Indulging; how much?

It depends on how much of a deficit you have built into your calorie goals. If you set it for "lose 1lb/week" then you have a 500 calorie daily deficit. If you keep your indulgence plus whatever else you ate today less than 500 calories over that goal (below maintenance) you'll still be at a deficit for the day.

The way I look at it..if your always under your calories for the most of the week..one day over isn't going to hurt..

I saw your other thread... so I saw how this turned out for you. I'm sure you've got some serious self-loathing over it, and that makes you want to go chow down some more. And that sucks.

So. You overdid it.

Once.

Not the end of days, here. Just a setback. You can either let it cripple you and fail in your goal of getting to 130, you can NEVER let yourself slip again... or you can keep yourself somewhere in between those two options. I recommend somewhere in between. You certainly don't want to fail, and certainly no one is perfect, so the second choice isn't possible.

Here's a suggestion next time you want to go on a food bender: Count it out. Seriously, put the calories in your diary before you put them in your body. Measure out what you are going to eat, put in the diary, then decide if you want to eat it. Sometimes, the answer is yes. And that's not ideal, but it's OK. You're human (I hope) and everyone needs to let go sometime.

But seriously, here's the key to this: Measure it out. Weigh it, measure volume, whatever is appropriate to what you're indulging in. At least that way there is a stopping point to your actions. 500 calories might stink, but it's not insurmountable. If you sit down and eat 5,000 calories in one shot, and it can be done, then you're really hurting yourself. Do a little damage control.

This may sound stupid to you, or someone else that reads this, but it's the truth... I am a crack addict for good cheese. I really find it difficult to control myself. Seriously, and it's the stupidest thing. Plop a plateful of brownies, a bowl of ice cream, whatever in front of me. I might have a little, I might not. I certainly won't have more than I intend to. Put a dang block of Irish cheese in front of me with a knife, and I swear I'll eat the whole stupid thing... one 100 calorie once at a time. 7 oz block? Looks like I'm eating 700 calories. 1 pound block? Looks like 1,600. I deal with this. I still have cheese. But... I need to slice off however much I'm allotting myself, put it in the diary, and put the rest away. I had 2 oz in an omelet this morning... So I cut off 2 oz worth... you get the idea. So I'm really trying to come from a position of understanding.


Obviously, something had you wound up tonight. You reached out for help, and that's a good thing. You didn't do what you wanted to do, and that's less good. This might just need to be a learning point for you. So learn from it! Don't be afraid to ask for help in the future. Don't beat yourself up over this. And don't lose sight of what you're actually trying to accomplish. Make a conscious effort to move forward, then do so, despite any setbacks that occur.

There's another thread... too late. But she only went over the daily goal by 500 calories. Honestly, unless you're 105 lbs and maintaining a 1200 calorie diet to stay that way, 500 calories shouldn't be a big thing for one day.