Who here has a cheat day once a week?
Replies
-
DO NOT do cheat days!
Anybody telling you that they are OK or permissable is lying. Every bit of food you put in your mouth matters. If you put in junk, even just a little, it is setting you back and slowing your progress.
When you eat, ask yourself, "is this food helping, or hurting, my progress towards my goal"?
Just looked at your profile.....You're a beachbody coach........It's cool. I can just ignore anything else you say.0 -
Nope ....a cheat day, I would never lose any weight!! I might trat my self to a bowl of popcorn once a week or something like that. I still have to have enough calories to have it!!0
-
Yup.
I record it too.0 -
I always have a cheat meal once a week without fail, and for a few of very good reasons which may or may not be applicable to everyone.
1. I am on an EXTREME calorie deficit, and I would need to be eating an excess of 8000 calories to undo my weeks work.
2. It replaces my glycogen in my muscles and boosts my metabolism for the coming week.
3. Towards the end of the week i begin to feel very fatigued and this gives me the boost I need.
4. Without it to look forward to I would not be able to keep to my diet, (although this probably says more about me than cheat days themselves)
And finally the reason I do not simply have cheat meal or even try to control my cheat days, and that is because when my cheat day does finally roll around my body needs the nutrition (or at least it feels that way, if you can barely hold a conversation). And if I only had a meal I KNOW that I would no be able to stop.... And I would probably go off my diet for a week (which would harm your results :L) rather than just a day.
this is a damn shame...an absolute trainwreck waiting to happen...0 -
I used to have a cheat day once a week. Then i changed to a scheduled cheat meal once a week. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you want to look at it, my body is so accustomed to eating clean, i got very physically sick :sick: the last two cheat meals. "Bad" food doesn't even taste good to me anymore, nor do i crave it. I will have the occassional drink, but i am sure to work my *kitten* off working out to allow for that. I have consistently lost week to week and am very happy to not cheat. I am sure if the time came for a "treat", i could allow myself knowing full well that i will continue to eat clean 90% of the time.
I completely subscribe to the 90/10 rule 0 eat clean 90% of the time and the other 10% eat as you wish!
But, to each his own and whatever works for me might not work for someone else. You have to do what you are able to and what you will stick with!
Congrats on your weight loss thus far!!!!! :flowerforyou:0 -
I eat what I want and I do it in moderation, so I still stay under my limit because I don't overdo it and I exercise. And when I do go over, I don't beat myself up for it. The #1 priority is the way I think about it and think about myself. Enjoy your life and enjoy your food. Don't punish yourself—it's the greatest way to set yourself up for failure.
So yes, I 'cheat' every day, and f--k anyone who says you can't. It's your body and your life.0 -
They happen. I don't really plan them...except for today, I KNOW I'm going to eat spicy boiled crawfish and I KNOW I won't stop until they are either gone or I fall over. Also...I don't really care for or drink much alcohol....except when I eat crawfish which for me requires at least 1 Abita Light.
I've seen people schedule cheat days or meals and it helps keep them happy and motivated....like they earn it if they behave the rest of the time.
I usually indulge only on special occasions (I may or may not make up occasions!) and I'm not going to let putting those bad things into my body for a few hours destroy all my work, self confidence or my momentum.0 -
I have my sanity day on Sundays. I dont overeat bc then I will hate myself for doing it. I just dont logg my calories. I prob only go over a couple hundred calories BUT it makes me happy!!!0
-
It's fine to do. I've lost 80 pounds have very frequent cheat days. But even on my cheat days i'll log what I ate. If I have too much sodium for example in a cheat day, i'll be taking it easy on sodium for the rest of the week. The most I ever went over on a cheat day was about 1000 calories. If you don't go ape**** with it you'll probably just burn off your cheat day naturally.0
-
DO NOT do cheat days!
Anybody telling you that they are OK or permissable is lying. Every bit of food you put in your mouth matters. If you put in junk, even just a little, it is setting you back and slowing your progress.
When you eat, ask yourself, "is this food helping, or hurting, my progress towards my goal"?
Yes! Being hot is WAY more important than enjoying food and life! Whew. Thanks for clearing that up!
OR- you can eat mostly healthy and incorporate some junk in a balanced way that allows you to continue to participate in society, not feel bloated or over stuffed, and still be generally healthy.0 -
Bumping this cause just undid all week's work in one day
went over 636 yesterday and drank too much wine Friday. Still under weekly goal by 13 calories, so..
Just wondering how you "undid all week's work" when you were under goal for the week? MFP already calculates the deficit you need to lose weight so if you were under your weekly calorie goal, you were still at a deficit.0 -
I used to allow myself a treat everyday but every since the 2 month plateau, I have been more strict.
Now, instead of a 300 calorie treat, I allow myself a 50 to 100 calorie treat and staying within the 1200calorie range.0 -
IMHO . . . If you go into a weight loss or management program thinking you can never have another cookie, you are defeated before you start. You must allow some room for those things in moderation. If you know you can have two or three Oreo cookies on Friday, you are less likely to feel overwhelmed and cram in fourteen on Thursday.
This is my opinion too. If I tried to stop all of that cold turkey, I'd give up as soon as a craving hit. Moderation is the key to being successful long-term. I'll still eat chips, cookies, and ice cream. I just eat a whole lot less of it than I did before I started tracking. That's been the key motivating factor for me to even exercise some days-- I want to have some calories to spare for an ice cream treat later on without going over! I'm confident I will still lose weight just because I eat so much less now that I'm aware of how many calories are in everything.0 -
I have a good cheat day at least once a fortnight...I log everything i eat..Don`t feel guilty about it...and still continue to lose weight..And i`ve been doing this for over 2 years..
I suppose it all depends on your willpower..0 -
I have a cheat day every Saturday, but I ensure that I burn plenty of calories.
I still log everything, so that I dont over indulge too much!
BUT I didn't start having cheat days until I was 6 months in - I can easily bounce back into heathy0 -
I eat ice cream almost daily :blushing:
That's my indulgence also :devil:0 -
I do once a week although mine usually ends up being a meal.
I live 60 miles from town and Friday's we usually go in for groceries and to have a change in location and we don't get back until 11-midnight and we won't wait that long to cook dinner. That's the day we go out to eat.
I make much better choices then I used to and no longer feel like I need to eat everything on my plate. I have done this since the beginning and it hasn't affected my progress.
But, on those days, I still have my normal breakfast and lunch and the next day I am always back at it!0 -
I have never done a cheat day and never will. You can undo a whole week in just one day. In my opinion, it's a bad idea and a bad habit to get into. I definitely do cheat meals once every couple of weeks. There is only so much damage you can do in one meal.
^^ agreed. I'm afraid to have a cheat day. It's kinda like smoking: I quit 4 years ago and I know that if I cheat- it's all out the window. :noway:
Great analogy - totally agree. You either eat healthy or you don't.... eating healthy "sometimes" but then overfilling your body with junk sporadically can only be bad.. I think so anyway.. kind of scared to have a cheat day for this reason. I have to admit though, I work ice cream and chocolate into my calories when I want to have it.0 -
I have a 'naughty day'...... still log what I eat and don't go mad. For me rather than eating loads of cals, it's more about having food I don't normally have, like bread. It's keeps me going in the week and also stops that rebellion feeling I sometimes get (i.e. as soon as you say you can't have something you crave like you never have before). I actually find that I'm better in the week overall if I have a naughty day as in the moment that I feel 'naughty' I think I'll save that thought / craving until my naughty day and by the time it comes I've forgotten all about it!0
-
once ever two weeks0
-
When I did Weight Watchers I was so fed up at the end of the week that, if I had a loss, I was allowed a "day off" (never really affected my ability to lose - but did affect my willpower to go back to it this next day!). I've only been on this a week, and was so engrossed how many calories I'd burn for what exercise on the day that I would have taken off I completely forgot to.
If a cheat day works for you, do it
0 -
I probably have a cheat day once, maybe even twice a week. Still losing weight steadily though!
The problem I've found is that on my cheat days, I go SUPER overboard. You can have a cheat day without going TOTALLY all out with it. Once I realized that, it got a lot better!0 -
I think it's a good idea the only thing I worry about for myself is that a cheat day can get my cravings going again and then I am starting all over again - keep me posted I am curious about how it goes for you and what are you cheating with?0
-
I just eat what I want, in moderation, whenever.
Although I have been slipping up lately and not following the whole moderation thing..
But I'm still losing.0 -
Personally, I find that every day can have a little miniature cheat moment. I mean, if you're working out and eating right consistently, why not have half a candy bar or a glass of sweet tea or whatever your craving is? If you starve your craving altogether for those things, it can affect your moods later or discourage you altogether because you feel terrible for wanting something so bad that you cant have. I, for example, had half a snickers bar today and I still have about 500 calories left because I'm eating right and working out cosistently. Nothing wrong with that!
0 -
I've always gave myself a cheat day-and never had negative results rest of my week where it affected me0
-
I wish I only cheated 1 day a week! The weekends are hard for me. I will add though, that the weight I need I feel to lose right now are more vanity pounds than anything, 5 or less, and I did not really allow myself a cheat until I got close to my goal weight. I am sure this won't work for all but it has not harmed me too much. I am very physically active so I think that counteracts a lot. My recommendation would be to stay on plan as close as possible until close to goal weight and play with it from there.0
-
Saturday is my day to break from logging and indulge a little. I am careful not to go overboard, but I find that it helps me prevent burnout.0
-
Instead of "cheating", try this:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/591066-weekly-calorie-spreadsheet0 -
sometimes the 'cheat' is good if you are feeling stressed about not being able to have a particular food, but as mentioned here before, every bit of food counts and if you can kill a craving with a healthier alternative then do it. i do not believe that having one day a week where you eat higher calorie foods will inhibit your progress (having experimented with this before), but allowing yourself to indulge can set you up for a relapse back to bad eating habits. i have higher calorie days where i eat some things i want, but i still have to record and be cognizant of the caloric intake. i think any system that counts calories like mfp allows you to needs to have that data, and we need that data so that we can accurately reflect upon our behaviors.0
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.4K Introduce Yourself
- 43.8K Getting Started
- 260.2K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.9K Food and Nutrition
- 47.4K Recipes
- 232.5K Fitness and Exercise
- 426 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153K Motivation and Support
- 8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.7K MyFitnessPal Information
- 24 News and Announcements
- 1.1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions