There are seasons in our year when we may experience and participate in bouts of overeating and over-consumption of Calorie-dense foods and beverages.
Commonly we have the Christmas New Years period, Easter, Birthdays, and personal holidays.
Here are a few do’s and do not’s after an overeating episode or period of time.
Don’t try to out train overeating
Do: Keep moving
It is a vicious cycle to get into and a dangerous path to follow by “earning or burning” food.
Eg “I’m going to train extra hard today so I can eat a burger tonight” or “I ate too much last night so I’ll do an extra session at the gym tomorrow”.
Food isn’t only fuel.
Food has a roll in promoting social and emotional health in a positive setting.
Not only that, “earning or burning” probably won’t work.
A bout of overeating could be in excess of 1000 Calories per day.
According to the compendium of physical activity (which estimates calories burned during different methods of physical activity) if a 70kg male did 30 minutes of Crossfit style training he’d burn approximately 280 Calories. Now that is 30 minutes of actual training, not a warm-up and stretching included. [1,2]
So instead of trying to earn or burn the calories, just stay active.
If you can’t get to the gym, just do some light movement, walk a little more or make backyard cricket “hit and run”.
Don’t starve yourself
Do: Listen to your hunger and satiety signals
Just because you overate for a day or two or seven, it doesn’t mean you should starve yourself afterwards.
This can have negative emotional and physical impacts.
If not consuming adequate protein or plants it can also lead to muscle loss and poor immunity.
Instead, listen to your body.
Listen to your hunger and satiety signals.
You may not feel like breakfast, or you may feel fuller on less food than normal.
This could be your body’s way of auto-regulating.
Listen to those cues and follow them rather than restricting yourself.
That could lead down the route of binge-restrict-binge.
Don’t intentionally skip meals
Do: Rate your hunger or play the hunger game
Similar to the previous point.
Listen to your body.
If you’re hungry then eat.
Don’t intentionally skip a meal if you’re feeling hungry.
Try playing the hunger game and rate your hunger on a scale of 1/10.
1 being not hungry at all, 10 being you might eat the next person you see.
Try waiting until you’re about a 7/10 or above on the hunger scale.
Start to identify physical and emotional cues of true hunger such as feeling weak, dizzy, light-headed, fatigued, moody, HANGRY.
We don’t want to go to these extremes.
Food tastes great when we are moderately hungry, waiting until we are ravenous can lead us to eat quickly, not taste our food and overeat.
Don’t feel guilty
Do: Reflect
Guilt is an emotion about a past behaviour.
We can’t change the past so there is no point dwelling on it by feeling guilty.
It is also important to note that it is ok to notice feelings of guilt, it happens to the best of us.
What we can do instead is reflect on the meal(s) you had.
How did they make you feel?
What were the positives you got from the meal(s)?
Emotional, social, taste, craving satisfaction, etc.
Was there anything you could learn from the experience?
Perhaps next time you could try to eat slower, be more present?
Don’t write yourself off
Do: Have a plan in mind to get back on track
In the grand scheme of things, if you went HAM for 7 days - that could be 21 meals.
Only 21 meals out of a potential 1095 in a whole year (based on 3 meals a day).
Not even 2% of your yearly meals.
Don’t write yourself or the next few weeks/months off.
Similar to the above point, reflect on that period of time.
What did you enjoy, what would you change next time?
Most importantly have a plan for how you intend to get back on track with the habits you were building.
Set a date, write out a plan for your meals, find someone to keep you accountable.
This last point is probably the most important.
Have a plan to get back on track and start practising your healthy eating habits.
Setting a date and a plan to get back on track is extremely important because the more weight a person gains, the smaller their chances of recovery. [3]
The magnitude of weight regain during lapse or relapse dictates success at long-term maintenance. [4] More weight gained = less success returning to previous weight
Lapse vs Relapse
Your mindset towards these periods of time is ultimately going to lead you to long term success and maintenance of your goals.
There is a difference between a lapse and a relapse.
Lapse: short-term cessation of health habits; a normal part of a healthy lifestyle.
Relapse: long-term cessation of health habits; may result in regression and revert back to old habits.
When you inevitably deviate from your plan/goal, your reaction to that deviation will either allow you to interpret the deviation as a lapse (a situational occurrence where you are in control) versus a relapse (a global failure that is an indicator of your lack of ability to change your eating habits eg. no control). [5]
How can we prevent a Relapse?
Social Support - family, friends, coaches, support networks, like-minded individuals.
Anticipation - what could be some potential barriers or triggers? Plan ahead for obstacles.
Assertiveness - remember you are in control and be confident.
Stimulus - control your food environment.
Goals - set small and smart process goals that you are confident in achieving.
Feedback - check in with yourself, coach or accountability partner(s) on how you’re progressing/feeling/thinking.
Self Regulation - remind yourself of what your true values are, who you want to be and the behaviours of that person are.
In summary, a lapse is a normal part of a healthy lifestyle. It’s like a rest day.
After a lapse or a bout of overeating, take some time to reflect on the meals/thoughts/emotions you may have had.
What positives can you take from the events?
What can you learn from the events?
What could you improve next time?
Be present in the moment.
Focus on the process.
Have a plan for when and how to get back on track.
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1 https://www.brianmac.co.uk/mets.htm
2 https://sites.google.com/site/compendiumofphysicalactivities/home
3 https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/78/6/1079/4677516
4 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5764193/
5 https://www.ipsepa.com/content/uploads/2005-Relapse-prevention-Marlatt-Donovan.pdf
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