Cheat day?

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  • shawnnshinta
    shawnnshinta Posts: 37 Member
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    You can't cheat on just a meal!
    It won't work.
    That one meal you will find yourself adding up on your chart after all.

    Make it a full day, and don't add up any calories.
    Just log it as a "free day".

    I do have a "cheat day" which I call a " free day" , as in a day you don't have to work, as oppossed to day where your doing something wrong.

    All of us deserve a break, as long as we are working for it. you work 6 days, rest on the 7th.
  • ItsCasey
    ItsCasey Posts: 4,022 Member
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    I think a whole day is fine for someone who has achieved their weight loss goal and is in the maintenance phase or someone who only has a few more pounds to go and is trying to ease into maintenance. I know a lot of people who do that, and it seems to work well for them. But I still have about 30 more pounds to lose, and I have personal reservations about cheating for an entire day. It's a mental thing for me, I think. I'm terrified of falling back into my old habits.

    But I definitely allow myself one meal per week where I can eat anything I want. I think it's critical to surviving a "diet." When I first started dieting, I didn't have a cheat meal, and I held out for 10 weeks before I binged on pizza one day. I think my body was in shock for 2 or 3 days after that, and I never want that to happen again.

    This is just me, though. Obviously some people can handle it. I'm just too much of a control freak to cheat for a whole day.
  • superwmn
    superwmn Posts: 936
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    Yes, I sometimes have a cheat meal or just the whole day. Mentally it does me good and also gets my body out of a rut

    I also do this. I have free meals for special occasions (birthdays/anniversaries/parties) and free days on major holidays (Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years). I take no more than one free meal OR one free day each week. Some weeks, I have no events or holidays and don't take a free meal/free day.

    I've also found that free meals and free days can stimulate weight loss (don't weigh in the following day, obviously, but five or six days after a free meal/day I'm frequently down a pound or two from my pre-free meal/day weight).

    If I'm taking just a meal, I ensure it's at the end of the day. Makes it easier for me to stop at the meal.

    I also don't put myself in physical pain. It's not a contest to shovel everything in that I can. It's just a day or a meal that I don't track. Part of being flexible and living life.

    Charmagne
  • Marlys101
    Marlys101 Posts: 100
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    I don't plan them it just happens. This time of year is really tough for me. I feel guilty after I go over my calorie limit for the day and try harder the next day. :-)
  • howardrw
    howardrw Posts: 80 Member
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    I have a cheat day, and it is always on Sunday. On that day I just eat what I want to and that is my relax day as well, where I don't do any workouts.

    That following Monday, I am right back on the my eating plan.

    From reading everyone posting, some people only cheat with one meal while others like myeself do it for the whole day.

    I do feel that you need to as one person stated get out of a "rut". Sometimes you need to just enjoy yourself.

    Now I know that for some it is hard to have a cheat day only to go back on the diet plan.

    For me it has helped keep me going........

    Ho[e everyone stay the course.....
  • akeys5862
    akeys5862 Posts: 5
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    That commercial is soooo true!!! I always think of that in the morning before I make a bad decision!:laugh:

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