Sunday Cheats

SpicyWater

I started tracking calories a month ago and have been doing really well to make any treats I have over the weekend fit into my calories.
In the last few weeks I had a few family members who REALLY like food move in with me, and we have so much treat/cheat food in the house (brownies, chips, pasta, beer etc) that I haven't even been buying because I don't want it around to tempt me.
As a result, I've just caved the last few weeks and made Sunday a cheat day - I didn't go hog wild, but I'd bet I went easily 500-1000 calories over my allotment.
I'm trying to not make this a habit, but I have a question - does one cheat day a week negate all my good work during the week? I get the feeling sometimes that "it's just one day a week" but I don't think that's really true.

TavistockToad

lustymads wrote: »

I started tracking calories a month ago and have been doing really well to make any treats I have over the weekend fit into my calories.
In the last few weeks I had a few family members who REALLY like food move in with me, and we have so much treat/cheat food in the house (brownies, chips, pasta, beer etc) that I haven't even been buying because I don't want it around to tempt me.
As a result, I've just caved the last few weeks and made Sunday a cheat day - I didn't go hog wild, but I'd bet I went easily 500-1000 calories over my allotment.
I'm trying to not make this a habit, but I have a question - does one cheat day a week negate all my good work during the week? I get the feeling sometimes that "it's just one day a week" but I don't think that's really true.

do the maths... if you are 500 or 1000 calories over your goal then depending on how large your deficit you may not even be at maintenance.

jelleigh

I typically look at my calorie goal as a weekly total instead of daily so that i can account for food out or days im hungrier. You can access your weekly total in the nutrition section. You could potentially "budget" an extra 500 - 1000 calories for the weekend and not have it impact your goals at all.

Danp

roughly 0.16 to 0.33 of a pound.

So if you were aiming for a 2 pound per week loss this would mean you'd be losing at a rate of 1.84 to 1.67 pounds per week instead.

Lillymoo01

If you want this as a part of your life and can manage with it being a weekly thing without becoming a more regular occurance thenI'd highly recommend you log your Sunday treat so you know how much over you are.
You can either decide a eat 100 or so few calories a day over the other 6 days which gives you 600 extra calories on a Sunday without it affecting your progress or
Declare Sunday an eat at maintenance day which will not undo any of your hard work, but instead make it a bit longer until you reach your goal.

Many find doing things like this as being the most sustainable way to lose weight as knowing anything within the calorie allowance prevents binging or giving up because it is too hard. Others find that one day of extra indulgence increases cravings and one day becomes another until they give up on losing weight because they can't stick with just the one or decide to have a free for all where their treat day undoes the deficit they have maintained over the week..

Only you know what is best for your long term health and sustainability..

JeromeBarry1

It really does depend on the amount of calories you consume on your high calorie day. It really is possible to have a calorie deficit Monday-Saturday and eat so much on Sunday as to maintain an Obese II condition. I did it.