Overeat yesterday, undereat today?

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jesikalovesyou
jesikalovesyou Posts: 172 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Everyone, when you go over one day, do you take away from what you can have the next (or next few)?

For example, I ate 780 more than I should have yesterday (1980 vs. 1200). Would you take that 780 off today, a fraction of it off multiple days, or just have it be a bad day and continue life like normal?

All input is appreciated!

Replies

  • Zoejohnse91
    Zoejohnse91 Posts: 227 Member
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    Not too sure of the 'proper' way to handle this but I know what I'd do - just chalk it up as a bad day and move on. 780 is a lot to take from 1200. And In theory what you ate isn't too much over your maintainance is it?
  • Timelordlady85
    Timelordlady85 Posts: 797 Member
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    continue as normal. maybe workout a little more today for eating over yesterday but I wouldn't cut my calories. That's just my personal approach to it.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,575 Member
    edited July 2015
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    You can continue as normal if you want. If you're in a decent deficit, you just won't lose as fast. If your deficit (and mind and body) can handle it, you can shave off a couple hundred calories one day, and then the next. Or you could add in some extra exercise, and then only shave off 300 calories. Or just exercise a little or just shave half the calories off. There are a lot of options.

    ETA: I see you are at 1200 calories. Continue as normal in this case. You don't want to be dipping below 1200 really. Hope you enjoyed your yummy food! Today is a new day.
  • NikiChicken
    NikiChicken Posts: 576 Member
    edited July 2015
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    No! Continue as normal. Chock it up to a bad day (or a really good day! ) and just move on. When you punish yourself for over eating, which is what this would be, you are setting yourself up for a terrible relationship with food. We all have those days. You have to learn how to deal with them and be able to just get back on the wagon and carry on as normal, without guilt, the next day. One day won't ruin your efforts, it is your pattern of behavior over a LONG time that will dictate your gain or loss.

    (Edited for spelling)
  • OldAssDude
    OldAssDude Posts: 1,436 Member
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    Every day is a new day. Don't complicate things with more math. just start fresh, and try not to make going over a habit. If your hunger is going to make you go over, take a 2 or 3 mile brisk walk. That will give you more to eat without going over...:)
  • jesikalovesyou
    jesikalovesyou Posts: 172 Member
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    Thank you all!! Normally, I would go crazy and easy my weight in pizza but contained myself and stayed in check. I just want to hold myself accountable a little bit. I can eat pizza but I have to make it fit! :smiley:
    arditarose wrote: »
    ETA: I see you are at 1200 calories. Continue as normal in this case. You don't want to be dipping below 1200 really. Hope you enjoyed your yummy food! Today is a new day.

    I just now made it 1200. I sometimes go over a hundred or so calories, but I have a cushion if that happens. Thank you for the support!
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,575 Member
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    jesikalovesyou wrote: »
    Thank you all!! Normally, I would go crazy and easy my weight in pizza but contained myself and stayed in check. I just want to hold myself accountable a little bit. I can eat pizza but I have to make it fit! :smiley:
    arditarose wrote: »
    ETA: I see you are at 1200 calories. Continue as normal in this case. You don't want to be dipping below 1200 really. Hope you enjoyed your yummy food! Today is a new day.

    I just now made it 1200. I sometimes go over a hundred or so calories, but I have a cushion if that happens. Thank you for the support!

    Oh you changed it to 1200...but when you ate over your calories you had a higher goal? Are you not in the US? I'm going to eat 1200 calories of chips today haha.
  • Bshmerlie
    Bshmerlie Posts: 1,026 Member
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    Trying to stay at 1200 calories for a long period of time is difficult to do and is probably way below your maintenance requirements. So going over a day is not going to make a big difference. Just log it and move on. Sometimes if I know I'm going to go over I do a little bit longer on the treadmill.
  • galgenstrick
    galgenstrick Posts: 2,086 Member
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    Personally I'd say just stick with your goal and don't worry about one day of overeating. You don't want to get in the habit of "oh, I'll have this extra cookie today and I'll just eat less tomorrow" that never ends well... Best thing to do is treat it as a refeed and move on.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
    edited July 2015
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    jesikalovesyou wrote: »
    Everyone, when you go over one day, do you take away from what you can have the next (or next few)?

    For example, I ate 780 more than I should have yesterday (1980 vs. 1200). Would you take that 780 off today, a fraction of it off multiple days, or just have it be a bad day and continue life like normal?

    All input is appreciated!

    If your goal is 1200 I would not go below that. Just move on and eat normally.
    It takes 3,500 calories to gain an actual pound. You had 780 calories. It is not going to set you back.
  • RockstarWilson
    RockstarWilson Posts: 836 Member
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    Never starve yourself. There are a multitude of negative effects associated with undereating, compared with very few when overeating. Your body is done with yesterday, and so should you be. Just put it behind you.
  • WyshIKnew
    WyshIKnew Posts: 75 Member
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    Yes, wouldn't worry about it. If you're anything like me, in the 13 days since I've been back I've been under 11 times and over twice. The amount I've been under totals 3536 calories, I'd have to do some serious eating to consume that much.

    It's meant to be a lifestyle change, not a life sentence of hard labour on gruel, bread and water.
  • slideaway1
    slideaway1 Posts: 1,006 Member
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    If you eat 500 calories a day over your TDEE for a week you will put on 1Lbs. 500 cals X 7 days =3500 calories. 1 LBs = 3500 cals. One day of excess will have very little effect to weight loss or weight gain (except water weight/bloating etc).
  • jesikalovesyou
    jesikalovesyou Posts: 172 Member
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    arditarose wrote: »
    jesikalovesyou wrote: »
    Thank you all!! Normally, I would go crazy and easy my weight in pizza but contained myself and stayed in check. I just want to hold myself accountable a little bit. I can eat pizza but I have to make it fit! :smiley:
    arditarose wrote: »
    ETA: I see you are at 1200 calories. Continue as normal in this case. You don't want to be dipping below 1200 really. Hope you enjoyed your yummy food! Today is a new day.

    I just now made it 1200. I sometimes go over a hundred or so calories, but I have a cushion if that happens. Thank you for the support!

    Oh you changed it to 1200...but when you ate over your calories you had a higher goal? Are you not in the US? I'm going to eat 1200 calories of chips today haha.

    If I want to lose 2 lbs/week, 1200 would be my goal. If I want to lose 1.5, I should eat 1300, etc. I will still lose weight if I go over my goal so I don't beat myself up.
  • maxit
    maxit Posts: 880 Member
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    I always chalked it up as a "win" if I still maintained a deficit over 7 days - depending on the "overage" in any given day, sometimes I was just less hungry the following day & so might not eat as much. But in any case, I didn't sweat it & I know for sure that there wasn't a day that I ate less than 1400 calories.
  • BumbleBreeBuzz
    BumbleBreeBuzz Posts: 83 Member
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    I wouldn't eat less than 1200 but if you are really concerned you could just try to be more active today. Burn some extra calories :)
  • ashypashy7
    ashypashy7 Posts: 50 Member
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    Nope. There will be days when you eat over your goal. Subtracting those calories out of the next day will leave you hungry and more likely to over eat again. Log it, move on, make better choices going forward.
  • jesikalovesyou
    jesikalovesyou Posts: 172 Member
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    Thank you, everyone!! I appreciate all the advice. I decided to keep my net goal 1200+ but I put the 200 calories on my diary for the next 4 days, just as a reminder to watch it. Haha. :smiley:

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