do you log your cheat days/meals?

JustJennie1

I most certainly do. Sometimes the shock factor alone will help me to not over indulge as much the next time.

born2bfat

waaahhh what exactly is considered cheating? doe sit mean eating more than 1200 (the calories I'm allowed to eat in a day)? or like eating like unhealthy food even though I stay w/n 1200? or is it like eating more than 1200 but I have leftover calories I cna take due to exercise? I'm just confused since I'm a newbie. I don't really know things about losing weight such as what can I eat? How much should I eat (allowed to eat)?

ais048

So do you guys log every beer/wine you have at weekends??

samida

My issue is I wouldn't begin to even KNOW how to log a bad day. If I actually took the time to weigh and measure and think about what I'm eating then I probably wouldn't be doing it. A planned "cheat" is something different I suppose. I'm just talking about a day that turned out to be an emotional-eating day where anything and everything is like it's going by on a conveyor belt and you grab without thinking.

jojule

Yes I log everything I eat. There is no "cheating" it is what we put in our mouths that made us the way we are so if we dont log it we are only cheating ourselves.:glasses:

omma_to_3

If it was an unplanned overindulgence, yes. If it was a planned free day or free meal, then no. Seeing my planned cheats in black and white do nothing but provide guilt for me. I have been able to continue losing weight for an entire year by taking cheat days. So, feeling guilty about them is just silly!

leslisa

Yes, because on one cheat day a week (Sat or Sun depending on what I'm doing, where I'm at, etc.) I allow myself to eat up to 600 more calories than non-cheat day and still loose 1 pound a week. It's built into my equation already.

jojule

and I have had those emotional eating days too but I still log them and then try to adjust somewhere else...or I just dont get on the scale for a day or so...but I still log them

RipperSB

So do you guys log every beer/wine you have at weekends??

I would, if I drank beer/wine... but I do log every Strongbow when I have it with dinner! It's only cheating if you DON'T log it.

JoolieW68

So do you guys log every beer/wine you have at weekends??

Yes. Why wouldn't I? Just because I don't log it doesn't mean it didn't happen.

acg1305

Its hard when you eat out, say a sandwich or whatever. How do you know exactly what goes into it

mixtaplix

I try to log everything. I want to keep track, so that I know when I'm successful or when I've splurged too much. It makes me feel good when I see success on the scale, or, It makes me work harder at my exercise if I've gone over my allowances. Keeps me at a balance, and guilts me into not inhaling the ENTIRE bag of cookies....lol

JoolieW68

Its hard when you eat out, say a sandwich or whatever. How do you know exactly what goes into it

Make your best educated guess. I at least log something so if the scale goes up I can go thru my log and go "oh yeah, I ate that monster hoagie roll with fried twinkies and chocolate sauce with French fries" and realize it might have been more calories than I guessed.

vltaylor35

i log every single calorie. i have tried not logging cheats before, but it only encouraged me to cheat more and before i knew it i had regained quite alot of weight

LexieeLovee

I definitely log in my 'cheat days' once a week Saturdays mostly. I like to be honest with myself and MFP tracker. And i also like to see the effects it has in my '5week' results.. It's not bad to have a cheat day.. I'm not sure why people r complaining about calling a 'cheat day' it's just a phrase. haha

But YES I do track my CHEAT DAYS!
And i don't feel about it at all

savedchild8

Honestly...so far I'm not cheating.....

Plan my meals ahead, and try to stick as close to them as possible.

So far..so good.

But if I did, yes I would log mine

acg1305

Its hard when you eat out, say a sandwich or whatever. How do you know exactly what goes into it

Make your best educated guess. I at least log something so if the scale goes up I can go thru my log and go "oh yeah, I ate that monster hoagie roll with fried twinkies and chocolate sauce with French fries" and realize it might have been more calories than I guessed.

Yeah thats exactly what I try to do, and go with the most calorie filled option I can find

glengiles

then there could be some people that honestly can't recall every beer they had over a weekend.....

Ttrishaa

I log everything... Once in a while I wince before hitting that submit button, but I still do it. Hahah. Even when I know I've had a bad day, I still want to be able to see just how bad it was and maybe next time I will remember logging that candy I ate when I wasn't really hungry.

acg1305

The scales doesnt lie, so neither should your diary ;-)

amymeenieminymo

Nope....that's my point of a cheat meal/day, to get away from the daily grind of logging food and having so much of my thoughts consumed by food/how much to eat/how to log etc. I don't always eat bad stuff on a cheat day, I just want a break from thinking about my meals so much.

Agree!! I need one day off from thinking about every little morsel that goes into my mouth. I am not nor ever been a binge eater, so I do not worry that I might over eat or fall off of the wagon.

I "cheat" or do not log on Fridays. It is nice because if I had a craving all week, I eat it on Friday. We are taking the kids to the movies tomorrow night, I will eat the pop corn and not try to figure how much I ate and what the calorie/carbs were. Just saw that Sonic has a new blast...oh yes, having it tomorrow too!! Hubby and I look forward to Fridays! We will even talk about what we will have for dinner! haha!

I have lost all of my weight while having one "free" day or "cheat" day per week. I do not think that I am lying to myself or cheating myself...I am just taking one day off per week.

Yep same here, we eat out on Friday's since I refuse to cook on this day, and I want to enjoy it. Logging it wouldn't "teach me a lesson", it would just make me feel guilty and take the enjoyment out of my free day. If I get too bogged down I am more likley to quit altogether for an extended period of time. Taking a free day helps keep me going the rest of the week. The weekends are hit and miss....if I am eating stuff that is easy to log I will log it, but say we go to my inlaws for dinner, I am not going to sit at the table and write down guestimations of how much corn I had, how much steak, etc. Though as I lose more I will have to reign myself in on weekends more. Since this is the second time through for me, I know that when I am still at my top weight like right now, I can bend on the weekends more, but the skinnier I get, the stricter I have to get on the weekends or I won't lose. I figure I might as well enjoy it now while I can.

Today is my birthday so I am eating healthy and I worked out, hubby is grilling chicken kabobs tonight with green beans But tomorrow, we're going out for Chinese and getting a cupcake from Nom Noms and I won't even think about logging any of it.

JamesThiel

Absolutely, I remain accountable

ojell

i dont on the weekends.

same here.

ojell

then there could be some people that honestly can't recall every beer they had over a weekend.....

haha you know that's right! *raising my hand!* lol

Mellie13

I do, except on Sundays and that's mostly to give my brain a break. I don't really eat differently, even though I say it's a "fee day".

rockinsue285

I do even my big mac yesterday if I didnt I would feel im just lying to myself, it gives a good indication on what you can eat without putting on weight

tunktunk5583

I don't refer to it as "cheating" - it's more like I'm just living and enjoying myself.
Also, I do not log what I eat during the weekends. I eat what I want and when I want on those days. It's my reward for working my butt off.

PaveGurl

I [try to] log everything, and keep a spreadsheet of weekly averages. I find often something I was kinda dreading entering isn't as bad as I thought, and something I thought was going to be OK was a killer on my counts.

I eat what I want, for the most part, and logging my "splurges" lets me have an idea of what I'm committing to, so I can make adjustments the rest of the week or to my workout or what have you. If I want fried chicken, then I'll have fried chicken - and maybe a smaller piece of meat and more fiber/ veg the next day instead. I've noticed that by doing this (and looking at my weekly tracking spreadsheet), I see a downward trend in my overall intake, because it keeps me conscious. Some people do well with daily, some need days off: whatever works for you!

k80mac

I log everything, even when I fall off the wagon and have a day of insanity that includes too much beer, brownies and bread (my stress foods) LOL

amysuespears

I go back and forth on this. Sometimes when I do log a free day, I'm surprised that it's not that bad. Other times it's so off the charts that I just figure it's ridiculous. You know, like you go to a party, and there's chips and dips and you had like 40 beers, and salami and crackers and cheese and beans and coleslaw and potato salad and a hotdog and a cheese burger. That kind of thing, it's like, forget it. Tomorrows a new day.

I do the same. I didn't log last weekend because Sunday was my birthday.... enough said it was too hard to keep track of everything. but.... i log all my days (free day or not), unless it's craziness like this past weekend! logging everything helps me to make sure i'm eating enough protein and other nutrients i need, plus it keeps me accountable for what i put in my mouth.