Cheat??

LeighYan91

Do any of you guys have cheat days or meal?

StarlightxUK

Never cheat. There isn't any point in doing that, you are only lying to yourself.

rockerbabyy

yep. i do a cheat day. sometimes i just do a meal, sometimes its an all day thing...just depends on my cravings and how i feel. ive never gained actual weight from it.. the scale will go up one or two pounds but its usually because i had hella sodium and not enough water or potassium. it comes off within a day or two and ive been losing about 2 lbs a week

Jen788134

There's no point.. You don't need to cheat. If you want to go over your cals one day, do it and record your food honestly.. you just need to eat lower the next day. Zig zagging your cals some days is actually recommended. As long as you even out your cals by the end of the week.. allow yourself a treat

4thehardman

I don't have a cheat day either. i do have days where I haven't made very wise food choices and I forgive myself for those but they are not planned days of self destruction and they are much less frequent than one day a week to indulge. I think cheat days are ok in theory but so many of us got here because we ate all that stuff in the first place, why would we do so well for 6 days getting rid of all that stuff out of our system only to put it all back in on the 7th day.

lacroyx

yes. it works for me. It's 2x a month for me. only 1 meal, not the entire day. most of the time I keep it at maintance calories. I enjoy it myself and helps keep the cravings for bad food at bay. helps me on a plateau and I bust my butt the day before and after @ the gym.

shakybabe

yeah.. I don't call them cheat meals though... I'm generally low carb most of month but find I can treat myself the week before my monthlies are due as my metabolism is naturally higher and I find I can get away with it and the extra water will still drop off after.. then I can carry on from where I left off before the bloat went on.

Mostly I crave chocolate so allow it that week only, and may have jacket potato or rice that week when usually I would substitute it with something else.. butternut squash or sweet potato, mashed swede, cauliflower rice etc... I drop very low carb straight after monthlies for few days then have a day I might allow toast or potato with dinner, but still within my calorie allowance, then another few days very low carb (salad, veg and fruit with fish or meat at main meal).

I also do my workouts on the days I allow a carb item so I have 'spare calories' anyway.

I'm finding this is working for me personally and now steadily losing and toning as I go!

aa1440

Never cheat. There isn't any point in doing that, you are only lying to yourself.

I agree. When you have cheat days it just puts you behind that much more. But, when I now I will be having a big meal or a rewarding meal, I get a extra good calorie burn. More calories burned, more food I can eat.

LeighYan91

Sometimes I'll have a meal that has more calories usually 600-700.
Would that count as a cheat?

asyouseefit

I don't have set cheat meals but there are days when I eat more than my cals allowance (usually when I go out with friends). Happens a few times a month.

claire_xox

I don't consider it cheat but I do
for me this is lifestyle change not a diet. And a long with the healthy food I want a healthy social life etc. For my 'cheat' meals/days I try to make sure they are social. I will happily have a burger and chips out with friends, but I wont allow myself to eat like that if it's just me on my own. .... I can easily bypass my rule by simply asking someone to meet me for ice cream if that's what I want lol

Beezil

Saturday is my cheat day, also my rest day from workouts. I use this day to relax and indulge in things I really enjoy. Just because I've changed my lifestyle doesn't mean I can't still enjoy food. Not everything that's yummy is good for you! lol. But, I do try to make sure my cheat meals are as reasonable as possible. Sometimes I can't avoid over doing it, but once a week isn't going to hurt. I mean it hasn't so far, and I've been at this for months. I don't think there's anything wrong with indulging in moderation - if you deny yourself everything you ever loved when you were overweight, eventually you're just going to give in and slip back into old patterns. Indulging with moderation once a week is better than going on an uncontrollable binge.

flimflamfloz

You can budget these 600-700 cals meal in your day... E.g. run more on that day, or perhaps eat more vegetables before dinner so that you have more to spare for the evening (assuming the 600 cals meal is dinner).

Don't make your weight loss a nightmare either: if you want to have a cheat day, it's fine. Just don't be stupid about it, it's all about moderation.
Remember that you are changing your lifestyle FOR LIFE, so it's fine to eat "bad food" sometimes.

Beezil

I don't consider it cheat but I do
for me this is lifestyle change not a diet. And a long with the healthy food I want a healthy social life etc. For my 'cheat' meals/days I try to make sure they are social. I will happily have a burger and chips out with friends, but I wont allow myself to eat like that if it's just me on my own. .... I can easily bypass my rule by simply asking someone to meet me for ice cream if that's what I want lol

This I love.

jilleebean777

I don't necessarily cheat, I don't deprive myself though. If I want chocolate,cake, etc. I will have it, but in moderation. Any thing that I eat I track, NO MATTER WHAT!! If I want something I have it, again in moderation, so that I don't ever feel the need to OVER-indulge on anything. I find that when I tell myself, "you can't have that", it's like my mind and my body want it MORE.

gailashton

What I've learned is that it's not a diet, it's a lifestyle change. I thought having a bunch of crap in the house for my husband and not eatng it was control. My trainer told me control is when you can have a little of something and can stop there. He was right. If you restrict you will want, it's what has always made me resort back to overeating and gaining all the weight back, over 100 pounds 3 times. My problem is not so much what I eat, it's how much I eat. So I try to have a little of something and not overeat. We are all human. It's like an alcoholic, don't let 1 day of oops turn into a lifetime. I hope this helps.

ChristineOdriscoll

I cheat myself into thinking that I'm eating more than I am by having a slim-a-soup in a soup bowel rather than a mug.

Keeping busy so you skip dinner is a way of tricking my body into thinking its not hungry. plus if you go to bed on an empty stomach it shrinks durring the night so it takes less to fill you the next day.

Drink vodka and soda when you go out.

Hovis nimble is the best low cal/fat bread.

Fill in your food diary before you start eating rather than after that way your less likely to regret the things you have eaten.

And finally if you do go over one day, don't punish yourself for it, just start again the next day, for the weight to stay off you have to be patient with yourself.

nsimportant

Nah I call them weekends and after a nice gym workout I order a Deep Dish Double decker pizza and eat it with 2 slices of cake .
I wouldn't dream doing that when I was on my weight loss phase then it was only clean, clean and some more clean .

whisperingdragon

Yes. I certainly do.

Clare_429

I don't think of it as cheating - if I want a take away, I'll have one as long as it's been a while and I've been "good" recently. If I deprive myself of stuff I'll be more likely to fall off the wagon.

My downfall in the past was having a take away one night and then thinking the next day that I'd "ruined it" and falling off the wagon completely. Just have to get back in the mindset that I don't need to loose a certain amount by a certain time so if that take away took me a week further away from my target, then so be it. If I stop watching what I eat now I'll never get to the target!

Ccpena5

I completely agree. And the whole reason why I have kept MFP. I never dieted, they are all irrational. But this works. Work it in ur calorie allowance. Thankfully I have not gained weight since I started MFP (Aug 22, 11). :-)

fatty2fabby

i dont have a cheat day but i doo have a 300 free calorie day - anything i want that's 300 calories .

nifnif

all day every day.
lol just kidding. i just generally don't crave "unhealthy" foods all that much. and if i do really strongly, i just eat it, because that's the only way the cravings will go away. then i listen to my body. if it's a really unhealthy food, generally i'll feel crappy after. then due to my experience, i will naturally crave it less.
it probably helps that i don't have unhealthy food in my house most of the time.

mandylooo

Cheating would be liposuction? Not for me thanks.

sqtolliver

I don't necessarily cheat, I don't deprive myself though. If I want chocolate,cake, etc. I will have it, but in moderation. Any thing that I eat I track, NO MATTER WHAT!! If I want something I have it, again in moderation, so that I don't ever feel the need to OVER-indulge on anything. I find that when I tell myself, "you can't have that", it's like my mind and my body want it MORE.

This ^. There is no need to "cheat" if you have some of what you like in moderation.

Beingaloser

I guess I see eating at home as "cheating". I mean, my mom cooks really good food! I'll have more rice or spaghetti if I am at home. I don't reaaally consider it cheating. She uses only olive oil, fresh vegetables and lean meats. I just eat more around the house, I suppose.