Erratic Calorie Intake?

YamadaSan

I'm still a bit new here, only on my 3rd week but I lost some weight already (yay)! But I'm not sure if I'm doing well enough? I have erratic calorie intake for the past 7 days (diary is public for now so I can hear from you guys). Is that good or bad?

Uh excuse the big dinner last Sept 1, had an advance birthday dinner with the family *cough* and cake today (my birthday)!


Oh and what can I do tomorrow to balance it out? Cardio to burn off the excess 400 today? Or should i just stay under 1200? (Or really go low to 800?)

Help, please.

YamadaSan

bump

StormieL

I'd just do some extra exercise. I definitely wouldn't drop down to 800 calories for the day, starvation mode and all that And well sometimes you're allowed a bit of a treat.

skylark94

Read this

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

Starvation is not the way to lasting weight loss.

zephylis

Actually erratic calorie intake can help avoid starvation mode because it confuses your body and metabolism. If you always stay at a low calorie diet, the body adjusts to it somewhat and diminishes results.
Also, 1 big meal is not going to hurt, dieting is a long term thing.

jodil68

Hi there, I have checked out your food diary for the last few days. You should try to incorporate more vegetables and a little fruit to your meals. Recommendation is 5-10 servings a day. Great for your health and low on the calories. Good luck to you:)

firstsip

One day of 800 calories isn't going to put you into starvation mode (you need 3 days of NO eating generally to do that), and calorie cycling/IF have plenty of benefits you can look up here.

However... doing something like that would be instituting a new plan that you may not want to follow, or may not work for you.

If you only had a day or two of higher eating... don't worry about it. Go back to your 1200+ calorie day and exercise as normal. Any gain is probably water retention from excess sodium and sugar and should go away in a few days.

THAT'S the good thing about becoming more aware of your health and body--you realize you won't throw yourself off from occasional treat days and you don't have to punish yourself. Just go back to doing what you're doing (and try lifting!).

emotionalharlequin

I personally wouldn't do anything - if anything, this will help your body by making your metabolism jump a little. Just carry on as normal and the weight will keep falling off (=

fatmom51

Just get back on track with your 1,200 or so, work in a bit of exercise, and then move forward. Truth be told, you'll probably see very little effects from your special occasion indulgences, as long as they are just "special occasion" indulgences. You may not lose (or lose much) this week, but you likely won't see a gain either. It just means it may take an extra week or two to reach your goal weight.
You would have to eat 3,500 calories above maintenance to see a gain of one pound. As long as you don't do this too often, you should be fine.

YamadaSan

Thanks for the replies guys!

@skylark: I'll check out that link thanks.

@emorionalharl: And calorie cycling too.

@jodil68: True. I tend to buy the easiest thing to prepare here. I'll try to stick to more veggies and fruits for the upcoming weeks and see how it goes.

Martucha123

do nothing
you have burned more then you have eaten. so you are still losing, just a bit slower then planned. no need to make up for it
in general try to net 1200 as a minimum
and by net i mean eating back all the exercise kcals and then 1200 more