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Cheat Days
BlackPantherChick123
Posts: 425 Member
Ok I doubt anyone is going to answer this question for me...but I honestly want to know without being lectured on every thread. Yea I know I undereat and maybe over exercise but I'm comfortable with it and don't have any health problems and at a healthy weight. I had a cheat day recently and I basically ate whatever and as much as I wanted without counting and really enjoyed it. I want to be able to do this more often. I may have ate like 3-5K calories (honestly don't know) but it was my boyfriend's birthday and I enjoyed myself. I prepared myself for it by eating low carb for a week, dropped a few pound and ate whatever. Can I do this once a week? Like, since my main goal is to stay at 110, I may gain a few pounds after a cheat, but, I can eat low carb but eat enough calories and once I get to 110, go crazy and repeat since I'm basically maintaining. Is this possible for me to do? I know it sounds unhealthy but I'm young and it satisfies the cravings and sweet tooth. Please give me some answers, I really want to know if this is possible for me and probably won't affect my weight as much since I know how to lose weight.
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It's totally fine if it makes you happy. It might actually help you keep your metabolism run better. Most of the weight gain you see after a cheat day is water anyway-I would just weigh myself once a week, day before cheat day. If you see a weight gain you do not want after 3 weeks or so, dial it back. Does that sound reasonable?0
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It does, because my cheat day I had was basically all junk food and now I no longer crave any of it. Feels so much better. I eat clean everyday for months but every now and then I treated myself but was never satisfied but just after my cheat day, I felt better and felt like I could do it more often. It may seem like too many calories for a day but I know how to get rid of it and I don't feel as guilty as I use to back then.0
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Sounds like you've got this nutrition thing down. Sounds like you should be giving the advice not asking for it.0
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Tbh this sounds like a setup for a binge eating disorder or just an eating disorder in general. You're restricting your calories to enjoy yourself on weekends. Why not just increase your daily calories and not binge on the weekends? You can do what you want, but that's just my consensus!0
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NERVER a cheat DAY!!! Occasional cheat MEAL is acceptable.
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It's actually hard for me to binge since my stomach is so small it can hardly hold that much, plus I exercise a lot and eat clean everyday and so far my weight has not changed and I'm happy about that.0
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I no it sounds bad, but it sounds like a reeat day.0
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Have you heard of the Anabolic Diet by Pasquale? It is keto deficit all week, then go nuts for most of the weekend. I ran it for awhile; it is fun at first, but I decided I just really hate keto.0
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I never heard of it. My typical day is eating tuna/egg white with fat free cheese on fiber low carb tortillas (eat between 2-5 bc they r under 130 calories each), unsweetened cashew milk, some vegetable mix with cheese and I add tuna or chicken, berries and yogurt, tuna and egg white salad (no dressing) and I might add onion to my salad and tortillas, other fruits and vegetables, sometimes chicken and salmon. On days when I'm feeling sluggish, I'll eat 2-4 cups of special K cereal. Stuff like that. Usually days I'm not eating like that, I go and eat Newks (shrimp Caesar with rasberry vinigrette and with lots of cheese and croutons.(I go insane on those lol) since I eat like this, I still crave unhealthy foods and I thought once a week have a day where I can but still exercise that day just go crazy for that one day since I eat less during the weekdays since collage life is hectic.0
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sounds like you are setting yourself up for a binge eating disorder …
are you not also recovering from an ED OP?
If yes, I would suggest talking to your treatment team about this…..0 -
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What's the best thing I can do? I thought some people done something like this and maintained their weight or even lost weight.0
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If it is true that you are recovering from an ED, then I don't think that the Anabolic Diet or any other plan with scheduled overfeeds would be a good choice.0
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Honestly, you need to approach your whole way of thinking about eating and exercising completely different. You do everything in extreme.0
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It doesn't sound terribly different (just more extreme) than something like the 5:2 diets. Ultimately it will come down to cals in vs cals out over longer periods of time. If your low days are low enough to compensate for your high days, then you're weight should stay reasonably steady over time. You'll likely see fairly significant day-to-day fluctuations, but over time you should stay within a pretty steady range.
That said, I agree with many of the others and don't think this sounds like a smart or healthy thing to do. Though, you started off your post by saying you don't really care about healthy, so...0 -
I care about my health, and I no I take my diet and exercise to the extreme, but I also enjoy doing it. I just thought once a week it would b ok to overeat a little. It's not a binge if it's planned. I no onoccasions I eat from 2-5K calories and my weight stays the same since I go back to my healthy eating. I thought this could also help my metabolism.0
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That doesn't sound like you care about your health.BlackPantherChick123 wrote: »Yea I know I undereat and maybe over exercise but I'm comfortable with it
Regardless of what label you put on it, what you're doing is the same. Who are you trying to kid?BlackPantherChick123 wrote: »It's not a binge if it's planned.
There is a HUGE difference between 2k and 5k. 2k could be maintenance, or maybe even a deficit. 5k probably isn't and will require days of low eating to compensate for.BlackPantherChick123 wrote: »I no onoccasions I eat from 2-5K calories
Is it possible to do what you're asking about? Yea, for sure. I'm certainly not arguing that point. But please be honest about what you are doing and why.0 -
BlackPantherChick123 wrote: »I care about my health, and I no I take my diet and exercise to the extreme, but I also enjoy doing it. I just thought once a week it would b ok to overeat a little. It's not a binge if it's planned. I no onoccasions I eat from 2-5K calories and my weight stays the same since I go back to my healthy eating. I thought this could also help my metabolism.
OP - if I recall correctly you stated that you work out 2.5 hours a day and try to burn 4000 calories so that you can then have your cheat/binge day. I also recall saying that you used to suffer from anorexia. The concern in the other thread that you started was that you have replaced one extreme (anorexia) with extreme daily exercise and once a week binge days. You need to really discuss this with your treatment team, and I will give you the same advice that I gave you in your other thread, which is that you need to find the middle ground between the two extremes.....
You are really setting your self up for a binge - exercise - restrict - binge again cycle that is not healthy for your body or mind...0 -
What damage will this do? Is it really that bad? All I want to do is maintain my weight and be able to eat stuff I enjoy only on cheat days.0
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BlackPantherChick123 wrote: »What damage will this do? Is it really that bad? All I want to do is maintain my weight and be able to eat stuff I enjoy only on cheat days.
It sounds like you're engaging in restriction and over-exercising so that you can have these binge days and stay at your goal weight. The potential problem is that you're continuing this unhealthy relationship with food. You can eat stuff you enjoy daily -- it doesn't have to be on 5,000 calorie days. Given that you have a history of ED, this really seems like it might be a continuation of the same behavior -- just in a slightly different format. It's a different form of binge/restrict. Do you have someone from your treatment team that you can talk to about this?0 -
BlackPantherChick123 wrote: »What damage will this do? Is it really that bad? All I want to do is maintain my weight and be able to eat stuff I enjoy only on cheat days.
Why do you feel like you can only have these things on cheat days? I mean if it's Wednesday and I want some chocolate, I'm having some chocolate. I'm not going over board and eating all the chocolate I can find . . . but I will have some.
Or if it's a Saturday afternoon and I want to have a few chips or cookies, or whatever I will. But I'm not eating between 2 and 5 bags of them.
From my experience, and so take it or leave it as it won't work for everyone, if you find you really want something on a Thursday instead of your "cheat day" having it will probably lead to smaller binges on your actual cheat day . . . you probably won't crave these things as much. If you can - keyword being IF - control and portion your intake (which I know if you have or have had an ED that can be an issue/touchy subject) you might find you aren't as likely to have 5K + cal days.
Further, if you are recovering from an ED I think you need to speak with your team of people about this. I don't think it sounds healthy - I am not recovering from an ED so I can't say for sure but from what I've read it's not great.0 -
I honestly don't know. "Teenage kick back and enjoy treat day" I suppose0
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BlackPantherChick123 wrote: »What damage will this do? Is it really that bad? All I want to do is maintain my weight and be able to eat stuff I enjoy only on cheat days.
In and of itself, it won't do much. What you do on a day to day basis matters fairly little, it's the long term trends in behavior that matter. If your long term behavior is fine, then you should be ok.
Speaking as someone who has problems with binging (planned or not), it's an exceptionally slippery slope. And that's a very real problem.0 -
BlackPantherChick123 wrote: »I honestly don't know. "Teenage kick back and enjoy treat day" I suppose
If you're under-eating and over-exercising six days a week to make up for it, it doesn't sound much like kicking back and enjoying anything.0 -
I have to plan or I'll slip and overeat on days I don't plan.0
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BlackPantherChick123 wrote: »I have to plan or I'll slip and overeat on days I don't plan.
Most people here plan. I plan myself. But those plans don't have to involve under-eating and over-exercising.0 -
I try to eat at least 1500-1800. Still bad?0
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BlackPantherChick123 wrote: »I try to eat at least 1500-1800. Still bad?
I have no idea what your energy needs are. I'm going off your own statements: "Yeah I know I undereat."0 -
Everyone says I undereat but I always have tons of energy for my 2.5 hour workout.0
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BlackPantherChick123 wrote: »Everyone says I undereat but I always have tons of energy for my 2.5 hour workout.
When people around you tell you something, it's often something to seriously consider. Especially if you have an history of ED, which you do.0
This discussion has been closed.
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