What do you do if you go over by 200 calories? 500? 1000? 3000?

One of my basic rules for this situation is, don't do it 2 days in a row.

When I was losing, and in the first quite a few months of maintenance, I'd log everything . . . good, bad, indifferent, on plan or off. That helped with learning my personal patterns/inclinations, and making plans to work with those instead of constantly trying to swim upstream against my preferences.

Generically speaking, after an unusual day(s), I just go back to the routine positive habits I've established. (That does depend on having identified, established, and practiced those habits so they're almost autopilot. To me, "find/practice new pretty-easy habits" is a success factor.)

I don't have "routine habits" for holidays, by definition: Holidays aren't routine. I try not to be super-counterproductive in long stretches of non-routine life (like a month). If it's a week or less, I'm less worried. In that case, I try to be intentional. That may mean eating conservatively, or it may mean indulging freely, or anything in between.

That may sound crazy, but if my holiday offers many very special food delights, I'm more likely to indulge. Some of my holidays are rowing camps, and I've found that if I eat ad libitum when that active, I usually end up around maintenance calories, so it's fine. If the food is just available and not all that special, I'm more likely to spend fewer calories. Intentional.

I don't like "make up for it after" as a strategy. For me, it feels like a path to a bad relationship with food. I don't want to punish myself for eating. Some cases where I'll want to eat more than usual are predictable. I do try to plan for those, maybe bank a moderate number of calories per day for a few days in advance, eat lighter in other parts of the day if the indulgence is just one meal, maybe look for some fun extra activities to do that day or the day before (bike or walk or row or whatever - enjoyable things, but extra - not crazy overdoing, either). When it's unplannable, I'd usually just let it go, and get back on track. (If less hungry the next day, I would eat less, but not otherwise.)

Maybe it's a misimpression on my part - if so I apologize - but it seems from the totality of your posts that you eat quite variably, almost impulsively, reactively or randomly; then are likely to feel anxiety about it.

Overall, it's helpful to have some routine eating and activity patterns. I don't mean exactly the same thing every day, but maybe a regular rotation of meals you enjoy, from which you can select. Similar with exercise: Some things that work well in your routine schedule, and are enjoyable. That creates two things: A baseline "normal pattern" you can go back to without much deep thought after some off day(s), and a pattern that you can gradually adjust in more positive or useful ways as you learn more about yourself. It takes a while to establish patterns of that sort, but it's fine to take some time. Weight management is a long game, a forever endeavor.

sugarfreesquirrel wrote: »

@Lietchi Maybe? It's hard when you only lose like 1kg a month and you see other people lose 100kg in a year. From my highest weight I want to lose about half. I feel like I should be losing a kg a week because I still have a long way to go.

sugarfreesquirrel wrote: »

I know I've asked similiar questions and that might look concerning or something, but I tried the search function and it wasn't that helpful, also checked the featured posts and didn't find a similar thread. Also want some good solid answers on why you should restart the next day and how it affects you in the long run.

My current goal is to lose 5kg by October the 13th, so that's 7 weeks away and I am currently 5'10 and 110kg.

I don't think the calendar is a good weight loss tool. I'm pretty darned certain that comparing ourselves to others' self-reports is not a good strategy.

For the record, I have reservations about who is losing 100kg (220 pounds) in a year. That would be about 0.27 kg (0.6 pounds) per day. I question whether that's true.

100kg in a year would also be about a 2100 calorie per day deficit (i.e., eating that many calories daily under maintenance). Many of us don't burn that much in a day, and few burn lots more than that. So, losing that much in a year would require eating in the realm of zero to a few hundred calories daily for an entire year. That's improbable. I question whether it's even healthy. It wouldn't be for most people, for sure. The person would need to be starting at something like 275kg (600 pounds) for it to be reasonable, and ending at 175kg (385kg). It's certainly extremely uncommon.

For sure, at 110kg currently, you wouldn't want to be aiming at losing 100kg in a year, right? So why compare yourself to an absurd example?

You can afford to lose 1kg a week for a while, if you want to . . . but obviously it's necessary to find and stick to the required calorie level (on average, not religiously exactly every day).

TL;DR: After a high day, just go back to your normal healthy routine. One day is a drop in the ocean. What matters most is what we do most of the time. The only thing that matters, ever, is what we do on average over periods of time. Anxiety, guilt, and things like that don't burn any extra calories, and feel icky: Why go there? Learn, adjust, repeat, continue.