Psychology and Physiology of Cheat Days

Otis_Toussaint

I just had my first cheat day in almost 2 months. Why did I do it? I felt light headed and somewhat dreary and low energy. Recently I've been on a significant calorie burn where everyday I'd burn more calories than I consumed. I'm very anal about what I eat, how I eat and when I eat. So to reward myself and to gain some sanity, I had my cheat day of Popeyes.

Physiologically, to take myself out of the stressed mode I felt I needed to have this cheat day. My glycogen stores I'm sure were going low, and my daily maintanence was much higher than my actual caloric intake. So, I'm pretty sure, with this rush of energy that I have, I can put it towards something useful: A strong workout tomorrow.

Any thoughts on this topic?

carrie_eggo

I love my cheat days. They keep me sane.

achief192

I try to limit it to a cheat meal instead of a cheat day. Seems to work for me.

Otis_Toussaint

I try to limit it to a cheat meal instead of a cheat day. Seems to work for me.

Yeah, I had a cheat meal....Lord it was phenomenal. Well worth it. Tonight I'll go back healthy. I think I need to indulge in the once a week cheat meal routine.

munchkinhugs

Sorry for the silly (maybe??) question, but are cheat days/meals just ones where you don't keep track of what you're eating?

S

mrsacoulter

You keep track, you just eat what you want... Usually your body craves it because it wants bad fat, carbs, and sugar.

firedragon064

I have 2 free meals a week. I felt more relax on my diet and have a better social life.
in fact in fact I don't feel that I'm on the diet much.
Those 2 days, I actually eat below maintenant calorie.
I hardly binge for a looong time. and actually did lose weight during this holiday season.

Binge: The guilt that I broke my diet cause me to binge. The thought that I can't have that food (chocolate,dorritos) any more cause me to binge/eat more than 1 serving.

On the physical side, it's good to eat high calorie once in a while. The body does not go to starvation mode and
my metabolism would not slow down.

Also it gives me confident that I can keep my weight off once I am not on diet any more.

luvmydog2

When hubby and i have been shopping , we always buy something nice to go home and have a coffee with , such as a cake , slice , or just fruit bread . ...but only buy enough for that coffee break and no more ...Dont feel like its cheating , its a treat once a week for us ...and it helps to keep us on track .
We dont buy fast food ..or dine out much so think we earn a little something .

sleepytexan

How to stay fat while starving:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing