"I feel like a Snickers, so I'm gonna run 2 miles..."

I'm in a similar boat as MadDog... I will never have a normal relationship with food. For me, it's like an addiction, so the term "moderation" has no meaning. It's either zero donuts, or a dozen donuts... No in between. I realize many may not get that, but a heroin addict cant just have a little heroin once in a while...

So I just don't keep any of the "junk" in the house. Even buying a single candy bar is tricky, because it starts a pattern of buying another and another, etc.

I've learned to control my demons and eliminate 98% of the junk from my diet! and I'm in a good place. I can afford to eat "worse" at this point, but it would be opening a Pandora's box. However, given how tightly I track everything, and given that I do not want to live a life of deprivation, I am curious to try the approach of allowing myself the "junk" contingent on me working it off (above and beyond my normal routine). My hope is that I either end up deciding that the junk is not worth the extra work, and that's great. Or it is worth the extra work, and I can hold myself accountable. I just want to make sure that even though it is win-win in theory, it would be the same in application.

Dude, I feel you. I'm another "all or nothing" type. I gained a good 140 lbs off the back of this way of thinking. In the past the only success I had with weight loss was heavily restricting my trigger foods, which are various sweets. So much of a trigger were they that they would trigger me to overeat on foods that I normally wouldn't have a problem at all resisting.

I now fold everything into my diet. I make my diet about 70-80% of meat, veg, fruit, healthy fats. I love eating this way and it makes me feel great. However I finally allowed my old favorites back in. I have learned moderation, but not the way most people around here define it.

I am not a "2 cookies a night" guy; people around here who brag about having "treats" every night, with their half a cup of ice cream, might as well be living on Uranus to me. If I get a pack of oreos there is a very real possibility that I'm eating the entire thing. I finally, after much, much trial and error arrived to the point where I stopped moralizing my food choices, dropped the guilt and consternation, and actually embraced my natural inclinations. So I play to the strengths, instead of fighting the weakness. I go out and buy a pack of oreos, or a half gallon of ice cream, or a box of snack cakes, whatever, and give myself full permission to eat as much as I want. And I do. The big difference is that I've just finally learned how to let it go. So I'll have a monster day, week, or hell sometimes a couple weeks, of eating all the sweets and then go weeks, or months, without. I now tell myself that I can have what I want, as much as I want, so this actually has led to me finally being able to just say "OK, well if I can have it when I want, as much as I want, then I can just wait".

IFing has helped me tremendously to avoid weight overages for the most part and intuitive eating has done wonders to eliminate the peripheral triggering sweets use to do with the other foods. So now my pack of oreos doesn't need to be accompanied by a pasta dinner, or a huge burger and fries. The biggest thing was learning I had nothing to fear with these foods, and that the tools I use now finally give me the freedom, and control, I need to manage my "all or nothing" approach to these trigger foods.

I'm having my cake and eating it too.

At this point I don't even want to change.

It can be done but it has limits.

Your body can only take so much exercise. Which means that yeah you can burn off that treat but it's still going to put wear and tear fatigue on your joints and muscles. So yes by all means use it a little. Just don't go overboard and over train.

IIFIMM. Hate to be so passe, but if I burned an "extra" 400 cals that day, I'll eat something "fattening" (I hate that term by the way, because either everything or nothing can be fattening, lol), that night if i want to. But I wouldn't specifically plan it that way. My way of eating is relaxed and flexible- as long as I'm in a defict 80% of the time while cutting, it's all good....

We've all said something like that before. Either proactively or reactively.,, we've run off a slice of pizza after the fact, or worked out ahead of time in anticipation of a snack or meal.

Is this healthy and effective for a maintenance lifestyle? No facetiousness.

I would imagine that if you are measuring and hitting your marks with these adjustments, then it's fine. I also would think that the thought process of action/consequence as it relates to junk food and exercise is a good balance. Yet... I dunno... Something about the philosophy seems almost unnatural.

Do you subscribe to this approach? Has it made you snack more? Have you maintained? Any thoughts to add?

^ I do this as well big time, but I munch a protein bar... its as bad as a snickers but at least your spared having another shake XD

Boy... Some of you took me super literally with the Snickers. It was more of a metaphor.

I see lots of people saying if it's for a small treat or snack or moderation, it's ok. But what if I want a real binge day? Let's say I don't want to borrow from other days, I just want my 1500 budget to be a 3000 budget for the day. Does a 15k morning run validate or negate my afternoon binge? Or have we crossed some undefined threshold?

Isn't this, basically, how MFP (as opposed to TDEE) works? You eat back your exercise calories, so if you have a bunch of exercise calories... Most people seem to exercise each day to gain more calories every day, I suspect some people actually exercise a lot every day to be able to eat pretty much anything.

If you have a big even and know you are going to be indulging, build up a deficit. Obviously (and from your posts I expect you feel it is obvious as well but someone is bound to not think so) be sure to hit you macro/micro nutrient goals that day rather than simply gorging on chips, but otherwise enjoy your feast. (of course you may end up feeling ill the next day if your body isn't used to that type of feasting anymore - but that is a different issue)

Completely agree. The entire point of MFP is counting calories. And counting exercise due to exercise. It' all calories in the end.

Last week I had 600/calorie slices of pizza. It wasn't a "binge" or whatever silly and stupid term. I had two slices and later I did 1200 calories worth of exercise.

This coming Sunday I'm planning to go to a Sunday Brunch where I'm probably going to clear away ~5000 calories. I have my logging already done along with the associated exercise.

Whether it's 50 calories or 5000 calories, the idea is exactly the same, Calories out > calories in. There is no "threshold" that's being crossed.

Better than regular snickers, in my opinion. YUM. haven't had one of those in like 3 years now...its been too long....and not because I've been dieting......I just haven't seen them around in the stores.

Ditto the 'all or nothing' type. I can't do the treat thing, though some can with no problem.

I will say this: Having that candy bar will usually (not always) result in you wanting another candy bar at some point. I find that cutting something like candy bars out entirely for a long enough period of time will eventually kill the craving for them. Most of the time.

Yes I do this and it's like a reward system sort of. I'll go biking for an hour and then I can eat extra calories without feeling guilty or worse gaining weight.

@apriltrainer

Just because I view exercise as a vehicle for adding calories doesn't mean I view it as punishment.

I added weight lifting to my routine, I've always wanted to get back into it. Also, my current routine didn't allow me to eat enough calories to have the things I wanted. So I started weight lifting.

I mean, a lot of the reason was to eat more food, but I don't view it as a punishment.