Overrate Today?

Hi guys, I've been on my diet for about 2 months now and today is the first time I've overeaten since I started my journey.. I ate around 2300 calories today but have been eating around 1200-1300 a day for the past months, will I expect and weight gain?! It was relatively healthy food except some sugary cereal, if it helps I workout 6 times a week with around 30 miles of running a week. I am currently 5"3 and 126 lbs trying to get down to 120

Replies

  • m27un
    m27un Posts: 217 Member
    Hi guys, I've been on my diet for about 2 months now and today is the first time I've overeaten since I started my journey.. I ate around 2300 calories today but have been eating around 1200-1300 a day for the past months, will I expect and weight gain?! It was relatively healthy food except some sugary cereal, if it helps I workout 6 times a week with around 30 miles of running a week. I am currently 5"3 and 126 lbs trying to get down to 120

    You should be good! The food will be sitting in your stomach so if you weigh in the next morning chances are you might be up a pound or 2 :) I drank last night for first time in 6 weeks ... Ugh!!
  • RUNucbar
    RUNucbar Posts: 160 Member
    Might cause a slight wobble on the scales but one day really isn't going to do loads of damage!
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
    How much of a deficit is your normal 1200-1300 calories?

    Do the math. If your normal deficit is 500 calories per day ... and you ate 1000 calories over your normal intake ... you've only eliminated two days worth of deficit ... a 2500 calorie deficit for the week rather than a 3500 deficit ... a 4oz difference in projected loss.

    Notice the the frequency of the word "deficit" and end result of "loss" even with the one day of eating over in that scenario.
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,331 Member
    Will your weight go up? Most likely it will. Might it go up a lot. That is a possibility as well, but realize that most of that will be water weight. Depending on what your maintenance calories are, you might not even be that far over. If you normally exercise and don't eat back those calories, you likely have a larger deficit than is ideal, so this might even be beneficial.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,261 Member
    You can do rough arithmetic in your head to estimate the impact, if you like. I'll do an example, but you'd have to use your real numbers.

    You say you've been eating at 1200-1300. I'll assume that's net calories (you eat back your exercise) and that you've been losing 1/2 pound a week, which would be a healthy loss rate with so little to lose. With those assumptions, your daily calorie deficit would be 250 calories (below your maintenance calories): 1/2 pound lost weekly = about 1750 calories (because roughly 3500 calories in a pound) / 7 days = 250 per day.

    So, you ate 2300 one day. With this example data, your maintenance calories (the number to eat to neither gain nor lose) would be 1550: 1300 (what you're eating) + 250 (daily deficit) = 1550. You lose nothing the day you overate, because you ate at or above maintenance.

    Furthermore, you theoretically would've gained 750 calories worth of weight from that extra eating: 2300 (that you ate) - 1550 (your example maintenance calories, which are equivalent to the number of calories you burn daily) = 750. (As an aside, 750 calories is around 1/5 pound (750 / 3500 calories in a pound, approximately). Anything extra beyond that that you see on the scale would be water weight, the weight of the food in your digestive system, or something like that, and should leave quickly.)

    In 3 more days, your daily 250 calorie deficit will result (mathematically speaking) in your losing that 750 calories of excess. So, if this were your real data, you'd have delayed reaching your goal by 4 days: The day you overate, and 3 more. Would that be worth it? Only you can say.

    Obviously, if you want to look at it this way, you have to use your real numbers, not the made=up ones above. If you're losing a pound a week, plug in 500 where I used 250, etc. But it's the same reasoning process. And you could choose to eat a little lighter for a few days, or run a bit more, to make up for some or all of it, if you want to do so.
  • NaturalNancy
    NaturalNancy Posts: 1,093 Member
    I think it will go up, but don't get discouraged!

    Hope you enjoyed it and just get right back on!
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    It could slow down your loss by about 1/2 pound this week.
  • MorganLange508
    MorganLange508 Posts: 28 Member
    edited February 2016
    Most of the time I burn 700 calories at the gym, I run for about an hour and a half and also incorporate weight training 3x a week! Some days I don't eat back my calories depending on how I feel
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    Any weight you gain at tomorrow's weigh-in is more likely due to the increased sodium intake you had today than to the increased calorie intake. Just don't get in the habit of staying too far below or frequently going above your calorie budget.
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
    Most of the time I burn 700 calories at the gym, I run for about an hour and a half and also incorporate weight training 3x a week! Some days I don't eat back my calories depending on how I feel

    How are you calculating your burn? What activities do you do?

    How do you determine your intake?

  • lisaipri
    lisaipri Posts: 9 Member
    You may be up on the scale the next day but it will be back to normal in a couple days
  • lisaipri
    lisaipri Posts: 9 Member
    Also I run 4 days a week n do weight training and In burning 600-700 calories in 40 minutes doing HIIt. On the treadmill. It is the way to go and you burn more calorories a lot quicker. You should google it and read about it.
  • MorganLange508
    MorganLange508 Posts: 28 Member
    I was a cross country running and have an expensive watch that helps me calculate everything, I run outside a lot too and try to incorporate cross fit too
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
    I was a cross country running and have an expensive watch that helps me calculate everything, I run outside a lot too and try to incorporate cross fit too

    An expensive watch does not mean an accurate calorie estimate ... especially for something like crossfit. You didn't address how you're calculating your caloric input.

    So far you've said you wanted to know if you should expect weight gain without providing any of the actual details needed to make that assessment.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    Today has been absolutely amazingly awesome filled with lottery wins, fabulous hair and well behaved children

    There you go ...I overrated today :)
  • cityruss
    cityruss Posts: 2,493 Member
    In the grand scheme of things, no, consuming 2300 calories once, when eating 1200-1300 calories regularly, exercising regularly and not always eating back exercise calories, will have no appreciable effect on long term goals and fat gain.