DietFAIL! Why not to freak out after a night of indulgence
Have you ever been on a diet and then overate? That's a rhetorical question OF COURSE you have, we all have! The next morning there's the train of emotions that never end, regret, how did this happen? Why couldn't I just say no? What's wrong with me?? Well, first off, nothing is wrong with you. You're human, you are on a diet, and that delicious creamy savory whatever it was sang to you all evening until you caved. Will power is not always turned on the highest setting all the time. And dieting "whoopsies" will happen. But a slip up is not enough to throw in the towel or derail your goals and I'll tell you why. ;)
When you overeat on your diet, at the very most you will carry excess water weight from the increase of carbs. Remember, 1g of glycogen stores with it 3g of water. We've all been told over and over that the body wants to be fat. Eat slightly over your calories and you might as well forget you even started to diet. But fortunately there's only some truth in that tale. As much as your body fights you on any diet to not lose weight by sending all kinds of unwelcome signals and feelings and overtime reducing metabolic rate, when we overeat it actually turns up metabolic fire. The body is an amazingly adaptive machine, and after a period of dieting and eating in a deficit your metabolism will start to down-regulate to achieve homeostasis (talked about in previous blog), to achieve balance. Eat less, burn less - over time this is just the way metabolism works. Fortunately, the same thing happens when we suddenly increase calories. You've in a sense, turned the thermostat up and your metabolic rate will increase from the extra intake. Most people who implement increasing calories in their diet do so for a purpose and that is called a "carb refeed". But for someone who's goals are to lose weight at the moment and they aren't their lean sleek future self yet, staying in a deficit is the plan. Overeating is not. :)
Let's talk about your fear, though, of putting on fat in these times of a lack of willpower, or just a general IDGACrap-I'm-eating-that-cake moment. Here's where the science-y stuff comes in. Enter "de novo lipogenesis": this a body process where carbs are turned into lipids and then stored into unwanted body fat. This can be the case with some people if they excessively overeat on carbs on back to back days, like a 2 or 3 day binge. That doesn't sound like what you did last night at grandma and grandpas 45th wedding anniversary, it was only one night! And you only had two platefuls of food not the entire kitchen, right? So stop fretting! Instead, use that extra fuel (yes, fuel) to kill it in your workouts the next few days. Things should level off, you're leptin stores will be boosted a little causing dieting efforts to feel not so bad anymore and you will be back on track, refocused on reaching your goals. That extra weight you may be carrying around? It's water weight. Yup, not 5 pounds of wahoo fat. Simply an increase in water retention which will go away once you resume your calorie deficit for your weight loss goals.
Many people fall into the trap of “If I’m going to eat junk, I might as well jam as much of the worst stuff I can down my food hole.” (sound familiar?) TIP FOR THE FUTURE. If you are planning on enjoying some festivities and "having some" do this. Try to make better bad choices. Limit portions (you know that you don't really NEED three pieces of cake to be satisfied). Pick the lower calorie or lower fat/high-carb stuff at the dessert table. For those who are training hard you can handle an influx of carbs acutely better than fat, so dollop some more of that stuff on your plate if you must. Maybe have a little bit of two or three different desserts, just get a taste and move on.
Train with a Bit Higher Volume Prior to the Event. This is what I love to do. Always before a social event I train legs or at least try and get in a taxing full body workout. One of the best ways to increase the ‘sink’ for incoming calories is to deplete muscle glycogen. When you do that by using a higher volume (more sets, higher reps) of training, not only do you increase fat oxidation, you give incoming carbs somewhere to go instead of straight to your thighs. That big workout will need food to restore, replenish and grow beautiful lean muscles.
Train in a nice hypertrophy zone and you’ll increase protein synthesis so that incoming calories will support growth. BOOM!
So next time this little (and it should be, in the huge scheme of things, it happens to all of us and now you know you're going to be alright and you have a game plan for next time ;) ) snafoo happens remember your body is amazing, there will be a tomorrow, you're not going to die and your goals are forever! One mishap should never rob you of your ultimate direction.
DISCLAIMER: Getting in the habit of diliberately "letting-go" on the weekends is not a good idea. I don't advise you use the abovementioned "tricks" to try and get away with eating not-so-good purposefully on the weekends. Please use common sense :)
Until next time!
XOXO -Brandi Bartmess
