MFP was down and I did this ... Help

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coolbluecris
coolbluecris Posts: 228 Member
in Motivation and Support
Hi everyone
Today MFP was down and I let my resolve majorly slip when I ate out.

I ate 1033 calories over my limit. :(

Okay so how do I deal with this? Both practically and emotionally?. Please help! (There's no time to exercise it's late here).

Very sincere thanks in advance :)
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Replies

  • Runaroundafieldx2
    Runaroundafieldx2 Posts: 233 Member
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    What weight loss do you have your diary set to?

    If 0.5lb a week loss=250 calories
    1lb=500 calories
    2lb=1000 calories taken from your daily allowance.

    You aren't going to be over by much.

    I'd forget about it and just get back to eating at your deficit.
  • veggie16mfp
    veggie16mfp Posts: 114 Member
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    I’d devide the 1033 over the next couple days and eat in extra deficit so the week balances out.
  • coolbluecris
    coolbluecris Posts: 228 Member
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    veggie16mfp wrote: »
    I’d devide the 1033 over the next couple days and eat in extra deficit so the week balances out.

    Hi there
    I could exercise for the next 4 days to at least burn 259 calories each session and not eat them back.
    I can't bear to eat less than I do so that's possibly a fair solution.
    For the record, it wasn't worth it !
    Thanks so much :)
  • coolbluecris
    coolbluecris Posts: 228 Member
    edited November 2018
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    I think basically I was having an emotionally down day. I'm upset at some things in life right now that I can't change. There was extra food available (high fat food that my husband eats) and instead of leaving it I ate it. It fed my emotions. It's the age old trap of why I put on weight in the first place.

    I'm not restricting too hard, my diary is set to 1 pound loss per week. But for me, as a former high volume eater, of course it's a challenge. Usually I cope by eating nutritious, low density foods like smoothie bowls and oats with fruit and lots of different veggies. I'm not sure what I'm going to do when that gets boring though. Boredom is another trap.

    Yes I rely too much on MFP for planning. My meals are pre-done and I'm always tweaking how much I can fit into my numbers. Is it a slippery slope to disordered eating as </smolmaus> has said? Lol too late, that ship sailed years ago. Disordered eating is what made me fat, and I'm here asking for emotional support so that I don't repeat the past and throw the towel in. I'm finding logging to be immensely healing. Having boundaries is doing me good. However since food addiction or any addiction is said to be at least partly caused by isolation, that's why we stick together :)
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    edited November 2018
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    This is great! You've learned that when MFP is down your resolve wavers. How to deal with it? Stop thinking about it as a single event, but as an opportunity to make weight loss stick.

    A single day isn't much, really. It wouldn't affect your weight loss. You have slowed your weight loss by a day or two, big deal considering that weight management will be a lifelong occupation.

    Your next course of action should not be focused on this one day, but on your weight management as a whole: next time MFP is down, what can you do to keep your resolve? What other sources can you turn to? Would temporarily using another app help? Would it help to remind yourself of "that time when MFP was down and I overate"? How about an "if/then" strategy, like "if MFP is down, then I have a list of pre-approved meals I can eat and eating anything else is not an option"? Would taking a long walk help because by the time you're back MFP will likely be back? Just brainstorm ideas on how to handle this situation next time it happens (because it will). Once it does happen, you will be ready for it.

    P.S: if you're eating too little, I would consider raising your calories. This may solve a whole bunch of issues before they occur. Undereating can drive us to compensatory behaviors that aren't really an issue until you start undereating.
  • Thespian1961
    Thespian1961 Posts: 107 Member
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    Nobody puts on weight by overeating one day. Brush it off, chalk it up to experience and move on. That's the important thing; move on. Get back on your regular eating regimen and in a week you won't even be able to tell you slipped.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    coolbluecris wrote: »
    Hi everyone
    Today MFP was down and I let my resolve majorly slip when I ate out.

    I ate 1033 calories over my limit. :(

    Okay so how do I deal with this? Both practically and emotionally?. Please help! (There's no time to exercise it's late here).

    Very sincere thanks in advance :)

    its only Tuesday, just look at your weekly goal.
  • 88olds
    88olds Posts: 4,466 Member
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    @coolbluecris

    Let’s talk boredom. Why assume you’re going to get bored with what you eat? I’ve been maintaining for years. Much of the time I was just adding steamed broccoli to everything I could. Not my oatmeal though.

    Now I’ve found green beans where you just put the bag in the microwave. But if you really do get bored, have you discovered roasted Brussels sprouts yet?

    But bored is an idea in our heads. I’m always curious about this- for years I ate pizza probably 6X per week counting leftovers. Never seemed to get bored doing that.
  • countcurt
    countcurt Posts: 593 Member
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    coolbluecris wrote: »
    I think basically I was having an emotionally down day. I'm upset at some things in life right now that I can't change. There was extra food available (high fat food that my husband eats) and instead of leaving it I ate it. It fed my emotions. It's the age old trap of why I put on weight in the first place.

    ...

    Yes I rely too much on MFP for planning. My meals are pre-done and I'm always tweaking how much I can fit into my numbers. Is it a slippery slope to disordered eating as </smolmaus> has said? Lol too late, that ship sailed years ago. Disordered eating is what made me fat, and I'm here asking for emotional support so that I don't repeat the past and throw the towel in. I'm finding logging to be immensely healing. Having boundaries is doing me good. However since food addiction or any addiction is said to be at least partly caused by isolation, that's why we stick together :)

    I don't understand. I mean, I get that MFP was down and you overate. What I don't get is whether not having MFP was something that rendered you incapable of knowing what and how much to eat or not having MFP caused you to go without the 'anchor' and made you feel like you weren't in control?

    They're two different issues and are addressed differently.

  • Jackie9003
    Jackie9003 Posts: 1,106 Member
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    We've all been there at some point I'm sure, I definately have, just move on to a new day and put it behind you.
    As already suggested you can adjust your intake over the next few days to compensate, or just get back on track and put it down to a blip. 1033 cals wouldn't even be a half pound gain and it was over your set limit so actually you're probably not much over maintenance for the day - absolutely nothing to beat yourself up about.

  • 73CL350
    73CL350 Posts: 259 Member
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    88olds wrote: »
    @coolbluecris

    But bored is an idea in our heads. I’m always curious about this- for years I ate pizza probably 6X per week counting leftovers. Never seemed to get bored doing that.

    So true .. why didnt I ever get bored of pizza and wendy's?

    This is not the first person I saw who went over "because mfp was down". ...I dont really understand it ... I went super conservative because it was down.
  • workinonit1956
    workinonit1956 Posts: 1,043 Member
    edited November 2018
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    I don’t get it either. Although, I had already filled out my food log earlier in the day so the site being down really didn’t affect me—except I was a bit concerned that I could lose my data.
  • workinonit1956
    workinonit1956 Posts: 1,043 Member
    edited November 2018
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    @73CL350 I have no idea how my post got quoted into yours! Sorry!

    Edited to say I fixed it. Yeesh!
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    You could look at your weekly calorie goal and work at reducing calories a bit each day or burning a bit more over the week. Even if you don't do that 1,033 calories is not going to do much to you. If you had a 500 calorie defict then you ate 533 calories over maintenance. Just go back to eating and exercising normally.

    You know your calorie goal. In future if the mfp app does not work there are lots of other places to look up calorie information and log. You are not really at the mercy of one app.
  • thisPGHlife
    thisPGHlife Posts: 440 Member
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    As others have said, you had a blip. Coping with disordered or even just emotional eating can be difficult. If you have it set to lose a pound per week then you only ate 533 calories over maintenance. That is about 15% of a pound or not even 1/6 of a pound that you'll put on if you eat at maintenance the rest of the week. And if that was 1033 over your maintenance calories, that's still less than 1/3 of a pound you'll put on if you eat at maintenance the rest of the week. sometimes it's about perspective because even if you don't try and make up for it the rest of the week, you'll still be down 2467 calories meaning almost 3/4 of a pound.

    As others have mentioned, this is not a big set back in the grand scheme of things. You should consider not trying to make up for it because trying to be reactionary can lead to a habit of being reactionary which takes away your control over the situation. I'm not saying that will definitely happen, but in can help to accept what happened and plan for better in the future. You are in charge of how you react to things and people whether it's MFP being down or overeating or anything really. It happened. Forgive yourself and move forward. And in the future, when something like this happens, you'll know how many calories you've eaten up until that point so you'll know how many you have left. You can always do this the old fashioned way of tracking your remaining calories with a pen and paper and logging when the sure comes back up.

    And I say all this with the knowledge of I did the same thing yesterday. The difference is, I had been toying with the idea of either a full diet break for a week or two or dropping my rate of loss for a week or two. Yesterday I ate at maintenance. I ate things I really wanted but have been avoiding because they are triggers (read can't that I normally don't have in the house but we didn't get as many trick or treaters as we should have.). I'm glad I did it because that 3 musketeers want worth it but those extra guac chips most certainly were. And it let me know that eating more every once in a while isn't going to kill me but my choices on what I eat definitely determine how I feel. It's all a learning process.

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