Does cheating help or hinder?
Replies
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I was stuck at a plateau and then gave in to a Culver's Double Cheeseburger (no fries) and lost 5 lbs. Of course I waited about 3 days before I logged that loss just to make sure that my scales weren't just messing with me.0
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i'll have 2-3 thousand calorie "cheat" days every few months, and sure, i'll gain weight that next 2-3 days, but then i'll drop off double that weight within the week. So i'd say it helps. Plus, my cravings go away until the next cheat day.
Exactly! I gain a lb or so while cheating, and then lose 3! It is insane, I also feel more motivated and happy after.
I do log the calories I eat on cheat days, though sometimes it is hard to since I hate seeing the red minus calories but I know it is still better to at least be conscious of how many more calories I am taking in while cheating.
that pound is water. You can't gain a pound of fat with a cheat day or cheat meal unless you go over your maintenance level of calories by 3500. For the average woman that would be consumption of around 5,500 calories in a day. Even then, your body is going to do every thing it can to burn off that energy. To gain fat and lose fat requires sustained deficits or surpluses...not one day of over or under eating.0 -
I don't have "cheat days" I just eat what I want but keep it in my calorie goal.0
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It helps some, it hinders others.
Personally I don't do them. Sometimes I'll eat over my calorie limit but usuallybecause it's a special occasion and I don't view it as a cheat, that's just living life as it comes along.
Exactly. I don't beat myself up if I go way over my calories. I am doing this as a lifestyle and sometimes in life you want to eat 800 calories of delicious dips at a party! And then the next day I go back to my regularly scheduled healthy foods and exercise because that is how I live my life now--the 1,000 calories of junk are an exception.0 -
Yes I cheat - it keeps the metabolism guessing and it's been working. Just FYI - a lot of the gained weight from the 1 or 2 days of consecutive eating is the fact that the waste is backed up in your bowels for a day or two - then your body takes care of it in a day or two. Remember, to gain about a pound you would have to have eaten your maintenance calories + about 3,000 more calories - easy to do, yes - but rarely do we eat so many more calories that we gain 3 or 4 pounds from just one or two cheat days!0
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Cheat days are for those who haven't figured out how to lose weight while eating what they like in moderation. Till they do, they'll always cheat.
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Nice...^^^This I like!0 -
I would say hinder....lol Unless its once in awhile... Depends how much cheating it is though...0
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I don't like the expression "cheat days". To me there is no such thing. Some days I might eat more but I don't consider it cheating... I just have to deal with the numbers in vs. the numbers out.
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OP here.
To answer the good questions some of you have asked, I will tell you exactly what I mean personally by "cheating". Generally when I cheat I only end up going about 200-300 calories over my goal for the day or two I cheat. A typical non cheat day for me is bacon/eggs for breakfast (you people who are anti bacon can say what you like, but I have been obese my entire life and only when I started to eat a big protein and fat filled breakfast did I start to lose quickly), usually a greek yogurt for lunch with or without granola and chicken breast with a veg for dinner. If I craved a sweet dessert I would satiate it with either a super small portion of froyo or a cup of hot tea with sugar and cream.
On my cheat days my breakfast would be something like a large dunkin donuts latte, a everything bagel with reduced fat plain cream cheese and a donut. Lunch would be a poptart and maybe some chocolate and dinner would be something healthy usually with more cheese or butter than usual. So not horrible whole day of candy, pizza and sugar but certainly not healthy. The big thing for me on cheat days is carbs, since I avoid them as much as I can during the dieting days when I cheat I tend to fill myself with them.
To answer the person who asked when I cheat how long the accelerated metabolism lasts....I am not sure. I do know however after 1-2 days of going over by about 200-300 calories and then going back to dieting I tend to weight myself a week later and have lost usually between 2-4 lbs. I usually lose about 1-2lbs if I don't cheat.
I did some research after I posted this and found out that it makes scientific sense that I lose more after dieting. Leptin, the hormone that signals to your body if you are fat or not, decreases when you restrict calories. When Leptin bottoms out your dopamine goes down, your cravings go up and your metabolism slows to a crawl. Even just one cheat day raises your leptin back up for 24-48 hours, plus the endorphins you get from cheating allows your body to burn more with less cravings. The secret according to research is to splurge on high protein, high carb, low fat foods and no alcohol. The article that explains it best is here http://greatist.com/health/cheat-days-explained0 -
Cheat days are for those who haven't figured out how to lose weight while eating what they like in moderation. Till they do, they'll always cheat.
A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
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Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
How is that response helpful in any way? That makes it sound like you are bragging. Good for you? I am not sure how I can eat the things I love (like bagels, kitkat bars, donuts) in moderation without going over my calories. They are amazing, but not filling at all. I find responses like this to be unhelpful0 -
My dad likes to do that - be good for a week and take Sunday's off to cheat. I know some people can handle that - I'm not so sure that's for me. I like to have "little cheat's" throughout the week. If I took a day off - I'd be running with it, and WAY overdo it.0
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The article that explains it best is here http://greatist.com/health/cheat-days-explained
One of the things this article states is
What's up with that? They say some studies support it but provide no link but provide two links to studies that refute it. Then it goes on into the explanation about how it gets that small, but in the context of eating more to get it - meaningless short term rise in metabolic rate. Biased journalism at its finest.Some studies do support this claim, but others suggest overfeeding (the scientific phrase for eating too much, or "cheating") only ups metabolism between three and 10 percent for no more than 24 hours, making the little boost not worth the hundreds or thousands of extra calories [1] [2].0 -
Why not cheat all the time and eat what you want every day. Then you won't have to worry about a silly diet.
On the other hand if you want a lifestyle change, where do cheat days make any sense forever? Like some above I've never cheated or felt the need to cheat, I eat what I want, but within my calorie goals which I have never gone over and I've lost 54 lbs in just short of five months. You don't need cheat days, you're only cheating yourself.
Yes, "cheat days" make sense forever; strict adherence to one calorie goal is what doesn't make sense for me.
Sometimes I go to family reunions. Or on vacation. Or camping. Or out to an amazing prix fixe restaurant with beer pairings. Or any number of events that are fun, social, and calorie counting would be a major buzzkill. Props to those who pull out their iPhones and guess at the calories in a microbrew and halibut on lentil puree with a shaved fennel salad; that's not for me.
I don't call these days "cheat" days as I have nothing to cheat on. Call them whatever you want: refeeds, days off, spike days. All I know is that today was my 740th consecutive log-in on MFP. I would not have lasted that long if I had counted calories every. single. day. I work out hard, I count calories strictly most of the time.
Some of the time, though, I enjoy myself. Thoroughly. And that's why I consider this sustainable.
133 pounds lost in 15 months. 9 months - so far - of maintenance. YMMV, but it worked for me.0 -
Cheat days are for those who haven't figured out how to lose weight while eating what they like in moderation. Till they do, they'll always cheat.
A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
How is that response helpful in any way? That makes it sound like you are bragging. Good for you? I am not sure how I can eat the things I love (like bagels, kitkat bars, donuts) in moderation without going over my calories. They are amazing, but not filling at all. I find responses like this to be unhelpful
Then you're not paying attention.
Find a way to have a donut or a candy bar or whatever such that it works within your total calories and macros. Say a candy bar is 200 cals, mostly fat and carbs. You have one for a snack some afternoon, so then for dinner that night you would have something like chicken breast (all protein), and wham bam thank you ma'am, you're still within your total cals and your macros are reasonably balanced.
That's what we in the bizz call "win".0 -
I think people have a different idea of what is cheating. Even on days when I relax a bit because I am far under my calorie goal for the week, I won't go overboard and eat bad all day; I still eat within reason.
Since I am pretty good at staying in my calorie goals, cheat days serve me no purpose except for a way to make up calories that I didn't consume during the week.0 -
I find that a cheat day or meal a week is a good reward for a week of hard work. In the past I would go off the reservation and EAT EVERYTHING, so much so that It would take me 2-3 days to lose the weight I gained. I also found that getting back to dieting on Monday was SO hard. And I would have cravings during the week. However, during that weight loss I was restricting sugar, carbs and fat (A LOT). This time I am taking a different approach and trying to only have one meal of a cheat on Sunday and I'm allowing fat, carbs and sugar. My goal each day is to not go over the limit MFP set for me, but to get as close as possible on Protein. I had to change a few of my goals based on some research, I felt this would work best for me. So far this approach is working very nicely for me (I've had a few hiccups) but getting back to clean eating is much, much easier.
So all in all, I say it can help and hinder depending on how you do it. But, for me It's a success!!!0 -
There is not a yes or no answer to that, because its different for everyone.0
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Cheat days are for those who haven't figured out how to lose weight while eating what they like in moderation. Till they do, they'll always cheat.
A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
How is that response helpful in any way? That makes it sound like you are bragging. Good for you? I am not sure how I can eat the things I love (like bagels, kitkat bars, donuts) in moderation without going over my calories. They are amazing, but not filling at all. I find responses like this to be unhelpful
Then you're not paying attention.
Find a way to have a donut or a candy bar or whatever such that it works within your total calories and macros. Say a candy bar is 200 cals, mostly fat and carbs. You have one for a snack some afternoon, so then for dinner that night you would have something like chicken breast (all protein), and wham bam thank you ma'am, you're still within your total cals and your macros are reasonably balanced.
That's what we in the bizz call "win".
Thank you! This is exactly how I am. Before I thought I was doing something wrong because I didn't have cheat days. I was thinking maybe I wasn't disciplined enough because I wasn't yearning for one. But I find ways to eat the things I want while still being in a deficit. It is definitely possible. Even if it means you have to workout more. Personally, I don't see anything appealing about working out for hours just to enjoy junk food. I'd rather eat the bad stuff when my activity levels can accommodate it.0 -
Cheat days are for those who haven't figured out how to lose weight while eating what they like in moderation. Till they do, they'll always cheat.
A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
How is that response helpful in any way? That makes it sound like you are bragging. Good for you? I am not sure how I can eat the things I love (like bagels, kitkat bars, donuts) in moderation without going over my calories. They are amazing, but not filling at all. I find responses like this to be unhelpful
Then you're not paying attention.
Find a way to have a donut or a candy bar or whatever such that it works within your total calories and macros. Say a candy bar is 200 cals, mostly fat and carbs. You have one for a snack some afternoon, so then for dinner that night you would have something like chicken breast (all protein), and wham bam thank you ma'am, you're still within your total cals and your macros are reasonably balanced.
That's what we in the bizz call "win".
Thank you! This is exactly how I am. Before I thought I was doing something wrong because I didn't have cheat days. I was thinking maybe I wasn't disciplined enough because I wasn't yearning for one. But I find ways to eat the things I want while still being in a deficit. It is definitely possible. Even if it means you have to workout more. Personally, I don't see anything appealing about working out for hours just to enjoy junk food. I'd rather eat the bad stuff when my activity levels can accommodate it.
Most people will find this approach far more sustainable than greater restriction paired with occasional cheat days. Good for you for getting a handle on it.0 -
It isn't bragging so please don't get offended. I definitely agree with him here. Would you rather things you like on a daily basis and not feel deprived, or spoil yourself with a cheat day that might throw you off track? You don't have to deprive yourself to the point where you need to cheat. You just have to learn how to balance what you eat and change your mindset.Cheat days are for those who haven't figured out how to lose weight while eating what they like in moderation. Till they do, they'll always cheat.
A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
How is that response helpful in any way? That makes it sound like you are bragging. Good for you? I am not sure how I can eat the things I love (like bagels, kitkat bars, donuts) in moderation without going over my calories. They are amazing, but not filling at all. I find responses like this to be unhelpful0 -
Cheat days are for those who haven't figured out how to lose weight while eating what they like in moderation. Till they do, they'll always cheat.
A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
How is that response helpful in any way? That makes it sound like you are bragging. Good for you? I am not sure how I can eat the things I love (like bagels, kitkat bars, donuts) in moderation without going over my calories. They are amazing, but not filling at all. I find responses like this to be unhelpful
Then you're not paying attention.
Find a way to have a donut or a candy bar or whatever such that it works within your total calories and macros. Say a candy bar is 200 cals, mostly fat and carbs. You have one for a snack some afternoon, so then for dinner that night you would have something like chicken breast (all protein), and wham bam thank you ma'am, you're still within your total cals and your macros are reasonably balanced.
That's what we in the bizz call "win".
Thank you! This is exactly how I am. Before I thought I was doing something wrong because I didn't have cheat days. I was thinking maybe I wasn't disciplined enough because I wasn't yearning for one. But I find ways to eat the things I want while still being in a deficit. It is definitely possible. Even if it means you have to workout more. Personally, I don't see anything appealing about working out for hours just to enjoy junk food. I'd rather eat the bad stuff when my activity levels can accommodate it.
Most people will find this approach far more sustainable than greater restriction paired with occasional cheat days. Good for you for getting a handle on it.
Thanks! I've been able to sustain a healthier lifestyle for longer than 3 months because this approach is far more realistic.0 -
Congrats on your progress so far, sweetie. But may I offer one piece of unsolicited advice? Your cheat breakfast is precisely why I feel that cheat days are less effective than the other approach of eating the things you want in moderation. Eating junk in moderation prevents you from binging and teaches you about portion control. You got the bagel, pastry and the high calorie coffee because you probably felt deprived from dieting and have consumed close to 1,000 calories in one meal. Instead of getting it all at once, why not incorporate one item at a time through the week. It will satisfy your cravings and you can still fit it into your calorie goal if you plan correctly.OP here.
To answer the good questions some of you have asked, I will tell you exactly what I mean personally by "cheating". Generally when I cheat I only end up going about 200-300 calories over my goal for the day or two I cheat. A typical non cheat day for me is bacon/eggs for breakfast (you people who are anti bacon can say what you like, but I have been obese my entire life and only when I started to eat a big protein and fat filled breakfast did I start to lose quickly), usually a greek yogurt for lunch with or without granola and chicken breast with a veg for dinner. If I craved a sweet dessert I would satiate it with either a super small portion of froyo or a cup of hot tea with sugar and cream.
On my cheat days my breakfast would be something like a large dunkin donuts latte, a everything bagel with reduced fat plain cream cheese and a donut. Lunch would be a poptart and maybe some chocolate and dinner would be something healthy usually with more cheese or butter than usual. So not horrible whole day of candy, pizza and sugar but certainly not healthy. The big thing for me on cheat days is carbs, since I avoid them as much as I can during the dieting days when I cheat I tend to fill myself with them.
To answer the person who asked when I cheat how long the accelerated metabolism lasts....I am not sure. I do know however after 1-2 days of going over by about 200-300 calories and then going back to dieting I tend to weight myself a week later and have lost usually between 2-4 lbs. I usually lose about 1-2lbs if I don't cheat.
I did some research after I posted this and found out that it makes scientific sense that I lose more after dieting. Leptin, the hormone that signals to your body if you are fat or not, decreases when you restrict calories. When Leptin bottoms out your dopamine goes down, your cravings go up and your metabolism slows to a crawl. Even just one cheat day raises your leptin back up for 24-48 hours, plus the endorphins you get from cheating allows your body to burn more with less cravings. The secret according to research is to splurge on high protein, high carb, low fat foods and no alcohol. The article that explains it best is here http://greatist.com/health/cheat-days-explained
However, I think everyone needs to find the method that works best for them. I certainly have found what is best for me and cannot be convinced otherwise haha. Best of luck to you!!
P.S. I have NOTHING against bacon
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Speaking of bacon....I saw a sign for bacon jerky at the Farmer's market.....I need to stop in next time.
As far as cheating helping or hindering? Depends on the person I guess. I have lost 103 pounds by "cheating" all the time.0 -
why cheat it hinders
eat what u want dont deprive yourself exercise it off0 -
Cheat days are for those who haven't figured out how to lose weight while eating what they like in moderation. Till they do, they'll always cheat.
A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
How is that response helpful in any way? That makes it sound like you are bragging. Good for you? I am not sure how I can eat the things I love (like bagels, kitkat bars, donuts) in moderation without going over my calories. They are amazing, but not filling at all. I find responses like this to be unhelpful
Ninerbuff is one of the most knowledgeable & (surprising for this place) one of a small handful of gentlemen. You really needn't attack him or make accusations when you're advocating some diet trick. You asked for opinions. Don't get insulted when people (especially knowledgeable people) offer theirs.
Having said that, to answer your question, I don't do cheats. But I'm not the type of person who stands in line in a hot parking lot for some drippy ice cream the first hot day of the summer (and every other hot day after that). I also no longer weigh myself. Interestingly, we are so busy in the summer that I make myself "refeed" in the afternoon .I don't do salads for lunch like I usually do. I eat high calorie sandwiches (well, high for me). In the afternoon if we're at the ocean, I don't mind fried clams or lobster roll. If we're at the lake, I don't care if it's a slice of za. I know that after a workout in the am and a day of swimming, walking, frisbee ... etc, I need serious calories. By end of July my clothes are usually really loose, so I guess it works for losing weight. Or perhaps I'm just not eating back all the calories I need to be eating. Or maybe like Ninerbuff said, I just figured out how to eat within my needs/goals.0 -
If you watch what you are eating 5-6 days/week and exercising regularly there is absolutely no reason why you can't have "days off".
I don't know about you guys but I for one am not going to shy away from a good meal and a beer when I'm out with friends on the weekends especially after I've been good with my foods all week. If anything it pushes me to work harder the next day (and indeed, depending on what I ingested sometimes an entire week) at the gym
Live to eat not eat to live peoples =D0 -
I think it depends on the person and their frame of mind. When I'm really into the health/weight loss thing a cheat meal once a week is a wonderful thing. It takes care of my cravings and generally doesn't impede my progress. When my resolve is wavering a cheat meal can send me into a week long spiral of eating poorly.0
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Cheat days are for those who haven't figured out how to lose weight while eating what they like in moderation. Till they do, they'll always cheat.
A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
How is that response helpful in any way? That makes it sound like you are bragging. Good for you? I am not sure how I can eat the things I love (like bagels, kitkat bars, donuts) in moderation without going over my calories. They are amazing, but not filling at all. I find responses like this to be unhelpful
Ninerbuff is one of the most knowledgeable & (surprising for this place) one of a small handful of gentlemen. You really needn't attack him or make accusations when you're advocating some diet trick. You asked for opinions. Don't get insulted when people (especially knowledgeable people) offer theirs
I was more irritated by the tone. If he had said "I am more an advocate of changing your lifestyle completely and recommend balance. So if you want to eat "cheat" foods balance that with as many calories burned in exercise" I wouldn't have been upset. The tone came across to me as "Well you aren't smart enough or don't have enough will power to eat only in moderation". It seemed rather patronizing to me, he didn't offer advice on HOW to learn to eat in moderation, or balance them, just said that if you cheat you are less evolved than him. That is what I took issue with, was the lack of helpful usable advice, he just dropped in and said "You only cheat if you aren't good enough" essentially and left. Not helpful to me. In fact people defending him were more helpful in explaining what he meant, and giving me better ideas on how to balance that latte I want with an extra 15 minutes on the treadmill than he was!
Also going to add I am sensitive to that as I have heard it way too often before, and it never ever helped me. People who didn't judge me, didn't tell me that my slip ups were related somehow to me not trying hard enough to balance things or whatever other stupid stuff are the ones who finally made me feel like I could lose weight. If I only ever had people like ninerbuff who said "You want that muffin, spend an hour on the treadmill and have a spinach leaf for dinner" I would have NEVER started dieting. It seems too extreme, and frankly never worked in the past for me, I always broke down over the constant strain of resisting what I wanted for months and regained it all plus 10 lbs.0 -
I don't think this question can be answered properly without understanding what one means by "cheat"? Do I have days where I allow myself less healthy choices and a few more calories? Yes, periodically. Do I have days where I just set out to gorge myself on as much fatty, high sugar food I can shove into my face hole before midnight? I did once. It was awful. Never again. I felt like ****. That's self defeating behavior.
This. I need how I eat to be sustainable for my life. That means that I need to be able to celebrate with others, I need to be able to eat "festival foods" sometimes, etc.
People think of food as treats and celebration because for most of human history, feasts were relatively rare. Even when I was a kid, restaurant meals were rare (and when we had them, the portion sizes weren't so ridiculous). So my goal is to eat more like that -- to acknowledge that treats are only "treats" if they're not daily occurrences, to enjoy eating more for certain special days with the knowledge that other days are about eating less (think of the historical cycle of "fast days and feast days" imposed by the Church, for example). I think of my goal as an average, and if I'm over one day, and under the next, it can all work out.
So yeah, it helps. But its' not a scheduled "today is my cheat day so I'm going to buy a bag of Doritos and eat the whole thing." It's not a scheduled day. Its the knowledge that if I take a (rare) day trip with my family to the Big City with all the awesome restaurants, going over my goal in order to try that awesome dessert isn't going to be the end of the world.
That's what I had to learn. "Treats are only treats if they're not daily occurences." Do you fast as well, btw? I did this Lent and it was amazing!0 -
I'm an IIFYM guy with 80/20 sort of rule but the fact is if you want to stay satiated on a relatively low calorie intake then the great majority of your food will have to be "clean". In these cases, a cheat/refeed can help with dietary adherance if they know they can have the "forbidden" item later that week. It can be a hinderance if they decide to eat anything and everything on this day and cancels out the deficit created during the week.
If you are at maintenance or surplus then there should be no reason to "cheat" IMO.
If you want to do a proper refeed, I'd recommend higher carbs, above maintenance cals and low fat. Still aim to get adequate protein.
If you are low carbing and glycogen depleted then there is more specific amounts of carbs required to replenish glycogen stores.0
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