CHEAT DAYS

ellipsisbla

Anybody fit cheat days (such as 2 days a week on the weekends) into their diet plans? If so, how many calories do you allow yourself, perhaps based on an avg of 1000 cal a day on normal days? Also, wouldn't it be difficult to track calories when you go out?

Additional details:
Female
Current weight: 55kg
Goal weight: 48kg
P.s. Feel free to check out my food diary, any advice is appreciated!

I am afraid to negate all my hard work of diet during the week, when I go out to eat on weekends :") Thank you in advance for any replies!!

livingleanlivingclean

If you're fitting it in to your weekly calorie goal, it's not cheating.

I have a "high" day on the weekend which allows me to include more fun food that wouldn't ordinarily fit. I just manipulate calories during the week so that it fits.

I wouldn't be eating 1000cal during the week to make it work though, that sounds painful! (I'm guessing by your weight and goal you're petite? Perhaps try and add some extra exercise so gain more calories rather than having such a low intake?)

TavistockToad

Why would you only eat 1000 cals a day?

Blitzia

It really depends on your definition of "cheat."

If you mean eat tasty foods, I literally do that every day. Today I had 7 cookies, a brownie, and two different kinds of ice cream. I just make sure it fits my goals either by choosing low calorie treats, smaller portions at other meals, or adding some extra exercise.

If you mean eating out at restaurants, I don't really consider that a cheat. A lot of restaurants have nutrtition info online, so you can still log it (or estimate) and stay within your calorie goal.

If you mean go over your calorie goal, then that's really just personal preference. It's cumulative, so if you eat an extra 200 calories today, you can make up for it by eating less the next day. It just depends on what your calorie deficit is and how much of a setback you want to take.

If you mean have a day where you eat whatever you want and don't log it, I don't ever recommend that. One fast food meal can be over 1500 calories. If you eat two, that can easily obliterate all the dieting you did the rest of the week. That's not to say "don't eat fast food," I'm just saying log it and have an idea of how it will affect your calorie deficit.

For my own experience, in the ~9 months I've been dieting I've had exactly three cheat meals, which I define as things I ate and didn't even try to log:
1. Wedding cake at my sister's wedding (and for that I ate ~500 calories less during the week leading up to the wedding.)
2. A Baskin Robbins sundae on vacation
3. A wedding cake concrete on vacation

For the last two, I savored every bite and it put me in an awesome mood to actually be enthusiastic about working out in the gym.

So that's my advice. If you actually log everything and do the math and make things fit your calorie goals, you can still have treats and still eat in restaurants and still lose weight. But if you want to throw caution to the wind and eat treats without logging, you have to make things like that pretty rare special occasions or you *will* derail your progress. (Oh, and 1000 calories a day is really, really low so I hope that's just a random number and not your actual goal.)

trigden1991

I have a refeed every saturday where I eat high carbohydrates and hit at least maintenance calories (if not above).

Cheat days are a great way to get into a binge/restrict cycle and/or stop your progress.

irowlands

Is your goal sensible?

1. How tall are you? If you were 1.60 meters you would have a normal weight, and at 48kg you would be close to underweight (with some variation according to age). If you were any taller, it would be more questionable.
2. Why are you aiming to eat 1000 calories per day? That is below a safe level. Are you aware of the dangers of under-eating?

Your language ("cheat days") suggests you may have a negative view of yourself or the process. Managing your lifestyle sensibly to allow yourself to enjoy weekends is not cheating! The whole process of managing weight and fitness to healthy levels is a positive activity. Feel good about yourself!

To make sure you are going about this in a smart way, it might be a good idea to talk to a nutritionist.

Bry_Fitness70

Why do complete cheat days when you can do a series of cheat meals throughout the week and give yourself something to look forward to across multiple days?

kokonani

I've found that a whole entire day of eating whatever was fun at first, but it made me real sick and regretting it the next few days. Having a cheat meal once a week or two us not so bad. Just adjust your intake for the following days.