Something to think about why not to say “f*ck it” and realise you’ve not screwed everything up!
No matter who you are, you will, at some point during a diet, eat more than necessary. It happens to everyone. The problem isn’t the fact you went over your allotted calories, the problem is your reaction to the fact you went over your allotted calories (*insert Keanu level “woah” here*).
People usually fall into two camps when they overeat:
1. Those who think their progress is ruined so might as well continue overeating because fuck it.
2. Those who freak out and try to restrict calories (or starve themselves) the next day.
Both of these approaches do more harm than good. Here’s why. “My diet’s ruined so fuck it”If you dropped your phone and very slightly scratched your screen, would you then proceed to smash the phone to pieces because there’s an almost imperceptible scratch on the screen? Of course you wouldn’t because that would make zero sense and be highly illogical.
So…why do you do the same thing with your diet? If you have one bad day of eating and you get back on track the next day, it’ll be nothing but a very small blip on your fat loss radar that you’ll have forgotten about in a week because you’re making progress again. But if you decide everything’s ruined and you continue eating like crap for the rest of the week, then that negligible blip turns into taking the radar smashing it to pieces and then throwing it in a microwave and leaving it in there until everything implodes. And this isn’t just me waxing philosophic, let’s look at this logically.
To gain a pound of fat, you need to consume 3500 calories OVER your maintenance (while not 100% accurate, the 3500 calories in one pound of fat rule is still fairly accurate and will suffice for this example). This means if your maintenance intake is 2000 calories, you’d need to consume 5500 calories in a day to gain a pound of fat. I highly doubt you’re eating this much unless you’re intentionally trying to overeat (in which case, what the fuck, man?).
Secondly, this doesn’t take into account things like NEAT (some people tend to move more when they’re overfed which means a lot of the calories are burned off), TEF (the number of calories burned through digestion), nutrient storage (how many calories were stored as body fat and how many were stored as glycogen) etc, etc. So even if you do have one day of overeating, the actual number of calories that were stored would be fewer than consumed.
astly, your body is constantly storing and burning body fat (known as fat balance). So even if you overeat and store a few more grams of body fat one day (positive fat balance), if you get back on track the next day and resume eating in a deficit you’ll be back in a negative fat balance. Fat gain and loss doesn’t happen overnight, it’s how long you stay in a surplus that will dictate whether you gain body fat. So doesn’t it make sense to get back on track the next day to ensure your body gets back to fat burning as soon as possible? That’s rhetorical, the answer is a resounding yes.
Yes, it may seem like you gained fat the next day because your weight will be higher on the scale and you may look a bit ‘softer’ but a lot of this is just an increase in water weight, salt, glycogen stores, and the fact you have more food in your stomach. I’m also not trying to sugarcoat things: if you’re eating high-fat foods (fat is directly stored as body fat whereas protein and carbs are not) and drinking alcohol (the body stops metabolizing other nutrients to metabolize alcohol so fat burning is suppressed, meaning if you’re drinking and eating high-fat, high-calorie, foods the chances of those calories being directly stored as body fat increases), there’s a very likely chance you gained some body fat. But, a small amount of fat gain (I’m talking literal grams) will be burned off once you get back on track–refer back to my point on fat balance.
“I overate so I’m going to starve myself tomorrow”My advice on how to approach the day after is dependent on the person asking the question. Some people may benefit from slightly reducing calories the next day (note I said slightly reduce, not starve). Others may benefit from getting back on track and not worrying about adjusting anything. To that, here are two suggestions. 1. Move on. This is what it sounds like. You acknowledge you ate like an asshole. But you also acknowledge that one or two days of overeating aren’t going to ruin your progress if you simply get back on track. Remember: what you do most of the time matters more than what you do some of the time.
2. “Damage control.” In this approach, you simply reduce calories the day after to bring your weekly average down. For example, if your daily intake is 1800 calories and then on Saturday you consumed more calories than normal, you’d simply bring your calories down on Sunday.
In the example above, by bringing your calories down on Sunday from 1800 to 1400 calories, you brought your weekly average intake down to ~1800 calories which keeps you in a deficit by the end of the week.
A few premeditated questions and answers: a) How much should I reduce my calories by? However much you need to bring your weekly average down. b) I did A but my calorie intake is ridiculously low and I don’t think I’ll be able to stick to it–what do I do? Go back to your normal calorie intake and continue as normal. c) I don’t know how many calories I consumed on the day, what do I do? Go back to your normal calorie intake and continue as normal. d) But–Go back to your normal calorie intake and continue as normal. K? K. Simple.
As I mentioned in my last email, instead of being “all-or-nothing” (you’re either perfect or there’s no point in trying) try being “all-or-something” (‘I had one day of eating more than usual, but nobody’s perfect and I know if I get back on track I’ll be ok’). It’s a much healthier attitude to have towards everything, including your fitness goals. Talk soon, – Aa
