Do you have your cheat day?

dinsfamily

esorcel wrote: »

dinsfamily wrote: »

DemoraFairy wrote: »

Once I got close enough to a weight that I was happy with, I decided I wouldn't try to count calories for special occasions - birthdays, celebration meals, things like that. It's nice to have the odd meal without worrying about counting or limiting what I eat.

This is my goal. Right now, I'm planning my calories around events and learning not to go overboard. It's tough since restaurant food is so calorie-dense, but I've been able to do it with decent food choices, working out, and planning. So much easier to eat at home, though. When I get to maintenance, I'm hoping that it will be easier or at least I can bleed those fun calories off over the course of a week.

This is actually the first time I haven't planned any "cheating" in to my weightloss plan. If I want something bad enough, I just work-in those calories. Seems way easier this way and I feel more satisfied.

Restaurant foods are also loaded with sodium!! Water retention can put a damper on your weight loss plans. I try to stick with home-cooked foods, too. It's so much easier to maintain your goals that way.

True that they are, but I eat out maybe twice a month so definitely not worried about the sodium. More worried about food choice since a yummy burger and fries could put me way over my calories for the day...add a beer and wowsa. The water retention would go away so not really hampering anything for me, right? I deal with water retention every week because of working out so I'm learning not to freak out at a little uptick in weight and go by the trend instead.

mbaker566

I don't cheat, I make my food fit by preplanning both food and exercise.
and on rare occasions I still go over but I don't panic. such is life

ladyrixx

I do, on Saturdays my husband and I go out to eat with our friend and his family. He loves to take us to various ethnic buffets, so I have no clue what I'm eating, so that makes it hard to count calories.

Domicinator

I can't do it. It feels counterintuitive to what I'm trying to accomplish. If the end goal is to permanently be in the habit of not worshipping food so much that I feel like I have to gorge on it, then the cheat day concept makes no sense to me. I don't want to have that day to look forward to, because at some point it will need to stop anyway.

Kalikel

No way, Jose. There is no cheating, IMO. I'm not cheated.

I do have days where I eat over or under (sometimes well over or under) the calorie goal, but I'm not cheating. I feel no shame, no guilt, no nothing. I keep an eye on weekly and monthly numbers and I don't sweat single days.

I just don't have the same amount of hunger every day. It seems crazy to me to stuff myself on Tuesday to meet a calorie number and then go to bed hungry on Thursday to stay true to the calorie goal. I cannot eat to numbers. I tried. It didn't work.

It's not cheating to me, it's overeating. And it's okay to do sometimes. I make the rules easy because I have to follow them.

KGS01

I don't have a specific cheat day.
I can eat junk whenever I want but I keep it within my calorie goal for the day, I still loose weight. There are still some very calorie dense foods that I have to avoid but that can't be helped. The longer you're on a diet the more self control you will have.

I don't count calories for my birthday & other celebrations. But if I go to someone's party I do try moderation and adjusting my intake throughout the day, you could call it damage control xD

I personally don't see there being a benefit in me keeping a cheat day to go all out because it'll hinder my progress but I know it's useful for others and I respect that.