Can you not have cheat days

n_green_l

I am trying hard to get under 11 stone... I'm 5'6.5 and I'm 11stone 4... for some reason I always hover around 11 stone 2-4. I eat well in the week, my downside is the weekends. My boyfriend eats and drinks a lot and it's difficult not doing so with him. Last night I had wine and crisps, went from 11stone 3 to 11 stone 4 this morning.
I'm going gym though prob not as much as I should. Eating approx 1300 calories a day.. more like 2000 on weekends. Is that where I'm going wrong? This is so hard!

JeromeBarry1

You are so close to slim that it will be very slow to cover that last little distance. Remain patient. That 1 pound gain was mostly water and will quickly fall away. One possibility is that you deliberately bank a few calories during the week so that you can have them on the weekend.

Always accurately and honestly record your food. There's no cheating when it's the truth.

CattOfTheGarage

Yes it probably is, but the good news is, if you're "hovering" (i.e. maintaining) then you only need to make a small adjustment and you'll start going down again. You could either do that by reducing your weekend indulgence a bit, or by adding some extra activity, or both. Just make sure your logging is absolutely accurate and you don't eat extra to make up for exercise.

Don't be put off by day-to-day increases, that pound was just water from the extra carbs and salt. You're looking for the overall trend.

deannalfisher

I don't do cheat days - I plan food I enjoy into my daily calories

Chadxx

deannalfisher wrote: »

I don't do cheat days - I plan food I enjoy into my daily calories

This ^

Cheating can easily undo your hard work, especially if you have a low calorie goal and small deficit. Instead of cheating, just budget your calories to fit in what you really want.

callsitlikeiseeit

i eat what i want, any day i want. I just make it fit in my calories.

There may be one or two days a month where i eat at maintenance, but thats not causing any weight gain.

happyauntie2015

I don't do cheat days I just eat whatever as long as it fits my calories

markswife1992

if i don't have a "cheat day" (or whatever you want to call it) i would go nuts. LOL
every once in a while, i will just eat whatever and not log calories. my next day to do this will be valentine's day, because my son is moving so we are having a going-away lunch for him at a mexican restaurant, and i won't be able to hold-back on the chips & salsa!
..............and i have lost over 25 lbs...it's not interfering with my weight loss goals.

Sabine_Stroehm

I don't do cheat days either. I know that in my life, there will be indulgences. I don't "plan" them. I don't "save up" for them. They just happen when they happen. And then the next day, the scale number may be up, but then it won't be.

ogtmama

I have treats on the weekend but I plan them in. I guess that's a "cheat meal" to some but I just consider it part of the plan...we all look at things differently.

FreyasRebirth

I'm already a 'healthy' BMI (with great cholesterol and blood pressure) so I've been switching from 0.5 loss to maintenance. Today is a maintenance day and I'm typing this while eating pizza. If it fits...

Machka9

When I started with MFP, I decided to stick with it for 16 weeks.

In those 16 weeks, I did stick with it and never went over my calories ... not even once. And I lost 15 kg.

I did, however, have friends come to visit and we went out for dinner, my birthday and Easter were in those 16 weeks, and we travelled and ate in restaurants on a couple other long weekends. I was able to stay under my goal each of those times by exercising a lot. So I didn't feel deprived and my diet was quite varied.

TimothyFish

nataliegreenlouise wrote: »

My boyfriend eats and drinks a lot....

Hmm. Sounds like a real winner you've got there.

paperpudding

what do you mean by that Timothy fish?

Mini_Medic

Men eat more than women. Typically they have more muscle and are taller so the can have more calories. A lot of women gain when cohabitating or getting married, or even just frequenting meals with a male significant other. We simply can't eat the same as a man. So if you make a meal for two and split up the food into two equal halves, you are eating the same as a him and it's probably too many calories for you. I did this in the past. Wondered why I was gaining when I didn't think my calories were going up, but they were. I've noticed if I eat around my girlfriends I eat less. It's herd mentality. With my ex I just couldn't eat all of what my 6'5 boyfriend was having, not on my 5'3 frame.

OP, I also struggle some on weekends. I just bank calories throughout the week. Like I'll eat my normal deficit daily but I won't add my exercise calories so I bank those. Then I try to hit the gym or run an extra day if I know I have a big weekend coming up.

pinksparklefairy

I had a cheat day yesterday - we wanted to go to Five Guys (shocking calories!) and then I had two pieces of pizza for dinner. It was amazing!

But I am not going to weigh myself for a few days, as I would probably cry. I was only over by about 400 calories in the end as we walked a lot but it is natural to worry you have ruined everything in one day.

malibu927

In three years I've never had a cheat day. If I have a day where I go over, I either plan ahead for it by saving up some calories or just let it be. And I eat the foods I enjoy within my goals.

VintageFeline

I have a few days a year (holidays, Christmas, birthday) where I don't worry about what I'm eating. The rest of the time it has to fit. The last few vanity pounds don't leave you much wiggle room so you can easily wipe out what you did during the week by a full weekend of over-indulgence. It just takes a mindset shift. two slices of pizza instead of half. Two glasses of wine instead of the whole bottle. One indulgent meal over the entire weekend.

These are adjustments you'll likely need to make when it comes to maintaining too, just with a little more freedom.

jemhh

If you want a day off each week, diet for 6 days and eat at maintenance on the 7th. But for now it sounds like you still need to weigh/measure/log everything. You are right at the top of your healthy range, which is a point where it's common to need to be more exact than ever.