The Dreaded Post-Show Binge

After my show yesterday, I decided to take one day to eat whatever I liked, but with one caveat; I had to record every last thing I ate.  I had it in my mind that it wouldn't be too bad.  I'd maybe be a couple hundred calories above my maintenance calories or so.  Really, I could probably get away with eating whatever I wanted for awhile without gaining too much.

Well, it's 8:00pm and I'm already 1200 calories above my maintenance calories (which are substantially higher than what I've been eating the last few weeks).  I had a feeling I'd wind up binging and eating everything in sight, but I have just never recorded an entire binge, honestly.

To put things into perspective, I'm about 130lbs right now.  And 3500 excess calories is supposed to roughly equate to one pound.  So, if I was to continue to allow myself to eat what I wanted, without any kind of tracking system, I'd gain approximately 2.4lbs this week, and 28.8lbs by the end of August.  So back up to basically my post-pregnancy weight in less than 3 short months.

A good experiment.  Interesting to see just how easily weight gain can happen.  And I already have quite recent experience with just how difficult it can be to lose a few pounds, so I'd rather not have to go through that unnecessarily.

So tomorrow I start following maintenance macros.  I'll be shooting for 198g of carbs, 130g of protein, 65g of fat and 20+ grams of fibre.  That puts me at 1900 calories.  Within those boundaries, I can eat what I like.  This actually offers me a lot of flexibility.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the summer, and this is a great time for me to kick back and enjoy life a bit.  Flexible dieting affords me that opportunity.