OK, I had a bad day today. In other words, 975 calories instead of 800. This is partly because I had a coconut bite and a croissant this morning, because I was stressed about something, then relieved. So I know what did it. However a question: is it better to eat some protein in the evening and go over 800 calories, or not to eat in the evening at all if you will go over? I chose to eat chicken and salad because I know from past experience that if I’m hungry for a couple of hours, I will break out and eat the fridge empty. So it’s the lesser of two evils.

Anyone got any thoughts?

Don’t worry about it – it is one day in 366 days this year 🙂 Start tomorrow as if it did not happen.
What I did if I found I was going to go over was to adjust the meal to the lowest carbs I could – but still made sure I had a meal that would fill me, if now the next day started with me starving and out of control.
The salad sounds a good idea, I don’t eat meat so I would have had a salad with eg feta cheese which has negligible carbs. Depending on how the chicken was cooked, it should have been the same zero carbs (ie it was not marinated in a sugary marinade) – s good choices!
The main thing to take away is that you will still have these episodes and you need to start on strategies to help you through them. Have you tried Mindfullness at all? There is a forum about it. When a stress situation erupts, a 5 minute ‘intervention’ concentrating on your breath can really help bring the stress down and then you can make less emotional food decisions.
Another trick – keep some snacks – eg nuts or cherry tomatoes with you. The tomatoes worked for me as they are quite sweet without being too sugary – keep them out of the fridge as they have no taste when eaten from the fridge, if I needed to chew on something – a few nuts helped.
Don’t beat yourself up – you have been doing well and will do so in the future.

Even 975 calories is still fairly low, so this isn’t a disaster. You know why it happened – can you do anything to make it less likely to happen again? Perhaps not having any croissants around would help?

I think you were right to eat a sensible meal in the evening, rather than let yourself become so hungry you lost control and ate even more ‘bad’ stuff.

Hi, over 10 weeks I averaged 846 cal/day and have lost 20% of body mass. My average sugars over the same period was 28.4 gm/day. I had quite a few “bad” days but overall they get absorbed, just carry on regardless – it is not a religion, there is no sin, we are just reducing calories and learning to eat more healthily. (no offence intended to anyone who may accept a religion).

Lol
Sorry but as many on here know, I’ve never counted calories from the outset.
I simply cut out all of the simple carbs and eat sensible sized portions, I’ve also learned to stop eating when I’m full. The OH has now learned to give me smaller meals as she hates waste 😉
On week 14 I’m down 35 pounds, blood sugars at pre diabetic levels after 4 weeks and off all meds.
I’ve lost 8 inches off my waist.
The moral of the story ?
Don’t worry about going over 800 the odd time, in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter a jot.