Overate by about 2000 calories
n_green_l
Posts: 74 Member
Last night I ended up drinking more than I planned, and also ended up ordering KFC. I looked at the calories this morning of what I ate, and combined with the alcohol I am so shocked and feel a bit disgusted with myself that I overate my maintainance calories by about 1900.....
Normally if I slipped I wouldn't log it all as I couldn't face it. How can I make sure this day doesn't affect my progress?
I'm finally seeing the weight shift from using mfp and now worried ive ruined it.. would cutting out a lot today help? Say I cut down to 1000 calories or less?
Normally if I slipped I wouldn't log it all as I couldn't face it. How can I make sure this day doesn't affect my progress?
I'm finally seeing the weight shift from using mfp and now worried ive ruined it.. would cutting out a lot today help? Say I cut down to 1000 calories or less?
6
Replies
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Log it, accept it and move on. Try not let it be a habit.
It's not advisable to eat less than 1200 calories in a day. Just stick to goal from now on.19 -
I wouldn't cut a lot out today - you might end up in a binge cycle. You have to just get back up on the horse. I'd try to keep calories a bit below - maybe do some exercise to help balance it out and I personally would avoid the scale for a few days - it will be up a lot from sodium etc. Write it off as a week where you might only lose a fraction of a pound in total and try to use it as motivation to stop it happening again.9
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Last night I ended up drinking more than I planned, and also ended up ordering KFC. I looked at the calories this morning of what I ate, and combined with the alcohol I am so shocked and feel a bit disgusted with myself that I overate my maintainance calories by about 1900.....
Normally if I slipped I wouldn't log it all as I couldn't face it. How can I make sure this day doesn't affect my progress?
I'm finally seeing the weight shift from using mfp and now worried ive ruined it.. would cutting out a lot today help? Say I cut down to 1000 calories or less?
If you have been in a deficit of 500 calories a day for the other 6 over this week you will still lose nearly 1/2 pound of fat. Log it, learn from in and move on. Undereating over the coming days is just punishing yourself, bringing on feelings of guilt and stressing you. This outlook will more than likely lead to a binge/restrict cycle which will not benefit you in the slightest.19 -
Doesn't mean anything in the greater scheme of things. You'll be a bit heavier temporarily due to more food in your digestive tract and due to more water weight due to lots of salt in the food. Other than that nothing will happen. Don't worry.8
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There will always be scenarios where this happens. Celebrations, nights out socialising or just really great food with your partner. It's what we do the majority of the time that counts. So long as this doesn't happen weekly you'll still achieve your goals. You don't want to end up down a path of never enjoying food or drinks with friends because of eating over your goal11
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It will slow down your weight loss by about 1/2 lb this week. Weight loss tends to fluctuate from week to week anyway, so don’t stress. Just get back on plan today.7
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With one meal from a restaurant it's easy to eat 2000 or even more calories over maintenance. Just get back on track and eat your normal weight loss amount. A pound of fat has 3500 calories so it's not like you're going to gain a ton of actual fat from eating that. And you'll quickly continue your weight loss if you eat normally. Don't try to overcorrect or you'll get hungry and eat too much again.3
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Honestly just try to learn how maybe you could have done better and what choices may have been better and then move on and forget about the rest of it. Consistency is the key4
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I don't think it will matter much if it doesn't happen too often. Go for an extra walk or something if you want to do something.0
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I'm going to suggest this thread as maybe a fun read:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10603949/big-overfeed-ruins-everything-nope
You're going to see a jump on the scale by the next day if not sooner, maybe several pounds, but it's not all fat (hardly any fat at all). In a few days to a week, if you just go back to your healthy routine, that extra weight will be history.
Guilt and disgust help nothing, and feel icky, so they're optional. I wouldn't bother with them.
Spend maybe 10 minutes deciding whether it was worth it**, and, if it wasn't, make a realistic plan for avoiding a repeat. Have you over-restricted calories? Have you completely disallowed yourself so-called "bad" foods that you could fit in, in reasonable portions, and avoid letting cravings build up? Were you stressed, bored, fatigued and something like that was at the root? (If the problem isn't hunger or nutrition, the solution isn't food.) Were there social triggers? If so, can you make a plan for better handling similar social situations in the future?
Rehearse your new plan in your head a few times, vividly, so that you can put it in play next time. Then let it go, and just go on with your healthy routine. No "make ups". It'll be fine. Food isn't sin, so no expiation required.
** As an aside, always log it, even if you have to estimate. That adds a foundation of reality to "was it worth it?". Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. 🤷♀️Last night I ended up drinking more than I planned, and also ended up ordering KFC. I looked at the calories this morning of what I ate, and combined with the alcohol I am so shocked and feel a bit disgusted with myself that I overate my maintainance calories by about 1900.....
Normally if I slipped I wouldn't log it all as I couldn't face it. How can I make sure this day doesn't affect my progress?
I'm finally seeing the weight shift from using mfp and now worried ive ruined it.. would cutting out a lot today help? Say I cut down to 1000 calories or less?
One observation on how you phrased your post: You "ending up drinking more" and "ended up ordering more".
Sadly, no. You chose to drink more, and chose to order more. We all make sub-ideal decisions sometimes, or choose things that will require compensation, and that's OK. But you chose, and that means that in the future, if you want to, you can choose differently. Own your decisions.
Your cranky old internet granny (I'm old enough to be, I swear
) says: Don't steal your own power over your life, by how you think of things, or how you say things. You're not a hapless victim here, you have choices.
Best wishes!11 -
I’m in the same boat, except I didn’t even log it or look it up - yet. Thanks to cranky old internet granny (much love!), I will estimate. I have absolutely zero regrets, my hunger signals have been all over the place this week and I spent the night with friends I haven’t seen since lockdown started mid-March in here, and the food we had was actually pretty healthy, while the portion sizes weren’t.
OP, don’t worry about it. Life is life, it happens. The only ”fixing” I would do about yesterday if I were you, is to rest, make good food choices today, and maybe go on a little walk if not too hungover. That’s my plan.4 -
Well like everyone says above, and this is really the wisdom for the ages when it comes to dieting, "Log it, forget it, and move on."
One thing I've learned from dieting the past year is, this kind of thing is going to happen now and then. It just does. We can talk about 'new habits" and "lifestyle changes" till the cows come home, and there will still be binges. We can make spreadsheets and work diligently to calorie targets and take before-after photos and promise ourselves that maintenance will be the red-line calorie limit, all of that, and there will still be binges. They just happen. They just are. And that is why you should not feel guilty or bad or like you ruined your diet. You didn't. All you did was what every single other dieter in the history of the planet has done. You had a binge meal. What'd be strange and unique is if you didn't ever have a binge.
You basically gained a half a pound of fat (plus a few pounds of water which might take 3-5 days to drain off). That isn't so bad. In the grand scheme of things, it might've been worth it to get some good ole KFC into that gullet. Log it, forget it, and get back on plan.5 -
It will affect your progress. It's 2000 extra calories. How much it affects you is up to you. If you let it tell you that you are doomed and you continue down that path, you will gain weight. If you say, oops, and immediately get back on track, it's only a little over half a pound. 4 days at an additional 500 calorie deficit will erase it.
It really depends on whether you are trying to lose weight or at maintenance. If you are trying to lose weight at, let's say, 1 pound a week, this will delay your total weight loss by 4 days which in the grand scheme of things isn't much. If you are at maintenance, you may want to work to get rid of that extra half pound by eating at a deficit for several days.
Either way, it's one day. You can overcome it.
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“Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”
I hated that trite saying when it was plastered everywhere when I was a kid. But now, I get it.
The author was obviously on a CICO plan.6 -
I’m in the same boat, except I didn’t even log it or look it up - yet. Thanks to cranky old internet granny (much love!), I will estimate. I have absolutely zero regrets, my hunger signals have been all over the place this week and I spent the night with friends I haven’t seen since lockdown started mid-March in here, and the food we had was actually pretty healthy, while the portion sizes weren’t.
OP, don’t worry about it. Life is life, it happens. The only ”fixing” I would do about yesterday if I were you, is to rest, make good food choices today, and maybe go on a little walk if not too hungover. That’s my plan.
So, I have a follow-up: I guesstimated and logged yesterday, and it was 300 calories over what Fitbit estimated as burn (when I said the food was pretty healthy, I meant it - I literally binged on grilled fish and some side dishes). Today, my ”little” walk ended up being 2,5 hours of strolling on the seashore with my husband catching some Pokemon on our phones, giving me a good burn. Today I also slept until noon giving me less time to eat (=just breakfast, no lunch), had a nice healthy pasta dinner and even some chips&dip because I had the calories. As a result, today my deficit is 1000 calories, so for the two days I’m still at a 700 deficit. It will take a few days for the sodium & alcohol bloat to go away, but this weekend is still a win: I had a great time with my friends, enjoyed good food and wine, got quality time with my husband, and stayed in an overall deficit.3 -
Last night I ended up drinking more than I planned, and also ended up ordering KFC. I looked at the calories this morning of what I ate, and combined with the alcohol I am so shocked and feel a bit disgusted with myself that I overate my maintainance calories by about 1900.....
Normally if I slipped I wouldn't log it all as I couldn't face it. How can I make sure this day doesn't affect my progress?
I'm finally seeing the weight shift from using mfp and now worried ive ruined it.. would cutting out a lot today help? Say I cut down to 1000 calories or less?
I would use it as a learning experience. Nothing wrong with enjoying a drop of the pure, but........ Alcohol consumption is known to lower inhibitions, as many of us might recall from our more rebellious youths. Well..... we don't always make the "best choices when under the influence. So, you made a less than optimal decision the night before. Well, the good news is week to week intake is more important than day to day. Hell even month to month is more important.2 -
I was just thinking about this yesterday, how one could eat 3000 cals over burn in one day and still simply find the "goal date" just moved back a few days. Over the course of a long, slow, healthy weight loss, will hitting goal 6 days sooner really matter? Will one month really matter, once I'm at a healthy weight? I don't think so--but NOT getting to a healthy weight within a couple of years will matter, and so as long as most days have a deficit, I'm not going to worry too much about the few that don't. I read someone here saying that just picking up where you left off before the overeating was the ONLY difference in seeing MFP work for them--they did everything the same in previous attempts, but not reacting in any way to a slip (don't over-restrict or over exercise to try to "fix" it) seemed to be the difference between their previous failures and success this time. So that's what I'm doing. I hope it works for me and for you.
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Like others mentioned, you can have this event serve as a learning lesson. Try and see what created the urge to binge eat. Avoid triggers, reduce stress, and have "cheat" meals while trying to establish a new lifestyle. I'd reflect on why this happened and try to work something into your day to help mitigate. I wouldn't severely restrict calories. Just try to be consistent and try to increase you net - cals this week to help compensate if you feel it is necessary. Again, I feel the biggest concern should be preventing this from happening again. Good luck!1
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