3489: What to Do When You Blow Your Calorie Budget by Leah Higl with Ideal Nutrition on Weight Loss Tips

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[00:01:00] This is Optimal Health Daily. What to do when you blow your calorie budget. By Leah Heigel of idealnutrition.com.au And I'm Dr. Neal Malik, your host and narrator. Hi there and welcome back to another Tuesday edition of Optimal Health Daily. Remember, this is one of many podcasts where we read to you from blogs for free, so that you don't have to read them yourself. Except on Fridays. On this show, that's where I answer your questions.

[00:01:26] Now to check out our other shows, just search for Optimal Living Daily wherever you're hearing this. And with that, let's get right to today's article and start optimizing your life. What to do when you blow your calorie budget. By Leah Heigel of idealnutrition.com.au Have you ever wondered, what should I do if I eat more than my planned calories while in a deficit?

[00:01:54] As dieticians, this is a question we get asked all the time, and is a common concern for those undertaking a fat loss phase. Everyone, even those that are really consistent, are bound to go off track a day here and there. Whether it's a meal out with friends, or a few drinks with work colleagues on a Friday afternoon. So, what do you do after this happens? Energy balance. A quick recap. Let's quickly revisit energy balance, as it will underpin this whole discussion.

[00:02:23] Without an understanding of calorie deficits, this isn't going to make a whole lot of sense. Of course, if you already have a good handle on this, feel free to skip ahead. Calories are simply a unit of measurement that we use to measure the amount of energy in food. They can also be referred to as kilojoules. You can think of kilojoules and calories as we think of kilometers and miles. There are simply two different ways to measure the same thing. There are 4.18 kilojoules per one calorie.

[00:02:53] Therefore, if something is 418 kilojoules, this is equal to 100 calories. Energy balance refers to how many calories you're consuming in comparison to how many calories you are burning. It's usually discussed as energy in versus energy out. Your overall energy balance is what will ultimately dictate the maintenance of or changes in your weight. To maintain your weight, the amount of energy you consume through food must be equal to the energy you expend

[00:03:21] through your total daily energy expenditure. On the other hand, weight loss occurs when your energy expenditure is greater than your energy intake, while weight gain occurs when your energy expenditure is less than your energy intake. Having fewer calories than what your body is burning is called a calorie deficit. Having more calories than what your body is burning is called a calorie surplus. Matching your calorie intake to your total daily energy expenditure

[00:03:51] is called maintenance because you are maintaining your weight. So now that we are all caught up on that, we can get back to the question at hand. What should you do if you go over your calorie budget while in a deficit? Option one, do nothing. My preferred option is typically to not do anything about it. Just get back on track with your regular plan starting the very next meal or day. There are quite a few reasons why this is my preference. One, ideally you're consistent

[00:04:20] with your deficit most of the time, and it's on the rare occasion that you go significantly over your calorie budget. So it's unlikely to have a huge impact on progress regardless. Two, mathematically, unless you massively eat over your calorie budget for the day, you are likely still in a deficit for the week. It's more of an issue if that one day over the calorie budget turns into quite a few days over your calorie target. One day is rarely the issue, hence why just getting straight back

[00:04:49] into the swing of things is a great option. And three, unless you're taking an aggressive approach for whatever reason, ideally your planned approach is quite flexible. This gives room for flexibility with food options, which once again makes it easier to be consistent to the point that this overall question matters less. Option two, eat less the next day. Another option is to simply eat fewer calories the next day to balance things out. Think in terms of weekly calorie balance.

[00:05:19] So theoretically, you can balance things out and get similar results simply by eating fewer calories the next day. So if you eat 500 calories over your calorie budget on a single day, you just increase your calorie deficit by 500 calories the next day. The obvious issue with this option is that you now have one day that has a really big calorie deficit. And the more you overate the day before, the larger that deficit will have to be the next day.

[00:05:48] Compensating by reducing your calories a lot the next day could lead to you being hungrier and more likely to end up eating more calories anyway. It can be a vicious cycle. There's also the potential problem of knowing that you have the option of compensating later in the week or the next day, which can make you more likely to overeat more often. This can lead you with high calorie days and very low calorie days too often. This then can contribute to a less than ideal relationship with food

[00:06:17] and could interfere with your training if that's a consideration for you. If you're trying to be quite strict with your calorie deficit but still want the flexibility of including some higher calorie days, this method is absolutely a feasible option. You just don't want to take it too far. And option three, eat less over multiple days. In the same vein as option two, this option involves reducing your calorie intake on other days to balance out the overconsumption of calories.

[00:06:46] The difference is that instead of simply decreasing your calorie intake the next day, you spread out the reduction in calories across more than a single day. In the example from before, instead of having one day where there's a thousand calorie deficit, it's instead split between two days of a 750 calorie deficit, which makes up for the extra 500 calories that were consumed on that Friday. So overall for the week, the plan deficit was maintained

[00:07:14] despite having a higher calorie day. The pro of spreading it out across multiple days is that it alleviates the issue of having one really low calorie day, which may be pretty uncomfortable to get through. Key takeaways. Overall, you have two main choices when it comes to eating past your planned calories in a deficit. You could, one, just move on to the next day and aim to hit your planned calories as consistently as you can,

[00:07:41] or two, compensate for the additional calories consumed over one or more days throughout the week. Which option you choose will be dependent on your goals and how strict you're wanting to be with your deficit. For example, a bodybuilder in prep or a boxer needing to make weight for an upcoming event can be examples of times where you may need to be more strict. Ideally, you would leave enough time to have a little flexibility while reaching your goal on time, but that's not always the case.

[00:08:09] It can be a slippery slope to start compensating for calories. The worst case scenario would be that you end up in a restrict and binge cycle, a situation you do not want to get yourself stuck in. Although for some people, it can be a valid approach to making consistent progress. In an ideal world, you'd be following a plan that allows some flexibility, such as an occasional relaxed or social meal, or the ability to eat something to satisfy a craving while working towards your goal. Therefore,

[00:08:39] no need to compensate for calories. But at the end of the day, how you manage your fat loss is completely up to you, and everyone is going to have their own individual preferences. You just listened to the post titled, What to Do When You Blow Your Calorie Budget, by Leah Heigl of idealnutrition.com.au. And I'll be right back with my commentary. Now, it's just me and a small team behind this show, so I get how much the right hire matters.

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[00:10:39] When I served as a health educator for a large healthcare provider here in the U.S., I would instruct group classes on weight management. So I would help patients that wanted to lose weight and talk about ways to go about it. We would always have a discussion about what to do if you ended up going over your estimated calorie needs for the day. Whenever this came up, you know what I would tell them? Come on, I bet you can guess. I would actually first congratulate them on admitting this and coming back to the class. This was because for some,

[00:11:09] going over their daily calorie goals meant that they failed and they would never come back to class. After I congratulated them, I would say, well let's think about what happened, let's learn from it, and then move on. Was there something that may have led to consuming those extra calories? Maybe it was a celebration, like a birthday. Or maybe it was just because it was the weekend and you wanted to let loose. Whatever the reason, learn from it, see if we can better prepare the next time this happens,

[00:11:38] and move on. And as today's author Leah said, one slip up here and there isn't likely to make a difference when it comes to your weight loss goals. It's the patterns over time that matter. Alright, that's it for today. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you for being a subscriber of the show. I hope you have a great rest of your day, and I'll see you back here tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.