Taking a day off from dieting

lcfairbairn74

I don't have a cheat day, per se, but on Saturdays I allow myself a bit more freedom. I do make sure the calories come in around my target though. I know myself well enough that a cheat day would involve me eating thousands of calories and I would find it difficult to get back on track the next day. But many people successfully have cheat days and swear by them!

I think it really depends on knowing whether it would be possible for you to limit yourself to that one day!

katy_trail

no, much better to be less strict overall, including small amounts of 'treats' you enjoy and making the healthy food you eat really tasty. how often those treats happen would depend on your calorie needs, medical conditions if there are any, your reactions to eating something that's not perfectly on plan, and more. It varies with the individual, and with time, most people can learn to take a more moderate approach to eating healthier. Small peice of what you really want which fits in your calories for the day, while still meeting your macros.

whierd

Why not continue to log your "off days"? Be honest with yourself.

Nicolee_2014

Last week I let myself have a cheat dinner on the Friday which led to me being careless the whole weekend with no tracking. Back to it on the Monday, my weigh in day is on Friday. I lost 2.2lbs. Given it doesn't always happen but I think sometimes you just have to live & for me personally I think if I didn't have my carefree days I'd probably totally go off track. I know it might put me back a week or two getting to my ultimate goal weight but meh! YOLO! :laugh:

onwarddownward

I have not taken a day off from eating right or exercise. I am still forming habits. But, if I want something, I make a plan to have it rationally.

It's all in the planning.

Francl27

I had my first day off in 4 months. And I was probably very close still, I just have no idea how much what I ate was... but it wasn't total overkill at all. Salad, black bean soup, a mini pastry (I just know it was less than 300 calories) and lobster quiche. The quiche is the annoying part but the piece wasn't huge so I estimated at 500 calories. And I did two workouts today (well one walk and one workout).

I think taking a day off is fine, but if you end up eating so much that you're going over by 1000 or something, I don't see how it teaches you good eating habits. I typically just make room in my calories for a small treat.

gracetillman

I think the way you approach the lifestyle change is the first key. If you can "cheat" it implies that you are doing something you consider restrictive or temporary. It is not a commitment and it will be harder to maintain the weight loss long term. (Trust me I speak from experience -- lost 70 pounds and gained it all back PLUS)

I prefer the idea of higher calorie days which are planned as part of your new lifestyle. How often you do it or how high you will allow your calorie intake for the day to do depends on what works for you. For some people high calorie meals are sufficient and they do it twice a week -- others it is a bad day -- and others cannot do it at all without it being a trigger for a long detour from the life path they wish to be on.

So I think it it could work out well for most people, but it also depends on the circumstances.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

I've never done cheat days. I do an 80/20 approach all the time instead (80% nutritious, 20% treats). If I'm going to have a higher calorie day I still log it, especially because I'm down to a very small deficit at this point and I could easily blow a week's worth of work in one day. Some things are worth blowing a week's worth of work over, but if I'm going to go way over like that I at least want to know that it was worth it. I have a tendency to just snack my deficit away if I don't log.

GeekAmour

no, much better to be less strict overall, including small amounts of 'treats' you enjoy and making the healthy food you eat really tasty. how often those treats happen would depend on your calorie needs, medical conditions if there are any, your reactions to eating something that's not perfectly on plan, and more. It varies with the individual, and with time, most people can learn to take a more moderate approach to eating healthier. Small peice of what you really want which fits in your calories for the day, while still meeting your macros.

This. Calling something a "cheat" implies you shouldn't be doing it, that it's wrong or bad; this could mean you get on a train of thought like "I've already been bad so I might as well keep going" or, it means you would normally be overly restrictive in order to binge on your cheat day, which, as someone who was bulimic for too many years I can tell you, is unhealthy behaviour & can lead to a dangerous place.

Instead, don't deprive yourself of what you want, make room for treats in your calories & don't treat this as a diet, just look at it as how you eat now, how a healthy person, how a healthier you, lives every single day.

Good luck.