Went snack crazy last night - how much damage did I do?

jelleigh
jelleigh Posts: 743 Member
edited November 23 in Health and Weight Loss
Hey all

So after a few years of losing and gaining the same 10-15 lbs, I've decided to ditch yo yo dieting and to just eat clean and exercise and keep consistent (not my strong point). So I've been sticking to my 1400 cal per day, getting some regular exercise in and I'm feeling proud of being in a schedule. Except last night, after I had really finished my calories for the day, we had friends over and between snacks and drinks I ended up eating an extra 1000 calories!!! Maybe even more? So I wake up today feeling like I've completely undone whatever good I did this week. How much damage did I do? Can I do anything today like work out extra or eat more low cal for a few days to level it out? Or do I just go back to my regular plan of 1400?
Thanks for the advice!!

Replies

  • CrosbyMcDowell
    CrosbyMcDowell Posts: 113 Member
    We all have setbacks, so don't freak out too much! I wouldn't advise calorie restricting, that just tends to back fire and lead to feeling deprived and binging. Workout an extra 10 or 15 minutes a day and eat super clean. I try to watch my cheese and bread intake for a couple of days. Those are things I know I could cut back on and replace with more nutrient dense choices.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    How big is your deficit?
    1000 calories if you selected 2 lbs per week means you ate to maintain for a day. You can still expect your deficit to be about 1.7 lbs for the week as long as you go back to your normal plan.

    If you selected 1 lb per week, you over ate by 500 calories for the day. You can still expect to lose 0.7 lbs for the week.

    If you selected 0.5 lbs a week, you over ate by 750 for the day. You can expect 0.2 lb loss or to maintain for the week.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    Oh and I would just go back to normal.
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
    1000 calories would be less than a third of a pound difference compared to not eating those 1000 calories.
  • Patttience
    Patttience Posts: 975 Member
    I would go back to normal. Don't try to compensate with either less calories or more exercise. I don't htink you you will have done much damage but i have not the energy to try to explain why. If you weighed yourself every day, you would be able to see for yourself over the course of about a week. As said above, compensating can also lead to binges and such.
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    Log it, learn from it, and move on. :)

    The beauty of this is that every new day starts with a clean slate.
  • atypicalsmith
    atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
    shadow2soul wrote: »
    How big is your deficit?
    1000 calories if you selected 2 lbs per week means you ate to maintain for a day. You can still expect your deficit to be about 1.7 lbs for the week as long as you go back to your normal plan.

    If you selected 1 lb per week, you over ate by 500 calories for the day. You can still expect to lose 0.7 lbs for the week.

    If you selected 0.5 lbs a week, you over ate by 750 for the day. You can expect 0.2 lb loss or to maintain for the week.

    What a great way of putting this in perspective!
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Just do the math. With a 500 deficit, you'll just take 2 days to make up for it. It's not the end of the world at all. I still have days like that and I've still managed to lose 80 pounds and maintain the loss for a year.
  • pchivvy1
    pchivvy1 Posts: 4 Member
    shadow2soul wrote: »
    How big is your deficit?
    1000 calories if you selected 2 lbs per week means you ate to maintain for a day. You can still expect your deficit to be about 1.7 lbs for the week as long as you go back to your normal plan.

    If you selected 1 lb per week, you over ate by 500 calories for the day. You can still expect to lose 0.7 lbs for the week.

    If you selected 0.5 lbs a week, you over ate by 750 for the day. You can expect 0.2 lb loss or to maintain for the week.

    This really puts the odd binge into perspective.
  • estherh25
    estherh25 Posts: 5 Member
    As other people have said, the extra 1000 calories won't damage you that much. But, beware the "What the hell" effect. When people binge once, they have a tendency to do it again without as much concern, then again and again. Good luck :)
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    get out of the minutia...your body doesn't put on or lose fat overnight...like if you overeat a bit, you don't just pile on the fat just as if you had a busy day and "forgot" to eat, you wouldn't lose a bunch of fat either.

    do some research on how your body actually works.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
    Math. Data. Just take a look at your weekly goal and see what 1000 calories did to it. When I'm in a deficit I set up my week so that if I'm 500 calories or more over, I'm still in the deficit I have chosen for the week.
  • jelleigh
    jelleigh Posts: 743 Member
    Thanks everyone. I know little set backs shouldn't make me loose focus on the "big picture " and my long term goals. I think I just get in this mindset where I see the scale numbers jump up suddenly and think I must have done more damage then the calories really could do. I think I need to be more patient and look at numbers/results after a few weeks of maintaining a habit instead of checking a number on a scale immediately after a bad day.
  • macgurlnet
    macgurlnet Posts: 1,946 Member
    jelleigh wrote: »
    Thanks everyone. I know little set backs shouldn't make me loose focus on the "big picture " and my long term goals. I think I just get in this mindset where I see the scale numbers jump up suddenly and think I must have done more damage then the calories really could do. I think I need to be more patient and look at numbers/results after a few weeks of maintaining a habit instead of checking a number on a scale immediately after a bad day.

    What you see the next day is almost all water weight from glycogen stores being replenished + additional water weight from extra sodium.

    Take a look at your sodium for yesterday compared to the day before. Is it much higher? That will almost guarantee you'll hang on to some water weight.

    Don't panic :)

    ~Lyssa
  • jelleigh
    jelleigh Posts: 743 Member
    Thanks @macgurlnet. I confess that my sodium intake in general is probably way too high - I have a bit of a salt addiction that I'm trying to curb. Are there any tips for releasing that extra water that I've stored up? I know that people who do crash diets like the grapefruit diet are really just losing water weight so does it help to spend a day or two sticking to more veggies or citrus fruit or something? (Still with my appropriate carbs and protein of course - I'm not suggesting that I'd do the grapefruit diet or something equally unbalanced )
  • macgurlnet
    macgurlnet Posts: 1,946 Member
    edited August 2015
    jelleigh wrote: »
    Thanks @macgurlnet. I confess that my sodium intake in general is probably way too high - I have a bit of a salt addiction that I'm trying to curb. Are there any tips for releasing that extra water that I've stored up? I know that people who do crash diets like the grapefruit diet are really just losing water weight so does it help to spend a day or two sticking to more veggies or citrus fruit or something? (Still with my appropriate carbs and protein of course - I'm not suggesting that I'd do the grapefruit diet or something equally unbalanced )

    The only thing I see recommended here is to make sure you drink plenty of water - funnily enough, your body releases more as you intake more, up to a point. You might see a little extra if you drink something with caffeine, like coffee, tea, diet soda, etc, but that's it. Your body will let it go after a little while - for me, it's within 2 days of being back under my sodium goal; others see it stick around for 3-4 or more.

    High sodium overall is only cause for concern if your doctor says so.

    ~Lyssa
  • sars388
    sars388 Posts: 29 Member
    1000 kcals is about 4 ring doughnuts with icing and sprinklers.. In the Uk anyway. No biggy. Just hit it hard this week.
  • Pinnacle_IAO
    Pinnacle_IAO Posts: 608 Member
    I feel you.
    Yesterday, I was on track and a neighbor brought over fried chicken tenders we dipped in ranch dressing.
    OUCH!
    Afterward, I hit the weights and called it Christmas. It will take me two days of sound eating to make this up.
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