What do you do if you go over your calories?

I record it and move on with my day. Being over once in a while (as long as it's not becoming a daily habit), won't matter in the scheme of things. You'll slow down your loss a bit with the higher days, but again-500 calories once in a while isn't going to make or break your progress

Afura wrote: »

If I could get some exercise in to help offset it, I would. Otherwise, log it and keep going, it happened, just try and do better.

This. I may try to reduce my cals by 100 or so for the next couple days to even it out...but I usually just move on.

It's not going to matter if your 500 up for the day as long as your 3500 down for the week (to lose 1 lb). So, if you're 500 up today, do 250 less the next couple of days or whatever you need to do. A lot of people who workout do this as a regimen. They call it calorie cycling.

Log it and move on.

Either plan ahead, make up for it later in the week by eating slightly less or I say IDGAF and log it and move on.

Log it and move on. Sometimes if I know I'll go over (e.g., special event), I "save up" a few calories by eating slightly less for a few days in advance, eating lightly the day of, or getting a bit more exercise that day. But I'm against cutting down after an over day, in general, because it can set one up for a deprive-and-binge scenario. (Reduced calories in advance has the "binge" pre-built-in ).

janicekdavis484 wrote: »

Is there a place that shows my weekly calorie total or do I have to just add it up myself?

The phone app (Android, at least) lets you pick "weekly" under "nutrition". Which week it shows will depend on what day you were on in the day view.

I log my over-eaten calories on the day I over eat them (day 1). Then I go to bed (and hope I don't have heartburn. haha).

And THEN I also log them as breakfast on day 2 (via quick-add) and try to not go over my calorie goal on day 2. At the end of day 2, I take the quick-added calories back out again so that my net between the two days is zero.

If I don't quite "make it" within my calorie goal on day 2, I carry over day 2's over-eaten number to day 3's breakfast, and so on...

Honestly, when I overeat one day, I'm less hungry for breakfast the next day anyways - so breakfast is the easiest time for me to cut calories after a binge! Alternatively (or maybe in addition), on day 2, I probably have more energy than a normal day because of the overeating on day 1 - so I psych myself up to try to have an intentionally energetic and really awesome workout on day 2 (since my glycogen stores are probably boosted!).

Anyways, my goal after a binge is to make my weekly calories even out. After a week (or even after 3 or 4 days), I accept the problem and move on. Afterall, the trick to losing weight, for me, is realizing I have a problem in the first place AND accepting that AND wanting to do something about it to change. When I overeat (especially if it's beyond my TDEE) and feel bad about it but still log it , I mentally count it as a victory because that's still me realizing, seeing, and accepting that I have a problem. Even though it feels a bit like a failure to go over my goal, I'm still encouraged that I haven't lost sight of or given up on my need to change. I don't let myself get too down about it because I feel like I'm still "being true" to my overall mindset (the "accept --> change" mentality) of weight-loss.

(Interestingly, this reminds me of the concept of repentance - I likely have to ADMIT that I've sinned and WANT to stop it before I'll really be EFFECTIVE at stopping it...)

You can compensate the next day; some people do intermittent fasting and it seems to work as far as balancing out calories.

Go to bed and start again tomorrow.

When I go over my calorie goal it is by choice. I make that choice consciously and with full awareness of what it means with regard to my weight loss.

It isn't an accident. At this point I have been calorie counting for a while. I am pretty aware of how my eating choices will affect my goals. I have control of this and my choices are my responsibility.

I don't feel bad about it.

I especially don't feel bad about it if I have not gone above my maintenance number.

Life goes on.

Back when I was in the 180s, I made a delicious, but horrible, calorie counting mistake. I decided to look at the calorie content of my donuts after I ate them. I thought they were supposedly comparable with DD or KK. NO. These 2 donuts I ate from a local chain had 2-2.5 times the calorie per donut as their national chain equivalents. I had eaten 1300 (?) calories in just two donuts. HOLY )#*)@)*!! Well, after I picked my jaw off the floor, I went outside, in the rain, to the park and did six miles on the trails. I think I may have burned off most of one donut. I came back and ate the rest of the day as normal and then continued eating on plan. Well, I'm 125lbs now, so if you are knocked down, just get back up and keep going. All that matters in the end is the long term trend.