If you log cheat days...

Francl27

The problem when cheating is that often, you really have no idea how many calories are actually in the food you just ate. So I try to estimate.

So far though, all my cheat meals have ended up within my calories (except that time when I was over by 30 calories). I've found that if I eat too much of something I shouldn't, I'm just not that hungry later...

PRobertson71

Yep, I log everything...Gotta keep track of the other stuu to like sodium intake and suger, which can sabotage weight loss, even if your eating fewer calories...

Duck_Puddle

I don't do "cheat days", but I log every single thing. Always. Good days, bad days, holidays, parties, sick days, Steak 'n Shake days, everything. Always. That's me though. I'm not the kind of person who can take a break from logging for a day or week or whatever and start back up. So I log everything. Always.

cmurphy252

When I plan on 'cheating', I basically eat the way I did before I started counting calories. Which, what's scary is that now I know that on any given day I was usually eating AT LEAST 3,500 calories with zero exercise. An example of a cheat day for me would be something like making pan fried eggs and bacon with a buttered biscuit for breakfast, an over-sized sandwich with extra salami or pepperoni and lots of fatty cheese and mayonnaise---probably with chips or crackers, and fast food/take out for dinner---like my favorite, General Tso's chicken with pork fried rice and an egg roll. And we all know Chinese food comes in containers about twice the size of what we need. And I'd eat every bite.

Mine is pretty much like this. While I eat what I want everyday (in moderation), I have a cheat day once/week where I track but dont concern myself with going over my calories. I do still log what I eat though just to maintain the habit of logging everything. My husband and I have date night once/weekend and I've noticed that my appetite has decreased since I've started this journey; so while I dont worry about going over calories, I still eat less than what I did before I started.

Marcillene

I dont have a 'sechdeuled' cheat day. but if i REALLY go over one day, or eat a bunch of junk that i KNOW i shouldnt have i dont log it often. my best ADVICE would be to log it, so you can say "OMG, I ATE #### CALORIES IN JUNK, IN STUFF I DONT NEED, WHY DID I EAT THAT LAST COOKIE?!?!?!?!?" And hopefully that will be enough to make you say no to the last cookie on your next 'cheat' day.

CanuckLove

I'm definitely going to start logging them.. typically I don't but that's when cheat days turn into cheat weeks which turn into cheat months. So, I figure if I horrify myself with the numbers I will smarten up :P

EmmaKarney

I have had a few occasions where I have been away on a holiday or to a party with a buffet and alcohol where I've not logged but I've been mindful of my food choices and portion sizes neverrtheless.

Sometimes I have gone WAY OVER on calories and still logged - just to see how much of my weekly deficit I've wiped out - it's interesting.

It's usually alcohol and desserts that stack on the calories. Plus any late night snacking - cheese and crackers I'm looking at YOU!

Wetcoaster

My son has his Grad this weekend.....needless to say I will not be logging.

ccckwalk

I do not really participate in cheat days. I can tell you that everything I eat I log. So if I do have that all finger licking good peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or the tasty nutella on a graham cracker it will all end up on my diary. If we don't log what we eat, even our cheats we are cheating ourselves. You can undo a week of crazy, insane sweat filled workouts in one cheat day. That is how I look at it and this thought usually keeps me from cheating....oh so sad but so true. Have a great night girl!
~Corina

Car0lynnM

I don't usually cheat a whole day...just one meal. So I log breakfast and lunch, and if my binge dinner is easy to log (like a chain restaurant meal or something like that) i'll log it. Otherwise, I don't. Some things are just too difficult to find even a close estimate.

bwogilvie

If you are committed to a healthy, sustainable lifestyle, then there's no such thing as cheating. Once you see a certain food as "forbidden", it becomes a "diet" and you feel deprived and want to "cheat".

This is how I approach things. I also focus on the week, not the day. On the iOS versions of the MFP app, there's a weekly summary that shows a bar graph of each day's net calories, as well as the average for the week and remaining calories in the week. If I go a few hundred calories over one day, I try to eat somewhat less for another day or two. Conversely, if I do a lot of exercise (like the 100 mile bike ride on Wednesday), I'll "eat back" the calories over a few days, not all at once.

rhonderoo

I log everything, even days I know I've gone over my allotment for the day . I've learned a lot by doing that. I try to be low-carb,high-protein but then I'll notice a lot of foods that are traditionally "okay" on a lower carb diet, will skewer me on fat. So it's a good way to keep everything in balance, even when I don't stay under my calorie goal and don't get to work out. It's true that when I "cheat" by eating the way I used to eat, I see how much I was really consuming... and Holy Cow. Especially restaurant meals.

CassiusKnox

I don't have 'cheat days'. For me the idea of working hard and eating well all week only to have a day where I blow it all out of the water just seems ridiculous. But hey... That's just me and my opinion.

I try to eat under my calorie goal every day but we all have days where we go over. At worst I might go over 300 or 500 calories. I can't imagine what someone would have to eat to go over 4000 calories like someone above said. How is that even possible????

I log EVERYTHING.

Acg67

10-15k cals depending on what I was eating

sabified

I'm trying to push myself to keep logging. I've only just started trying to be healthy again, but when I was working on losing weight before I would give myself cheat days where I would have any/everything I wanted- and basically not see the scale move for that week. When I started logging the cheat days it actually helped me be more mindful- I would still "cheat" but logging helped me draw the line between "enough" and "too much".

askcupid117

I log on cheat days because seeing how much I went over on that day helps me stay on track better throughout the rest of the week. Also sometimes on a cheat day you might think you did way worse that you really did or vice versa. There are days I thought I ate a house but really I only went over 300 calories.

KlaJWolf

Log it so you can look at it and chalk it up as a day where you could have made better decisions

Yes, agreed! Log it...

GnomeLove

I like to keep it real. I log them.

ChanceTakr2131

On cheat days I range from 2500 to 3000 calories, but I don't eat fast food or anything like that. I just have larger portions of what I normally have.

OMG_Twinkies

I try to log everything, even cheat meals, and we go balls to the wall on those. Since I used to eat whatever I wanted on the regular, with no regard to what I was actually putting into my body (helloooooooo 265 lbs!), I never learned the calorie/macro content of what I was eating. By logging my cheat meals now, I'm learning about the food I like to eat. Because I sure as heck am not intending on logging forever. I need to know how to gauge what I'm eating, and I don't have any intention whatsoever of cutting out food groups or giving up the foods I love.