What's Up With "Free Eating Day"?

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  • 100df
    100df Posts: 668 Member
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    snickerscharlie wrote: »
    This is also known as a Cheat Day, and it doesn't work for me. Who am I cheating?

    If I have a day that I go over on, I simply log it and move on. Having a designated cheat day every week can make you feel deprived on the other 6 days and can be a recipe (pun intended!) for failure. I make room in my calories every day for treats, and eat them in moderation in the overall scope of a healthy, well balanced nutrition plan. :)

    Edited to add: I think the only difference here is that the infamous Cheat Day has been re-named to a "Free Eating Day," instead to make it sound beneficial and appealing. Problem is that it's waaaay too easy to undo everything you achieved on the other 6 days. Even more so if, as is suggested in the OP, this happens on two days every week.

    I do not have free days. I find it depressing undoing 6 days of work. I can easily eat enough calories in one day that a teenage boy eats in two days. I find too that I feel much more hungrier when I get back to restricting. It feels like I am starting over mentally. Not fun! Not to mention that I despise feeling physically sick from eating too much. It grosses me out if I have to eat a Tums because of overeating.

    Also, as someone said earlier, life brings about occasions where it's easy to spend more calories than usual. Those occasions won't mess me up the way a "free" day would. I do fit small treats in so I don't have the urge for a free for all.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
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    I'm in the camp of "fit the foods I like in on a regular basis so that I don't have to have a special named day to enjoy them". I find postponing eating the things I enjoy to a certain day so that I can gorge myself on the regular, counter productive to what I'm trying to adopt - healthy, sustainable eating habits for the rest of my life. That includes having things like wine and chocolate pretty much every day, other calorie dense foods whenever I can work them into my day or week. There are definitely days (holidays, special events) where I really indulge and end up going over my calories, but I wouldn't call those cheat days or free days. They aren't planned for on a weekly basis with the sole purpose of indulging - they are just special days that happen to involve a lot more food than usual.
  • rainbowbow
    rainbowbow Posts: 7,490 Member
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    As someone who is small in stature and size, yes. It will completely undo an entire weeks worth of deficit for me very easily if i just eat whatever i want for 1 weekend meal, let alone an entire day.

    Instead i eat foods i enjoy in small amount all week so i don't feel deprived or the need to go all out on a "cheat" day.
  • HutchA12
    HutchA12 Posts: 279 Member
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    For some it helps with cravings I do a cheat weekend every once and a while. I still log and only eat up to maintenence calories but those extra cals help me feel like I'm taking it easy. Weightloss isn't short for a lot of people.

    Right now I'm going from 200 to 140 currently 157. It's been 7 months ... some days you want to have fun. You just shouldn't overdo it.

    So all in all cheat days are for mental health and in no way positively impact weightloss directly.

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