What To Do After Binging To Ensure You See Progress

You are here because you want to know what to do after binging.

Maybe you are feeling guilty, feeling like you ruined all of your progress.

You can’t help but feel bad about yourself because you did so good all week but then all in one night you “ruined” your progress.

Well don’t worry, in this short article you are going to learn exactly what to do after binging.

I just have one ask of you and that is to read the entire article from start to finish.

This can be an incredibly emotional topic and I want you to leave this article knowing exactly what you should do moving forward to start heading in the right direction.

Deal?

Awesome, let’s start then shall we.

What To Do After Binging

But First, What NOT To Do

I get it, you are feel down after a binge. No one particular feels great about themselves after they binge.

For this you are probably looking for ways to “make up” for it.

You believe you have to do something over the top or extra in order to reprimand what you just did.

Let me be very clear when I say this.

You don’t need to anything different or extra to “make up for it”, because you didn’t do anything wrong.

Often times people get this stigma that they “messed up” on their diet after they binge so they feel the need to compensate for it.

I am here to tell you that you did not do anything wrong.

Why?

Because you aren’t a robot, you are a human being.

You are not going to be perfect every single day of your life. I don’t care how disciplined or hard working you are, no one is perfect with their diet, ever.

Your life isn’t just eating, sleeping, and training.

You have a job, kids, a spouse, social life, to name a few.

If your sole purpose and sole job in life was to be a professional bodybuilder who makes their living off on winning bodybuilding shows, that would be one thing.

But that is not you (and if it is, all of this still applies).

You Aren’t Going To Be Perfect, And That Is Okay.

The sense of guilt and shame comes from a point of feeling like you f*cked up, for lack of better terms.

You didn’t mess anything up because you don’t have to be perfect in order to lose weight or be healthy.

You just have to be consistent. That’s it!

Think about it like this.

Just because there is one hot day in the dead of winter, that doesn’t mean summer has arrived does it?

If there was a 100 question test, just because you got 2 questions wrong but the other 98 were correct, that doesn’t mean you failed does it?

Then one “bad” day of overeating does not mean you ruined all of your progress.

To throw some more examples at you, I will use one a bit closer to the proximity of this topic.

I will ask a rhetorical question, what happens after you eat incredibly healthy for one day?

You have tons of protein, 3 salads that day, nothing but lean meat and vegetables.

Which btw, is not the only way you have to eat in order to lose weight, because all that you need in order to lose weight is to be in a calorie deficit.

If you want to learn more about a calorie deficit or find out how many calories you need to be eating each day to lose weight, I will link my totally free calorie calculator HERE.

Back to the point at hand, what happens after one “perfect” day of eating?

Do you lose 50lbs in one day? Do you magically get skinny from eating one salad?

No, not much happens does it.

Why?

Because changing your body, in either direction, takes time.

The same thing if you have one night of over eating.

You didn’t ruin all of your progress and you didn’t do anything wrong.

One salad didn’t make you skinny, so one night of over eating won’t make you fat.

What To Do After Binging : What Not To Do

Now that you know one night of over eating doesn’t ruin all of your progress, when it comes to what to do after binging, let me stop you from doing any of these things below.

First, doing any sort of fasting or restricting calories the next day to make up for it.

You don’t have to eat less the next day to make up for it because again, you did not do anything wrong.

There is nothing to make up for.

Second, you don’t have to go and do hours and hours of cardio to punish yourself, burn calories, and make up for it.

Again, you don’t need to make up for anything because you didn’t do anything wrong.

Also the simple idea of punishing yourself for eating food is something I am not a fan of.

Third, you don’t need to only eat “clean foods” the next day to try and counter act what you did.

Like I talked about earlier, you can eat anything you want and still lose weight.

Now no you should not be eating cookies and donuts all day, that just isn’t smart.

But there are no “good” and “bad” foods so you don’t have to only eat broccoli and chicken the day after a binge.

Basically what I am saying is, when it comes to what to do after binging,

You don’t have to do anything extra or out of the ordinary to make up for it.

A sure fire way to have this cycle of binging happen over and over again is to try and restrict or punish yourself after over eating.

Why?

Because what will happen is you will over eat, punish yourself by doing tons of cardio or fasting the next day to try and make up for it.

Then from there two or three days will pass and you will be incredibly hungry and tired again because you’ve been eating 1000 calories and doing 2 hours of cardio per day.

This then leads you to binge once again because you over restricted so much.

This cycle happens in perpetuity.

Stop it.

Don’t do any of what I said above or anything out of the ordinary to make up for it.

Not fasting, not tons of cardio, not some detox cleanse.

You truthfully and simply need to do one thing.

One small, simple, basic thing.

That thing is to just get back on track.

What To Do After Binging : Get Back On Track

I want to really dive deep into this so like I talked about earlier, please take time to read until the end.

What to do after binging is actually incredible simple and that is you just need to get right back on track.

We know you don’t need to do anything extra or out of the ordinary because that would imply you are doing something wrong, which you aren’t.

Therefore what do you do? The next opportunity you have you get right back on track.

Now in theory this seems easy and simple right? Just get back on track, sweet Eric! Thanks!

Problem is often times just saying this isn’t enough for people. They want something tangible, they need something to hold onto.

I am going to give you something to hold onto in one second, but before I do, I have to be very clear on something.

Back On Track With Your Plan

I mentioned above that you just need to get right back on track with your plan and you do. It really is as simple as that.

Yet here is the caveat, this works if your plan is not over restrictive to begin with.

The amount of people who send me an email, private message me on tik tok or Instagram, or inquire to me about coaching on a daily basis who tell me something to the effect of,

“ I am trying to do keto but just keep falling off track!”

“ I am trying to get right back on track but trying to eat 1200 calories is hard!”

Is honestly a bit upsetting.

Let me be clear, if your plan is over restrictive and unsustainable to begin with, you don’t need to get back on track, you need to get a new plan.

Often times binging comes from a place of over restriction.

You try to cut out all your carbs or sugar, you label foods “good and bad”, you try to only eat 1200 calories.

I talk more about this in my article on how to stop binge eating, you can read that HERE if you want.

If you are doing anything of this above, you don’t need to stop doing that immediately.

That is not going to be what gets you to your goal and it certainly is not going to help your cycle of binge eating.

I would strongly encourage you to learn more about what losing weight actually requires which is being in a calorie deficit.

I linked my free calorie calculator here to figure out how many calories you should eat to lose weight, and I will link a quick video I did on what foods you should be eating in a calorie deficit (hint, there are no foods off limits).

Now, assuming that you are on a sustainable plan, what to do after binging becomes simple.

Get back on track.

Don’t Wait, Take Action Now

I talked about giving you something tangible you can take with you in order to help with what to do after binging.

Here is some of the most important advice I can give you.

Do. Not. Wait.

You need to get back on track right this very second, as in as you are reading this.

I used to coach my clients with the attitude of “the next meal just get back on track!”.

While I don’t think that is wrong, I think it can be improved upon.

The issue here is the longer you wait, the harder it is going to become.

The more you let things linger and build up, the harder it is going to be to take action towards where you want to be.

The guilt will build up, you will feel discouraged and upset, things just get heavier.

You are probably thinking “well Eric I just binged how am I going to get back on track any sooner than the next meal?”.

Well, so glad you asked.

We must remember that getting back on track doesn’t just have to apply to eating food, it applies to your entire lifestyle.

I often refer to being in a positive feedback loop versus a negative feedback loop.

For example when you are eating good, working out, getting good sleep, you are in a positive feedback loop!

Things are clicking, you are feeling motivated, life is good!

But for example after you binge, you feel like crap, you feel guilty, you don’t workout, you continue to eat poorly because you feel this negativity upon yourself.

That is a negative feedback loop.

So you need to get yourself back into the positive feedback loop as quickly as humanly possible.

How do you do that?

You take an action.

The beauty is this is any positive action. It does not have to be ground breaking or earth shattering.

Go drink one glass of water.

Do 10 bodyweight squats.

Perform 5 push ups.

Eat 1 piece of fruit.

Journal for 5 minutes and write down your thoughts.

Meal prep your lunch for the next day.

Literally, anything positive.

The secret to what to do after binging is finding anything positive you can do and do it as quickly as possible to get back into the positive feedback loop.

No one ever got done drinking a glass of water and felt worse about themselves.

I don’t know anyone who did 10 bodyweight squats and felt even worse.

I’m pretty sure if you eat 1 piece of fruit you will feel better about doing so.

When it comes to what to do, you just need to get right back on track. Right. Now.

Don’t wait.

Where people go wrong is they tell themselves “Well, I already f*cked up, so I might as well just keep going! I will get back on track Monday”.

And Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday, they completely throw their hands up, say to hell with their diet, binge for 3 days, then finally Monday morning rolls around and they get back on track.

I am going to recall something we talked about earlier. One salad doesn’t make you skinny and one bad meal doesn’t make you fat.

Why is getting back on track as quickly as humanly possible so important?

Because it is not the binge that is causing you to not see progress or lose all of your progress. That one instance is irrelevant.

It is the fact you use that as an excuse to justify you staying off track for 1, 3, 7, 31 days.

That is what causes you to not see progress. Not the singular event, the fact you never got back on track.

What I would personally do is make a list of 4-8 things take take you 5 minutes or less that you know are positive actions you can take after a binge.

I labeled some above, but I would encourage you to make your own.

From there, I promise you, you will be able to get right back on track and continue making tremendous progress.

What To Do After Binging : Final Word

I truly hoped this article allowed you to see things from a different perspective as well as realize the importance of getting right back on track.

Remember, you did not do anything wrong. You don’t need to punish yourself or make up for what you did.

You simply just need to get back on track the second the thought comes into your head.

The quicker you act towards taking steps in the right direction, the better.

If you need any help, please feel free to drop a comment below. If you liked the article or think it helped, let me know below as well.

Talk soon,

-E