Cheat Days

emsoquena

I used to have a very unhealthy lifestyle. I used to eat in fast food restos frequently, I would snack on sweets, junk food and sodas, and I would go out drinking twice a week. When I started working out, I lessened the drinking part to only once a month. I ate fast food less, and ate fruits and veggies more. And the snacking part didn't change. Two months ago, I decided to entirely give up fast food, junk foods, and soda. I lessened my carb intake as well to only half cup of rice per meal, and for meat, I mostly just eat fish and chicken. For snacks, I only eat fruits and yogurt.

It's been going great so far and I've been losing weight more but I kinda miss it, some of it. And I feel like I'm depriving myself. I would feel weak for some reason. Someone suggested having cheat days but I dunno how or where to start. Help!

nikkirec

Personally I wouldn't have a cheat day but if there is something you are really wanting, eat it, count it and done!

QuilterInVA

All cheat days do is undo some of the weight loss for that week and keep the cravings alive. Weight loss is about making choices, not deprivation. You chose to do what is necessary to be healthy and lose weight or you chose not to. It doesn't mean you can never have fast food again. It means I choose not to have it for today. I might have it once every 2 months, but that is more than enough for me and anymore I don't even like the taste and can't stand the smell of it so I'm not having it at all.

SLLRunner

For me, "cheat" days are just going down that some old street again expecting a different result. I love sweets, and in certain situations I have been known to literally make myself sick on them. I don't cheat anymore, and don't eat enough to make myself sick now, but I will have something sweet once in awhile.

Every day I plan my meals and snacks. If I know that I'm going to a big dinner on Friday night, I will eat less during the week to save up some extra calories. This is for special occasions, though, and not a frequent thing.

I agree with Nikki to eat something if you want it. Just be sure to count it.

bob_day

Make your cheat days count. Save them for special occasions --
like your birthday, a friend's birthday, an anniversary, Thanksgiving, etc.

The day after that maybe do some fasting -- eat less or skip a meal.
The best time to lose weight is right after you've gain weight. You
may not be as hungry, and also -- my totally unscientifically proven
guess -- your body may not have had time to completely incorporate
the excess you ate the day before into your body as stored fat.

notnikkisixx

I don't believe in cheat days, in my opinion they are a crutch for people who are unwilling to totally change their lifestyle.

What I do believe in is moderation. Exercise your butt off to earn those occasional days where you have pizza and beer for dinner. Allow yourself to have these meals, but make sure they fit into your daily calorie allowance.

paxbfl

I don't believe in cheat days, in my opinion they are a crutch for people who are unwilling to totally change their lifestyle.

^ This is totally me. But you know what? It works for me. I go from feeling deprived to feeling satisfied to feeling disgusted and very motivated. One "cheat day" leaves me feeling motivated for the week ahead. I'm very strict the rest of the week and compute my "free day" calories into my deficit for the week so I continue to lose.

That said, I think a "cheat meal" would probably be a healthier way to go, and I'm slowly working toward that.

But bottom line, you shouldn't totally deprive yourself of anything - because this isn't a diet, it's a lifestyle change that you have to continue for the long-term.

lovelylela415

Since changing my lifestyle and body composition, i've kept cheat days BUT i've changed the way I define them.

A "cheat day" happens once a week, if that, and only when i really want it - because I'm listening to what my body wants.

So, when I have a cheat day what it usually means is...that I'm eating out of my normal routine. I still do the math around caloric intake. I don't have a specific goal of eating poorly on these days but I do allow myself to indulge in some foods or behaviors that I am not normally doing. This makes it more of a "fun an crazy food day" - if that makes sense. It's all about the way we look at it. A lifestyle change is a lifestyle change is a lifestyle change.

When i was dieting and doing it all wrong (only going running, not lifting, no circuits, starving, cheating, bingeing, starving, fad finding, cutting out all carbs which is ridiculous etc) I would define a cheat day as a day to eat lots and lots of dessert and fried food. But it always felt Soooooo Bad! it's wasn't a lifestyle change. it was a yo yo of unhappiness and weight gain and waking up miserable with a food hangover the next day.

Since then I have gone through a major transformation of lifestyle and body composition. I'm the happiest I've been in a long time, maybe ever! Even in the face of adversity, I cry a little less, I feel more confident, and I get extreme relief from exercise & reliance on this healthy lifestyle. I don't have food hangovers anymore. I just feel good. And i eat so much delicious food all the time!

Here is how I define "cheat days" which usually occur on my Rest Day (Sunday) or during my menstrual cycle. (sorry guys, it's part of life)

The new version of a "Cheat Day":

- Rest Day (not working out hard, not pushing hard, no lifting heavily, a nice day of rest)
- eating out for dinner or lunch...or both! instead of cooking my own food (i enjoy cooking, it feeds me psychologically in equal measure)
- dark chocolate, 80% or higher, in a larger quantity than i might normally eat
- White Carbs: pasta, white rice, breads (i don't eat these on other days)
- a pint of non fat frozen yogurt (stonyfield) (440 calories in the entire pint!)
- more salt than i would normally eat, more fruit than i would normally eat, more of whatever I would normally be eating....it satisfies my need to "be bad" and rebel (i'm rather rebellious in nature)
- more dairy than i would normally eat, if that's what i'm craving. For example, i might add butter to something on one of these days
- i give myself permission to eat maintenance calories instead of at a deficit for weight loss


Hope this helps! For what it's worth, there's some mud in my life right now that I'm wading through, but the lifestyle change has literally made me happier and therefore better at dealing with adversity. At the end of the day I have my healthy self and the effect it has had on my mood and confidence is immeasurable.

trackmyday1973

All cheat days do is undo some of the weight loss for that week and keep the cravings alive. Weight loss is about making choices, not deprivation. You chose to do what is necessary to be healthy and lose weight or you chose not to. It doesn't mean you can never have fast food again. It means I choose not to have it for today. I might have it once every 2 months, but that is more than enough for me and anymore I don't even like the taste and can't stand the smell of it so I'm not having it at all.

Thank you
Thank you
Thank you
Thank you

WL should never be about depriving yourself

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poohpoohpeapod

I dont have cheat days, sounds so negative to me. Like I had done something illegal or wrong. Instead I give myself a few treats every day. I have been able to lose 110lbs or so this way. I lost most before I got on MFP> I want to be able to live this, not just do it. I have noticed in the past, when I do not live it, and just do it, damnit, it comes undone. I am changing my "normal".

mrslcaines

Today I'm eating at will, instead of on plan. I'm even going to make some cookies with my kids. That being said, breakfast was still 1 serving of oatmeal with brown sugar and splenda, lunch was veggie soup... but, for supper I'm eating home made subs with as much cheese as I feel like putting on it, some chocolate milk, and a cookie or two. Tomorrow it's back to the gym, cottage cheese muffins, and back to planning what I put in my mouth before I eat it. But, it's nice to take a day off of counting now and then, and give my brain a break too.

Starrynightgrl45

I don't have cheat days so much as I have cheat meals. I eat healthy all week and if there is something I am absolutely craving, I wait til the end of the week and I have it. I make up for it by keeping the rest of my calories low(er) for the day and I make sure I exercise that day. It's worked for me so far... 17 kgs (34 lbs) down and counting!

tigersword

I used to have a very unhealthy lifestyle. I used to eat in fast food restos frequently, I would snack on sweets, junk food and sodas, and I would go out drinking twice a week. When I started working out, I lessened the drinking part to only once a month. I ate fast food less, and ate fruits and veggies more. And the snacking part didn't change. Two months ago, I decided to entirely give up fast food, junk foods, and soda. I lessened my carb intake as well to only half cup of rice per meal, and for meat, I mostly just eat fish and chicken. For snacks, I only eat fruits and yogurt.

It's been going great so far and I've been losing weight more but I kinda miss it, some of it. And I feel like I'm depriving myself. I would feel weak for some reason. Someone suggested having cheat days but I dunno how or where to start. Help!

You don't have to give up any of those things to be healthy.

harleygroomer

TODAY was my first CHEAT day in MONTHS!!!!!!!!! SO we went to the coast and had a FRIED seafood platter followed by a candy bar AND a wonderful day of outlet mall shopping with my daughter

ladyark

This is a topic that every one has a different answer to . I think it also depends where you are in your lifestyle. I have been at this for 15 months and lost 80 lbs to date. In the beginning i didnt allow myself to enjoy any of my old food habits. then there were times i had binge days.

Now i work very hard on my fitness and my eating to keep it as healthy as possable 6 days a week. I allow myself sundays as my rest day ( or active rest day) and enjoy what ever food i want. Some days its just a cookie, other days ( like today) im enjoying a few things that i am in the mood for. I also feel that when the day is done its done and the next 6 days i cut back some. Some sundays i just dont want to eat junk...

Its whatever will work for you or how you can make it fit into your diary.

CyberEd312

It is all a mindset, doesn't matter what you call it, a cheat day, a refeed day, etc.... Finding something that works for each and everyone of us in our own way is the most important step and if you can make it sustainable than you have accomplished your goal... I don't put foods into groups of good or bad as long as I am hitting my caloric intake and macros and micros (to an extent) then anything is fair game but I will add when I started out at 560 lbs, I had to practice complete abstinence from all trigger foods until such a time that I could reintroduce them back into my diet so in order to stay the course throughout each week I allowed myself 1 cheat meal, (and folks I use this term loosely, I could give a crap less how the word cheat may be perceived) but this meal would have to be consumed out to eat, I could have whatever I wanted off the menu and the only rule was it had to be eaten there and nothing could be brought home... This gave me something to look forward to each week while the rest of the week I stayed to a pretty strict mealplan and I also went through therapy (and still go once a month) to learn to deal with my food addictions and overtime added those trigger foods back into my life to where now I eat everything and anything I want as long as it fits within my day... So again I stress use any method that allows you success and allows you to stay on track whatever that may be.... It never hindered my weight loss... Best of Luck OP....

Sashoi

I think the word cheat make it sound like your doing something wrong. Since I been on here I only had one day where I went over on calories n I was just having a bad day feeling sorry for myself because I wasn't even hungry for the food. But now I eat things in moderation, if I'm going to the movies n I know I'm having nachos my whole day will be planned around those nachos. I'm usually well under my cal limits

delyn356

Maybe instead of having an entire "cheat day," you can have a "cheat meal."

I eat pretty healthy throughout the week & I try to stay away from candy, junk food, fast food, etc but usually on Sunday afternoons I want to go out to eat with my friends for lunch or dinner, so I let myself eat whatever I want without feeling guilty afterwards. Eating one "unhealthy" meal a week won't hurt you, and it helps me stay motivated during the week knowing that I can eat what I want.

Or you can eat the food you miss such as sweets & whatnot more regularly as well as long as it fits into your calories for the day. I just try to stay away from it as much as possible, because I tend to not have much self-control if I start eating it...

bob_day

Make your cheat days count. Save them for special occasions --
like your birthday, a friend's birthday, an anniversary, Thanksgiving, etc.

The day after that maybe do some fasting -- eat less or skip a meal.
The best time to lose weight is right after you've gain weight. You
may not be as hungry, and also -- my totally unscientifically proven
guess -- your body may not have had time to completely incorporate
the excess you ate the day before into your body as stored fat.

No. You do jot have to fast the next day or skip a meal. Who wants to live their life like that? What are you punishing yourself?

Obviously you don't *have* to, but if you're serious about losing
or maintaining your weight, you might want to. It's not punishment
at all. But, I suppose you might see it that way if you're not serious
about losing weight.

paxbfl

Obviously you don't *have* to, but if you're serious about losing
or maintaining your weight, you might want to. It's not punishment
at all. But, I suppose you might see it that way if you're not serious
about losing weight.

"Punishment" is the wrong word. But whether you do a "free day" or "cheat meal" or not, ultimately you have to be responsible for the calories you consume. Not being responsible is how each of us arrived in need of this site.

I look forward to my "free day" every week. But I plan for it all week long by cutting extra calories from my daily goal to compensate for it. So although I rest and eat whatever I want one day a week, I still continue to lose.

Is it worth it, to eat less and exercise more 6 days a week to have 1 "free day"? Everyone has to answer that question for themselves. As I said, it works for me.

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LuvDarkChocolate

My "cheat" day was yesterday. And boy did I cheat., and honestly was loving it until I logged everything in. Now all I'm left with is the guilty feeling that I have at the pit of my stomach. But today is a new day, and plan on a 5k run.

Now all of that aside, my belief is that if it's something your body is craving....do it. Moderation is key, now go and enjoy that horrible, nasty tasting snickers bar:bigsmile:

fatslayer93

Rather than a cheat day (eg extra 1000 calories)
Have a cheat meal, still fulfilling with less calories

Francl27

I just eat treats within my calories. Plus it teaches me motivation. Win/win.

Not saying I won't have a cheat meal eventually, but I haven't found a good enough opportunity for it yet (it would have to be REALLY worth it, and, well, most restaurants here are not).

thisberichard

I'm not inclined to totally rule out cheat days or similar indulgences. With that said, at best, it's still something you need to be very careful with.

A lot of people have made a point of insisting that the unhealthy foods I liked most could still be indulged as long as I didn't have much, counted the calories, and all that. I even know some people for whom that approach would work, but since I couldn't possibly eat more than a little bit of the things I want (without having pretty nothing else the rest of the day, at least), that's a losing proposition: I wouldn't feel satisfied when I stopped, /and/ it would refresh my memory of how much better than my current diet the indulgences are.

But at the same time, saying "I'm /never/ going to indulge myself" often results in a sort of rigid thinking about one's diet that, at best, makes one feel really awful any time one's discipline cracks. At worst, it can lead to the sort of thought process where one figures, "Well, I've already broken the rules..." and then either just continues to gorge for the day or even stops dieting entirely.

Having room to "cheat," so long as that room is well-managed, can help offset those problems. Having a subset of rules about when you break the rules gives the system some flexibility. I, personally, have two cheating rules for myself.

The first is similar to a meditation practice I once learned: to minimize the disturbance caused by distracting thoughts, you're supposed to acknowledge the distracting thoughts when they crop up and then let go, moving on. Or, as I apply it to dieting, "If I eat something I shouldn't have, end up over-budget, or whatever else, I should acknowledge the lapse in discipline and move on."
Technically, it isn't so much a way of purposefully cheating so much as a way of accepting that we aren't perfect and not distracting ourselves from the goal by agonizing over our failures.

The second rule is more directly concerned with cheating, but still shares some ground with the first rule: "In rare, exceptional cases, allowances can be made for major social events that include eating in a prominent place."
That's half giving oneself permission to break the rules under certain cases and half a way of moving on in the event that circumstances result in a significantly larger-than-usual lapse that hadn't been intended.
This one can get out of hand if you don't have a pretty strict sense of what constitutes a "rare, exceptional case." In the three months I've been dieting, I've only had one such day (a big convention with a lot of friends and two major restaurant trips), and there are only two or three more qualifying days I can think of between now and my diet's one-year anniversary.

The system I'm using probably isn't perfect. I'm not completely "over" wanting to eat lots of junk, and that might well be a consequence of being too lenient with myself. I'm not sure.
My eating habits were flat-out atrocious before I started up in earnest about three months ago. It wasn't just fast foods and saturated fat-heavy, sugar-heave snacks as food choices. It was quantities, as well. Like wake-up-and-eat-six-cinnamon-rolls-with-more-than-a-pint-of-milk-before-going-to-work quantities. As one might expect, the transition has frequently been difficult.
I'm now at a point where I very seldom have cravings for the kinds of foods I used to eat right up until I actually /see/ them. Grocery shopping is rough every time I get anywhere near the bakery, but even that is more about wishing I could go back to the old way of eating more than it's about a specific, immediate craving that can be sated and then set aside.

So... it isn't perfect. And, for me, it /is/ still a matter self-deprivation... of a sort.
But it's tolerable. And I never expected better than that.

emsoquena

Nah, wasn't really thinking of "cheat day" as pigging out the whole day. I plan to still keep within my calorie goals. Like ramen or pizza once a week, and then workout as usual. Maybe "cheat meal" should be the right term. As for giving up junk foods and soft drinks, that's not really for weight loss but for healthy eating. There's a lot of history of liver diseases in my family, I wouldn't want to put myself at risk. :happy:

But I think I've got it figured out. Healthy home-cooked meals six days a week, and then indulge on something for Saturday lunch. Still no fast food though.