Cheat Days?

leandrum
leandrum Posts: 5 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I can't/wont live without certain things. Does anyone operate on a cheat day system? Does is work for you or gone up in flames? Has it helped you stay on track for the rest of the week? I fear without a designated cheat day, I get too poor snacky during the week. So far, knowing that I will eat certain things on my cheat day has been helping and I look forward to it. I probably cheat up to 500 extra calories for the day.

Replies

  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    edited August 2016
    You can fit your particular certain thing into your calorie budget, then enjoy the process comfortably.

    Yet, my experience has been that most months I exceed my calorie goal in an undisciplined manner with a 30-day frequency. I'm actually today 35 days since my last intentional calorie excursion and have lost about 8 lb from my weight of the day before the excursion.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    I just work what I want into my calories. Occasionally I will go over on a certain day, but I balance it out over the week.
  • extra_medium
    extra_medium Posts: 1,525 Member
    edited August 2016
    You can keep track of your calories over the week or month rather than just day by day.. as long as you still stay under your goal for the time-frame consistently you'll be fine. Depending on your daily deficit though it can be really easy to ruin the whole week of effort with one day. I'd rather do like malibu and just fit your favorites into your routine. It's better for long term maintenance as well.
  • leandrum
    leandrum Posts: 5 Member
    hmm, maybe at the end of the week I will count up left over calories for the past week and that will be the value of my cheat
  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
    Just log it. That's my plan. If I go over one day it's not a big deal, I can negate that with hard work the rest of the week. No need for cheat days/meals if you look at it that way. Logging a meal you consider unhealthy or cheating also has the benefit of helping you moderate. If you see you're going 1000 cals over your maintenance amount then you know to stop. But keep this in mind.. MFP might have set you at 1200 or 1400 calories a day.. but your maintenance level is much higher than that. Know what it is, and use that on those days. If you go over maintenance but you've been under maintenance the rest of the week you can add it all up to see if you'll lose that week or not. I, personally eat what I want most of the time, I simply exercise enough to justify it.
  • silverfiend
    silverfiend Posts: 329 Member
    edited August 2016
    Try having the occasional cheat meal. Not a cheat day, not a cheat weekend. Try letting yourself have smaller amounts of that cheat item than what you would normally eat.

    The problem with "cheats" is that it throws you off track. If you spend all week in deficit, and then blow it out with a food craving, your body is going to be using the calories from that and trying to store a lot of it as glycogen. So then when you go back to being "good" next Monday you have to work to burn that stored glycogen off before you can make progress again. You end up either going two steps forward, one step back (at the best) or else you find it impossible to make any headway with your planned fat loss.
  • fitmom4lifemfp
    fitmom4lifemfp Posts: 1,572 Member
    leandrum wrote: »
    I can't/wont live without certain things. Does anyone operate on a cheat day system? Does is work for you or gone up in flames? Has it helped you stay on track for the rest of the week? I fear without a designated cheat day, I get too poor snacky during the week. So far, knowing that I will eat certain things on my cheat day has been helping and I look forward to it. I probably cheat up to 500 extra calories for the day.

    No. No cheat days. Sort of defeats the purpose. I can ruin an entire week in one day, easily.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    There are days I knowingly break my "do not overeat" rule, so yeah, I guess I have cheat days.
  • JaxxieKat
    JaxxieKat Posts: 427 Member
    No. I refuse to give up certain things as well, but I make them work within my lifestyle. I am careful about portion size, find ways to "lighten" up the food, or just make up for the extra calories at the gym. I have found that cheat days lead to a sense of complacency. One unaccounted for day ends up slipping into, "well, I don't really need to log those snacks" and then, eventually, you find yourself failing to log a lot of things you're eating throughout the day and, before you know it, a cheat day turns into a cheat week, turns into a cheat month.
  • Trish1c
    Trish1c Posts: 549 Member
    On the weekends especially at a party I drink alcohol. I try to make sure I dance in a vain effort to balance things out; I'm still always over.

    This is supposed to be a lifestyle, not a death sentence. Moderation is the key. 1-2 oreos won't kill you especially if you have stopped eating the whole bag or even 1 sleeve / row in a sitting.
  • CrabNebula
    CrabNebula Posts: 1,119 Member
    I have cheat meals (I only do whole days as vacation/holiday), but I also get back on the wagon the next day, no big deal. It is only the long term trend that matters.
  • LUHAN27
    LUHAN27 Posts: 211 Member
    edited August 2016
    I do cheat days; it keeps me "discipline" to an extent. Lol I swap out junk food for healthier alternatives: on my cheat day I eat whatever meal/fast food. Note: I do not completely restrict myself throughout the week. I eat some sort of candy or chips but meal wise, I try to eat completely clean. :-p
  • cgvet37
    cgvet37 Posts: 1,189 Member
    Some meals I eat what I want and don't log it, within reason. I don't see it as cheating.

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