Letting yourself cheat (how much)

babyblake11

i dont believe in cheat days or 'everything in moderation'
my problem with cheat days is, if you can eat healthy the rest of the week why do you need to do this for one day? it should be a lifestyle change, not a half assed diet.
my problem with 'everything in moderation' is that bad foods dont fill you up, you get a small portion for a large amount of calories, therefore you are depriving yourself of both energy and nutrition which is bad for your body.

babyblake11

I don't cheat. I find healthy alternatives and have them instead. Like instead of having an Indian takeout last night we made Chicken Tikka Kebabs for under 400cals including basmati rice and salad. & They were sooo tasty.

If it came to eating out I would plan ahead. I would make sure I ate within my calorie goal and probably do a workout during the day.

I'm very strict, to me I'd rather do it properly or not at all.

i agree. healthy alternatives. you dont need the crap when you have the delicious healthy things.

Chunkabutt83

i cant have a cheat day, then its too hard for me to get back on track

ladysandy

I kind of have a plan that works for me. I have one cheat DAY a week. It's usually Saturday where I eat whatever I want. This way I satisfy my cravings. If I REALLY want something say, on a Wednesday, I'll say "You can have it on Saturday" and forgo it until then. That way, I stay on track and am able to talk myself out of my cravings. Doing this I have still had great success on the scale! I think it almost jump starts my metabolism after being super careful all week suddenly it's like "Hey, where'd all this food come from?" lol

I agree, this is exactly what I do also... it kinda gives change to your body and your body says what the heck is going on ... LOL

shauna121211

I think it's important to give yourself a bit of freedom every now and then! Obviously eating like that is not normal for you and you work so hard every other day counting calories and working out, so have fun and try not to worry about all the calories you're consuming! If you're not making a habit of it, just enjoy it when you can!

I just had a weekend away with my boyfriend to celebrate our 6 months and obviously there was a fair bit of calorie consuming going out to nice restaurants and drinking plenty of fancy drinks. If you're anything like me, I think you'll find that you just wont be able to eat as much as you might have before this diet! I find that I'm a huge lightweight now, getting drunk on two glasses of wine when before I could easily drink a bottle and by barely tipsy! I also didn't have room in my stomach to eat even half of my meal... my boyfriend had a lot to eat this weekend! Anyways, my point is, I did feel a bit guilty at first because I haven't been on this diet for very long, but I also think that if I expect myself to keep this diet up, I need to be able to enjoy the same things I did before, in moderation.

I find this diet to be very similar to weight watchers... instead of counting points, we're counting calories, fat and other factors. But hey, that's exactly what weight watchers is! Those points relate directly from calories, carbs, fat & fiber. You gain more points when you work out just like you gain more calories when you work out with mfp. One of the things that gives a little freedom for weight watchers is the flex points... you get an extra 25 flexible points a week that you can choose to use or not. So that's about 1250 empty calories extra a week. When I did weight watchers, I always just saved those for the weekend when I was more likely to go over my weekly allowance. Anyways, I think that little bit of freedom is enough to keep you motivated. Enjoy your nights out ladies and gents, just don't have them all the time!!

fas815

I just had a cheat day because it was my bday wknd. U only turn 50 once. It was back to moderation today. I think a cheat day every once in a while is fine....then back to the journey. Every days journey begins with the first step!!