Weekly "Splurge meal" - good or bad?

BrittneyT2
BrittneyT2 Posts: 30 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm curious as to whether a "splurge meal" helps or hurts. I've usually eaten one a week, and in the beginning it didn't hold me back. Obviously I weighed more the morning after, but my weight was still going down overall each week. The last several weeks, I've done the same thing, but am no longer losing, just bouncing up and down in a 2lb range. Think I should cut out the splurges? Or decrease or increase my calories? I had been eating approx 1350/day. Just 2 days ago I increased to 1500, so not enough time has passed to judge if that will help or hurt. I splurged today so I won't be putting any stock in tomorrow's weight. It will be several days before I can really judge. In the meantime I'm wondering what others have experienced in similar situations?

Replies

  • tatd_820
    tatd_820 Posts: 573 Member
    I do a splurge meal every Friday night. I eat good all week and allow myself that 1 meal to eat and "try no to feel guilty" about what I just ate. I do not eat in huge qty, I do not bring left overs home, I do not eat so much I make myself sick....I just eat the dang meal and try not to stress over screwing the whole week up bc of that one meal.
  • kazoo94
    kazoo94 Posts: 3
    hi im no expert tryin to lose myself but i think a splurge meal is ok as long as its not ridiculous you know a dinner at a restaurant etc but not 2 dinners! haha! but if you at a temorary standstill try to change it up your splurge meal or your weekly plan if you eat egg whites & kiwi for breakfast change it to whole wheat toast & creamy peanut butter & a banana just an example ima a novice good luck!
  • ThinUpGirl
    ThinUpGirl Posts: 397
    I enjoy a splurge meal, but sometimes it snowballs in to more than one. Right now, I'm trying to do 13 days clean (NET 1400), the 14th day its anything goes (up to my tdee allowance 2200)
  • peacemongernc
    peacemongernc Posts: 253 Member
    I started doing this, intentionally, a few months ago. So far it hasn't changed the rate of my loss at all. It has made it a tiny bit easier to not "cheat" on other days. I don't have a specific day of the week I use... I just hold it until I need it, and it comes out to about 3 days a month.

    As far as the stall in weight loss, I have those all the time. I think they are typical, not unusual, and especially for women! I've gone as long as 6 weeks, gaining and losing 8 pounds up and down. Normally, they last about 3 or 4 weeks, and I gain and lose about 3 or 4 pounds, over and over. But when I lose, it comes off in a WHOOSH!

    It just happened to me. This morning before I weighed, I was feeling sorry for myself because I hadn't lost much since Valentines Day. Yesterday morning I weighed 200.5. Today, without any apparent reason why, I was 196.4. FOUR pounds gone in less than 24 hours.

    And the interesting thing about it, is that if I average out my daily calories over the length of the whole plateau, and average out my exercise calories over the same period, and plug it all into MFP and see what it says I should weigh based on 5 weeks at that level of exercise and calories consumed (YES, I AM that OCD... I do this, and NO, there is not an easy to way to calculate this using MFP. LOL!) I almost always come out, to the POUND, exactly where MFP says I should!! I find it amazing!

    So on the way to the gym to weigh this morning, I told my husband that based on my OCD calculations, I should weigh about 196, not 200, and I wasn't sure what I was doing wrong, and wondered if this was the end of my weight loss from now on. (Incidentally, this is the same conversation I have with him every time I get stalled for a few weeks, and he just nods and I know he is thinking I'm crazy) Lo and Behold, the scale agreed with me!

    So, I suspect the cheat meal is really okay as long as you don't go crazy. If you stick with this long enough, I bet you'll find that your losses stall pretty frequently, and that everything comes out even in the end.

    Shannon
  • jackiecamarena
    jackiecamarena Posts: 290 Member
    As far as the stall in weight loss, I have those all the time. I think they are typical, not unusual, and especially for women! I've gone as long as 6 weeks, gaining and losing 8 pounds up and down. Normally, they last about 3 or 4 weeks, and I gain and lose about 3 or 4 pounds, over and over. But when I lose, it comes off in a WHOOSH!

    It just happened to me. This morning before I weighed, I was feeling sorry for myself because I hadn't lost much since Valentines Day. Yesterday morning I weighed 200.5. Today, without any apparent reason why, I was 196.4. FOUR pounds gone in less than 24 hours.

    Shannon

    I could not agree more. I just hit a major (and first) stall maintaining the same weight for a month. Then a few days ago all of a sudden I went down 5 within a couple days. With no changes to my eating or diet being made at all. It happens. Don't blame the splurge meal. As long as you're being good 80% of the time and not overdoing that 20% you are fine.
  • AndreaEliz93
    AndreaEliz93 Posts: 25
    I allow myself one day to go over my 1410 calories compared to the 1200 I eat the rest of the week. And I've actually weighed less after my splurge day than the day before... It was weird I was excepting to up a pound or so and lost like 2 pounds! lol Only thing is that I've been on a plateau since then... It was probably more my body just doing it's thing rather than my eating habits. Literally!!!! 3 weeks in a row the EXACT same weight to the tenth of a pound! I guess I should just be happy I'm not gaining... lol
  • ghhosstt
    ghhosstt Posts: 112
    I've personally never done it when I've lost weight in the past, unless a celebration or something counts, but it's not a weekly thing I had planned out. I'd just encourage anyone who does it while dieting to consider whether it's a simple treat for themselves or a binge due to a too-strict diet routine or whatever.
  • CristinaL1983
    CristinaL1983 Posts: 1,119 Member
    I look at everything as a weekly average instead of daily. I don't worry when I'm under my calorie goal 5 out of 7 days and I don't worry when I'm a bit over one or two days a week. I look at the weekly average instead. For me, that perspective has been invaluable.
  • xjckemx
    xjckemx Posts: 95 Member
    I look at everything as a weekly average instead of daily. I don't worry when I'm under my calorie goal 5 out of 7 days and I don't worry when I'm a bit over one or two days a week. I look at the weekly average instead. For me, that perspective has been invaluable.

    This is me to. I tend to eat a little less during week not necessarily intentionally but use those extra calories at the weekend. So I have a lot more on Saturday but I'm still under or hit weekly calories. And for me that doesn't feel like a diet and that u can't have things. If I want a glass wine or a chocolate bar I have it within my calories. Last night I had chips from the chip shop!!!! Not had them for months but I had half portion and stayed within calorie limit, it was great!!!

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