Cheating one day out of a two week period

achaiadust

I'm always keeping an eye on my calories. Always - And I make sure what calories I put in my body are at -least 80% beneficial. I.E. staying away from sodas, trans fats, fried foods, ect. ect.

But when I get paid, I want to have fun. So I go out to eat - I'll eat chicken tenders, sweet tea and fries, or maybe a big ol' plate of shrimp pasta with Alfredo. Whatever my choice, I wanted to know this:

Is it okay? This isn't a consistent basis. I keep up with my workouts, my jogging and swimming, my work is straining enough physically as well. And I keep my quinoa, avavado and complex carbs in my kitchen. But I like to have fun once in a while, like I said. So is going over my calorie limit a bad thing like this? Or am I going to gain a bajillion pounds over the course of a few months.

Thanks for the tips in advanced.

Branstin

There isn't anything wrong with a splurge once in a while. I recommend still logging because if it becomes problematic as in preventing weight loss then you will know what to do about it.

zchastain

I think it's OK to have a meal (but probably not an entire day or weekend) like that on occasion. But I'd still recommend logging the food, just to keep youself honest with what you're doing.

You may find the amount of calories you're consuming just isn't worth it. Or you modify your big splurge to something a little more friendly to the big picture (which is what happened in my case).

elisa123gal

Hey, you're the one who has lost 25 pounds already. what you're doing seems to be working. why change?

zchastain

Hey, you're the one who has lost 25 pounds already. what you're doing seems to be working. why change?

Solid point!

gothchiq

Depends on your metabolism. If I did this, I would never lose an ounce, but I'm middle aged and hypothyroid. If you can get away with it, do it I say! lol

Mr_Knight

Depends on how big the splurge is, and how small the deficit is the rest of the time. If you're asking if one day of indulgence can wipe out two weeks of deficits - yes, it can.

The only way to know for sure is to log the indulgence days like any other day, and see where the numbers end up.

Sporin71

When I first started my diet the weekly Cheat Day was something I really enjoyed and looked forward to. I feel like it kept me sane as I weened myself off all the bad food that I loved. As time went on I splurged less and less as I felt like I spent half the next week getting back to where I started.

Nowadays, it's an occasional Cheat MEAL or other, contained, splurge—which I always track. I tend to couple that with a day of extravagant exercise (and therefore calories earned back) so that, ultimately, I'm square in my FitPal diary.

That lead into another change I've made in the last month, which is to get off the weekly cycle completely. I made a separate post about that here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1390977-the-non-regular-weigh-in-day

martinel2099

I'm always keeping an eye on my calories. Always - And I make sure what calories I put in my body are at -least 80% beneficial. I.E. staying away from sodas, trans fats, fried foods, ect. ect.

But when I get paid, I want to have fun. So I go out to eat - I'll eat chicken tenders, sweet tea and fries, or maybe a big ol' plate of shrimp pasta with Alfredo. Whatever my choice, I wanted to know this:

Is it okay? This isn't a consistent basis. I keep up with my workouts, my jogging and swimming, my work is straining enough physically as well. And I keep my quinoa, avavado and complex carbs in my kitchen. But I like to have fun once in a while, like I said. So is going over my calorie limit a bad thing like this? Or am I going to gain a bajillion pounds over the course of a few months.

Thanks for the tips in advanced.

There's nothing wrong with having a little fun once in a while, one day once in a while is not going to break your diet, if anything it will help keep you going.

But here's the thing, if you give yourself a weekly or bi weekly cheat meal where you don't record you could be undermining all of your results throughout the week. Try practicing more of a weekly calorie goal rather than just daily. For example, let's say you work out 3 days a week and typically burn 600 calories per workout. Why not save half of those calories for a day on the weekend? 300 calories per workout saved with 3 workouts is 900 calories. If your goal is 1,400 calories you could spend 2,300 on a night out, not bad huh?

vismal

Cheat days aren't magical and the calories consumed on a cheat day simply change your weekly (or bi-weekly) average intake. For instance, if you eat 1500 calories a day for 13 days and on your cheat day you consume 5000, its no different then eating 1750 each day. In that scenario, the cheat day is costing you 1 lb in fat loss every 2 weeks. If you don't go all out and say your cheat day is only 2500 calories, then its equivalent to eating 1571 calories a day. In that case the cheat day isn't nearly as damaging. So the answer to your question really lies in how bad your cheat day is.

achaiadust

Cheat days aren't magical and the calories consumed on a cheat day simply change your weekly (or bi-weekly) average intake. For instance, if you eat 1500 calories a day for 13 days and on your cheat day you consume 5000, its no different then eating 1750 each day. In that scenario, the cheat day is costing you 1 lb in fat loss every 2 weeks. If you don't go all out and say your cheat day is only 2500 calories, then its equivalent to eating 1571 calories a day. In that case the cheat day isn't nearly as damaging. So the answer to your question really lies in how bad your cheat day is.

That makes a lot of sense. My cheat day, is more like a meal though. When I get paid, I go out and buy something fun to eat. And it ends there. I go back to my quinoa and avacado for dinner. However, I was getting worried. I didn't know I could count my calories by week instead of day. Because I've been about 800 calories under every day for the past four days. (I swear to god, I'm not doing it on purpose, I know it's not good for me) so I was wondering if I should eat more or what.. I don't eat much to begin with. I can't, I stop eating when I'm full and I get full very quickly. I bought chicken tenders today with fries and a sweet tea, for example. I've been working on the damn things for almost six hours. I gave my fries to my room mate because I just don't want them anymore, and my sweet tea I'm working on still. -.o So.. I just wanted to know if what I was doing naturally was bad and if I needed further adjustment. It sounds like I'll be fine from what everyones telling me. And don't worry guys, I'll log everything. I never miss a day. Except that one day I had a fever. I didn't eat anything. >.>;

achaiadust

Thank you everyone. You put things into perspective, and gave me new information. And don't worry, I always log everything. I hold myself very accountable. But just so I feel better, I do take a nice little jog or 45 minutes in the pool. I just wondered if what I did naturally was really horrible. I'm all for adjusting myself and acclimating to what I should be doing. ^_^ Because of these little cheat meals I have every two weeks, I haven't binged or even have been tempted to do so. And my diet that's naturally been changing the way I eat has left me eating less and less of anything at all. (Which isn't good, sometimes I'm way under my caloric budget and I have to eat something just to keep up).

So thank you thank you thank you! ^_^ Awesome advice. I'll take it all.