cheat day method; fact or fiction?

I believe more in just indulging when the time is right. I will always try to hold off on a craving or a cheat food for as long as possible and then only buy a small quantity so I can't over do it. Another thing I like to do is buy the cheat item and then stash it in the freezer. Skittles, gummy worms, bagels, chinese food, Wendy's (......well not Wendy's that would be a sin against the delicious food that is Wendy's and Wendy's must be consumed immediately or else you will anger the fast food gods) but you get what I mean.

By the time it thaws enough to chew, I not only appreciate it more but I also will eat less of it since my craving usually diminishes faster once I know I'm actually going to be getting to eating it. Thawing allows time for the guilt to set in before I even take my first bite which helps curb my appetite.

xo

i cant do this because once i indulge, i cant stop. so for me, every day i have a little something as a small treat so i dont go crazy and binge one day.

but thats just me :happy:

Whether it's beneficial or not depends on the context, but it wont "revamp your metabolism."

When I had cheat days, it was no more than 400calories never 1000+calories!

I was able to reach my goal and now that I am maintaining, I find that having continued cheat days here and there hasn't affected my weight at all. Plus now, I eat 100% of my burned calories, while during my weight loss, I only ate 25% - 50%.

I find a cheat meal is easier to work into my calorie total for the week, if i gave myself a whole day i'd just undo my whole weeks work!

I'll have a splurge MEAL from time to time. Helps keep my sanity and it doesn't seem to delay my losses. If I am eating something particularly salty like Chinese I may have that earlier in the week after I've weighed so that I can loose the excess water weight by the time the next Monday rolls around. I never have a splurge day though, only a meal.

I have a cheat day but not to 'revamp'. It's more to make the cravings in the week more manageable knowing I only have to wait a couple of days to get me some delicious ice cream.

Every Sunday-no counting-no worries. Eat what ever I have craved or want. Maintained over a year and do this every Sunday;-)
Keeps me on track all week, Love Sundays!

This is pretty much me, except the no-counting is usually Saturdays. I purposely keep my weekday calories lower so I can have more on weekends when I have social engagements and such.

I have one very small splurge daily, which amounts to an 8oz glass of juice. For me it helps cut the sugar and sweet tooth craving. I also only drink the juice if I have already had my 8 glasses of water, it's my little reward for drinking water. I used to NEVER drink water, besides what was in my coffee or tea, so if I want that juice I have to drink my water. Then on Sunday's I have my cheat day...I can indulge in whatever I want, in moderation of course. I don't think it actually plays into revamping your metabolism, but I do believe that if your really into making certain changes, it revamps your brain. I know for me, after my cheat day, I feel guilty as all hell, which pushes me even harder to eat right the rest of the week, and it motivates me to really push hard in my workouts to burn all my cheats.

As far as I've seen, cheat meals ("DAYS" is a bit much) generally work better for men, who have higher metabolisms and can/should eat more calories, than for women. I do not do "cheat meals". Cheat meals have the potential to undo any deficit you've created during the rest of the week. While I think it's totally fine to go over your calorie allocation sometimes (everyone does), I don't like the idea of binging or allowing your eating to get out of control.

The last time I got in shape, I faithfully took a cheat day once a week, and still lost an average of two pounds a week. If you are eating right and exercising for 6.5 of the 7 days a week, you will still lose. In my opinion, it isn't a factor in "resetting" metabolism. But what it DOES do is add an element of confusion to your body and helps keep it from going into a starvation cycle, which really does hamper weight loss efforts. There are a lot of additional benefits. If you are working out hard, you really need to supercharge your energy levels at least once a week. Your workouts will benefit and you will notice the difference in intensity. My very best days in the gym are ALWAYS the day after a cheat day. And there is the psychological benefit of never feeling deprived or hemmed in by a strict diet. If there is something I crave during the week, I just tell myself that I'll save it for my cheat day. Plus, it's awesome for days when I know I'll be going out with friends, which is usually at least once every weekend. I typically limit my cheating to just one evening, rather than an entire day, though. The reason for this is I found that if I went crazy and ate anything I wanted ALL day long, the next day I would wake up and feel like I had been run over by a bus.

Hope this helps ...

You're going to be forced to indulged at some point whether on vacation, with guests visiting, at a work dinner, etc. There's no reason to build it in, unless you need to build it in to maintain self control.

What does appear to be true is that Varying what you eat will help you lose weight, as opposed to finding exactly what works and letting your body get used to that. Another thing that works for some people is eating (for example) 2000 calories one day and 1000 the next, as opposed to 1500 both days. These are both common methods of breaking through a plateau.

Yes, it can help to restore leptin levels which, in turn, helps people lose fat. In short, it's a way to send a message to the body that you're not in danger.

I believe the problem though, is that leptin drops back down very fast when you resume deficit.

If it stayed permanently elevated, it would be a perfect world. It is, however, a net positive.

It didn't work for me, but I was doing it wrong.

I'm the kind of person who's happier completely avoiding something I love but is bad for me than trying to have a little bit of it. So I'd almost always overindulge in my cheat meal of choice, gain some water weight, and then spend the rest of the week undoing the damage. So I decided to just knock it off and stick to my schedule all day, every day.

I'm not saying you should swear off the cheat day, all I'm saying is, if you do decide to try it, that up there is how you shouldn't do it.

Whether it's beneficial or not depends on the context, but it wont "revamp your metabolism."

This^^