What To Do After Eating Too Much
So you’ve gone and eaten too much, binged, had a cheat meal, cheat day, 10,000 calorie challenge, whatever you want to call it. You ate a ton of food. Way more than you’d like and now you feel fat, guilty, and undoubtedly stressed out. Now the question is…what to do after eating too much?
No judgments because I’ve been there. Whatever you did, you’re here now because you ate way more calories than you should and want to know what to do after. Firstly, I’d like to get this out of the way…
What To Do After Eating Too Much – Mindset
Realize you are not alone.
You got that? Great. No? Read it again until you do.
The first thing I want to drive home is that this is very common. Everyone has binged either in the past, still does it, will do it in the future. It’s pretty much hardwired into our DNA to want to eat a lot of food. Think about times during famine. We didn’t know where or when our next food source would come from so we ate until we couldn’t anymore just in case. But now, food is plentiful and abundant (in most developed places).
Okay, I’m getting off track. Enough talking about the dawn of man.
I just want you to know that binge eating is very common. It’s not normal, but it’s common. However, I also want you to know that binge eating disorder is a real thing. This is the most common eating disorder among people who try to diet and/or lose weight. I want you to know that if you are seriously struggling with binge eating, consult a specialist to help you work through it.
Why do we do it?
The biggest thing about binge eating is that it has nothing to do with food. A lot of people ask, “what foods can I eat to stop binge eating?” or “what foods cause binge eating?” and this is the exact mindset that leads to more binge eating.
Why? Because this mindset polarizes foods into a “good” and “bad” category. This creates an association with certain foods by saying you should or shouldn’t have certain foods. And I strongly believe that there are not any good and bad foods because…
Anything in excess or not enough is bad for you.
There is no such thing as good food or bad food nor the right food or the wrong food. There is no single food that will make you fat, and no single food that will burn fat.
The main driver of fat loss is maintaining a calorie deficit. It actually doesn’t matter where the calories come from in a fat loss perspective. You could literally eat a whole sleeve of Oreos and as long as you are in a calorie deficit, you will lose fat.
Now, before you get on my case, I’m not saying you should eat a bunch of junk food like pizza, burgers, fries, donuts, and ice cream. What I am saying is that if you have these foods in moderation while maintaining a calorie deficit, you can still:
- Burn fat
- Get more definition
- Improve your body composition
- And enjoy the foods you crave
And the reason I’m explaining all this is that when people are binge eating, the root of the problem lies in restriction and labeling foods as good or bad. And when they end up eating “bad” foods like some I listed above, this is how it plays out:
- They eat it
- They think they f*cked up
- They say “Well, I already f*cked up, I might as well keep going. I’ll get back on track tomorrow. I’ll get back on track on Monday.”
As you can see the cycle of binge eating is very similar to the cycle of abuse. I like to think about the binge episode as the honeymoon phase where you’re enjoying yourself and having a good time eating everything in sight. The tension-building phase is the feeling of being out of control and shame and an attempt at regaining control. And the explosion phase is the restart of feeling deprived and the want to binge again. So again, if this resonates with you, first and foremost, see a specialist and stop labeling foods as good or bad.
Common Mistakes People Make On What To Do After Eating Too Much
“Make up” for it by undereating
You probably ate a few thousand calories over what you usually eat. After having done that, you feel the need to undereat the next day to “make up” for the extra calories you ate by barely eating.
- Punishment cardio to “recover”
Same scenario as above. You ate too much and feel the need to “burn it all off” by increasing the amount of cardio you’re doing to make up for it.
- Give up until next week
You think you f*cked it up, go all in and the limit to your junk food intake goes out the window and you’re going to eat until you physically can’t.
Common Mistakes Explained
- “Make up” for it by undereating
Although the calories in and calories out principle applies, you should not intentionally undereat the next day. Unless you truly don’t feel hungry, your body still needs to fuel itself throughout the day. By depriving and underfueling yourself, you can likely spark another binge episode by restricting yourself. This can lead into a binge and restriction cycle.
- Punishment cardio to “recover”
You can add in a little extra cardio or a few more sets to your workout if you’re feeling a little more energetic the next day, but don’t double your session or add too much. Exercise is stressful on the body and drastically increasing the amount of exericse you do can negatively impact your recovery.
- Give up until next week
This is typically characterized by the “all-or-nothing” mentality. You exist on two polar opposite ends of the spectrum:
You either feel like you should either be all-in and be Mr. or Mrs. Fitness and be 100% dialed into your exercise and diet.
Or…
Feel like you have no control over your diet, be Mr. or Mrs. Couch Potato, and be extremely unfit. You feel like you don’t have any space for moderation and everything is either “good” or “bad.”
As you can see, it isn’t healthy to be on the extremes of either end. This can lead to an endless cycle of restriction and binging which can be dangerous and unhealthy. Instead, strive to be somewhere in between, a moderate point where you can push yourself to attain your health and fitness goals, but also letting loose and enjoying yourself from time to time.
What To Actually Do After Eating Too Much
Let me start by asking you this: Did you gain all of your weight or develop your unhealthy habits overnight?
Probably not.
So did you screw everything up with one day or even a week of overeating?
Probably not.
The best thing you can do for yourself is to get right back on track and pick up where you left off. If this doesn’t convince you, the science says that you can’t gain a ton of weight overnight. There is a certain point where your body can’t absorb all the food you’ve eaten and just sends it straight to your poop.
Now I’m not saying you can go out and binge eat thousands of calories every night and not expect to gain any weight. But just know that your one day of overeating won’t make you gain 10 lbs of fat.
The ONE takeaway I want you to remember on what to do after eating too much…
There’s a quote that I read one time that has resonated with me ever since: “You’re always one day away from getting back on track.”
It doesn’t matter whether you think you’ve screwed up and gone off track for a day, a week, or even a year. You’re always one day away from getting back on track. The thing about this journey is that you have the rest of your life to finish it. It will never be too late to start and finish. This journey is all about you and becoming the best version of yourself. You can’t change the past so don’t worry about it, but you can change the future by starting now.
So whenever, you’ve felt like you messed up, keep these three things in mind:
- Get Back On Your Eating Plan
- Get Back On Track With Your Exercise Routine
- Move The F*ck On
If you want a more in-depth discussion on how to recover after a binge check out my YouTube video:
Final Thoughts on What To Do After Eating Too Much
So other than seeing a specialist and considering foods good or bad, what else can you do to stop binging once and for all?
Tip #1: Stop being so restrictive with your diet. One of the major reasons why people binge is because they restrict themselves from their favorite foods. The more you tell yourself no to certain foods, the more you’ll crave them. And the more you crave, the more you’ll cave. This leads to a huge binge to satisfy the cravings you’ve been denying yourself for so long. You can still achieve your goals while eating anything you want, seriously. This is called flexible dieting as explained in my other article HERE.
Tip #2: Stop weighing yourself. You might be emotionally tied to what it’s telling you. If you feel happy when the number goes down or sad/angry when it goes up, get off the scale. There are other ways to measure progress like measurements and progress pics. More on this in my other article, HERE.
Tip #3: The 20-minute rule. Note that this is not a fail-proof method or magic pill, but it works for a lot of people! Whenever you feel a binge coming on, tell yourself, “I’ll eat it in 20 minutes.” This way, you’re not giving yourself a no which leads to restriction, but an option to have it if you still want it in 20 minutes. Give this an honest try and wait the full 20 minutes. More often than not, you’ll find that the urge is gone after 20 minutes!
Now, I want to leave you with one final thing to keep you going. You can’t f*ck this up. Even if you slip up and compulsively binge 5000 calories, you didn’t screw up.
The only way you will screw up is by giving up. Remember, the only type of failure that is unacceptable is the failure to try. You are always one day away from getting back on track. So get back on track, you got this.
Hope this helps you stop binge eating once and for all so that you can have the freedom to enjoy your favorite foods while also achieving your goals!
Until next time,
-Aus
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