weekly deficit or daily?

I would try to make it up, if possible. It depends on how far over you went. You can't starve yourself the rest of the week to make up a huge overage.

2000 divided by 7 is about 286 calories. If that's too much of an extra deficit for 7 days then even doing 150 or so a day extra deficit would mostly make up for your special date night.

Don't be ashamed. Life happens. Sometimes we just need to let go and enjoy the moment. After the moment is soon enough to get back on track or you can even pre-log if you know you are going to have a special moment. We just need to be careful that we don't have too many moments.

I strive for a weekly average, so that some days I eat over and other days I eat under. Sometimes I like to have enough room to go a bit overboard, especially at a family function or potluck.

kickingpounds wrote: »

blankiefinder wrote: »

I would try to make it up, if possible. It depends on how far over you went. You can't starve yourself the rest of the week to make up a huge overage.

I went over about 2000 calories.

I don't care to explain it more just that I'm ashamed I let myself do it. I didn't want to spend my date stressing about calories when it was the first quality time together we've had in 3 months (he works opposite shift I do)

Please don't feel ashamed! One thing I have been working on in this process is removing the emotion from eating. So I don't eat as a reward, or eat because I'm depressed or stressed, or feel ashamed for going over... it's just nourishment. Something that we need to survive.

With a 2000 calorie surplus, personally I would just move on, and make sure I did better the rest of the week (but not worry about trying to work the surplus off). The most you're looking at, after the sodium flushes from your system, is a half pound delay in your weight loss process. This is a marathon, not a sprint!

I set a weekly goal. Much easier to meet it.

I'd just draw a line under it and move on. If you cut too far for the rest of the week you might leave yourself open to a binge.

One day over isn't necessary bad, reduce about 200 calories a day and everything will even out.

What you could do is shoot for being ~100 calories under goal for 7 days and doing an average of 100 calories of exercise each day. For me, that's walking about a mile.

Alternatively, just log it and move on. These things happen, and it's ok!

The other thing to think about here is how you felt AFTER the meal. Were you uncomfortably full? If so, next time you eat out, plan to eat half the food and have the rest left over for the next day.

Please don't see this as you screwing up. You're making changes you're going to try to hang on to for the rest of your life, right? This is a learning experience.

Think about what happened - but don't dwell on it - and see if you can decide what you think you should do next time this kind of occasion comes up. And then carry on.

You've got this

~Lyssa

It's really up to you and what works for you.

I know a lot of people have good luck with working a weekly deficit. I would struggle with that and think it would lead me to some disordered eating. I do much better just moving on and starting every day fresh. For me, each day is a new opportunity and I do my best to make the most of today without beating myself over what happened yesterday.

This comes with the caveat that I rarely go over my calories. If I was seeing more of a pattern in going over frequently, I might have to approach it differently.