Binge Days: Why they can be beneficial for your weight loss

After reading this string I wonder if I will ever post anything. People are so mean to each other on here. Can a person not post their opinion or what is working for them without everyone jumping down their throats. Geez.

Seriously. It is very difficult to be proud of an accomplishment when there are so many people who love to argue. Why are you here if you disagree? You don't have to agree with something.... But it is not nice to be so rude to people who are just trying to make suggestions.

I don't see gorging yourself until you are physically ill as an accomplishment. Nor do I think having a blowout day once a week where you gorge yourself is a good idea. Days where you go over calories? Sure. They happen. But depriving yourself most of the week and then having a "cheat day" where you "reward" yourself with food for being so good the rest of the week just seems like disordered eating* to me, as well as a recipe for disaster. It's very easy to blow your deficit doing that, and it makes it easier to start justifying behaviors that can derail your lifestyle because it's your "cheat day."

And as to why I'm here if I disagree….lots of people read these pages. You don't have to be a member here to view the forums. Lots of people are not well versed in food and nutrition. Posts like this have the potential to set people up for failure without there being some due diligence of presenting the other side.

*Disordered eating, not eating disorder. Two separate issues. Disordered eating has to do with the person's relationship with food and one can have disordered eating without being diagnosed with an eating disorder.

And then, after a weeks hard work, we go into the pantry, and go way over our calorie limit.

This is by far the primary reason I have been obese since I was in elementary school - the belief that at certain regular intervals I could depart from an otherwise relatively healthy way of eating and disregard the calorie content of food as if it was "free". This advice is definitely not for everyone, and for even more people, rather than have a "free" day, most people would benefit from logging all these calories to ensure they aren't going way over their calorie targets. Otherwise this leads to the "I did all the hard work but got no benefit" panic that sends people into emotional eating.

I honestly dislike the term "cheat day" or "cheat meal" as bad as "binge". I'm not in a relationship with my diet and I'm not misbehaving if I have a day where I don't stay at a calorie loss. Yes, word choice does matter and affects how you think.

Instead I have days where I plan that I'm not going to track. They aren't regularly occurring, but do crop up. For example on Mother's Day I will eat whatever appeals to me that day and not bother to track, but I'm not going to approach the day like "I'm out of prison I can have ANYTHING, so let's have EVERYTHING." Saturday was a "not going to bother to track" day because I took my son to the zoo. I still had my normal breakfast (around 200 calories), had my 80 calorie coffee at Starbucks while he had a treat of a blueberry muffin and chocolate milk, but when we were at the zoo I had a slice of pizza and an ice cream cone, and had my normal dinner. I might have finished the day in a deficit, and I might not, and honestly don't care. But I take comfort in knowing I didn't go nuts and have three giant meals and a Frap, etc. and kept using what I've learned.

There's actually some scientific data to back up why "cheat meals" or "refeed meals" are beneficial to fat-loss....it's all about planning, and knowing what *type* of "cheat" is the best for you goals...

http://averagefitnessfreak.com/refeed-to-lose-body-fat/

This is the start of what I was getting at. It is not required for the majority of people. Very lean people are the exception.

Also, from memory it only boosts leptin for a short period of time.

All about leptin here. http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-hormones-of-bodyweight-regulation-leptin-part-1.html

I'm def not an expert, but from what I understand it can also be beneficial to those eating at defect for long periods of time? From what I've researched, you go with a high carb/low protein and low fat re-feed.

So, to the OP's question, maybe not necessarily a regular cheat meal or day just for the sake of sanity...but just a way to boost levels back in order to help the continuation of fat loss....? Correct me if I'm wrong

Diet breaks Eating at maintenance for 2 weeks or so will be more beneficial for those in deficit for a long time than one reefed day. It does come down to the individual and there circumstances though.

Jtick, what a great comment!

Hang in there. The snarky people are usually the ones who need the most help. Being mean makes them feel better. I NEVER got from your post that you're a binger in the clinical sense. Folks need to go have a piece of chocolate and calm the **** down.

Direct quote from the OP "One day, after my mom had made a batch of about 20, I decided that my hard work should pay off so I ate the whole thing throughout the day, in it's entirety." How is that not a binge? That is not a free day or a cheat meal. That is a binge. Eating over your calorie limit is a cheat. Eating an entire pan of 20 brownies is a binge. There is nothing helpful or useful about eating an entire pan of brownies.