Maintenance and Overindulging

dpr73
dpr73 Posts: 495 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
I have been in maintenance for about 6 months. I have a routine that I like and am satisfied with but I only am still struggling with adjusting to special occasions. I enjoy them and feel like it is okay to eat what I want and overindulge on these off occasions but it always makes me a little anxious about whether it's the right thing to do. For example, I had a whole weekend this weekend of overindulging which has left me a bit bloated (not entirely). Is it okay to go over on these occasions so long as I don't overindulge daily? If I just get right back on to my usual routine, will I usually maintain? I'm 19 and 140, never really been a normal weight before so I am still trying to figure out what my new normal should be. Any suggestions? Btw, I stopped counting in maintenance because that seems to work on the usual days and I have a good grasp on when I'm hungry and full.

Replies

  • PaytraB
    PaytraB Posts: 2,360 Member
    Maintenance is all about balance. It's okay to overindulge but you then have to balance that with some lighter days and maybe some extra exercise. It all works out in the end if you are aware of the balance.
    Take the coming week to eat lighter meals (salads, veggies & meat, etc) and work out an extra time or two. Things will balance out. Don't worry until your clothes fit tighter......then cut back for a couple of weeks and exercise more until things fit again.
    It's all about awareness and balance.
  • Linnaea27
    Linnaea27 Posts: 639 Member
    It sounds like you have a pretty good handle on things. I also prefer to maintain without logging and find that it works really well for me-- as long as I don't overindulge too often. After a weekend like you just had, I would be extra careful and make an effort to be sure to exercise a good amount every day for the next few days, and avoid what feels like overeating, too.

    I've maintained within my goal weight range successfully without logging for 3 months, though I started near the bottom of my maintenance range and am now near the top-- because I neglected to exercise as regularly, and the summer was unusually stressful. . . and I sometimes cope with stress by having a glass of wine in the evening, something I had mostly cut out while losing weight. I mention this because it's important to offset slight overindulgences by exercising, or if, for example, you go on vacation and eat more than usual for a week, to go back to being kind of strict with yourself for the next week or so. That's how I do it anyway. Hope this helps!
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    You lost and sounds like you have a great handle on it. Congratulations!
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    It's fine, but you might want to decrease your normal intake to make up for it. I know I have days when I go over, so I'll always keep a small deficit to make up for those...
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    The simple answer in my opinion is this: Keep weighing yourself and if you are maintaining weight, then yes it's fine and it's working. If you start to gain weight then no it's not working.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    whether i am maintainng or cutting i have lower days and higher days so that i hit my weekly goal... if i know i have an occassion that will mean loads of food, i 'save' 100 cals each day for 4-5 days before hand.
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
    I find that the occasional overindulgence doesn't really hurt. Sometimes I counteract them by eating less the next day or two, but other times I just let it go. I have noticed my weight creeping up a couple of times though when there have been too many indulgences in a short time frame. So when that's happened I've just cut back for a bit and things normalized.
  • kpk54
    kpk54 Posts: 4,474 Member
    I've been maintaining for only 4 months so I don't have a lot of experience with it yet. I'm glad to hear so many times (above) folks saying "you have to make up for it" or something similar. That makes complete sense to me. If your maintenance calories are correct and you over indulge then it makes sense that one would have to have a deficit at some point to offset the higher calorie days.

    ETA: I had one such extreme indulgence last week (to the tune of 2900+ calories ABOVE my maintenance calories) and cut way back on food the next 3 days. I still log so what I did was build a recipe using MFP of everything I ate, entered the amount to be 3 servings then entered 1 serving on my food diary for 3 days. By the end of the 3rd day I was REALLY hungry :sad: from actually eating so little that day.

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