cheated =\

palfitness

so i've been veryy good with my diet for the last month, i've limited my carbs and lost 12 pounds! but last night i was cravingg chinese food so me and a friend went out and i had a plate of general tso and some fried rice. terrible, i know. i just went on the scale and wish i didn't, i gained 4 pounds from last night! i feel so bloated now, i was wondering if any of you know how i can flush some of this out of my system, should i just drink more water than usual today?

misty589

probably water from all he salt you can be sure you didn't gain 4 lbs of fat in a matter of hours over one plate of food.

eta just to ease your mind you would have to take in 14 000 more calories than you burn to gain 4 lbs

BrenNew

probably water from all he salt you can be sure you didn't gain 4 lbs of fat in a matter of hours over one plate of food.

Right, exactly! Just drink lots and lots of water, get some exercise, and your scale will be better to you the next time! :laugh:

smg1010

don't limit yourself to not eating the foods you enjoy, that's not much of a life- just plan accordingly. If you know you are going to splurge for dinner, have a lighter breakfast and lunch. You can also workout more that week.

one of my tricks,too- i always look at the menu of the place i'm going to beforehand, and I give my leftovers to my boyfriend to eat the next day for lunch so I'm not even tempted to have that meal again because it's gone!

chgudnitz

don't limit yourself to not eating the foods you enjoy, that's not much of a life- just plan accordingly. If you know you are going to splurge for dinner, have a lighter breakfast and lunch. You can also workout more that week.

one of my tricks,too- i always look at the menu of the place i'm going to beforehand, and I give my leftovers to my boyfriend to eat the next day for lunch so I'm not even tempted to have that meal again because it's gone!

I agree 100% with looking at the menu and nutritional value ahead of time. On the other hand, I would try to have a more filling breakfast and lunch so you will eat less of the bad thing for dinner. The craving in your mind doesn't care that it only got half a plate 2 hours later when you are full.

This being said, I did some reading on general tso's chicken and fried rice (only because it was my old self's most favorite meal ever) and have found it to be rated as one of the single worst meals you can eat when going out. I was craving it last night after my hour run through the mountains, and I went back and re-read the articles about it. That changed my mind pretty fast.

So, I think we should not deprive ourselves of what we want to have, but we need to REALLY know what's going in our bodies. Sometimes not giving in to what we want is the best thing for us. (eg smoking, drinking, drugs... addictions are hard to break and usually are to things that arent the best)

smg1010

I think you should be able to give in sometimes, but sensibly- or else how will you be able to maintain your weight once you're at your goal and you want to go back to eating those things- just part of the learning process.

I have found myself still eating the things i like- but just altering what i used to order. for example i've learned to love frozen yogurt as opposed to ice cream and brownies, and when we order chinese i get chicken and broccoli (not fried) and white rice rather than all that fried stuff.

and "lighter" doesn't necessarily mean eating less. I have subsitute breakfasts and lunches that are around half the calories of my usual meals, however the volume of food is still around the same- so i still am full

adopt4

chinese food is high in sodium off the charts even, so yeah, you're retaining water... you have to flush it out.

chgudnitz

Oh yeah, duh. To the original question. Drink a lot more water and do something, anything at all that gets you sweating a lot. When you sweat your body releases sodium and stored water. It's not like normal water weight loss either. By losing the sodium your body will not want to replace the lost water.