Last night i had e big cheat meal, not tipically for my diet. It was about 2.5 rack of spare rips (1500g of meat or so). The estimated calories where a bit over 3000 or so. i overeat like 2000 calories.
Now this morning i regret the meal. what should i do to get back on track and not overdoing things.
My tipical diet is Macro counting (80% clean food, 20% everything) for about 2200 calories, with 175g of carbs, 200+g of protein and 75g fats.
I work 5 days a week at a semi-desk job, and my training is 4x week Full Body, a mix of 5/3/1 and hypertrophy (normal mid to low volume)
How to approach the next 2 days or so. I think to fast is not the solution.
Find ways to avoid doing it again or at the very least too much…planning your meals & what you put in your shopping trolley is huge. I know for me that is the key…I know if I buy a ton of junk I will eat it all pretty rapidly.
If you’re really concerned about it you could do a little protein pulse fast or whatever it is called. Or I will just follow it up with a low cal day. Similar to how the “5/2 Diet For Lifters” structures their low days. But overeating one meal with meat shouldn’t derail you too much.
Honestly, just forget it and get back on the path. If you’ve been consistent up to now it won’t hurt you much. Don’t judge yourself by your failures.
At first: would you prefer curing the symptom or its cause?
I’d recommend forgetting about that cheat and continuing your routine as usual. Don’t worry, you can’t go back in time and brutally whip those spare ribs out of your past self’s hands anyway. That’s where eating disorders are born. Jumping around and hoping that those calories don’t hang on to your belly won’t work either. After all, I’m pretty sure a single cheat once in a while won’t hurt your progress. I believe it would be much better trying to avoiding those unplanned cheats in the future, i.e avoiding their cause.
So why did you actually cheat? Could it be that you were sustaining your caloric deficit for too long without going beyond maintenance levels once in a while? This can screw up your hormonal profile (e.g. leptin) and thus make you more vulnerable for hunger cravings.
What about planned cheat days in order to control those leptin levels? Do you eat above maintenance levels from time to time (e.g. once per week) or are you trying to keep up with caloric restriction all the time? This could be the answer why you even considered uncontrolled overeating. Of course, planned cheating doesn’t mean going overboard until the caloric deficit you accumulated over the past few days is completely worthless!
Consider the basics: consume protein with almost every meal and eat frequently (4-6 meals per day).
In case that’s not the cause, you may consider eating light throughout the day and consuming your biggest and most satiating meal approximately 2-3 hours before going to bed (in order to not compromise growth hormone release due to high insulin levels during sleep). It might be easier for you to maintain your routine during the daytime due to e.g. a busy job and the psychological benefit of a big meal waiting to be consumed at the end of the day. And no, you won’t become fat as long as you keep an eye on your energy balance (i.e. maintaining a deficit). Nonetheless, this doesn’t mean neglecting your workout nutrition depending on when you typically use to train.
Similar to this case, most cheating might happen at night and / or during your free time. So another strategy to keep cravings at bay can be brushing your teeth immediately after finishing your (last) meal(s). This can psychologically help your brain to tick eating.
As others have said, get back on the horse. When I’ve had this happen before, I might do some more cardio the next day or sit in the steam room but otherwise I just accept what happened and wait 4-5 days for my weight to return to normal if it was a big binge.
Your metabolism doesn’t know what a 24 hour period is. Just make up for it the next day and look at your calories on a weekly basis. I think they call it calorie cycling but I call it one of the most awesome dieting tools. The trend over time is what’s important. There’s going to be dips and peaks in that overall long trend line. Don’t sweat those.
thanks for replys guys, very helpful inputs overall. I think i was overrating that whole overeating thing. If its not a regulat base, i think its not that difficult to get back on track. thx again
