Getting Back on Track After Overeating: 9 Tips for Recovering from Binge Eating

So, you’ve overeaten. That’s okay, most of us do it once in a while. With our favorite foods in front of us, it can be hard to stop sometimes. However, the aftermath often has us feeling bloated, full, and sometimes a bit upset with ourselves. It can be hard recovering from binge eating but to help you out, here are some tips on how to get back on track after overeating—both physically and mentally.

9 Strategies on How to Get Back on Track After Overeating

1. Get Moving

One of the best ways on how to get back on track after overeating is to get moving. By that, we don’t mean punishing yourself by spending extra hours slogging away in the gym. Punishing yourself is not the goal and you shouldn’t either. But it is a good idea to move.

After your meal, get up and go for a walk around the block or park. Just by doing this, you will help your body metabolize your food. It will also assist in alleviating the fullness or bloated feeling that you may be experiencing.

2. Stay Active

With this being said, make sure you stay active and keep your exercise regime. Don’t compensate food for exercise but just maintain your usual training to get back on track.

3. Hydrate

Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Another great tip on how to get back on track after overeating is to make sure you drink plenty of water to keep your fluids up. Drinking water can get your digestive system moving and speed up your metabolism. This, in turn, makes your body digest your meal faster.

In addition, drinking extra fluids means that you can reduce dehydration. In fact, it also helps to get rid of extra water that you are retaining so that you feel less bloated.

4. Get enough sleep

Make sure that you have an adequate number of hours of sleep. Depriving yourself of sleep will set you up the next day, filled with sugar cravings and hunger pangs. Do yourself a favor and make sure that you rest properly and get quality sleep. This way, you will wake up feeling refreshed.

5. Control your portion sizes

The next day, don’t skip meals. Skipping meals to compensate for overeating is not a good idea. In fact, it can have the opposite effect and lead to increased hunger or intense cravings. This can potentially lead you to binge eating even more.

Instead, get back on track with your diet and pay attention to your portion sizes. Make sure that you eat balanced meals that have vegetables, protein complex carbs and healthy fats. A more manageable and healthy option is to cut back a little on your carbs and fats for the next day or two. Keep it to a reasonable amount but don’t skip them entirely.

6. Focus on whole foods

Increase your vegetable and fruit intake and load up on plant-based foods. The extra fiber will help increase your satiety levels and leave you feeling fuller for longer. Focusing on whole foods as well, help diminish any sugar cravings that you have and feed your body the nutrients it needs.

It will give your mind a break and leave you feeling better and more refreshed. It will also help you get back on track with your goals.

7. Avoid the scale

It can be tempting to step on the scale and see how it has affected your weight. While the scale is not the most accurate way to measure your progress, it is often what people turn to, to track their weight.

Most people will weigh more after overeating. This may not be because you’ve put on weight but because of increased water retention from the extra sodium that was in your meals.

So if you are recovering from binge eating, step away from the scale. It won’t help you if you do; it can make you feel defeated or feeling worse.

Instead, follow these tips on how to get back on track after overeating before stepping on the scale, if you must.

8. Remember it’s about a healthy lifestyle

Putting things in perspective is a great way on how to get back on track after overeating. By reminding yourself, it’s about an overall healthy lifestyle, you can gain a new perspective. One day of bingeing is not going to completely derail your process or make all your previous efforts useless.

Remember that.

9. Forgive yourself

The most important tip you can learn on how to get back on track after overeating? Forgive yourself.

It is all too easy to fall into the trap of feeling like you’ve let yourself down or like you have just undone all your progress. But the truth is, this happens to everyone. We are human so sometimes we indulge a little too much in our favorite foods.

Focus on the next day and get back on track without punishing yourself or putting yourself down. This can do more damage in the long run that goes beyond just overeating. Forgive yourself and let it go. Tomorrow is a new day.

Stay Strong Together

Jefit is a gym workout app that helps all gym goers and athletes keep on track with their fitness goals. It has an extensive exercise library database, as well as the ability to update and share your workout log. With your fellow Jefit members as part of your supportive community, you can share and help each other on a range of topics, including eating and nutrition, keeping each other motivated.