Help me settle something.

WarmDontBurn

My friend and I are having a debate.

She thinks you can binge/cheat all weekend and as long as you go hard and strong all week you can still lose.

I think it is still important to stay on track and a cheat day here and there is fine but if you eat too much on the weekend it may cancel out your weekly progress. I guess depending how horrible you cheat/binge weekend is.

So do I win

LuckyLeprechaun

overall, it's an ongoing measurement of incoming calories vs. usage. if you binge/cheat crazily over the weekend, you're going to have to work very hard during the week to overcome that. if your definition of a cheat/binge is having toast with your egg white omelet, then YA you can work that off easily. So the very specific answer is : depends.

Annersbike

I think you are correct. When you start out to lose weight it isn't just for bikini season or an event, its to make a lifestyle change. You don't want to diet your entire life so a cheat day or meal every so often is okay, but not an entire weekend.

JulieBoBoo

Bingeing is a very unhealthy thing to do to your body. In the long run I'm far more concerned with my health than the number on the scale.

luv2ash

no! everyone needs to make this a long-term life time committment. She will get nowhere fast with that kind of attitude. She truly does DIET during the week and binge on the weekend. She needs to come up with a livable plan that is not cosidered a diet but merely a way of life.

oldperson

You win. I have had this discussion with my personal trainer & physician. They both told me the same thing. You must watch your calories & exercise regularly. I asked them what about the days I don't exercise, & they said I could cut back on my calories very slightly, because this is actually when the body is working the hardest to recover from the workouts. I personally workout 5 days a week, combining cardio for 2 days & strength training & cardio the other 3 days. I was at a stand still my last weigh in, so my Dr & personal trainer said I was under calories. So whatever your friend is telling you is incorrect. Stick to your personal plan & don't let anyone stray you from this. I am 56 yrs old & have struggled with my weight my entire life, so this website & people like yourself are an inspiration to me & my weight lose goals. Good luck to you & stick to the program. Oldperson

chadjensen

There are many authorities which claim that high calorie days are important to weight loss. It supposedly keeps the body guessing just like the idea of muscle confusion in P90x. I have also heard that the biggest loser contestants have one high calorie day in their week. Now, high is a relative idea. A person may eat a few hundred more calories and call that a high day, while another may believe that they can "binge" and take in 1000 more calories. I would lean more towards a couple hundred more calories as my high day. It will still keep the body from getting into a pattern and keep it guessing while it is still a manageable amount of calories to burn off.

WarmDontBurn

Ok just to clarify this isn't a weekly thing. We are both doing calorie counting and have both been successful. I have lost almost 30lbs and her just over 45lbs. Just in talking today she said she has found this weekend to be a hard on ( she has had some extra stress so maybe that is why) and really wants to snack. I said she should really watch that it doesn't get out of hand and that is when she said if she has a bad 2 days it won't matter because she will go hard and fast all week and will still see a loss. Well she can do what she wants I guess but I didn't see how she can lose with all the extra calories cosumed over 2 days.

BigBoneSista

Ok just to clarify this isn't a weekly thing. We are both doing calorie counting and have both been successful. I have lost almost 30lbs and her just over 45lbs. Just in talking today she said she has found this weekend to be a hard on ( she has had some extra stress so maybe that is why) and really wants to snack. I said she should really watch that it doesn't get out of hand and that is when she said if she has a bad 2 days it won't matter because she will go hard and fast all week and will still see a loss. Well she can do what she wants I guess but I didn't see how she can lose with all the extra calories cosumed over 2 days.

Thats a slippery slope she is treading. This is a lifestyle change meaning she is going to have to learn how to deal with bad situations and not revert back to old habits because of them. Now if you would have said oh she just feels like pizza this weekend then I would have wavered just a little, but emotional eating is a definite no, no. Food is not a band-aid for problems.

WarmDontBurn

Hey it may not be stress at all but that was just what I thought of because we have both been doing great. Maybe she does just want it because she is craving it, I don't really want to pry too much as her reasons are that, hers.

I am just trying to win the debate as to whether she will still lose after a cheat weekend

jrbb0309

I've read in several articles by nutrition and weight-loss experts that you will seriously screw up your metabolism in the long-run if you pull the binge all weekend-diet all week thing. There's nothing wrong with having an evening snack (we're talking a 100-200 calories more) on a Saturday night or having one meal out on a Friday where you've eaten reasonably all day and worked out and you have a "treat" but if you truly *binge* all weekend, then your body's not going to know whether it's coming or going and in the long run, it will catch up with her.

westcoastSW

Who is losing more weight and becoming healthier?

jkestens63

Ultimately everyone has to do what works for them. I have a free day on Fridays. I commit to a good breakfast, an extra hard workout and then I don't worry about it. Over time I've found that my free days aren't as wild as they used to be. My stomach has shrunk so I don't eat nearly as much. There's certain foods I can't tolerate anymore - like anything deep fried, pasta kills me, and I have watch sugar cause that can me queasy. So my free day might be a good breakfast, usually bring the same healthy after workout snack that I do during the rest of the week, I'll have a deli sandwich of some type that I wont eat usually like roast beef with MAYO on a croissant with butter pretzels. Dinner will might be a slice of pepperoni, and I'll have reeses peanut butter cups later in the evening for snack. So I'm not necessarily binging but I don't eat any of that on the other days.

I think if I binged all weekend I would be sick as a dog and I would struggle even more to lose the weight, and trust me the last 10 lbs is not giving up easily. Actually I had increased my exercise in effort to get it off, but not eating what I burned so was not eating enough and hit a huge plateau.

Consistency, and overall good diet are the key.