.

yirara

Just accept it and log it. And don't get worried if the scale is up a bit for the next few days. You'll likely hold onto more water for a while due to more salt, plus more poop weight.

sijomial

Maybe regarding your calorie allowance as a weekly instead of a daily restriction might help put things in perspective?

Your calorie balance over the course of the entire week has some significance, one meal within that week is pretty trivial in comparison. Enjoy the meal, log the meal, move on.

Womona

I had a weekend of big restaurant meals moving my son into his college apartment. Yep, my weight is up too, but I don’t worry because I know a lot of it is water weight. I know it will come down because I’m back to logging, weighing and eating my normal meals. Something about all that yummy butter and salt that restaurants cook with really jacks up the calories vs. the same meal I would cook at home!

So, fear not, don’t let one weekend derail all of your efforts! Just get back at what works and don’t beat yourself up.

NovusDies

I have learned, mostly the hard way, that effective self management means that I steer into the curve more. Instead of brow beating myself into day in and day out consistency I play to my strengths and plan around my weak spots. For 4 to 5 days of the week I care less about food so I use that to bank calories for one bigger meal each weekend. My system is detailed here:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10735146/the-six-day-calorie-deficit-aka-banking-calories/p1

Dogmom1978

If I have plans to go out on the weekend and eat larger high calorie meals, I prepare for it during the week.

For example, door dash has $20 off $20 this week starting today. I know I’m going to go to this Italian place by me that participates and have a large meal (with leftovers) later this week. So I’m planning for it already by doing some extra cardio this week and holding onto my extra calories. That way, one meal doesn’t derail my ENTIRE week.

jancarlomb

Thank you all for the words of advice! Very helpful for a newbie like me After reading all these I think I know what I can do moving forward.

Today I didn't let it bother me and made it very much business as usual! Had my normal meals, at my normal times with my normal session of morning cardio (although I think I felt a bit slower than usual). I did do a weigh-in just because I wanted to keep my schedule but I did leave a note about the weekend meal, as well as tracking the meal itself on MFP.

I do need to plan my meals better when it comes to the weekend, so I will try banking more cals in the coming weeks.

Thanks, everyone!!