Question for you successful people

xtrout

I used to have a cheat day once a week and I still lost 1-2 pounds a week. Then I stopped doing that to see what would happen and now I am losing 3-5 lbs a week. It really has sped up the process for me by NOT having the cheat day and just fitting the food into my daily calories or exercising to give me the extra calories for the day. I'll save my cheat days for like Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners though.

Goal_Line

I never cheated until I lost a sig amount of weight (30 lbs or so).

jsj024519

I like zig zag days. Eat more on one day and eat less on the other. I measure calories by the week and not by the day.

JamesterCK

I completely agree with amkfitatfifty; you don't have to have cheat days if you fit things you want into your daily allowance. That's what I do. I eat a lot of the things I did before I started this healthy lifestyle (except more vegetables and fruit now!), but it's all about fitting it in to your day. I don't find myself wanting to have a cheat day and I used to be HUGE binger, but I don't have the urge to binge anymore AT ALL! It's an amazing feeling. That's just my advice though; people tend to go way overboard on cheat days. But if you do decide to have a day like that, only pick one meal to splurge on, don't do it all day long.

Going4Lean

Just eat what you want and fit it into your calories.

tdelo7634

I suggest a cheat meal at most. Not a whole day.

DoomCakes

My opinion is to make a healthy version of your fave comfort dishes for your "cheat day" so you don't feel so guilty later. Or even make them for a normal dinner so you feel like you're fulfilling those desires. Almost anything can be made healthy, just takes some thought put into it and some time testing it out!

Kelly_Runs_NC

I heard a true statement today: "What you eat in private shows in public"...very true statement. If you cheat, don't go above 250 calories over or you are cheating yourself. Stick with it, and after a while you will not even crave "bad" food anymore.

Good luck to you. With determination you can do it.

clumsygermangurl

You'll hear lots of theories, but IMHO, put items into your daily menu plan that seem like cheats, but fit into your calories. That way, you never really have to have a cheat day or slip up meal. It is going to happen occasionally, but if you plan for it, it will kill your weight loss.

Good luck!

I do this

canadakim17

There are a lot of opinions on this, but here is what I have done. I didn't plan for slip ups or cheat days, but if I got invited out for dinner and wine with the girls, I went, ordered something I really wanted and then ate a reasonable portion and then had the waiter remove the rest. I enjoyed those moments and the food. I was careful not to binge eat though. Also, if I really really wanted ice cream, pizza or any other "bad' food, I had to go out of the house to get it and eat it. Only let healthy foods in your home, that way you really have to intentionally make a decision to get them, which helps make sure you only eat them when you really want them. Then log what you ate, and adjust for the rest of the day. One bad food does not turn into a bad day.


THIS!!!!

tgeiger777

My cheats or "days off" go a couple of ways. It all depends on the calendar, if I have a special occassion like a dinner out, i just cheat the meal but I only eat until i'm satisfied. If is a football tailgate party, its a day off. But I prep a couple days before by eating extra good and working out just a little more.

Aello11

I don't plan a cheat day because I'm not "dieting" - I'm trying to be healthier in my food choices and activity level. If I lose weight as a byproduct then great but if not I'm happy to be who I am with what I have. My diary doesn't always look pretty (note the quick add of nearly 400 calories from 5 oreos last night) but I try to fill it out every day. Last weekend I didn't log anything Saturday or Sunday but I logged in to MFP and tried not to stray too far from the norm despite attending a cookout with more food than people.

"Success" is defined differently by every one of us. You have to find your definition of success and strive for it. If that includes planning a "cheat day" then it's your choice.

^^^ This - I am not on a diet, just trying to make better choices.

Sehena

I don't have a cheat day. I just eat what I want and count the calories. You can eat whatever you want to as long as it's under the calorie recommendation. Just don't go pigging out on too many ice cream cones. One or two a day is fine. XD

RBXChas

In the past I have lost weight and then planned a "cheat meal," where once a week my husband and I would go out and eat whatever we wanted in whatever quantities we wanted. It always turned into a ridiculous food fest. If we did this on Saturday evening, it would take me until Thursday or Friday morning to get back to the weight I was on Saturday morning, and then I had one or two mornings left to have good weigh-ins before gorging myself again. I felt like I was taking two steps forward and then 1.95 back, if that makes sense!

What I do now is try not to slip-up or cheat all the time, but if I really decide I want something, I just try to have it in moderation and work it in. If it means I go a little over one day, then fine, but I try to keep that day within limits and maybe work out a little harder, if it's not a rest day. Now when I say "really decide I want something," I mean really, honestly contemplate it, not just decide that I want something. For example, I might give myself a good 10-15 minutes to think about it, and if I still want it, then I'll have it. I'd say 75% of the time, I don't want it after waiting for it.

For me planning a cheat day was basically robbing me, both physically and mentally, of what I'd worked so hard for. It takes a lot of resolve and a long time to break yourself out of the habits of eating certain foods, often in mass quantities. It's like I went back to square one, mentally speaking, and then the next day I'd be moody because I had to go back to eating "boring" foods in smaller quantities. Instead I try to eat well all the time and make those foods interesting!

DonM46

Assuming 'cheating' is defined as exceeding your daily calorie limit, look at the arithmetic.
If you are on a 500 cal/day deficit, and you go 750 over that limit, you've essentially wasted a day and a half.
Go over by 1000, and you've lost 2 days.
So, even if you 'peg' your calories on each remaining day, you'll slow the progress of your weight loss.
I think it's best to stay within your limit, or try to anyway, every day.
Then, when the inevitable happens, once in a blue moon, it's easier to make up the overage.
As others have said, "Don't plan to fail."

jenilla1

I've been on maintenance now for well over a year. I don't understand the purpose of planning a cheat. I figure a cheat is an occasional oops situation that you would then make up for by perhaps exercising or whatnot. There is really no need to cheat if you are not restricting yourself from the foods you love in the first place.

For example, I have pasta every day and a small amount of chocolate every night. I never crave it or miss it, because it's always there for me - just within my calorie goals. IMO, people who "diet" and purposely deny themselves are setting themselves up for failure. This has been a lifestyle change for me, not a temporary diet, so I eat the way I would be willing to eat for the rest of my life. That doesn't mean starving myself and eating miserably all week, then going crazy and gorging on crap on the weekends. It means I get whatever I want ALL the time, it just fits into my goals or is earned through exercise. Good luck! :drinker:

joann1948

I have been successful and almost end of my journey. I did not plan cheat days. If something came up and were going out to dinner, I just made wise choices, and had dessert if I wanted. The next day back to the plan. If we dont indulge when we want to we would fail. Because if you want something and dont eat it, you will end up going off the program. So if I want something I eat it, and it dosent happen often. I just went thru a wedding, bridal shower, so I was off plan a couple of times. Good luck to you whatever choice you make.......Joann

Lula16

you need to plan for success, not for cheating!

^^This^^

I don't cheat, it doesn't work for me. But then again, I eat anything I want in moderation.

Best solution? Exercise more and give yourself the extra calories so you don't have to cheat or slip up.

^^^THIS^^ completely agree

FoodPwnr

I don't plan cheat days at all. I almost always stick to my plan, but occasionally a day will come up where I just feel like cheating, and I do it. Or sometimes a day will come up where I am put in a position where it is really hard to make it, and I just don't. But these days are very few and far between, and never planned.

I do the same

brneydgrlie

For awhile, I did have a planned cheat day each week. During the week, every time I had a craving for something bad, I would add it to a list to eat on my cheat day. By the time the cheat day finally came around, I did not even want everything on my list. So, it really helped keep me "on the straight and narrow".

Now, I don't have cravings for horrible things nearly as often (except sometimes TOM). So, if I wake up in the morning wanting some really unusual stuff, I designate a cheat day right then and there. I have worked my way from having a planned cheat day once a week to a spontaneous cheat day about once every 3 weeks.

By the way, it is very rare these days that my cheat days do not end up still fitting within my goals for the day. So you can "cheat" without going over!