@yari Yup, this is the start of ED tendencies. I would be concerned to even be having this thought in the back of my mind. Reading the OP comments, it sounds like they are going to do it regardless but just looking for validation.
@vinayakc Something we all have to keep in mind I would imagine.
Mother's Day I ate like a normal American, +4lbs on the scale the next day. Later that week, I went for a run, forgot to eat dinner and wound up only eating like 1200 calories. Dropped 2 or 3lbs on the scale.
I know it was water because the math don't math, but it can mess with your head for sure.
@awoods88 Don’t. I just went off diet for two days because of celebrations and gained 5lbs. I’ll eat 200 calories less and walk 5k extra steps for two days and then I’ll be more or less back. Most of the weight gained is water and I’ll put the calories to good use in the gym. By restricting yourself like you’re intending to do will set you up for another binge. Just get back on track!
@awoods88 I personally feel that trying to offset calories the next day or whatever is veering too close to disordered eating. Every day is a new day. What happened the day before is irrelevant to me.
@awoods88 If you were in a deficit prior then I'm sure you didn't put on any additional fat and most of the cals went on to replenish glycogen and stuff. Although eating 800 cals would have a considerable impact on your training which I'm sure would mean less muscle retention and more fat retention, basically the opposite of what you want on your cut. Furthermore such low cal days can impact your sleep too which is very important during a cut.
@awoods88 Just consider it a refeed day and keep going, it will do absolutely nothing if it's just one day of overeating. Your next workouts should be great from all the excess energy, don't stress about it
@awoods88 No, It's super smart. It may even help with a teeny metabolism bump from the high calorie day.
I ate 1600 calories for three days before our party and I got to eat and drink and have fun and I just had to cut a few hundred calories the day after to even it all out.
@awoods88 Sure, switch a few of your meals to protein shakes for a while until you feel better but one day of bad eating isn’t going make you gain 5lbs of fat.
@awoods88 Nah, don't worry about it. Your body is going to eliminate a vast majority of the excess calories from the splurge. Just get back on track and you'll be set right in no time. Don't let it get in your head.
@awoods88 Just have patience. And go back to your regular cutting amount of calories. Do not go down to only 800. You will lose muscle and will be more tempted to Binge again. You will become obsessed with food if u go that low. Terrible idea lol
@awoods88 There's no real benefit to a massive deficit or fasting for a single day. The fatigue/muscle loss/diet fatigue cost is greater than the fat loss benefit.
With dieting, it's more important to stay in a sustainable range for you at the current time for the duration than to willpower your way to a few starvation days.
@awoods88 I finished a cut about 3 weeks ago, over the weekend my buddies and I went to Detroit (I'm Canadian) and for the 2 days, I drank and ate probably around 4,500k/cals. I didn't track, I just wanted to have fun. I went from 170.5lbs @ 12% body fat to 177lbs @ 15.4% body fat when I got back. Just went back to maintenance @ 2624kcals I weighed in at 175lbs this morning at 15% and I guarantee I'll lose another 2lbs by tomorrow from body water and bloating.
On a side note, though I've done it in the past myself - 8% body fat is wild if it's not for a show. I decided to stay around 12% - 13%, I ended my cut at 11%. I just know if I dig deeper the mental thought of binging is lurking around the corner and I'll deal with that out-of-control hunger.
@awoods88 You just described a very botched version of carb cycling. You could do that, or think of those 5k calories as a “re-feed day”. Re-feeds are very beneficial when trying to lose weight.
You could either do option A: and only eat protein the rest of the week
Or option B: think of it as a refeed and go back to your normal diet.
Don’t try to overthink it, or you’ll just stress yourself man.
@awoods88 I always offset calories. Maybe not to the extreme that you're planning to do. But, if I go over by one day I just subtract it by the next day or the next two days if it was over 1k cals.
I look at my calories over a weekly period instead of daily, which is a much simpler approach.
