Can you gain weight by overindulging for a day or two?

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  • Keran24
    Keran24 Posts: 90 Member
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    I eat sushi all of the time with my diet, It's not a bad thing to eat. Pizza is ok if you limit how much. It just has a lot of salt which makes me gain.
  • Elizabeth_C34
    Elizabeth_C34 Posts: 6,376 Member
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    I can gain 3-5 lbs in water weight with eating bad enough over a weekend. Le sigh...

    My problem is that when I start on chips, I eat them all. All that sodium makes me retain water.
  • tberrycastle
    tberrycastle Posts: 32 Member
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    My advice is to not deprive yourself of the foods you love. Eat what you like a day or two a week, but add lots of veggies and drink lots of water, and don't forget to exercise. I have lost 50 pounds (before starting here) and I eat freely on occasion. It's really about making the small and more permanent changes like giving up soda and potato chips, eating less fat overall, eating more veggies always, being more active, substituting lower fat/calorie foods for higher ones. So the short answer to your question is a resounding NO......eating the foods you crave and love...in moderation will not negatively impact your weight loss if you are generally sticking to a healthy plan. Good luck!
  • stubbysticks
    stubbysticks Posts: 1,275 Member
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    Eat what you like a day or two a week
    You don't want to stretch it across more than 1 day unless you're ok with maintaining your weight. If you want to indulge AND continue losing weight, then limit it to 24 hours.
  • unicornassassin
    unicornassassin Posts: 141 Member
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    Everytime I have a cheat meal, it goes wrong and turns to eating till I throw up kind of cheating, I guess I don't learn my lesson =/

    It kind of sounds like you have some disordered eating habits. As someone who used to have disordered eating habits, I would suggest you do some reading into it, and reflect on why you eat the way you do. I personally wasn't able to start losing weight until I took the emotions out of food.
  • fitness_woman
    fitness_woman Posts: 46
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    @fitness_woman, it really sounds to me like the way you view your "cheat" meals is the problem, not the meals themselves. I hate the word because it has such a negative connotation, like I should feel ashamed for eating something I want. If I worked my *kitten* off for 6 days & want to eat some crap on the 7th day, why shouldn't I? And why should I feel bad about it? I'm entitled to eat/drink stuff I like even if it doesn't fit my weekday nutritional goals. And I continue to lose weight eating this way. You can't convince me that anything I eat on that one day each week cancels out the work I put in & the healthy food I eat on the other 6 days. You just can't.

    I suspect that depriving yourself of indulgences most of the time contributes to you going off the deep end when you finally do indulge. I can't say for sure though, because I don't know you & I've never been a binge eater. It's true that some people can't handle going on & off plan like this mentally, because it triggers binge eating, so you are the only one who can really make the decision about whether it can work for you.

    yes you're right, I'm always worried that I might gain my weight back, which I do not want. I always think that cheat meal triggers uncontrollable eating. I just need to work on controlling myself. I tend to have my favorite foods in 2-3 days. For example, I love chips,hot dogs and burrito. My cheat day will be 3 days because I haven't had those for months. Then get back on track. Everytime I have my cheat meal and a week later, people say I got chubbier or something like that. Which I hate hearing that from others.
  • fitness_woman
    fitness_woman Posts: 46
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    Everytime I have a cheat meal, it goes wrong and turns to eating till I throw up kind of cheating, I guess I don't learn my lesson =/

    It kind of sounds like you have some disordered eating habits. As someone who used to have disordered eating habits, I would suggest you do some reading into it, and reflect on why you eat the way you do. I personally wasn't able to start losing weight until I took the emotions out of food.

    yes, I also take it out on eating when I'm stressed. Which I took a week off from healthy eating and exercise. I got back on track and everything went great. Now I think I'm that place where I want to eat chips,pizza and sushi rolls. Not stressed anymore but deprived on food that I love.
  • fitness_woman
    fitness_woman Posts: 46
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    I eat sushi all of the time with my diet, It's not a bad thing to eat. Pizza is ok if you limit how much. It just has a lot of salt which makes me gain.

    Yes I love sushi too, the sushi I'm talking about is sushi rolls that are fried,mayonnaise and other stuff on it. I love pizza!
  • fitness_woman
    fitness_woman Posts: 46
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    My advice is to not deprive yourself of the foods you love. Eat what you like a day or two a week, but add lots of veggies and drink lots of water, and don't forget to exercise. I have lost 50 pounds (before starting here) and I eat freely on occasion. It's really about making the small and more permanent changes like giving up soda and potato chips, eating less fat overall, eating more veggies always, being more active, substituting lower fat/calorie foods for higher ones. So the short answer to your question is a resounding NO......eating the foods you crave and love...in moderation will not negatively impact your weight loss if you are generally sticking to a healthy plan. Good luck!

    Thank you very much, =) I just need to learn and not to be scared of something I love and crave once a week!
  • fitness_woman
    fitness_woman Posts: 46
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    I can gain 3-5 lbs in water weight with eating bad enough over a weekend. Le sigh...

    My problem is that when I start on chips, I eat them all. All that sodium makes me retain water.

    I know that is my problem, I can't stop eating those yummy junk food, that is why I always tell myself not to start before I crave them.
  • stubbysticks
    stubbysticks Posts: 1,275 Member
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    Everytime I have my cheat meal and a week later, people say I got chubbier or something like that. Which I hate hearing that from others.
    Then you REALLY need to be more selective about the people you spend your time around.
  • LuciaLongIsland
    LuciaLongIsland Posts: 815 Member
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    there is nothing wrong with eating those things. whats wrong is over eating. make portion control a real part of your life. hell, i had two hamburger and some chips and salsa for lunch. but i was able to control myself, and not eat the whole bag of chips.

    It is impossible for me to do portion control due to my addictive
    personality.
  • aippolito1
    aippolito1 Posts: 4,894 Member
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    I try to treat myself everyday but not go crazy. It could be one serving (1/2 cup) ice cream at work, or some nachos from taco bell (if i have the calories). i just always make sure it fits, calorie-wise, into my day, so i don't go over. if you're going to go over on your calories, i would say only do it one day a week or only every once in awhile.
  • TempeB
    TempeB Posts: 43 Member
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    I've gained two and two-and-a-half pounds within a couple of days of overindulging. Granted, those were days when I went at least 800 calories over my goal.
  • love4fitnesslove4food_wechange
    love4fitnesslove4food_wechange Posts: 6,897 Member
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    I've gained two and two-and-a-half pounds within a couple of days of overindulging. Granted, those were days when I went at least 800 calories over my goal.

    well, unless you went over by 8750 as a combined total then MOST of the weight you "gained" was water weight/food mass and will go away within a few days of doing back to your normal routine.
  • DKev
    DKev Posts: 266 Member
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    At least one day mostly every week, I go over my calories by several hundred and it hasn't made any big difference in my weight.

    This is how I operate as well.
  • gunmetalsunrise
    gunmetalsunrise Posts: 131
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    There's an image with a quote floating around Tumblr that I reblog at least once a month. It says:

    "It took more than a day to put it on; it will take more than a day to take it off."

    It keeps me in focus: Having a minor splurge once a week will NOT wreck my diet plan. But I also have to keep in mind that the changes will not be instantaneous and that it'll take time.
  • LuciaLongIsland
    LuciaLongIsland Posts: 815 Member
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    I've gained two and two-and-a-half pounds within a couple of days of overindulging. Granted, those were days when I went at least 800 calories over my goal.

    well, unless you went over by 8750 as a combined total then MOST of the weight you "gained" was water weight/food mass and will go away within a few days of doing back to your normal routine.

    It will???
  • ghiagirl893
    ghiagirl893 Posts: 69 Member
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    I have candy almost every day. I am seriously addicted to sugar. It is easy enough to fit in what you love.

    Don't give up on all your hard work just because the wedding is over!!! Maintain!
  • LuciaLongIsland
    LuciaLongIsland Posts: 815 Member
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    At least one day mostly every week, I go over my calories by several hundred and it hasn't made any big difference in my weight.

    This is how I operate as well.

    I wish>

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