Balancing a 'bad' day

[NeedATan]

I've been tracking with MFP since last summer and have been doing quite well. I'm on 1,200/day. Every now and again at the weekend I indulge in some 'junk' food, be it some sweets, dessert, or even a take away or a full English breakfast. Currently I try to balance all those additional calories but having a day or two of 'soup-intensive' days, where my meals are replaced by nutritious but low-calorie home-made soups.

I was wondering how others on a weight loss journey make up for slips. Thank you.

I've always found when trying to lose weight (just had dc3, normally a size 8 but always go up to a 12 when pregnant 🙄) that I'm more successful if I don't try to make up for slips.

It's not like I feel the need to balance out days where I'm particularly "good".

I find not feeling negative about things like that improves my ability to diet and attitude to food generally. It also bizarrely prevents me going "f* it, I've eaten 1 biscuit so I'll finish the packet".

Just accept that it will take you slightly longer to lose the weight?

I don’t. Psychologically, I really don’t think it helps to feel bad about what you’ve eaten and try to make up for it. I don’t worry about eating healthily absolutely every single meal. Just most of the time works for me.

I don’t usually do it. I’m on 1200 a day and a couple of months ago I did 1000 a day so I could have a restaurant meal (at home) for my anniversary and eat what I like but I don’t like to do that normally as the calories on the other days are too low and I don’t enjoy it.

If I fancy a ‘treat’ food say a brownie, or some crisps I factor it into my daily calories, have a soup for lunch or salad for dinner I’m not usually doing this as I’d rather have 3 decent meals and no treats.

I’d either accept that the weight loss is going to be slower or just cut out what you can.

I don't consider them slips or anything to feel guilty about. I just log it and move on. I aim for a weekly deficit, not daily, so it all balances out in the end. I try not to assign good/bad/junk labels to food, for me it often leads to restricting/binging/purging, it's just fuel for my body. Sometimes a "refeed" day can be necessary if you've been eating low calorie for a long time.

I'm another 'just draw a line and start again' sort.

I have a day off so what I do is move some cals towards it. There is no need to have same calories every day, weekly average is better for me personally.
I do lower cal day before day off, usually same after because I am just not hungry.
Plus I do things like having lighter lunch on the day if I am expecting pizza 😁

It's not bad to want to eat not so healthy things. Once in a while it's absolutely, absolutely, ok.

Thanks for the input. I just cannot bring myself to have 'days off' if I don't make up for them. I need to know I haven't undone the hard work from previous days. As for slower weight loss, it's already slow because I'm an 8-10 so if I allow it to slow down further it will take me a year before I'm a true 8...

I just cannot bring myself to have 'days off' if I don't make up for them

That doesn’t sound very healthy.

Sounds all very disordered if you're a size 8-10 and talking about being on 1200 calories a day and 'making up' for having a take away

Hang on. You’re a size 8-10 now and you’re still not able to have a day of eating what you want without feeling bad? You’re only eating 1200 a day at that size?

Yeah @PurpleDaisies

I don't know how much you are losing weekly @NeedATan but undoing the work vcan actually be quite a work! 😁
Like I am losing kilo a week. To undo it, I would have to eat 10k calories on my day off. I have a good appetite but 😳 no.

If you have such a tiny amount to lose maybe you should look at body recomposition, if you haven't already. Becoming leaner by increasing muscle mass rather than purely focusing on the number on the scale. It's harder but you might see better results.

If you have such a tiny amount to lose maybe you should look at body recomposition, if you haven't already.

I’d be looking at whether I really needed to be losing anything at all.

@5foot418stone

If you have such a tiny amount to lose maybe you should look at body recomposition, if you haven't already. Becoming leaner by increasing muscle mass rather than purely focusing on the number on the scale. It's harder but you might see better results.

That's a very good shout

Perhaps I should have said "lose". I don't believe OP needs to lose weight, which is why I suggested body recomp.

Body recomp is a great shout. I have been working on that for about the last 8 months. I actually weigh slightly more than I did then but I look a lot better and I've lost inches on my waist too.

I'm a size 8-10 too OP and I realised that unless I ate virtually nothing then I wasn't realistically going to lose anymore. I decided to ditch the dieting and pick up the weights instead. It's been liberating actually because I can see my body looking better with my eyes and in my clothes without needing to know the numbers all the time.

I do have days where I eat more (there are no 'bad' or 'cheat' days and this mindset can be quite damaging if you let it) but there are days where I eat less too. It's a balance.

But you don't need to punish yourself for having a takeaway, that way madness lies.

We don't know how tall the OP is. I am 5'3" and a size 10 (would have been a 12 ten years ago). I feel better a bit smaller and have to eat 1200 to lose 2lbs per week.

Re the original question - I try not to slip up. Probably not very helpful!

I suppose that's true, I'm 5'8" though and still have to eat a very low number of calories to lose weight. I'm over 40 though!

@OtherwiseKnownAsSheilaTh3Great

Sounds all very disordered if you're a size 8-10 and talking about being on 1200 calories a day and 'making up' for having a take away

Yes. If I eat more than 1,200 I lose little to nothing.

@Stilltalkstotrees

We don't know how tall the OP is. I am 5'3" and a size 10 (would have been a 12 ten years ago). I feel better a bit smaller and have to eat 1200 to lose 2lbs per week.

Re the original question - I try not to slip up. Probably not very helpful!

We sound very similar - I'm 5.3. But I'm not even losing one pound per week now at 1,200 cal/day.

How active are you? Activity is a good way to move your tdee up. And muscles.
Maintaining on close to 1200 is pretty low

I used to work out a lot but fell out of love with it. My job is very sedentary so that is something I could change. But between restricting calories and exercising I'd rather go for the former!

I know you're short but 1200 calories is such a miserable amount food, even with volume eating, and it doesn't seem like it's working for you ? Especially if you're experiencing guilt or other negative feelings about indulging in more calorie dense/less nutritious food occasionally.

Increasing muscle mass means your BMR will be higher so you'll burn more calories just by existing. You'll also most probably experience "beginner gains" meaning you'll see results quickly at first. A lot quicker than eating 1200kcal and being sedentary for a year, anyway. You'll get leaner/lose fat/lose inches but might not see the scale change much. However if it's only the number on the scale that matters to you and you don't want to exercise then it's probably not a good fit for you. I've done the 1200kcal and I'd rather (suffer through) exercise to get an extra 500kcal or so!

I'm actually quite happy with 1,200 calories a day. I don't go hungry.