If you have one bad day does it erase all your good days?

soldiergrl_101

I had a bad day today, I am running on 3 hours of sleep in two days due to work requirements and this new schedule. My body is just exausted, that said i have been eating nothing but CRAP today ontop of things. Usually I try to stick to fruits, veggies and overall healthy food choices, but not today. From Ihop to Mcdonalds I ate roughly 2500 cals, and no I didnt work out either. If I hit it really hard at the gym the rest of the week and go back to eating right will it balance out or should I expect a large weight gain from the amount of salt and calories I put into my system?

mcibty

No, you've not undone all your hard work. You might even find that the odd 'bad day' helps. You've done it now, no point stressing over it or having a knee-jerk reaction to fix it. The only thing you can do is get back on track.

drop_it_like_a_squat

You're fine. Just get back to normal tomorrow. What counts is the average of calories you eat, but me I personally wouldn't stress too much about 1 day being over.

On a side note, salt will not make you gain weight. It may cause water retention, but that's about it.

aquarabbit

Not at all now. It used to, but I just keep telling myself "I'm not going to get thin by eating healthy for 1 day and I'm not going to balloon up by eating bad for 1 day". I just realize that one bad day out of a week of good ones is still progress since a large majority of my days used to be bad. I just accept it, log it, and move on. I think that logging it was the hardest part. But now I do that. Even if I'm 1000 calories over, I log it.

soldiergrl_101

I didnt want to log it either because I was afraid to see the damage lol

Goalsoalgoals

You've got to remember that all you may have done is maintained, you havnt actually gained weight, yes if you did that 4 times a week you might gain but no your fine

candiceh3

Don't be surprised if your body holds onto some extra water due to the salt and carbs you have eaten. It may appear like you've gained a pound from less than 3500 calories - and it's just the water. Patience - it will come off again.

Don't let one set back become ten!

elyelyse

I didnt want to log it either because I was afraid to see the damage lol

You have to log it, otherwise it defeats the purpose of logging. It's good to be able to look back at a week in review and see reality...both good and bad. You may find that looking at the week, you still end up with a deficit, and put your mind at ease. On the other hand, seeing when and what you ate when you made poor decisions can help you identify patterns and learn to correct them.
If your diary is private, but you don't log something, you are only trying to fool yourself.

Capt_Apollo

i failed many tests in college.


i still ended up graduating.

okgal247

I have a similar question/scenario:

I had lost 4 lbs (over about 14 days) before going to a concert with some friends. I did some working out in the morning because I knew it was going to be a rough night. I ended up going over my calorie max by 1138 calories. The next day, I was back at my starting weight- up 4 lbs. It took another 7 days to get rid of those 4 lbs (I did it by slightly under-eating for that next week until it balanced out those 1138 calories.

Main question: does it really make sense that I'd gain 4 lbs from an extra 1138 calories?

soldiergrl_101

Sounds like you might have had a lot of salt and you were holding on to water weight?

okgal247

I really didn't eat that poorly- it was mostly drinking, and for me- once I break the seal, it's bathroom time allll the time! :-) I was just surprised by the amount of gain from 1 night and then how long it took to come off if it was really just water.

At least it's gone now, I guess?

hookilau

Since to lose weight, you're looking for a small daily deficit to add up at some point during the week, one day doesn't ruin your whole week as long as it's just one day.

Also, salt does not make you put on fat, it's just water weight. Be easy

cwolfman13

No, your body is always trying to maintain...you have to consistently eat at a surplus to gain weight and consistently eat at a deficit to lose weight...one day of over eating or undereating is nothing your body can't handle...it is consistently over eating or undereating the over-rides your body's ability to maintain.

ShannonMpls

I didnt want to log it either because I was afraid to see the damage lol

You have to log it, otherwise it defeats the purpose of logging. It's good to be able to look back at a week in review and see reality...both good and bad. You may find that looking at the week, you still end up with a deficit, and put your mind at ease. On the other hand, seeing when and what you ate when you made poor decisions can help you identify patterns and learn to correct them.
If your diary is private, but you don't log something, you are only trying to fool yourself.

Eh, I had unlogged bad days once a month or so the whole time I was logging. In my opinion, it's good to log them now and then to see that "damn, those bad days are 4,000 calories!" but it's not vital in my opinion. It really depends on the person.

For me, part of the reason my unlogged/free/"cheat" days were so beneficial was emotional - taking a break from macro analyzing, diary searching, logging drudgery is why I'm still here, 134 pounds down, one year of maintenance, 845 days later. Logging every.single.day would not be conducive to my mental health. For others it might be. But taking unlogged days certainly didn't "defeat the purpose of logging."

Lizzy622

I didnt want to log it either because I was afraid to see the damage lol

You have to log it, otherwise it defeats the purpose of logging. It's good to be able to look back at a week in review and see reality...both good and bad. You may find that looking at the week, you still end up with a deficit, and put your mind at ease. On the other hand, seeing when and what you ate when you made poor decisions can help you identify patterns and learn to correct them.
If your diary is private, but you don't log something, you are only trying to fool yourself.

^^ THIS^^ Log it and move on. If you don't lose this week( or as much as you expect) you can look at it and say "oh that is why and I need to plan better next time I have a crazy work shift to contend with"

TheFitnessTutor

In the world of Optimal, you'd take advantage of the surplus of probably fat and carbs by doing more good resistance work. If it really bothered me I would do less working out and more fasting type of days to make up for it. If you eat less calories you need to do less work. Go low carb, high protein and green veggies for a few days and you'll be back where you left off. Otherwise just go back to where you should be and don't sweat it.

Alpina483

Topic: If you have one bad day does it erase all your good days?

Not only that, it ruins your whole life, too.

Arne_becomesxXx

It´ll become a bad day, if you start stressing yourself about it.

Relax!

neandermagnon

I didnt want to log it either because I was afraid to see the damage lol

You have to log it, otherwise it defeats the purpose of logging. It's good to be able to look back at a week in review and see reality...both good and bad. You may find that looking at the week, you still end up with a deficit, and put your mind at ease. On the other hand, seeing when and what you ate when you made poor decisions can help you identify patterns and learn to correct them.
If your diary is private, but you don't log something, you are only trying to fool yourself.

I agree with your reasoning, but I don't think that not logging a bad day defeats the purpose of logging. There are different reasons for logging, and if you're on target for the vast majority of days, then one bad day isn't going to make much difference... logging bad days is certainly helpful for most people, but not logging "cheat" days or bad days isn't going to cancel out all the benefits of logging the rest of the time. So long as you're being honest with yourself about the reasons why you didn't log something, and remember that you didn't when it comes to evaluating your results.

Personally, (when I used to log, I'm currently maintaining without logging), I didn't log some meals, because I wanted to have meals where I didn't stress about calories (maybe 1 meal a week or 1 a fortnight)... but when I reviewed my diary, those days would read as being under on calories, but I knew I was probably really over on those days, because they were the days I had meals that I didn't log. I still successfully got to my goal weight and I'm successfully maintaining. So long as someone isn't kidding themselves about it (e.g. thinking they're hitting their goal because their MFP total says so, when they sneaked a bunch of food they didn't log) then there's no harm in it.