Cheat days info and help??!

alisakorneyeva

Sometimes there are special occasions as you guys may know, and sometimes we can be down.
How often do you have cheat days that you dont necessarily follow by your diet rules and regulations, and how do you recover from them?

ElizabethOakes2

I don't worry about them. If I go over on a weekend away, I throw in some extra cardio for the rest of the week, but I don't feel guilty or bad about it. I figure, I had a choice to eat that pepperoni and olive pizza with extra cheese, or to eat something healthier. I made the naughty choice, and that's okay. I don't want to live without pizza sometimes.

We have discovered, though, that for my husband it's a LOT harder to get back on track after a night out. He'll be craving 'naughty' food for days after, so now we try to make healthier splurge choices.
(He's not home tonight, and I was thinking WOO HOO! I CAN EAT WHATEVER I WANT! What did I eat? The leftover bell pepper turkey loaf with brown rice and carrots. yeah, big splurger I am...

emmycantbemeeko

I try to keep to my planned deficit and logging whenever it's most practical- so no splurging on days when I'm home or working, no eating out "just because". I know there are enough occasions in life- holidays, vacations, social occasions, truly incredible food- when I'm going to want to or "have" to eat off-plan, so I save it for those occasions.

I went on a five-day cruise recently, with no access to MFP for nutrition info, and not a lot of desire to spend my vacation stressing about serving sizes anyway.

So I didn't, but I also didn't go bananas- I had light breakfasts (fruit, hardboiled eggs, single-serving cereal packets) and lunches (whole wheat/egg salad sandwich, salad) and kept most of my calories for the dinners. Even there, I tried to make just one out of my starter/entree/dessert really decadent- so if I had something high-calorie for my entree, I'd have a light dessert like poached fruit, if I saw that the desserts were really luscious, I'd have baked fish and veggies for my entree.

So, not tracking, almost certainly not eating at a deficit most days, but also not going crazy. Just because I'm not eating at a deficit or "on track" on a given day doesn't mean the calories don't count, and I still try to make good choices... but without giving up all pleasure in food. It's a balancing act. I also stayed very active the whole trip, walking 6-10 miles a day and swimming/snorkeling a lot. I had "gained" a pound and a half per the scale on my return, but as soon as I got home (and back to my scale and internet), I went back to tracking and eating at a deficit, and a week later, I was back to my pre-trip weight. I'm fine with delaying my weight loss goals for two weeks to take a fun vacation, personally, and that was all my "cheat week" wound up doing.

I'm not a fan of the concept of regularly cheat days where people eat "whatever they want" because... I wound up needing to lose weight using that method, and I don't think going back to it for even a day is a productive step, but everybody has to do what works for them.

alisakorneyeva

emmycantbemeeko wrote: »

I try to keep to my planned deficit and logging whenever it's most practical- so no splurging on days when I'm home or working, no eating out "just because". I know there are enough occasions in life- holidays, vacations, social occasions, truly incredible food- when I'm going to want to or "have" to eat off-plan, so I save it for those occasions.

I went on a five-day cruise recently, with no access to MFP for nutrition info, and not a lot of desire to spend my vacation stressing about serving sizes anyway.

So I didn't, but I also didn't go bananas- I had light breakfasts (fruit, hardboiled eggs, single-serving cereal packets) and lunches (whole wheat/egg salad sandwich, salad) and kept most of my calories for the dinners. Even there, I tried to make just one out of my starter/entree/dessert really decadent- so if I had something high-calorie for my entree, I'd have a light dessert like poached fruit, if I saw that the desserts were really luscious, I'd have baked fish and veggies for my entree.

So, not tracking, almost certainly not eating at a deficit most days, but also not going crazy. Just because I'm not eating at a deficit or "on track" on a given day doesn't mean the calories don't count, and I still try to make good choices... but without giving up all pleasure in food. It's a balancing act. I also stayed very active the whole trip, walking 6-10 miles a day and swimming/snorkeling a lot. I had "gained" a pound and a half per the scale on my return, but as soon as I got home (and back to my scale and internet), I went back to tracking and eating at a deficit, and a week later, I was back to my pre-trip weight. I'm fine with delaying my weight loss goals for two weeks to take a fun vacation, personally, and that was all my "cheat week" wound up doing.

I'm not a fan of the concept of regularly cheat days where people eat "whatever they want" because... I wound up needing to lose weight using that method, and I don't think going back to it for even a day is a productive step, but everybody has to do what works for them.

Thank you for sharing this! I feel like this may be the route for me!