How far do you go on cheat days?

Why bother being good all week if you're going to blow it all on a binge? Makes absolutely no sense to me and smacks of disordered eating. If you have a good relationship with food then you shouldn't feel the need to "cheat" especially not an all day binge.

Going over your calorie allowance one day is NOT blowing your entire week. You're joking, right? Do your research, talk to a physician, nutritionist.. SOMETHING! It seems as if YOU have a more unhealthy relationship with food than the OP (if you can't even splurge once in awhile.) Sad.

I agree with you to a point. Let's put it this way. If you're shooting for 1/2 pound of weight loss per week that works out to about 1750-1800 calories. Is it possible to exceed your calorie allowance by that much in 1 day? For me it is and it's way too easy to do so. So in effect I agree with you, but then again, I guess I feel that it's a bit healthier to indulge earlier, more often and in smaller portions rather than using a cheat day.

I disagree with both of you. If a pound really is 3500 calories. It would be nothing for me to eat 3500 calories over in a single day. 5400 calories is just not that much. A standard old fashioned glazed donut is 450 alone. So yes a 1 day binge in my case can easily wipe out a weeks worth of being close to my calorie target.

Cheat Day once a month. 3000+ kcal

I can easily hit 4000+ cals on a cheat day.

1/2 Carton of Bourbon

BBQ

Dips and Desert.

Done it before, and ill damn well do it again!....(in moderation)

I'm in ;P

I can't do cheat days - if I plan a cheat day I will obsess on it, and then allow myself to cheat more and more. It's one thing once in a blue moon to have a piece of cake, and another to plan to have a piece of cake once a month. It drives me crazy. I just have to get that stuff out of my mental landscape, or I live with cravings.

I do the exact same thing. The thing I came up with is that I have a jar next to my bed and for every day that I follow my food guide without straying, I can put a quarter in the jar. At the end of each month, I can buy 1 really tasty terrible for you thing, like chocolate cake for instance, with what I have in the jar. However to make sure I didn't buy an entire cake or something I made the rule that it has to be something I can finish at the time I start eating it; ie no leftovers. To furthermore keep myself from straying I made the rule that if I go off from my food plan for a day, I can't just not put a quarter in the jar that day but have to empty it out and start entirely from scratch. I only just started this about a week and a half ago, but it's worked wonders for me. The only exceptions I allow are days when I'm out of town and have to eat out, or holidays like the fourth of July; I had one exception for eating out last Saturday, but I was really good about only making the one meal the stray from what I usually eat. It made me feel really proud of myself, because I always have the problem that the moment I stray just a little bit I lose control for the entire rest of the day. So controlling myself and allowing just the one meal made me really proud. I'm going to do the same for the fourth of July; it will be really hard, but because I still have my workouts and insanity to stick to, it will make me want to stay on the path so I don't make those workouts good for nothing. Wish me luck!

~always~ log everything. It helps keep you accountable.

As to how far I go... till I'm full. If that's my norm but other foods than I normally eat, so be it, if its something stupid high calorie and ends up 2000 over my norm... so be it. Most times I've found it's just a few hundred, maybe a thousand more than my normal amount... and it keeps the weird cravings to a minimum. I don't know that I count it as a cheat day, maybe more of a 'fix your weird cravings day' and I do it about once a month give or take.

I can easily hit 4000+ cals on a cheat day.

1/2 Carton of Bourbon

BBQ

Dips and Desert.

Done it before, and ill damn well do it again!....(in moderation)

I'm in ;P

Don't forget me guys, but you can both have the bourbon

To me cheat days when trying to lose weight makes as much sense as having a cheat day a week when I quit smoking. :noway:

lol, i eat way to much and i eat somtimes just to taste the food i wasn't able to eat before.If i log my cheat day i also usualy stay between 2,000 and 3,000 but when i don't log it i could go way over. Do you exercise on your cheat day?

All the way.


...I actually don't have cheat days. I eat what I want when I want to and while I do have days where I go over it's no more a cheat day then the days I'm under are 'bonus' days, or whatever. So basically I don't believe in cheat days or naughty days or whatever silly term we're using.

I try to avoid cheat days but sometimes I'll go over 300-500 cals especially if I don't get a workout in. Today however is a "fly across the country" day with multiple stops. Impossible to exercise and calorie-bomb airport food and drinks at every stop. Today is lost...but tomorrow is a new day.

On my cheat days I usually eat about the same amount of food as on a normal day. The difference is that I don't work out (it's a rest day) and typically those calories come from less nutrient-dense sources. I usually eat 2000-2500 per day but I burn 500-700 through exercise 5 times a week. Weekends are my rest time, thus my cheat time in a sense. Ice cream instead of chicken breast kind of cheating.

I don't necessarily allow myself an entire cheat day, but I'll allow a couple indulgences on the weekend mostly Saturday. BUT.....Saturday is when I do my long run of 10ish+ miles where I'll burn at least 1k calories so it doesn't have that big of an impact. Example, at brunch, I'll split french toast with my boyfriend. I don't go overboard.

Why bother being good all week if you're going to blow it all on a binge? Makes absolutely no sense to me and smacks of disordered eating. If you have a good relationship with food then you shouldn't feel the need to "cheat" especially not an all day binge.

I am along this thinking also but that is just my personal feeling....

This!

all the way.

I cheated yesterday, if you want to call it that. I ate an entire Lindt chocolate bar (entirely except for the squares my son and husband pilfered). I went over by 500 - 600 cals, close to what will one day be my maintenance numbers.

Do I feel bad about it? Nope.

Will it stall my weight loss? Probably not.

Do I feel superior or inferior compared to anyone else doing this weight loss thing? F no.