Binge Fridays? Yay or Nay?

gracefox33

Hi there,

So I've been using myfitnesspal for 3 months now. It has been great in making me more aware of what I put into my body and keeping me ona (normally) 1300 kcal diet. Which I usuallly stick to.

However, as of late I've been partaking in binge fridays in which I basically allow myself to eat whatever I want, in whatever quantity(!), for one day. Allowing myself to have all those things I usually forbid myself from having!

Is this a really bad idea - if so, do you have an alternate way to satisfy those junk food cravings that can build up over a week of intense studying?! Or - do some of you do the same and find it hasn't been a problem to your diet?



Regards,
Grace

tomcornhole

Grace, I do binge Saturdays. Have been for the past year. I think it is the singular aspect of my new eating habits that has allowed me to keep losing weight. If I crave something during the week, I make a mental note and eat it in excess on Saturday. I just got back from the local donut shop with 2 dozen of my favorite donuts. I'll eat 4 of them. Probably a Big Mac and french fries for lunch then some pasta for dinner. I usually average around 4,000 cal on cheat day which is more than twice my TDEE. Then I am good to go until next Saturday and I feel absolutely no guilt whatsoever. Makes it a lot easier to stick to my slow carb diet during the week. IMHO.

And the cheat day does not seem to have effected my ability to lose weight. I usually gain 2-3 lbs on cheat day and I'm back to pre-cheat weight by Tuesday. Although lately I have not gained weight on cheat days. Not sure why.

sarski77

My most honest opinion is that without doubt you can still keep losing by doing that BUT binging is not going to help you in the long term, especially when it comes to changing your attitude towards food.

Personally I think it's totally fine (say once a week) to eat things you wouldn't include in your every day diet (otherwise we'd all go mad!) but the idea of a binge day goes against what I'm trying to teach myself in order to be able to maintain my goal weight when I get there. "satisfying those junk food cravings" doesn't mean that I can't keep an eye on quantity!

In my opinion, a much better solution is to have what other people call a "cheat meal" rather than a full day of pigging out!

I guess it depends on what works for you and contributed to your weight gain in the first place.

jamiemacmanus

nay. fit your 'junk food' into your daily calories and you will probably not feel the need to binge. it is down to you though.

Rachlmale

Binging is a bad habit... why do you need to binge? If you still have that mentality I think it's the start of a slippery slope. If you fancy something work it into your week, rather than eating it all on one day.

PS - I've lost 54lbs and since I allowed myself to have an 'off' day I haven't lost a pound.. Needless to say I'm back to 7 days consistency.

127ismygoal

If I want something I'll just have a little bit, it's taken me a few weeks to get to the point where I can't stop obsessing over the bit I didn't eat, but it works now. I don't think a binging day is a sure fire way of getting slim and staying slim. Binging is unhealthy - and it will probably cost you a lot if you buy specific things that you couldn't have earlier in the week. Think about it this way, the particular food you are craving isn't suddenly going to disappear overnight, and it means you can have a bit the next day too.

LadyPakal

Nay for me - my weight in day is Saturday am!

I don't binge - I'm not sure that is healthy way to relate to food. If you don't disallow anything, then nothing becomes forbidden and more tempting. Eat within your allowance, some days you may go under or over - it's no biggy as long as the weekly totals add up.

BeckyLH

I do this occasionally but I just find weight wise it just puts me back for a few days so I question if its worth it. Not I try to stick to my calories unless it's a special occasion like going out for a meal with family or friends.

neandermagnon

well I'm all in favour of eating *what* you want, but if you're having a whole day of both what and whatever quantity, it is possible to eat enough in that one day to cancel out your deficit for the whole week. This depends on how big your deficit is to begin with, and also how much you manage to eat on your cheat day, and what kinds of foods you eat (some very high calorie density foods it's easy to eat over 1000 cals in one go... do that three or four times in a day and you're waaaaay over your TDEE and starting to eat up your weekly deficit....)

the short answer is that this probably will work for some people (e.g. those who can't physically eat that much, or whose cheat foods are not that high in calories...) but it's going to fail badly for some people.

There are some eating plans I've seen on the internet that combine this kind of thing with fast days, low carb days, low calorie days etc... I guess that must work for some people but personally 6 days of too much restriction then 1 day of bingeing seems a) to be actually a lot more gruelling than just eating at a moderate deficit each day and b) I don't think excessive restriction followed by bingeing is a healthy mindset to be in. In some people this may even trigger eating disorders. also c) for some people even with excessive restriction during the week, they can still manage to eat enough on "cheat day" to kill the entire week's deficit.

What I do is I have a moderate deficit, one that enables me to eat enough that I don't end up with really strong cravings or hunger, then I fit whatever foods that I really want to eat into my calories, after I'm sure that I'm giving my body enough nutrition (protein, fat, carbs, fruit, veg), so I don't end up feeling the need to binge at all. I also have "cheat" meals (but not entire days) where I don't count calories but not too often and I stop when I'm no longer hungry.... and days when I forget to log what I eat (although I eat my usual kinds and amounts of foods on those days so not likely to be under or over by much if at all)....

An alternative to this is maybe to have a day when you eat what you like, so long as you stay within your calorie goal (or make it a refeed and eat your TDEE on those days) or something like that.... then the rest of the week eat at a deficit and include all the healthy foods. That way you can be sure you're not killing your weekly deficit by eating too much of those foods.

If you're successfully losing fat and improving your body composition and getting enough nutrition while doing what you're doing, then there's no reason stop. But if you're asking "will this work?" my answer would be probably not for a lot of people.

taunto

I have done it. It isn't a bad idea to be honest however this isn't the goal. This is just a tactic to learn to control your portion control.

When I did the "cheat days" what I used to do was basically "bank" my calories over the week. So like on Sunday I'd eat 4500 calories which means that on the other days, I would either not consume some of my calories back or just leave about 200 calories or so to be eaten that day. Either way is fine.

But I repeat, the eventual goal is to be able to eat everything in moderation. I now reserve a couple of hundred of calories daily to be eaten in the form of ice cream and since I don't really believe in anything called "clean eating" I get to eat anything I wish including pizza and not worry since it'll still be under my calories goal.

I hope this made sense and I bid you good luck

Noor13

I have not had a binge since I started to eat more
I am maintaining at well over 2000 calories, so I can fit whatever treat I like into my day.
Depriving yourself can lead to really bad binges.
But I guess it can work for some

gracefox33

Wow. Thankyou for all the great - and speedy - advice guys!

I like the idea of cheat meals.
I guess my only concern is that if I consume some of my favourite foods (I'm a big fan of things from the bakery) throughout the week as part of my diet it may get me into a mentality where they are no longer a special friday treat and so, I'll just eat them whenever and return back to my original eating habits.

I think I will try and do cheat meal fridays as opposed to whole days and try and keep those kcals in the 2000 region. So it's within the recommended daily amount still but just exceeds my diet kcal daily goal for one day.

Thankyou for all your help, you guys have been really helpful. Back to normal eating routine today - feeling rather heavy after last night!

taunto

Wow. Thankyou for all the great - and speedy - advice guys!

I like the idea of cheat meals.
I guess my only concern is that if I consume some of my favourite foods (I'm a big fan of things from the bakery) throughout the week as part of my diet it may get me into a mentality where they are no longer a special friday treat and so, I'll just eat them whenever and return back to my original eating habits.

I think I will try and do cheat meal fridays as opposed to whole days and try and keep those kcals in the 2000 region. So it's within the recommended daily amount still but just exceeds my diet kcal daily goal for one day.

Thankyou for all your help, you guys have been really helpful. Back to normal eating routine today - feeling rather heavy after last night!

I think the plan is fine. Like I said, its perfectly OK if you want to have cheat meals in the start to perfect your other days. Keep things simple. As long as you're under calories over the week in general, you're fine. Or a little bit above the cals. Basically, around the calories. Just when you think you've got the other days down well, try and slowly move away from the cheat days and try to eat the yummies daily

angelahammon

my weakness is crisps, if it was healthy id be eating them for every meal, and have found them really difficult to give up as on a friday night id have few glasses of wine and bags of crisps, thats how my weight crept up so now i still allow a glass of wine and replaced the crisps with snack a jacks its still a treat and i have still gone over my calories but no way as much as what i had been,

neandermagnon

Wow. Thankyou for all the great - and speedy - advice guys!

I like the idea of cheat meals.
I guess my only concern is that if I consume some of my favourite foods (I'm a big fan of things from the bakery) throughout the week as part of my diet it may get me into a mentality where they are no longer a special friday treat and so, I'll just eat them whenever and return back to my original eating habits.

My experience from doing this is that yes, they stop being a special treat, and start being run of the mill foods, and I can take them or leave them. As I still have calorie/macro goals, these run of the mill foods that used to be on my forbidden food list and "must have" foods, I kind of vaguely fancy them sometimes, then think "hmmm that's rather a lot of calories, fat and carbs, I'd rather "spend" my extra calories, fat and carbs on something that I really, really want, rather than just vaguely fancy" - and what I really want is usually something that's just as delicious (or signifcantly more delicious), but more nutritious (i.e. higher in protein, healthier kind of fat, more vitamins, minerals, etc). (and even if it's not, if it's something I want that badly, I'll fit it in my macros/calorie goals and have it anyway.... and that's still not going back to old habits, because it's paying careful attention to portion control)

If you're teaching yourself a whole new way of eating and changing your relationship with food, you won't go back to your old habits. And IMO there's a lot of benefit of foods being in the "run of the mill/take them or leave them" category, rather than the "mmm special treat, must eat" category.

I think I will try and do cheat meal fridays as opposed to whole days and try and keep those kcals in the 2000 region. So it's within the recommended daily amount still but just exceeds my diet kcal daily goal for one day.

This sounds like a good plan.

fiona2785

I never have before, but yesterday was such an awful day I thought, sod it, and had a whole day of eating whatever I wanted. I have had 'cheat meals' in the past, which worked quite well, but never whole days before.

Well, by bedtime yesterday I felt so queasy and uncomfortable, not to mention a bit guilty, that I've decided I'm not doing that again! I think your idea of having 'cheat meals' is so much better, as it's still something to look forward to but without that feeling that you've lost control, and it'll make less of a dent in your progress.

Good luck! :-)