Was this too much or am I still ok?
gh0stly_pepperz
Posts: 1 Member
I didn't want to eat past midnight but I ended up have a bowl of fettuccine with some fried chicken at 2 AM due to my cravings.
I honestly don't know how many calories this is but I'm worried it was close to 1000 and the day just technically started...so I still want to be in a deficit by the end of it. So can I still eat something low calorie later in the day and still be at a deficit?
Thank you for any advice you may have. I just don't wanna sabotage myself
I'm trying to upload the pic but I'm having trouble
I honestly don't know how many calories this is but I'm worried it was close to 1000 and the day just technically started...so I still want to be in a deficit by the end of it. So can I still eat something low calorie later in the day and still be at a deficit?
Thank you for any advice you may have. I just don't wanna sabotage myself
I'm trying to upload the pic but I'm having trouble
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Replies
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It doesn't matter WHEN you eat the food, but midnight fried chicken with fettucine for 1000 calories is definitely going to make the rest of the day challenging.
Are you trying to eat really low calorie all day long? That will lead to midnight kitchen raids. Just try to split your allotted calories between a few meals and don't try to cut your calories too low. If you're set at the low end (like 1200) then consider eating more in general to avoid that hunger.
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Good advice from cmriverside, as always.
I'd add: Stepping back to the big picture, I'm concerned that you're possibly going at this in an absolutist and anxious way.
Instead, consider treating the first weeks of calorie counting as a sort of fun, productive science fair experiment . . . a learning phase.
The goal is to find a way to eat at reduced calories, eventually at calories below the number you burn daily in all ways, while staying mostly full, sufficiently energetic, ideally reasonably well-nourished, and generally happy with your eating routine. That will take some experimenting. Experiments don't always succeed. We learn from them, adjust, and go on.
When the plan hits a bump, like eating 1000 calories of chicken and fettuccine at 2AM, that's not a failure you need to make up for today by depriving yourself, as if at were a sin you needed to expiate by suffering. (For one, that will tend to set you up for another late night cravings-fest, I suspect.)
But mostly, it's a learning experience, and the ideal response IMO is to think about why it happened, and how you can adjust your plan to avoid repeats. Even with that, don't obsess for hours, just give it 10 minutes or so.
Did you set calories too low to start? Did you switch to foods that are less filling for you? Is your eating schedule not ideal for you? Are you one of those people who can't sleep if hungry, so it would be better to eat dinner later or have a planned evening snack? Etc.
Revise your plan, and test drive it. Adjust again when necessary. Keep going like that, and you'll gradually dial in a calorie-appropriate routine that's easier for you to stick with, without it being a melodrama about good and evil, or about being "good" vs. personal failure. It's just about finding personally workable new habits we can stick with long enough to lose the total amount of weight we want to lose . . . and then ideally stay there long term, even forever.
As far as the rest of the day, the general rule I'd suggest is just to go back to your usual plan ASAP. That's not "make up for it", it's eating the healthy breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks you have in your general plan (perhaps adjusted somewhat to avoid a repeat of 2AM cravings and over-eating).
Maybe that general approach is not right for you, I don't know. But the low-drama, "revise the plan and go on" approach is what got me to a healthy weight for the first time in around 30 years, and has kept me there for 8+ years since. Just an option to consider, for anyone else.
Regardless of what you decide, I'm wishing you success: The results are worth the effort!6 -
Overall weekly calories is the number to look at. Meal timing is irrelevant. Being miserable when dieting down is a recipe for failure2
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All of the above! But my biggest piece of advice if you're looking for consistency is to weigh it, and preferably track it, before you stick it in your head. Otherwise you get stuck exactly as you are, wondering and stressing.
Sometimes that's not possible, but where you can, it will give you better information to work with.1 -
Next time have one egg scrambled with a slice of cheese on whole wheat bread. It will give you some protein to attack those cravings and it will satisfy you at relatively few calories.1
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(sorry, did not see the date of the original post! )
You try. You learn. You try again
Un-known, un-weighed, un-prepared by you quantity of fried chicken and fettucine at 2:00am is probably not optimal. ALSO giving up on a day because something went wrong is also not optimal. But, by the same token, trying to desperately turn a side-ways day into a perfect day is just as much not optimal!
The 2:00am fried chicken and fettuccine day is NOT a write off in terms of long term results; but it is also not a day that can be/should be twisted into immediately contributing to your weight loss by itself.
The **ONLY** long term correct answer is to carry on in a **REASONABLE** manner.
Yup, yup, I'm throwing an absolute statement into the fire!
Because of your 2:00am raid you probably got a bit less hungry than normal. This means that you might be reasonably able to get away with a slightly reduced breakfast or lunch while carrying on more or less normally in terms of the remainder of your day. But if you try to cut everything to the bone the mostly likely outcome will be a restrict and rebound overeat cycle in the middle of the night or the next day.
So carry on with your original plan... with some small adjustments maybe and even the small adjustments are not, strictly speaking, necessary. Sure, your one time over-eating incident has pushed your maintenance start date back by a day or two. So what? The main thing is that you continue to carry on and do not throw in the towel for the day. And then look at your weekly and your monthly, and not just your daily, picture.
And all the very relevant stuff discussed above in terms of deficits and logging. Approximate logging is... approximate. It may or may not work for someone. But it is not a precision tool.
Take care and best of luck!1
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