To cheat or not to cheat..
petey200745601
Posts: 14 Member
In the past, I've always gave myself a cheat day. One day to get all of my cravings out of the way. The only bad part is, I would sort of go overboard. This time around, I don't plan on quitting. This is a permanent lifestyle change.
The question is, should you have a cheat day, and if so how do I go about it?
The question is, should you have a cheat day, and if so how do I go about it?
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It's not cheating.0
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I don't have cheat days. To cheat implies something bad. Having a higher than average calorie meal once in a while is ok.
We still have to live.
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I'd rather work those cravings into my regular diet, in sane portions, rather than potentially undo all my hard work in one day.0
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Its completely up to you. I had a cheat day yesterday but that was because of extreme circumstances not under my control. I'm being extra good all this week to make up for it.0
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I don't have cheat days. I was doing 1 "cheat" meal throughout the week - 1 breakfast, 1 lunch, 1 dinner. I still tried to keep it in hand and. I consider 2 pieces of mararita pizza a cheat meal. It kept me satisfied.0
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Nope. You're training for life, might as well enjoy it. My diet is 80% nutrient dense foods and I leave room for treats on the daily. I never feel deprived, never feel like I have to "cheat", and every couple of weeks I may have a meal that I just don't track, but I still keep my head on straight and don't order the whole menu.0
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Learn to incorporate the foods you love into your daily calories.0
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And I agree with aimeerace. We still have to live.0
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Have a workout day instead of a cheat day, then eat the food you crave (within youre calorie goal).0
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I naturally tend to eat at a deficit during the week and at or a little above maintenance on the weekends. Maintenance calories if I go to the gym is about 2300 for me, so that's plenty of tasty treats worked in amongst the healthy things if I want.0
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Don't call it a cheat day. If you really want something, weigh it, log it, and if you go over, you go over. Make up for it the rest of the week. But make sure you log it, as you will hold yourself accountable that way.
I went 1000 calories over on Saturday as it was a special occasion and between desserts and drinking, I was way overboard. But I logged every calorie and seeing it so far past my goal reminded me that I need to do a lot of cardio this week as well as eat at my goal.
Don't deprive yourself. If you really want something, eat it (just maybe less of it than you normally would). If you mess up one day, just continue with your goals the next day.0 -
I do a cheat meal, not day, once per week, and it works great for me. I still meet my goals for the week and keep losing weight. I think it is important to let yourself indulge sometimes, and eating well for 20/21 meals for the week is good enough for me. I always plan my cheat meals, usually on Friday nights I have a nice dinner that goes over my calories and drinks with friends. Do whatever works for you, eating well 6/7 days of the week is still a lifestyle change!0
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I eat the foods I love, in moderation, as my calories allow. I don't consider it cheating. Even tomorrow's lunch at Cheesecake Factory.0
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If a cheat day means you pay no attention to caloric intake, I don't believe in cheat days.
If I ate in the quantities I wanted to eat, I'd probably eat 3000 calories a day, and my weight would spike the next day and destroy a week's worth of progress. I already have a hard time keeping my weekends under control and when you look at my weight chart there is a regular 7-day spike from the weekends.
Cheat days just blow your diet.0 -
_incogNEATo_ wrote: »
@_incogNEATo_ My husband went in to hospital last night so I was really worried and ate a lot, even things I'm not supposed to eat on my diet. He back home but still sick. I'm working off the extra calories by running upstairs to check on him. Not cheat day for me for a long time.
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That's an interesting thought. Just work a little harder when you want something. Earn it.vidxdeword wrote: »Have a workout day instead of a cheat day, then eat the food you crave (within youre calorie goal).
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What works for me is "no cheat" days. I don't understand planning to purposefully cheat. Put a game plan in place and plan to stick to it is my strategy. What I envision is one cheat day spiraling out of control into two days, a week, a month - you get the picture. I'm in this to WIN this and cheaters NEVER win!0
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I find a day off of logging it all every few weeks hasn't completely undone anything. Just don't do it too frequently or it will cut into your results.
If you're at 500cal/day deficit, going over by 1500cal (the content of many restaurant desserts) would effectively undo 3 days of staying on your program.0 -
You can't undo all your hard work in one day. If you are eating for 1.5 lbs per week of weight loss (appx 5250 cal per week/750 cal a day deficit) and pick one day where you eat to 250 cals over maintenance (1000 cal more than a normal day for you), You won't undo anything. That puts your deficit to 4250 cal for the week. You'll lose 1.25 lbs this week instead of 1.5.
Over a year, it means that you will lose 65.5 lbs instead of 78
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petey200745601 wrote: »
That's an interesting thought. Just work a little harder when you want something. Earn it.vidxdeword wrote: »Have a workout day instead of a cheat day, then eat the food you crave (within youre calorie goal).
That can be a vicious cycle and kind of damaging. I really don't like the idea of "earning" your calories.
Bottom line is that your weekly deficit is more important than your daily. That being said, you should be consistent if you want results. If you are consistent, one meal out of many isn't going to derail your efforts, however, a whole day can most certainly set you back and why it is a really bad cycle to get into.0 -
You gals and guys make tons of sense. Lol. This isn't a temporary diet anymore, so I need to just live. Change the core of your diet, but still eat the foods you love, just work a little harder to incorporate those days.0
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@Petey
No reason to feel guilty for going beyond the limit once in a while. However, I strongly recommend logging the cheat days accurately. If you are not losing weight, it is good data to look at later.
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_incogNEATo_ wrote: »
@_incogNEATo_ My husband went in to hospital last night so I was really worried and ate a lot, even things I'm not supposed to eat on my diet. He back home but still sick. I'm working off the extra calories by running upstairs to check on him. Not cheat day for me for a long time.
What you ate was still under your control. You didn't cheat by the way.0 -
petey200745601 wrote: »
That's an interesting thought. Just work a little harder when you want something. Earn it.vidxdeword wrote: »Have a workout day instead of a cheat day, then eat the food you crave (within youre calorie goal).
vidxdeword
burned 2,000 calories doing 420 minutes of cardio exercises, including "Walking, 12.5 mins per km, mod. pace"
this is a bit extream, but i got to eat a whole pizza
, got a shiny brass-ish mini medal and lots of blisters (which are still healing atm). In terms of cost-benefit for me it was still worh it. 0 -
I try to incorporate whatever I may be craving into my day. One day I was craving chocolate and my coworker had a chocolate chip cookie. Instead of denying and going crazy I took half the cookie. It was delicious and I didn't have another craving for at least a week or more.0
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I agree with just about everyone here . . . just eat what you want, and log it. Don't ever call it a 'cheat'.
Back when I started doing this, I started feeling under the weather about two weeks in. It turned into a cold, and just about had me confined to bed for a day (which is really odd for me . . . I don't get sick). I finally couldn't take the cold AND the 'diet', and just ate whatever I wanted. The cold was gone within hours. I think that the new diet was causing added stress and suppressing my immune system. So . . . listen to your body, and eat what it needs.
(Yesterday my body started the day by needing a chocolate chip cookie AND a slice of chocolate cake. And I ended up having my largest one-day loss EVER. It was pretty incredible. But the 5K I ran in the afternoon probably helped, too.)0 -
I went over my goal yesterday, and it's okay. You can either cut a little extra each day and aim for a weekly goal instead, or just move on. As long as the days you go over don't turn into a common occurrence, you'll still lose weight. The only issue is if your willpower gives out from the days you overeat, and overeating becomes your new diet again.0
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Almost 6 hours of walking to eat a pizza?! Wow. You really earned the pizza lol.0
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