Gone off track...

Honeycat89

Hi there,

I've been abroad for the last 5 days, it was my boyfriend's birthday and also Easter, so I've pretty much eaten out every day from Friday-Tuesday. I didn't count calories because I ate SO much chocolate I know I would be too far over my daily calories to compensate the other days. I feel so rubbish about it and bloated and know I need to get back on track but I'm a bit pissed off I let myself just go crazy for 5 days.
How much extra do you have to eat to put on weight? Will 5 days affect weight gain that much?

Thanks!

Lonestar5775

You have to eat 3,500 calories over your normal BMR to gain a pound. Of course any activity may have helped but I had a friend who recently came back from a 6 day cruise and had gained 7 lbs. She took water pills for 2 days and lost 6 of it, so sodium in prepared food can be a demon.

Don't allow this one blip to de-rail you. Put it behind you and jump back in, you'll be back where you were before you know it!

_HeartsOnFire_

You're fine. Just get back to it. It's a new day, new start. Stop being mad at yourself. You were on holiday, you were living life, which is what you should do.

You have to make lifestyle changes. While doing that you also have to live your life, which means you should enjoy it.

mildammm

Well, just think about it - to gain a single pound in 5 days, you would need to overeat your maintenance (not the amount of calories you have set for yourself, but your true maintenance) by 700 kcal every day. Think about it, have you? It's possible that you have, don't get me wrong, but that is for a single pound. The larger weight gain you'll see in the next couple of days will be mostly water weight from all the sodium you consumed from eating out (restaurant food tends to be way higher in salt - makes it taste better).

So there. 5 days is not the end of the world. Get back to a reasonable deficit and it will be gone in a week.