Calorie Overload: Can I make up for it?

morganhkeeling
morganhkeeling Posts: 6
in Health and Weight Loss
So, I have done a considerable amount of googling, and I cannot find the answer I need. I would love to hear your input.

Let's set up a scenario:
A person is restricting their diet to 1500 calories per day. After a week of meeting that calorie intake goal exactly, the person eats considerably bad, taking in 2500 calories in one day. Can they, then, restrict even further the upcoming week to make up for the over-intake on that one day, or will that not exactly work that way?

It's along the same lines as "Would it be worse to eat the whole pan of brownies in one sitting, or to spread out the consumption?" :drinker:

Replies

  • SupermanRitz
    SupermanRitz Posts: 59
    Stay away from restricting further!!! Go back to eating normally. That one day/meal is like a cheat meal for you. If you constantly do this pattern of over-indulging knowing that all you need to do is compensate for it later; it may become a habit for you which can induce all kinds of hormonal issues and metabolic stress that can damage your metabolism = skinny fat.
    Just go back to normal and you'll be fine.

    Hope this helps
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Just move on and get out of the minutia of singular days. This isn't about a singular day...your health, fitness, weight, nutrition, etc are predicated on what you're doing most of the time, not singular days.
  • uconnwinsnc
    uconnwinsnc Posts: 1,054 Member
    It never works to try and "make up" for cheating. Write off the day of overeating and don't make a habit of it.
  • eileen0515
    eileen0515 Posts: 408 Member
    Don't do it. Just learn from it and move on. I think you would just be setting up for a restriction, binge cycle. No science to support that, just an opinion formed from losing 65 pounds over the course of one year.
  • richardheath
    richardheath Posts: 1,276 Member
    If one is restricting to 1,500 calories, then their TDEE must be something like 1,800. So eating 2,500 is only 700 over TDEE. Since it takes roughly 3,500 calories to make a pound of fat, 700 cals would equal about 0.2 lb of fat.

    But that's not going to be a "gain" if you were eating at a deficit for the rest of the week. Really, all it means is you slowed down your weight loss by a day or two. Given that this is a marathon and not a sprint, a day or two here or there over 6 months or whatever isn't going to impact too much as long as you don't let it get out of hand.

    So, just get back on track.
  • Poofy_Goodness
    Poofy_Goodness Posts: 229 Member
    This is just mental gymnastics to make yourself feel better about going over calories. If you do, it isn't the end of the world. Just accept it and move on to the next day. Losing weight is about improving our relationship with food too. Carrying over calories is not going to help that. Just move a bit more, do an extra half hour of cardio.

    I think it's a much healthier practice to expend extra calories to "make up" for an overage than to restrict calories the following day.
  • stealthq
    stealthq Posts: 4,298 Member
    If you really want to try and make up for it you can, and do it without screwing up your mental state and without starving yourself. You could, for example, eat 1400 calories for 10 days, or exercise an extra 100 cal's worth for 10 days.

    Personally, I don't think it'd be worth it.

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