"Cheat Meals" while maintaing weight

lenahemmer
lenahemmer Posts: 4 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Ok, so I'm currently in the process of recovery from my ED (where I ate between 800-1200 calories a day) that I developed during my weight loss process. I am finally at a weight I want to maintain and am slowly trying to recover and up my calories again (Im currently at about 1450 a day). I exercise 6 days a week with either varsity track or cross country so I realize that my calories still aren't enough ~ but Im working brining them up!!
Anyway, during this process of eating to maintain I have been eating incredibly healthy and counting all my calories to make sure I am eating enough, however my friends want to go out and either get Chinese or pancakes or something like that for dinner and I want to be able to go and enjoy a meal with them like a normal teenager. I am confident that I wouldn't binge, I would just eat the meal and be done for the night. However, im worried- will this mess up my maintenance? Let's say one night (after eating and exercising as I normally do in the morning) that I have an order of chocolate chip pancakes at a diner, how would this effect me? Do I need to eat less the next day? Will the calories make me gain weight and if so if I eat to maintain the days after that, will I maintain my new weight? or will my weight eventually go back down? This may all seem silly but I just want to go out and have a meal with my friends and not burden them with my need to count calories. I realize a lot of people say they log everything and just exercise accordingly but I cant calculate this kind of food accurately. I just want to be able to eat one not so healthy meal once a month or so and not feel sick the next day or gain any long term weight from it! Please help!!

Replies

  • TheAllAmericanPagan
    TheAllAmericanPagan Posts: 3
    If you want to go out and eat just work it into your macros. You can eat egg whites and oats for breakfast and chicken breast and veggies for lunch and throw in a cottage cheese snack and still be under 1k calories. Those are solid macros and you'll have room left to throw down some dirty food as long as you don't over do it. As long as you're hitting your numbers it really doesn't matter where it comes from.
  • jamesisaac108
    jamesisaac108 Posts: 27
    I would say I run as much as you and I would say three or four "cheat meals" a week should be fine for maintenance. Though I would stop calling them cheat meals and just enjoy yourself with your friends.
  • SPNLuver83
    SPNLuver83 Posts: 2,050 Member
    So you say that you know you aren't eating enough, and 1450 is your "maintenance". A cheat meal with your friends isn't going to hurt you, and you don't need to "do anything extra" to accommodate it. You need to eat more so I think this will actually help you.
  • lenahemmer
    lenahemmer Posts: 4 Member
    so you guys are saying the day after if I just continue on with what I'm doing (excercising and eatting right) my maintenance wont suffer?
  • junnipr
    junnipr Posts: 18 Member
    you might gain wieght because of water retention, but im sure, after 2 or 3 days you are back to the numbers!
    just be smart!! if it worries u too much, look at the menu and pick the best option possible!! but dont let that stop u from going out with ur friends!! Those memories stay for life!!
  • H0neybug
    H0neybug Posts: 47 Member
    You are young and active...I'm worried that you are worried about "cheat meals". Since you have said you have an eating disorder I would have this conversation with your therapist.

    Having a normal, healthy balance of foods in your diet is the ultimate goal of everyone...going off track of what we perceive to be correct meals will not effect us unless we continue long term.

    I went on vacation for a week, ate and drank what I wanted, which surprisingly was still mostly good decisions because my body feels better eating better foods. My clothes still fit, I didn't go on a binger after I got home, I continued my normal eating plan pre vacation.

    I eat at IHOP at 2am with friends, I have an occasional drink with friends, I eat chocolate chips by the handful when I need to, but mostly I stay on track.

    Enjoy life, what you do the majority of the time will overrule what you do occasionally!

    Have fun!
  • xmichaelyx
    xmichaelyx Posts: 883 Member
    You are young and active...I'm worried that you are worried about "cheat meals". Since you have said you have an eating disorder I would have this conversation with your therapist.

    This. They're not "cheat meals"; they're meals. Eat them.
  • csuhar
    csuhar Posts: 779 Member
    so you guys are saying the day after if I just continue on with what I'm doing (excercising and eatting right) my maintenance wont suffer?

    Like many people have said in these forums, you didn't put on your weight with one meal, and you didn't lose it with one meal, so you're not going to mess up your maintenance with one meal.

    Especially when you're looking to maintain your weight in a certain range (not at a specific weight), you're going to be looking to average over time. Some days you'll go above, some day's you'll come up short.

    But if this kind of meal is going to be a rare thing, I wouldn't worry about it.
  • Pirate_chick
    Pirate_chick Posts: 1,216 Member
    You are young and active...I'm worried that you are worried about "cheat meals". Since you have said you have an eating disorder I would have this conversation with your therapist.

    This. They're not "cheat meals"; they're meals. Eat them.

    yuppers.
  • milileitner
    milileitner Posts: 98 Member
    The idea of recovery is to have a normal relationship with food. A really great way to judge what that means is to take a lead from your friends. if they are managing to eat and stay healthy while going out once or twice a week for a meal, what makes you think you can't too? I think it's a great idea to go with them.

    Whether you should be counting and restricting calories via this site is another question...
  • enchantedgardener
    enchantedgardener Posts: 214 Member
    so you guys are saying the day after if I just continue on with what I'm doing (excercising and eatting right) my maintenance wont suffer?

    Yes.

    In fact, I'm sure you could go out for a meal with your friends once a week. Every week. And not ever have to worry about your maintenance. Your body averages out calories over several days. So if you have one high calorie meal one day, it'll balance itself out over the course of a week of lower calorie days. No need to worry about it affecting your weight whatsoever.

    Go out with your friends. Enjoy yourself.
  • sarahstrezo
    sarahstrezo Posts: 568 Member
    The idea of recovery is to have a normal relationship with food. A really great way to judge what that means is to take a lead from your friends. if they are managing to eat and stay healthy while going out once or twice a week for a meal, what makes you think you can't too? I think it's a great idea to go with them.

    Whether you should be counting and restricting calories via this site is another question...

    Ditto this.
    Stop calling it a cheat meal. it's a meal. Just a meal. No better or worse than any other meal you eat.
  • nomorebingesgirl2014
    nomorebingesgirl2014 Posts: 378 Member
    Bump
  • 47Jacqueline
    47Jacqueline Posts: 6,993 Member
    Calling something a "cheat meal" means that you haven't absorbed the philosophy of this website. The point is to re-orient your lifestyle and learn to balance your eating and exercising as well as rest and rejoining life at a better level of participation.
  • PennyVonDread
    PennyVonDread Posts: 432 Member
    I was 190 last year, I'm 140 now. I couldn't always afford to eat, so when my family bought me (usually terrible calorie bombs) food, like nachos, I ate it. All of it. Even so, I've steadily lost about a pound a week for a year now, and even when I didn't have internet and didn't count calories for some weeks.

    Just don't make it a daily habit. You can have a "cheat" meal, a "cheat" day, or even weekend occassionally. Just be conscious of it, don't lie to yourself about it, and move on.

    I don't like the word "cheat" because it implies my food is a moral decision which it absolutely isn't. It's a practical decision and attributes to both my comfort level (because starvation sucks) and survival. Some days I eat more, some days I eat less.

    Live and allow yourself to eat, make the most reasonable menu choices when you can, and don't fear pizza if someone offers you a slice. It takes a lot of calories to gain a pound, and unless you'e binging until sick, you'll likely maintain.
  • hrod215
    hrod215 Posts: 163 Member
    You are young and active...I'm worried that you are worried about "cheat meals". Since you have said you have an eating disorder I would have this conversation with your therapist.

    Having a normal, healthy balance of foods in your diet is the ultimate goal of everyone...going off track of what we perceive to be correct meals will not effect us unless we continue long term.

    I went on vacation for a week, ate and drank what I wanted, which surprisingly was still mostly good decisions because my body feels better eating better foods. My clothes still fit, I didn't go on a binger after I got home, I continued my normal eating plan pre vacation.

    I eat at IHOP at 2am with friends, I have an occasional drink with friends, I eat chocolate chips by the handful when I need to, but mostly I stay on track.

    Enjoy life, what you do the majority of the time will overrule what you do occasionally!

    Have fun!

    THIS! Definitely this!

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