Beating a dead horse about Cheat Days and Logging

Chevy_Quest

There are a whole lot of posts about cheat days and logging. First I realize that even if you ate exactly where the green ended and the red bar of death started MFP builds in a deficit based on your settings. Look under goals and you will see a daily calorie deficit. I did not put "two and two" together until I read a lot of posts.

I have finally knuckled down and I log everything even on my worst days. This is the only way I am going to learn. I used to be a "serial sweep it under the carpet and start again for the 247th time" kind of guy --- no more!

The other lesson I just learned was about fooling myself with green vs. red days. September I did well and lost a little over 2 lbs. I had 25 green days and five red days. (I am trying to lose 1-2 lbs per month).

This month I got a little "sloppy" and I had a "wake up call" As of this weekend i had 5 red days already and knew I had dug a hole. A hole to the tune of -2994 calories. I probably will gain a little bit this month.

I was telling myself I am going to be about 24 Green 6 Red - that is great. But here is the hook...
1. I am making sure that my Net cals do not go underneath my BMR so I am trying to Net 100-400 Green every day.
2. I threw caution to the wind on my "few" red days and totally, I mean totally erased my gains.
3. That means I cannot make up for the red with the green - there are not enough days in the month.

Here is an example of what can happen - It opened my eyes!

---

We see all these posts written (in all caps) "Why can't I lose weight... I am working out and burning 800 calories per day and I am always eating at green"

Veterans reply to the post and say: "Perhaps you are not accurately logging everything... or maybe you are overestimating calorie burns.. and... just asking... "By the way... I noticed that you did not log a few days here and there?"

Usually these threads get ugly with people being called "mean" because they are questioning the "honesty" of the OP.

Many of us here log everything because we are trying to understand what causes us to "get off track" and how to make a permanent lifestyle change.

Just some thoughts --- good luck everyone!

TX_Rhon

Great perspective as always!

I've slacked with you this month as well so this fits me as well. Is there a calorie burn category for your chart graphs and admin duties for our challenges?? If so, you'd qualify :flowerforyou:

Chevy_Quest

@rhon116037 - Thanks for that! It has been an "interesting" month for sure. I thought about doing burn.. but the logistics would get wild after a while. I actually got/stole the spreadsheet idea from Brainy_Burro and Cindyinpg who are great at it. (had to give my props )

Great perspective as always!

I've slacked with you this month as well so this fits me as well. Is there a calorie burn category for your chart graphs and admin duties for our challenges?? If so, you'd qualify :flowerforyou:

Sabine_Stroehm

Great post.... it often seems like "snacks" are our downfall. We each have to develop strategies for those. That's an ongoing challenge.

MaryMBacon

Did you make that chart yourself or is that a feature MFP offers that I haven't found yet?

Chevy_Quest

@sabine - you are absolutely right. It is so easy to undo a lot of hard work!

Great post.... it often seems like "snacks" are our downfall. We each have to develop strategies for those. That's an ongoing challenge.

Chevy_Quest

@MaryMBacon - I just threw the chart together myself :::hits palm on head dramically::: - that would seriously be a great feature for MFP to have.

It took me a long time not to just "blow off" days I wasn't green and really look at what I had done. I can eat "anything" I just have to watch the portions.

Cheers ! :drinker:

Did you make that chart yourself or is that a feature MFP offers that I haven't found yet?

cafeaulait7

I love the colors and visual impact of your chart! I do that for workout days and on-calorie or over days (but the chunks of calories you have show more). My week is supposed to appear the right colors, and it's so easy to see when that's not happening

gigglesinthesun

I love it, in fact charts make me all giggly. This is why it becomes harder to lose weight as you are getting closer to your goal weight. As your deficit shrinks there is less room for error.

If you choose a 2lbs weight loss per week, you have a deficit of a 1000 cals per day. If you eat slightly over on 3 days and only get a 800 cal deficit, you still have a weekly deficit of 6400 cals. Even if you have an extra 2000 calories one day, you will still lose weight Now I currently only have a 300 calorie daily deficit or a 2100 a week, so it won't take a lot to wipe this out completely :-)

julialdr

Thanks for sharing, I hadn't thought to look at it that way.. I figured I couldn't be THAT far off! Turns out a few cheat days means I'm 7500 over for the month (1400 over TDEE) ! No wonder I gained weight!! GEEZ!!

I'll def be using this going forward.

Llamapants86

That's a great visual, thanks for sharing!

1longroad

I really wish I could look further out, but my pea brain expects me to do this one day at a time, lol. Love the chart Chevy and that's why I have to make things right on a daily basis for myself!!! I don't understand the concept of 'cheat' days or meals, as my body is pretty non forgiving. lol.

Francl27

Great chart.

Chevy_Quest

@cafeaulait - That is a great benefit that I had not though of

- <<cafeaulait wrote: My week is supposed to appear the right colors, and it's so easy to see when that's not happening

@gigglesinthes - That made me laugh! You just opened my eyes to another point. As you get closer to your goal the "tolerances" are tighter - thanks for brining that up

<<gigglesinthes wrote>> I love it, in fact charts make me all giggly. This is why it becomes harder to lose weight as you are getting closer to your goal weight. As your deficit shrinks there is less room for error.

@juliadr - I glad it helped. :- ;-) .. I knew that I needed to put a bright light on what I had been doing - being reading posts by a lot of veterans lately. If I had used this at the start of this month I would not have gained either LOL.

@llamapants86 - Thanks - That is one of the coolest user names here on MFP!

@SunnieRN3 - Thanks for the support on this. I had some good feedback from some people here and it really woke me up to this.. I am still learning. Always great to see you here and back in the game! :-)

@Franci27 - thanks - It just "came to me in about 10 minutes" - (I guess it has been weighing on my mind LOL)

Hildy_J

Great post! Logging the cheat days is HARD - you don't want to be judged and it would be so easy to not log it. Gotta be done, though.

I'm so lucky with my FL I've never had one negative comment from my friends on here, no matter how many Snickers I've had or how many thousands of cals I've gone over - bless them. Some of them write 'great logging!'. :bigsmile:

Chevy_Quest

@hildy - That Judging thing is right on LOL. I keep my diary open and I get judged about some really "nit picky" stuff sometimes.. but I am learning to get over it. I take all feedback in and learn a few things in my thick skull. :drinker:

Great post! Logging the cheat days is HARD - you don't want to be judged and it would be so easy to not log it. Gotta be done, though.

I'm so lucky with my FL I've never had one negative comment from my friends on here, no matter how many Snickers I've had or how many thousands of cals I've gone over - bless them. Some of them write 'great logging!'. :bigsmile: