Cheat day?!?!?! Help!

sheyna1983

K here's the deal, I've been on the Paleo diet for 7 days and 2 hours now....and have lost 8 pounds. I am totally conflicted if I should take cheat days or not. I did some research and apparently there's something in our bodies call Leptin that gets depleted when we're on super restrictive diets and this causes our bodies to store fat because it thinks we're going into starvation mode.....anyways...apparently the cheat days trick our bodies into restoring leptin levels and actually helps our body burn off fat the rest of the week......ok so that all makes sense......but what about what a cheat day does to our mentality when we're on such a restrictive diet? Will it remind me how good "bad" food tastes and cause me to fall off the wagon completely??
And should it be a cheat DAY or is a cheat MEAL good enough?? :grumble:

I'm thinking maybe just like a 6" sub and a blizzard for dinner one night and then go back to the diet (for some reason those are the only things that sound good to me right now) .... is that enough to restore this Leptin crap??

Blah I can't decide......help!! (pretty please) :flowerforyou:

tommygirl15

Here's my take on it: allow yourself a cheat meal for sure, but make it somewhat healthy at the same time. So like, instead of going all out with total deep-fried junk.. get something like a chicken caesar salad or tacos with all the good stuff (cheese, sour cream, etc) and yet still have some of the healthy stuff (tomatoes, lettuce). Just make sure that your cheat meal does have some nutritional value in there so it's not a total waste of calories. And not to be confused, but it should be 1 cheat meal only, not a cheat day! I think once a week is fine if you have the will power to know that it won't make you 'fall off the wagon' or at least try to keep envisioning your goals strongly before going into a cheat meal. Before I eat something bad I always tell myself to be careful because I think, 'do you want to drop these pounds before your vacation?' and 'do you want to fit into that itty bitty pinky dress for your friends wedding?'. Don't let your cheat meal make you lose sight of what you are trying to accomplish!

sunshine79

Well done on your weight loss so far, 8lbs in a week is amazing.

I'm not an expert and still learning about the whole weight loss and calorie thing but I read Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle (which as very useful) :happy: :happy: and the author suggests cheat meals rather than cheat days as a whole cheat day can undo most of your weeks deficit. I've strated having cheat meals two per week and it's just enough to keep me going. Hope that's helpful :glasses:

LaurenH2010

Listen to what your body wants. There is a lot of people on here that will agree that "cheat day" is good for them. Some people will say that a whole day is not good for them personally, I would have to agree. I try to limit it to just a little bit of the "bad" stuff for two reasons; 1) being on a healthy diet and going back to bad foods will give me stomach ache and the food sits like a rock in my stomach and it's just no fun :sick: 2) "Cheating" for a whole day throws me off personally for awhile and then I have to fight more cravings the next couple of days. Instead I try to go for moderation, when I am having a bad day or just plain craving something lets say cake, I opt for a cupcake instead, or a small sliver of what I want for one meal and then eat really well for the rest of the day. I hope this helps

AnnieeR

This is PURELY my opinion and I am not at all one to judge what works for other people. It seems to me that if you want or need a cheat day, this is maybe not a diet that you can turn into a lifestyle. When I think of lifestyle I think of something I'll be happy and content to do forever and that won't make me feel deprived, hungry, or malnourished. I'm 41 and probably have dieted for... 25 of those years and my weight has accordingly ping ponged between 115 and 215. I've drawn a line under that and decided that if I want a Subway sandwich (or whatever) I'll have it, no matter what day it is, and if I have it and it puts me over calories I'll just make a small adjustment elsewhere. I'm not looking at this as a diet but rather a means of learning where I can make small tweaks that won't affect my enjoyment of food but will help me be healthier and so far it seems to be working.

Having said that, I do sometimes go to a party or something and find that I've eaten or drunk more than I'd intended and so I'll decide not to use my diary that day, but to get right back on track after - but I don't like the term "cheat" 'cause it's not - it's living my life! :drinker:

Not sure if any of this is even remotely helpful, and clearly 8 pounds in a week is tremendous - I'd just give some thought about whether or not this is a sustainable way of eating for life because in my experience, anything extreme doesn't work for me and the weight just piles straight back with interest.

sheyna1983

Thanks for all the input. It looks like the majority says yes and I was swaying that way too so I'm going to try a cheat meal this weekend and see what happens.

And thanks guys, yes 8 pounds in one week was so much more than I was expecting.

I totally get what you're saying AnnieeR....but I am DEFINITELY not considering Paleo as a lifestyle....I decided to do it for 3-6 weeks to kick start my metabolism that seemed to be sluggish since beginning to work graveyards a year ago...and then I will just continue with an overall healthy way of eating but with much less restriction. So I have just been contemplating the cheat days for the duration of my "diet".

And Lauren, I agree....I'm gonna go for the meal, not the day. A day seems a bit excessive. Yay, subway and blizzard here I come!! ....now the only question is .....what kinda blizzard should I get?

I guess if it works out the first week I'll continue with cheat days once a week. Thanks again for the info :flowerforyou:

sheyna1983

Update: Cheat days are stupid. I had two cheat meals (separated by about 4 days) - and both times I gained a pound and had to work extra hard to get it off. Bleh. I'm thinking I am going to have to lose weight to 5 pounds below my goal weight and then use cheat days occasionally and balance out around my goal weight. But this diet is not going to be easy to come off of without gaining it all back. Going to have to be very careful.... :grumble: