cheat days

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missytow
missytow Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Are cheat days really a good thing? My husband and I have been talking about a cheat day. I've heard that once in a while they are good we where thinking like once a month. What do you think?

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  • 4legsRbetterthan2
    4legsRbetterthan2 Posts: 19,590 MFP Moderator
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    You will have to find out how they work for you. For some people they are a good break and head off cravings. For other people they open a door back into old habits, jumpstart cravings, and enable them to backslide. Bottum line is cheat day or not you still have to log it if you want to know what results you should be getting.
  • elizabethharper123
    elizabethharper123 Posts: 5
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    Well, if you feel a real craving for a food, it might be good to go ahead and eat a smaller serving of it. This may sound silly, but a kid's meal at mcdonald's is really an appropriate serving size for an adult!

    Most of your food should be full of nutrition, but every week or so you should treat yourself :) But a treat shouldn't go over your calorie allowance. It just means you get a chocolate bar instead of a piece of whole wheat toast
  • fryfat
    fryfat Posts: 36 Member
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    I believe the rationale behind it is that when your metabolism slows down from your body going into starvation mode and your weight plateaus, the cheat day supposedly kicks your metabolism back into gear so you can get back to losing.

    Sounds reasonable, but then again most things do. I couldn't find any studies showing the effects of cheat days.
  • IoveIy
    IoveIy Posts: 27 Member
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    I personally don't like cheat days because it's taking away from a lifestyle change and because depending on how severe the cheat is, it's really just prolonging your goal. It's prolonging the length of time between your diet calories and your maintenance calories.

    Remember, once you're done dieting, you can't go back to your old eating habits/foods or you'll gain the weight back. The best advice I can give you is that if you're losing weight from eating vegetables, fruits, fish, light yogurts, or what have you, you have to maintain your goal weight by eating those same foods just with bigger portions or added healthy snacks. You can't go back to a high carb, high sugar lifestyle (for example).

    What happened to me is that I have been eating healthy for so long that I don't even crave junk food anymore.

    "Eating something against your diet is only enjoyable for the time it takes to devour it. Immediately after, you're left with guilt and you've just prolonged the time until your goal." - Me

    Best of luck! :)
  • 4legsRbetterthan2
    4legsRbetterthan2 Posts: 19,590 MFP Moderator
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    I believe the rationale behind it is that when your metabolism slows down from your body going into starvation mode and your weight plateaus, the cheat day supposedly kicks your metabolism back into gear so you can get back to losing.

    Sounds reasonable, but then again most things do. I couldn't find any studies showing the effects of cheat days.

    cheat days have not effect on your metabolism

    also, starvation mode is a myth based on poor interpretation of real data
  • jwat90
    jwat90 Posts: 178 Member
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    For me, I can't really allow myself to have a cheat "day". I know I would completely derail. So what I like to do is have a meal once a week, usually Sunday after church with my family, but once a week I will get a meal that I normally wouldn't. But I will stop when I am full and not clean my plate like I used to always do. That way I don't feel completely restricted from certain foods and at the same time don't completely sabotage my weight loss.
  • KateK8LoseW8
    KateK8LoseW8 Posts: 824 Member
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    I personally did a cheat day whenever there was an occasion to do it, like a birthday, holiday, anniversary, what have you. Didn't schedule them on a regular basis. On my cheat days I would try to consume no more than 500 calories over maintenance, and then cut 100 calories from the next 5 days to basically make that day maintenance in the long run. Now that I'm actually in long-term maintenance, my cheat days are more like "exercise a little bit too much so I can eat millions of jaffa cakes tonight."
  • rsclause
    rsclause Posts: 3,103 Member
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    Cheat days don't exist, there is no such thing. If you go over you are over but don't plan it like its an event. Its just kicking the can further down the road and your goal with it.

    My 2 cents
  • Sarahsteve7kids
    Sarahsteve7kids Posts: 146 Member
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    I don't like the term 'cheat days'! I count my calories by the week, from Friday-Thursday. By having a weekly allowance of calories no two days are the same. I feel no guilt or cravings as I can have what ever I want as long as I don't exceed my calories for the week! My weight is falling off super fast this way! Tomorrow is 2 months and I'm down over 30 pounds I also haven't felt like I've been on a diet even once!
  • sheedy17
    sheedy17 Posts: 128
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    I have a cheat day once a week, usually on my weight in day, which is saturday, that way i see my works progress and then know what my weight is and then I have a cheat meal or a snack i am craving, I usually do it once a week or once every two weeks

    To me it motivates me to eat perfectly healthy for a week as if I get a craving I know I can have it on a certain day.

    Just my 2 cents but I think a cheat day a week really helps, I have lost 65 pounds so far and have had my set backs but when i stick to things , it works.
  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,951 Member
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    What's a cheat day?

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