Cheat days

Brisk09

Hello everyone, I am new to weight loss and was wondering if I could diet for 1700 calories (according to MFP) for monday-friday and have cheat days on saturday and sunday. Will those 2 days limit my weight and fat loss?

AnnPT77

If you eat around your calorie goal on weekdays, but above your calorie goal on the weekends, it will slow loss down, for sure. How could it not? If you eat above your maintenance calories on average over the whole week (because of the extra weekend eating), you won't lose weight at all. You might even gain.

IMO, cheat days are an appealing myth, kind of like Santa Claus. Besides that, who or what would you be cheating?

You can budget your calories over the whole week, spending more on the weekend and fewer on weekdays. If you average fewer calories than you burn (in all ways), you'll lose weight.

If "cheat day" to you means just eating different food types (same calories) on the weekends, that shouldn't make any difference to fat loss at all. You might see some extra water retention after the weekend, so a bit of a scale jump, since many treat foods have extra carbs or salt that make the body retain a bit more water until they're fully metabolized. If that's the case, it isn't fat, and IMO isn't worth worrying about.

If "cheat day" to you means not logging your food . . . well, then the only way you'll know the impact is by doing it, and seeing what your scale-weight results are in 4-6 weeks. (It tends to take that long to see a reasonable average, because weight loss isn't linear.) Logging all days gives you more info about what the impact may be.

I've been at this for about a year of loss (obese to healthy weight), and roughly 8 years of maintaining a healthy weight since. When I was first losing, I logged like it was religion. Ditto for the first few months of maintenance. I wanted that data about what was going on. (I'm a data geek, one of those "you can't manage what you don't measure" people.)

Then and now, though, I ate at my calorie goal most of the time, maybe a bit under if I wasn't hungry for some reason, and over goal sometimes for special reasons . . . way, way over on rare occasions. It's what we do most of the time that will deliver most of our results, not the rare day when we eat too much birthday cake or work out for 5 hours. Those rare days are a drop in the ocean; routine daily habits are the ocean.

Two days a week, every week, though? It's easy to eat enough in two days to wipe out the whole rest of the week's calorie deficit. That could be a problem.

Your call about how to distribute your calories through the week, though.

Best wishes!

tomcustombuilder

Brisk09 wrote: »

Hello everyone, I am new to weight loss and was wondering if I could diet for 1700 calories (according to MFP) for monday-friday and have cheat days on saturday and sunday. Will those 2 days limit my weight and fat loss?

count 7 days worth of calories and divide by 7. If this number is your calorie goal for fatloss then you’re ok. If you still don’t lose then your counting and tracking is off or your target is too high.

MargaretYakoda

Who would you be cheating?

I think you might be thinking that you have to be restrictive and thinking that weight loss and dietary management must mean something akin to dreary punishment.

You deserve to include things you enjoy in your diet. But perhaps in smaller portions or in a version that is lower fat or lower calorie.

Weight loss doesn’t have to mean misery. And maintenance needs to be sustainable.
Which probably means a shift in mindset.

rileysowner

It is very easy on those two day to completely undo what was achieved the other five, at least that is my personal experience.

csplatt

I think you'd run a strong risk of eliminating your deficit from the previous five days over the weekend. My "cheat day" tends to be a day at maintenance every now and then, but certainly not weekly.

kngddmbppx

I cheat once a week. But cheating for everyone is different. My cheating is eating ice cream, donut, or cheesecake. Something I really like but don’t want to waste calories on other days. It helps me feel like I’m not deprived all week. And I do go over my calories by at least 1000 but I log it and the app tells me how much I’d weigh in 5 weeks if I kept doing that and that gets me right back on track for the next week. Personally I wouldn’t do it 2 days a week. I have been losing doing that once a week.

tomcustombuilder

You figure weekly calories and divide by 7 to get your average daily amount and that is the number to look at. If your “cheat” keeps that number at your target daily calories then it’s fine. If it puts you over it isn’t fine.

Get away from cheating and include small amounts of those foods in your diet.

kathrynrussell2

I would not recommend cheat "days" but maybe 2 cheat "meals" a week. try it and see what your weight does, then tweak from there.

Hobartlemagne

kathrynrussell2 wrote: »

I would not recommend cheat "days" but maybe 2 cheat "meals" a week. try it and see what your weight does, then tweak from there.

Definitely yes. Cheats should be measured in meals, not days.

ddsb1111

Replace the word cheat with bank. You banked some calories for a day you’d like to enjoy them. Cheat just feels so negative. Besides, you’re not cheating, you have those calories to spare. Just decide how many you get so you don’t go over your weekly goal.

paperpudding

or look at your weekly amount instead of your daily one.

you can set MFP up to do that - and then start your week on Monday and log each day - you will know by the weekend how many you have to spare for weekend extras.