Cheat days

lessismoreohio

Seems everyone has an opinion on this. Personally, I try and not have cheat days. I think it works best for me this way. When I do binge, I record it all. Every last calorie. I want to remind myself why I'm doing MFP in the first place. I want a record of it all. My target is 1780 calories a day, and when I have days where I binge, I go up to about 2500 - 3000 calories.

louisegibbs85

I have a cheat day....a full day of eating whatever I want when I want because I want. It works for me.

mam479

I don't have pre-specified treat days. I try to keep my treats within my limits (like I had a bowl of ice cream yesterday, delicious and still in my macros!) but if I'm at Happy Hour with my friends or out to eat with my family or something like that while I don't binge, I won't deny myself, knowing I'll probably go over. One day isn't going to reverse my progress unless I manage to eat like 20K calories in one day.

Also, and more importantly to me, I know I'm not going to give up burgers or chicken pot pie or ice cream, etc for the rest of my life. I'm just being honest, it's not going to happen for me and if I did try to deny myself my favorite foods, well, it doesn't end well for me personally.

I don't see this as a diet, I'm trying to make a lifestyle change to eat better so I'm incorporating my 'treat' foods into it. Because high calories foods are going to be in my life. At family dinners, parties, weddings, funerals, conferences, etc and I think it's best to incorporate them and know how to handle them rather than freak out when face with those foods and no alternatives.

missabeez

I don't have many. Last weekend I ate all my calories on sushi but was still in a deficit.
Today I have a day of pizza and baked goods so will be about maintenance. Still reaching my weekly goal for this week tho. Gotta have some wiggle room.

kerrywhittaker1991

I don't have pre-specified treat days. I try to keep my treats within my limits (like I had a bowl of ice cream yesterday, delicious and still in my macros!) but if I'm at Happy Hour with my friends or out to eat with my family or something like that while I don't binge, I won't deny myself, knowing I'll probably go over. One day isn't going to reverse my progress unless I manage to eat like 20K calories in one day.

Also, and more importantly to me, I know I'm not going to give up burgers or chicken pot pie or ice cream, etc for the rest of my life. I'm just being honest, it's not going to happen for me and if I did try to deny myself my favorite foods, well, it doesn't end well for me personally.

I don't see this as a diet, I'm trying to make a lifestyle change to eat better so I'm incorporating my 'treat' foods into it. Because high calories foods are going to be in my life. At family dinners, parties, weddings, funerals, conferences, etc and I think it's best to incorporate them and know how to handle them rather than freak out when face with those foods and no alternatives.

I love this!

DrJenO

One of the most liberating things I've ever heard/read came from somewhere on this board (I wish I had bookmarked the topic), where someone wrote that they stopped attaching a moral value to food. It's just food. Neither good, nor bad, just food, fuel for your body.

I have removed the feeling of "guilt" from my food choices, and for the first time in 37 years, I feel free from it all.

So, I eat whatever I want, and log it. I stay below my calories for the week. If I want to eat more, I have to exercise more. If I go over my target for one day, I make sure I have "room" for it on another day. I never eat below my BMR, because it makes me cranky.

The only thing I ever feel "guilty" about anymore is if I don't log my food, and I haven't gone without logging my entire intake in over 2 months.

sodakat

I'm 63. When I was in my 30s I lost 50+ pounds on Weight Watchers. I never "cheated". Eventually I grew lax and started eating "normally". Over time I gained all the weight and then some. At my heaviest I weighed 235, about 10 years ago. I got a bit of a wake up call due to some upper back pains that turned out to be gallstones. I was scheduled for surgery and met with the doctor who would perform the operation the day before it was scheduled. He said, "so you want to have your gall bladder removed, eh?" I said no, but I was told I must. He said not necessarily. I could change my eating habits instead. Cut way back on fatty foods. So, I did. I cut out deep fried foods and things like fatty soups. I mean soups where you cook the meat and add in other stuff, instead of chilling the cooked meat and broth and removing the fat off the top, then adding other stuff. No more creamy soups, etc. I did lose some weight along the way and stopped having gall bladder attacks but didn't lose a lot after the first 10 pounds. I ate other junk that didn't bother my gall bladder, especially lots and lots of carbs.

So, this past fall I learned my blood pressure was too high. That was the wake up call I needed. I decided to change how I eat. This time around I am not going to eliminate every single food. Instead I'm using portion control and making smart choices. I know how to eat, thanks to the old fashioned, pre-points-system Weight Watchers, but I no longer consider any food bad. I do know what I cannot keep in my house because I know what I can not have just 1/4 cup of. That stuff must be eaten somewhere I cannot eat my fill.

It is such a relief to know that I am not putting off eating any particular food until I reach such and such a weight. This is a whole different mind set for me.

Last week I spent most of the day in a hospitality room at a school. I'm a bus driver and took some kids on a day long trip. I new lunch would be provided and I figured I could eat something then log it. When I walked in the hospitality room, where we bus drivers and teachers would hang out for the day while the kids participated in the event, I found boxes of donuts and some beverages. Now the donuts did not call to me because I was not willing to trade that many lousy calories for a quick sweet treat and I had eaten a good breakfast before I left. I didn't take a coke either for the same reason, but I took a bottle of water.

A couple hours later someone arrived with a cheese/meat tray with some crackers. Now that was much harder to resist. Eventually I ate 3 crackers and several pieces of sliced ham and roast beef. It was delicious. I also tried some cheese dip.

I don't know if that cheese dip would be a cheat meal but I just found the closest thing to it in the database and logged it. They served pizza or hot dogs for lunch! Yikes. I chose a hotdog and bun with some chips and logged those. Not at all what I have been eating the past few months but I just did it. I managed to just squeak by on my calories for the day by for the first time using one of those Healthy Choice steamer bowls for supper. I much prefer home cooked foods over those things but it was one of those days.

I kind of rambled here, but my point is, I am so much more relaxed knowing I didn't "blow my diet" by eating things that I hadn't planned on that day.

The exact weighing and measuring and calorie counting of MFP is really helping me.

I also appreciate everyone on the message boards who constantly say drink more water. I have made an effort to do this and it was hard at first but I can tell it is helping my body. My weight loss is quite slow but I think I'm getting in the groove finally and losing about a pound a week which is wonderful.

Thanks to everyone on this forum for all your ideas, support, experience and encouragement.

Oh, I forgot to add something else. On valentines day my husband gave me a small box of my favorite candy: chocolate Bavarian mints. Because I knew I could work this into my daily plan I did not eat them all at once!!! Each one was 55 calories, so I ate one a day for about 3 weeks. It was great. Such a big deal to know that was possible. Yay!

FraggleRockerFitnessLover

I eat what I want, when I want it and log it before. I do not deny myself of anything that I want. I don't do cheat meals, I eat over and log it. Then I can see what I just consumed and educate myself and others, if they want to hear about it. Stay Awesome and have a good Saturday ya'll:bigsmile:

oceanbreeze27

I used to have a cheat day once a week when I just ate what I wanted, logged it, usually felt guilty for a while, then got back on track the next day. Since then, I've cut down on cheat days considerably and swapped days for meals/snacks. Eliminated the guilt and allowed me to see much better results overall. Some days just throw things at you that you can't anticipate; it's a good idea to be flexible and not beat yourself up when life leads you to cheat. In moderation, of course. )