Indulge

terri092990
terri092990 Posts: 18 Member
in Motivation and Support

oh my! I have guilty and disappointment written all over me. I’ve lost 60 pounds and today had a major indulgent of junk food! Anyone else been on this train? Just looking for words of encouragement.πŸ’•πŸ˜„πŸƒβ€β™€οΈ

Answers

  • Vicki_123059
    Vicki_123059 Posts: 57 Member

    @terri092990 The easy answer from me: Stuff happens. Own it. Track it. And move on. Tomorrow’s a new day.
    But when I do it I feel the same guilt and shame. πŸ€·β€β™€οΈ Sending a hug πŸ€—

    Vicki

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 38,152 Community Helper

    I'm another vote for "log it and let it go".

    At most, if you wish it hadn't happened, spend no more than about ten minutes thinking about why it happened, then tweak your plan to avoid future repeats. Rehearse the new plan vividly in your head a few times so it sticks, then let it go and go on with your regular healthy routine.

    The majority of our results come from the majority of our days. That one day when we eat too much "junk food" or - on the flip side - work out for 5 hours . . . that's a drop in the ocean. Our routine daily habits, the things we do on repeat day-in, day-out on repeat . . . that's the ocean.

    Keep in mind that we need to eat 3500 calories over our current weight-maintence calories to gain a pound of fat, or 7700 calories over maintenance to gain a kilo if that's your unit of measure. Did you do that? If so, you might have gained back a truly small amount of fat. Obviously, you know how to lose fat, so NBD. Just get back to a healthy plan, and everything will be fine.

    Also, it's common when there's a major truly unusual over-goal short event to NOT see the fat gain we'd expect from the calorie overage, at least not the whole amount of expected gain. There's some science behind that, something I can explain if you want that, but I'm not going to belabor it speculatively.

    Self-recrimination, guilt, shame . . . those burn zero extra calories, and feel icky. Why indulge in them? It's just food, and we need to eat some. It's not a character test, let alone a measure of your worth as a human.

    Personally, I used to be obese. I lost 50 pounds. That was nearly 10 years ago, and I've been at a healthy weight (and wearing the same jeans size) ever since. Sometimes I eat over maintenance calories. On rare occasions, I eat waaaaay over maintenance calories. If I just get back on a reasonable track, everything works out fine. I'd bet that'll be true for you, too.

    One warning: If you weigh in daily like I do, high, high odds you'll see an immediate scale jump, possibly several pounds/kilos, much more than the extra calorie intake would lead you to expect. It's not fat - at least not most of it - it's extra water retention to metabolize unusual levels of carbs/sodium, plus some extra volume of waste in the digestive tract on its way to the exit. Don't stress over that. The water/waste part will drop off over a few days to a couple of weeks. If you're female and have menstrual cycles, it could even seem to take a little longer if it overlaps in some annoying way with routine hormonal water retention fluctuations. You will not gain fat beyond what the excess calories account for.

    Don't worry. Everything will be fine.

    Best wishes!

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