A calorie counting question

kallen771991

So this may seem dumb to some of you pro's on here but i was curious about something.

Yesterday i overate by 450 calories, darn turtle brownies get me everytime!

So i had the thought and i wondered if it could apply. What if i ate 450 cal under? surely that would balance out right? or if i try to aim for that much calorie burn today?

thought i would ask, you all have been very helpful to me.

westrich20940

Firstly, think about what your current calorie goal is per day. Make sure that it isn't too low for you (this is easy to do) - so it's totally possible that you actually may not have 'overeaten'.

But, if you actually did...here are my suggestions:
1. Don't worry about it at all. It's one day. Going over every once in a while isn't going to make you gain weight or ruin your overall weigh loss journey. What *will* tend to ruin it is having an awful relationship with food and feeling like you have to under eat/over-exercise to 'make up' for eating too much.

2. You can do what you said, eat less today (if your calorie goal is appropriate). Overall, long-term trends are more important than day to day trends.

3. Your other suggestion of working out to burn that many calories in order to meet your goal isn't a good idea IMO. That's kind of like punishing yourself because you overate and that's a really bad (and for some people, dangerous) habit to start getting into. You should be eating to fuel your workouts...not working out so you can eat.


That's my advice. Others may feel differently but overall...denying yourself things that you like isn't going to get you anywhere, for a myriad of reasons.

cmriverside

Yeah, one day isn't going to derail the whole process, you'll just be eating closer to your Maintenance calories. (If you're set to "lose 1 pound per week" you're set to a 500 calorie-per-day deficit.)

The other thing is a problem that could best be stated as Robbing Peter To Pay Paul. It becomes a constant battle to balance the books. It's stressful, and not necessary. Just eat your normal calories today, maybe wait a few days before another treat and just look at it as life. Some people do look at weekly calories as an average but I find that can compound this kind of issue.

So it takes a day longer to lose that weight? Meh.

heybales

If you have a 500 cal deficit, you may have eaten 450 over goal, but not over maintenance.
So you just didn't get the desired deficit for 1 day.

So much easier to go over than under though.

The eating goal, even if done correctly (meaning it's reasonable in the 1st place, it's increased when you are more active than planned in the 2nd place), is so much harder to drop another 450 calories from.

That may leave you so hungry that day, you binge the next and ruin the whole attempted balance.
Or your body is tired and that day you do much less than normal, so burning less means you really didn't get the deficit you'd normally get, ruins the attempted balance again.

Many people plan ahead for things - fits in with the whole concept a diet takes planning anyway:
they'll skip breakfast say on a day they know they are eating out that night.
they'll add to their daily deficit by 50 to 100 cal for say 5 days, allowing a Sat with extra 250-500 cal.

You could attempt that in reverse if your deficit was reasonable in the 1st place, 4 days of 100 under goal perhaps.
Or get in some extra exercise over a few days and unlike normal 2nd place don't eat more when you did more.

Usually what happens when people do the after effect attempt though - they have another day of going over. Then what, extend it out further, extra workouts, add more deficit?
Turns into a punishment game for many and fails, besides terrible relationship with food.

Many at least do better on the reward aspect with planning, but for some that isn't good either, making food a reward.
But at least you get done with a workout and the motivation this will allow that dessert with dinner is fine.

I agree skip this, and plan better.

kallen771991

westrich20940 wrote: »

Firstly, think about what your current calorie goal is per day. Make sure that it isn't too low for you (this is easy to do) - so it's totally possible that you actually may not have 'overeaten'.

But, if you actually did...here are my suggestions:
1. Don't worry about it at all. It's one day. Going over every once in a while isn't going to make you gain weight or ruin your overall weigh loss journey. What *will* tend to ruin it is having an awful relationship with food and feeling like you have to under eat/over-exercise to 'make up' for eating too much.

2. You can do what you said, eat less today (if your calorie goal is appropriate). Overall, long-term trends are more important than day to day trends.

3. Your other suggestion of working out to burn that many calories in order to meet your goal isn't a good idea IMO. That's kind of like punishing yourself because you overate and that's a really bad (and for some people, dangerous) habit to start getting into. You should be eating to fuel your workouts...not working out so you can eat.


That's my advice. Others may feel differently but overall...denying yourself things that you like isn't going to get you anywhere, for a myriad of reasons.

My current calorie goal is 1663 cal per day. i do well with this, i usually go under. Its just usually the weekend if i go over by much because we end up eating out for a treat or over at families house. during the week i try to keep at or under my goal for the day.

HoneyBadger302

I use the reverse of what you are suggesting by "banking" calories semi frequently - I will try to eat under (aka "bank") and then on the weekend or to really enjoy something I want to eat, use up some or all of those "extra" calories I banked earlier in the week - so yes, that is a perfectly reasonable solution.

If this is a rare occurrence for you, and you are losing as you would expect, honestly, one day I wouldn't sweat as long as you're not regularly going over...now when you start going over every single week, or multiple days a week, then it may be time to do an evaluation.

Bridgie3

You can only point your body in one direction at a time, either forwards or backwards.

If you point your body forwards, then yesterday is gone.

Start today today. Forget yesterday. Live today. Have your full calorie amount.

(a reason besides my philosophy for this, is that if you undereat today you'll probably blow it tomorrow and become yoyo girl. There's no value in it. )