Massively hungry the day after Cheat Day...

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  • gophertracts
    gophertracts Posts: 7 Member
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    I just discovered that I can't have a cheat day, it becomes a binge day and it takes me a week to repair the damage I have done.
  • RebeccaCutting
    RebeccaCutting Posts: 5
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    Thank you all for your input. I do get what each and everyone of you were saying, even those who are against Cheat Days, and I am glad I am not the only one who experiences this issue. I will as some suggested, either like it or lump it, as the saying goes. Thanks again to everyone.
  • darrensurrey
    darrensurrey Posts: 3,942 Member
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    I have cheat meals but not cheat days. Cheat meals are restricted to maybe 45 minutes and won't take much effort to get back on track. A cheat day starting when you get up and just stuffing your face until you go to bed could result in thousands of extra calories that you will take weeks to burn.
  • p4ulmiller
    p4ulmiller Posts: 588 Member
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    I don't cheat any day. I eat what I want every day, then when I get to my calorie limit, I stop eating.

    I'm not trying to be rude (honestly), but how does this help the original poster? It is great you can go without a cheat day, but we are all different.

    It would hopefully help the OP to understand not to rely on "cheat days" (which are a ridiculous sentiment anyway for reasons already stated) as part of a health regime. Eating a similar amount each day prevents your body spiking insulin, and making your sugar levels excessively fluctuate.

    It might help the OP research what I'm talking about, and stop thinking in the mindset of a "diet", and more of a "lifestyle".
  • paygep
    paygep Posts: 401 Member
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    I feel like it's because we eat more empty calories on cheat days. Then the next day your body's like "GIVE ME SOME REAL FOODZ"
  • pkw58
    pkw58 Posts: 2,038 Member
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    I feel like it's because we eat more empty calories on cheat days. Then the next day your body's like "GIVE ME SOME REAL FOODZ"

    I totally agree. I just say no to cheat days and even if I eat "empty calorie" foods I make sure I stay under my total calories - even if it means using up all my exercise calories.

    Cheat days to me are just not worth it.
  • Seesawboomerang
    Seesawboomerang Posts: 296 Member
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    What are you cheating for? Who are you cheating? Are you breaking some rules? Who made those rules?

    You're in charge, and you've noticed a tendency that eating more makes you want to eat yet more.

    So.... exercise more to compensate, or eat really healthy low-calorie stuff, or just grit your teeth and feel deprived for a bit.

    I'm another that doesn't do cheat days. I believe in balance in all things.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    I'm wondering if anyone else has this issue of being rather hungry the day after having your Cheat Day?

    AND

    What do you do to help curb the day after hunger pangs?

    the hormone leptin controls your hunger cues. When you diet your leptin levels decrease...basically an evolutionary response to protect from the discomforts of famine and general lack of food. When you eat more your leptin levels increase...so when you have a cheat you temporarily increase your leptin levels and therefore are hungrier. Essentially, this is why anorexics and people with other eating disorders can eat so little and claim not to be hungry...they're not...because their leptin levels are in the tank. Conversely, this is why obese individuals can seemingly eat and eat and eat without being full...there leptin levels are high and constantly signaling hunger cues.

    I don't have a cheat day per sei, but I do a refeed every couple of weeks when I'm dieting. It is controlled and deliberate though, not a random cheat to do whatever. I re-feed in order to deliberately spike my leptin levels and make my metabolism crank it out.
  • MzzFaith
    MzzFaith Posts: 337 Member
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    I've always wonder why I felt this way.
  • Nathanmmx
    Nathanmmx Posts: 43 Member
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    I cheat every Saturday or Sunday night, and my weight loss continues unabated. Do the gym monday to friday then just chill over the weekend and enjoy myself. Albeit I do cheat a bit harder now that I have surpassed my original weight loss goal, but am still dropping bit by bit.
    As for feeling more hungry the day after, yes I feel that way too. Perhaps my bodys way of saying give me the real yummy food that you used to eat, but my willpower does not bend simply because I set myself a short term goal to be finished by the 20th December and can see the finish line so can persevere. I suppose it would be a lot harder if it were a change for life.
  • jehavin
    jehavin Posts: 316 Member
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    Cheat days mean different things to different people. A mental cheat day can be INVALUABLE for long term weight loss/maitenance. I have been watching my weight/tracking for almost 2 years on this site and if I didn't have a weekly break from logging, while allowing myself to the chance to splurge on normally restricted (I'm talking a donut, which, at 500 cals, will not fit into my 1500-1800 cal macros on a daily basis, so don't tell me just to "fit it in,") foods, although I do try to have a 200 cal brownie everyday to stave off binges. Works for me, hasn't derailed me as I keep my protein high and get right back on board the next day.

    A monthly "refeed" day is truly a tool in long term weightloss as well. I just had a true refeed after 2 weeks at a deficit and, by keeping my protein high and my carbs high (almost to the point where I was getting a little sick of all the high carb food I ate) I experienced high leptin, which resulted in a "whoosh" the day after (a 1.5lb loss) and then ANOTHER 1.5lbs two days later after a day back at cut calories (I'm at a 500/day deficit right now). If I hadn't chosen to splurge in a strategic way, it would have taken me (and my lowered metabolism) another 2 weeks to get that loss.

    I think that it's important for long-term food trackers/dieters (aka not ones that expect to just "deprive" themselves for 3 months, reach goal and then go back to the way they were) to look at all the science/info/experience of others to help them find what will help them get the best results. For me, cheat days are mentally and physically important, not an exercise in lack of willpower, as those who don't take them feel the need to pop in a "cheat meal thread" and point out. In my opinion, to do so shows a lack in not only tact, but knowledge of how a cheat meal/refeed can be essential in weight loss.
  • tmauck4472
    tmauck4472 Posts: 1,784 Member
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    I don't cheat any day. I eat what I want every day, then when I get to my calorie limit, I stop eating.

    I'm not trying to be rude (honestly), but how does this help the original poster? It is great you can go without a cheat day, but we are all different.

    To the original poster--I also feel like the more I eat, the more I WANT to eat. Last night I was hungry so I had late night sugary weight watchers red velvet snacks. When I woke up at 5am I was starving. Stupidly I ate sugary special k bfast bars and those mademe hungry. I think what might help on the day after is eating protein and fiber (pretty filling) and limit your sugar/carbs until you get into a balance again. Just my two cents.

    Again--I wasn't trying to be rude.

    Honestly it should help the OP and any other person who thinks they have to have a cheat day. If you eat what you want every day then there is never a need to cheat one day and then have this feeling the next day. Make what you want fit into your calorie goal everyday and enjoy it. But to make it fit if you can only have half a burger instead of the whole burger you will train your brain to understand that just because it's in front of you and tastes good you don't have to eat the whole thing. If you choose to eat the whole thing then again make it fit for that day or whatever your over for the day and at times that can be good, but if your wayyyyyy over every day that's not good. I had a chicken sandwich from longhorn the other night and to make it fit I did not eat the bread. But I still enjoyed that piece of chicken with a cheesy sauce over it and did not feel cheated or deprived. I had chocolate last night and it sent me over in calories, oh well, but today I will be fine
  • greenhudler
    greenhudler Posts: 150
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    I can't have a cheat day. Because my cheat day turns into a cheat month.

    If I get used to eating little..I can eat little.

    If I get used to eating a lot...a can't eat little.

    I think you are feeling this.
    This is how I am as well. So instead of a cheat day I let myself have one small indulgence every day -- such as a square of dark chocolate. If I have a cheat day I feel completely starving the next day all day and end up falling down a slippery slope.
  • SusieCuteYay
    SusieCuteYay Posts: 59 Member
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    Since finding out how many calories i eat in the past few days, I cut out lots of sugar in my coffee, but cheated last night by having a steak for dinner,,, been shaking a lot this morning, So i guess it might be a combo of both, high cal yesterday and low sugar today,

    To stop shaking i had to have another snack though. Im still pretty new at this, but i have always been under enormous stress while dieting, i prefer to think of this dieting as a lifetime change in eating habits, but i know its challenging.
  • jehavin
    jehavin Posts: 316 Member
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    Let's get away from all the emotional/shaming/"mindset/lifestyle" comments and get logical. Do the math. Noone who is against cheat days on this thread has provided a reason why it is harmful for a person to be at a calorie deficit 6 days of the week and then reset to maintenance or a little above one day a week. If those extra 500-600 calories once a week keeps a dieter going for another week, or 7 or 10 more months instead of quitting, what is the problem and why do you need to convert them to your way of thinking?
  • tmauck4472
    tmauck4472 Posts: 1,784 Member
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    Patient: Doc, it hurts when I do this.
    Doctor: So don't do that.


    ^^^Seriously this
  • Eleonora91
    Eleonora91 Posts: 688 Member
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    I'm wondering if anyone else has this issue of being rather hungry the day after having your Cheat Day?

    AND

    What do you do to help curb the day after hunger pangs?

    This happens to me either. I think it's psychological - I am scared of overeating, but at the same time, I think about it often. So when I come to the point of overeating "responsibly" (I know I'm having my day off, I've behaved well until then and so on...) I get addicted and want to do it again. I'm hungry without actually needing food. I think that, in this case, it's not real hunger but more like emotional cravings. You know you can't overeat again, so that's exactly what you want to do.

    There are 2 possibilities:
    - during the cheat day you've eaten a lot, but not the right foods, so you're lacking some nutrients and this makes you genuinely hungry
    - it's just psychological, as previously said

    If you find out you might be in the first case, make you sure eat the right amount of EACH nutrients during the next days. If you feel very hungry and you absolutely need to eat more, try to come back to your healthy eating slowly, dropping a couple of hundreds calories a day after the cheat day.
    If you still feel hungry it might be because you're not having enough food throughout your whole weightloss program.

    If it's only because you're getting used to overeat again, give yourself a couple of days. Eat healthy but filling foods, and allow yourself to adjust in time. It might take a bit, but when I cheat for a day and feel hungry the next day, I usually feel so much better when I get back on track because my stomach feels less bloated.
  • tmauck4472
    tmauck4472 Posts: 1,784 Member
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    Let's get away from all the emotional/shaming/"mindset/lifestyle" comments and get logical. Do the math. Noone who is against cheat days on this thread has provided a reason why it is harmful for a person to be at a calorie deficit 6 days of the week and then reset to maintenance or a little above one day a week. If those extra 500-600 calories once a week keeps a dieter going for another week, or 7 or 10 more months instead of quitting, what is the problem and why do you need to convert them to your way of thinking?

    I didn't realize we were trying to prove it was harmful? I don't believe anyone has said it was harmful. Just saying there is no reason to have a cheat day if you eat what you want or crave on a daily basis, but if you want to have a "cheat day" then by all means go for it, but don't complain the next day when you feel like your starving because it always happens to you and it's something you have control over by just not doing the cheat day to begin with. It's really a simple fix and that's what we are saying. If you don't have a cheat day then you don't have the day after starving to death feeling, problem solved. See how easy that is
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    This happens to me either. I think it's psychological

    It's not psychological...it's physical...it's hormones, namely leptin. When you re-feed you spike your leptin levels...increased leptin levels cue your brain that you are hungry. When you restrict calories your leptin levels tank so you don't feel hungry...essentially why an anorexic can consume very little and claim no hunger and a chronic over-eater is never full. It's all hormones and a physical response to that particular hormone (as well as gherin)

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