Do you log cheat days?

shortiequinn

Superbowl is going to be my first real cheat day since I started using MFP. Just wondering what your thoughts were on cheat days. Do you log what you eat honestly, log a set number of calories, or log nothing at all?

I'm thinking about just logging 1200cal (my base before exercise) knowing i'm going to eat way more. I'm afraid logging what I actually eat is going to make me hate myself every time I look at it down the road.

You thoughts... thanks.

crocky64

i log everything i eat so when i look back i can see what i have done to achieve my goal. it ain't cheating if you are being honest

JayRuby84

Hell yes! Log it! Enjoy the food, enjoy the company. If you end up with a gain in the following week, you'll be able to refect and know that "Oh yes, That was Super Bowl Sunday" and not stress about it. You'll be bloated and whatnot from all the sodium, but at least you'll know why. Don't be afraid to log.

Lasmartchika

I log everything... you might as well continue with the habit of logging your food. If you're going to do a "cheat day", then you better get those "hate myself" feelings out of the way. Eat, enjoy, log, move on to the next day as usual. That's all there is to it. :flowerforyou:

diannethegeek

Yes, I log it to the best of my ability (estimating on dips and serving sizes and such). I may not do anything about it, but I like to have the numbers there for future reference.

maxit

Log it the best you can.

Laurend224

I don't have cheat days, but I log every. single. thing.

salembambi

i log it sometimes if i feel like it when i do its probably not 100% accurate log thouigh

sherbear702

shortiequinn wrote: »

I'm afraid logging what I actually eat is going to make me hate myself every time I look at it down the road.

You thoughts... thanks.

That's good motivation. I use this technique when I'm especially bad. I look at all the food/drinks I've consumend and shame myself. It's a good reminder as to why you shouldn't pig out.

On that note, however, it's my personal philosophy that you have to induldge every now and then. If you don't let yourself have treats every now and again you'll fall off the weight loss train over and over. (Even if you feel bad about it afterwords)

andreamaym

I log it to the best of my ability, accept I'm going to be over my daily limit, and move on. I'm going to a superbowl party so I'll just have to make educated guesses when I log!

girlviernes

First off, don't think of it as a cheat day. It's just a day in which you are going to be even more flexible than usual. You can and need to learn to fit those into your overall plan, because this is for the rest of your life

Log it all. Be proud of yourself for another day of tracking. Having complete logs helps you understand yourself and you can look back and calculate your actual calorie needs.

LavenderLeaves

How is feeling shame and guilt over food ever going to help you learn to have a normal relationship /with/ it? Log everything. Don't feel bad about. Even the most fit and healthy people overeat or eat high-caloric foods occasionally, and it's fine. One day of going over your goal is not going to make you gain weight. It's what you're eating like consistently that matters. Don't hate yourself over food, that's going down a really dark path that it's incredibly hard to get off.

Delilahhhhhh

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Lasmartchika wrote: »

I log everything... you might as well continue with the habit of logging your food. If you're going to do a "cheat day", then you better get those "hate myself" feelings out of the way. Eat, enjoy, log, move on to the next day as usual. That's all there is to it. :flowerforyou:

This sums up my feelings on the matter very nicely!! Enjoy the day!!

cyberblonde

I would log it too, it is actually quite funny when you see how easy it is to eat so much. I think my fav 3 course dinner plus half bottle of wine comes out at 3500 cals! Always good to have some time out! Just get quickly back on the waggon the next day!

ncfitbit

Absolutely! I find it's especially important to log everything on those days. You may hate yourself or you may realize that the "cheat" wasn't as bad as you thought. (If you don't eat more than 3600 calories over your maintenance amount then you can't have gained a pound of fat, okay? Your scale can be up by more than that just do to the increased sodium and carbs that tend to go hand in hand with higher calorie "cheat" days, but that will go away after a few days if you go back to eating your goal amount.)

The most important thing, though, is what you do the next day. Dust yourself off and get right back to it, without any guilt, if possible!

AllTheNoms

I try and estimate (if I don't know, I put in 3,000). Otherwise I won't know what my running net calorie intake is. There have been times when one cheat day has negated 2 weeks of deficits.....I don't want to be surprised by that just because I didn't log

nicolejo143

I always log everything to the best of my ability. If possible its better to have a cheat "meal" not a cheat "day", but if you do just save it for rare special occasions. But don't feel guilty about it after.

lisaw19855

I have cheat meals, once a week I'll allow dinner out or KFC but try to eat less during the day so I stay within my calories but if I don't then so be it. I have lost 10lbs in 5 weeks so it's not holding me back as the rest of the week I stay about 200-400 under my calorie goal.

This is the rest of my life, I'm not going to live my life without the odd indulgence.

kbmnurse

Usually not. Cheat day is a cheat day. I do try to be sensible about it.

shortiequinn

Sounds like I should log and move on. I did this over the holidays but kept my calories in check because I was working and didn't have time to eat too much.

Bring on the Beer and Wings

WithWhatsLeft

LOG ALL THE THINGS

lol. That's a yes. Enjoy it, log it, go on about your life.

gin_fb33

I don't do cheat days, I log everything that goes in my mouth (unless I go to AYCE restaurants, then I log as much as I can remember and guesstimate the rest of the calories and just do a quick add for those).

KiminNorCal

Cheat days sabotage my whole weeks worth of weight loss efforts.

fitnessgoddess17

yes I'm not going to lie to myself

aeviescas

I log as honestly as I can. I need to know how much I'm setting myself back by and/or if I'll need an extra deficit during the week.

Are you going to be at your friends' house or yours? If yours, just set up a scale by the kitchen and every time you get seconds of wings just weigh them on the scale and snap a pic with your smartphone. Worry about "real" logging later.

slucki01

andreamaym wrote: »

I log it to the best of my ability, accept I'm going to be over my daily limit, and move on. I'm going to a superbowl party so I'll just have to make educated guesses when I log!

Exactly! I think it's important to log it because when you don't have a loss at the next weigh in it's easy to "forget" that you went off the rails for a day. When I have this type of challenge I try to work out extra the rest of the week and "bank" the calories to give myself a cushion. I would also make an attempt to not just eat everything available. Exercise some restraint and you'll be able to "cheat" without totally negating the rest of your efforts for the week.

Abby2205

Yes because I'm interested in how my actual weight loss over time correlates with my reported calories consumed and calories burned.

Francl27

I log everything for math/statistic issues. It's kinda nice when you realize that your big cheat was actually made up for in a couple days.

Timorous_Beastie

I don't log them, but I don't really "cheat" either. I take a day or two off from logging, because otherwise I tend to feel a bit too OCD about things.

I used to log everything, all the time. And that included a night with a very debaucherous bachelorette party. At the end of the night (more like very early that morning), I was over my calorie goal, but not by much. Enough so that "if every day was like today, in five weeks..." I'd have gained one pound.

I thought, "WTF?!" That's it? If every night was like that night, I'd have liver failure in five weeks. And that's when I started taking one day off on a weekend to not bother logging my calories. As long as I was seeing progress. I know that it's really hard for me to do enough damage to undo what I've done during the week. And it's really not fun trying to keep tally of everything you eat and drink in a party atmosphere. It might end up like this...



As I got closer to my goal, I started taking both weekend days off, and still had the same results. Fast forward a couple years, and injury and apathy put a few pounds back on. I'm not in any major hurry to get them off, so I'm sticking with logging M-F and playing it by ear on weekends and major holidays (birthdays, Thanksgiving, NYE). So far, it's working for me.

YMMV.