Just enjoy the food and move on.
Its cyclical, so the dieting tends to lead to more bingeing.
If you experience this oftenlike weeklyseek professional help.
Treatment may include talk therapy, nutritional counseling, and sometimes medication.
What about the rest of us?
Calorie counts shouldnt rule your life
You should eat well because eating well supports your health.
You should exercise because exercise supports your health.
These two things are not opposed.
Eating is not a problem that exercise solves.
But I totally understand why you might be tempted to think that way.
For example, it is true thatweight-loss diets work by altering the mathematical equationbetween calories in and calories out.
Even if thats true, is it helpful advice?
Heck nothese charts exist as a tool that we pass around to scare and guilt each other.
What really happens in your body?
So, heres the thing.
Yes, a candy bar has calories.
But you know what else has calories?
The average Americanneeds about 2,500 calories a day.
If you eat five Reeses cups at 105 calories each, thats just 525 calories.
The other 2,000 or so can come from other sources, and youll still break even.
Similarly: its not just swimming or running or cycling that burn calories.
Your body is constantly using energy just to exist.
No extra exercise needed.
In many cases, youll either break even when it comes to calories, or come close.
What if youknowthat you ate 3,000 calories and only burned 2,000?
Our bodies kind of figure things out.
And because its only one day, things tend to even out.
Dont panic
So if you ate more than you intended on some particular day,dont panic.
You dont need to feel guilty about it and you dont need to immediately burn it off.
Instead: justdo your normal healthy shit.
Eat to nourish yourself.
Exercisebecause our bodies work betterwhen we move them around on a regular basis.
Ourmindswork better when we exercise, too.
