Cheat days

blue696
blue696 Posts: 94 Member
in Food and Nutrition
How do you keep cheat days from getting out of hand?

I tend to feel that my cheat day I can just go all out, and then I really over eat

Replies

  • WiltedFitness
    WiltedFitness Posts: 6 Member
    No "Cheat Day" think of it only as a cheat meal once in a while. I do one every 3 weeks about. I try to pick one meal to cheat on and I tell myself I can't have it all. So I may have a cheat dinner with a cheat drink but then no appetizer or dessert. I tell myself pick 2 (1 felt too restricted).
  • abadvat
    abadvat Posts: 1,241 Member
    How about tracking everything in your cheat meal or day and making it fit your macros!!?
  • williams969
    williams969 Posts: 2,528 Member
    Log it. I have high calorie days here and there, no "set" cheat day/meal. But when I do feel like eating extra some days, I still log it all as accurately as I can.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
    I don't have cheat meals/days. I eat what I want as long as I am able to reach my protein goals for the day and remain within my calorie limit. I mean, I've had homemade protein cheesecake for 3 days straight, I ate a donut and a bowl of kettle corn while waiting for my chicken thighs to bake, I've had PMS urges and thus decided to eat all the fudgsicles in existence.

    As long as you exercise true moderation and do not demonize food (i.e. there is no "good" or "bad" food), it's very easy to eat the things you love and not go overboard.

    ETA: I follow the IIFYM mentality, although I'm pretty lenient on carbs and fats as long as I hit my protein for the day.
  • Amandastan
    Amandastan Posts: 30
    Unless you are morbidly obese a cheat day should be fine once or twice a week.
  • nicsflyingcircus
    nicsflyingcircus Posts: 2,899 Member
    I've had homemade protein cheesecake for 3 days straight

    I must know how this is accomplished!

    ETA: The making of protein cheesecake, not the eating of it. I've had ice cream twice in the past 4 nights, and birthday cake saturday, also dark chocolate most every day.
  • MinimalistShoeAddict
    MinimalistShoeAddict Posts: 1,946 Member
    How about tracking everything in your cheat meal or day and making it fit your macros!!?

    I agree with this. If your meal has too many calories to fit you daily calorie/macro goals, you can switch to weekly calorie/macro goals instead. With weekly goals, its easy to have a 5,000 calorie day and still stay on target for the week.

    Intermittent fasting can be helpful for compensating for "cheat days" as well
  • Wantingtolose1
    Wantingtolose1 Posts: 139 Member
    If you feel you need it maybe just eat at maintenance for a day. That was you have extra calories but are not going to gain any weight from eating more
  • DR2501
    DR2501 Posts: 661 Member
    'Cheat day' is dangerous. Think of your deficit in terms of a weekly number not daily and then you'll see that you can easily undo all of your progress in a 'cheat day'. I have a cheat meal on Saturdays, either a nice meal out or a takeaway with a few beers. Although, usually I can keep this either within my allowance or only go over by 200cals or so.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
    I've had homemade protein cheesecake for 3 days straight

    I must know how this is accomplished!

    ETA: The making of protein cheesecake, not the eating of it. I've had ice cream twice in the past 4 nights, and birthday cake saturday, also dark chocolate most every day.

    This is the recipe I used, although it's not actual cheesecake.. it's greek yogurt. BUt I suspect you could easily just use normal cheesecake filling with the protein-enriched crust! I don't recommend using Truvia though, it came out... a bit weird. But still good. MIght just be that its aftertaste lessened the cheesy-ish taste of the yogurt. Or needs something to make it more cheesy.

    http://www.busybuthealthy.com/cheesecake-protein-bars/

    I made it a chocolate coconut crust though. 4tbsp coconut oil instead of butter, and... I forget the measurements but I have it as 50 grams of graham crumbs and 20g of cocoa powder. Might have been like 1/2 cup for graham crumbs and 1/4 cup for cocoa.
  • Shropshire1959
    Shropshire1959 Posts: 982 Member
    How do you keep cheat days from getting out of hand?

    By NOT having any! ... Who do you think that you are cheating? Stop messing around with fads and change your whole eating lifestyle.
  • GatorDeb1
    GatorDeb1 Posts: 245 Member
    5'4", 230 lbs to a current 121.5 lbs, over five years since I lost the weight. I don't have cheat. I love what I eat so much I don't need to cheat on it.
  • joepage612
    joepage612 Posts: 179 Member
    I did a few cheat days and gained 5 pounds back. and fast.
  • CupcakeCrusoe
    CupcakeCrusoe Posts: 1,440 Member
    Either I don't cheat or I cheat every day, depending on how you look at it. I've eaten pie or a cupcake every evening this week, and I'm still losing. When you fit food you love in, you don't feel as much urge to binge, which is what you're afraid a cheat meal might do, yes?

    When I feel the urge to plan to just go full ham on the weekends, I plan something fun to do that doesn't involve food at all, then I have something to look forward to other than "eat pizza/beer/ice cream/truffles/ALL THE THINGS"
  • sharonnj398
    sharonnj398 Posts: 189 Member
    Track everything and use the numbers to consider the worth of your splurge. If you shoot over your calorie mark by thousands in one day, the deficit for the rest of the week may not result in a net loss.

    For example, I ate out last week and didn't look up calories in advance because I still had 1200 calories left for the day (lot of exercise earlier). I had a 1,100 calorie appetizer - tasted great, of course. But then I came home and when I logged my appetizer, cocktail and entree on MFP, I saw the number.

    Since my daughter was with me and ate fried green beans for 900 calories a plate, we went for an hour-long walk, and then I was up early the next day walking again. If I had not eaten out, those walks could have been helping me lose weight by adding to my regular deficit rather than burning off the tasty goodness of my splurge to prevent the scale from creeping up.
  • elbaldwin0525
    elbaldwin0525 Posts: 159 Member
    Half the responses on this didn't even answer the question. The way to prevent cheat days from getting out of hand is to 1. remember its a cheat day and just eat what you want....do not weigh in the next day or a few days after or 2. before the cheat meal, drink plenty of water and eat something that will fill you up (i.e. vegetables etc). This way your pretty much full so you wont gorge on burgers, fries, pizza, whatever youre having.

    Also, you could try fitting it into your calories but then it would be a cheat day...cheat days are designed for you to get all those cravings out of your system. Only way to fit some pizza into your macros is to restrict your self to a slice or two and i dont know about you but Im not eating just two slices of pizza, cheat day or not
  • Patttience
    Patttience Posts: 975 Member
    Cheat days are a bad idea. If you want to eat unhealthy food, make rules for when and how much you can eat. personally i don't do it with anything i feel i can't control.
  • RachaelWoo
    RachaelWoo Posts: 7
    I have a cheat 'meal' every Wednesday and my friends and I go to the pub for a meal, a couple drinks and a quiz. I log my breakfast and my lunch, but i don't log my dinner or drinks - i find it really helpful as it means i'm better at saying 'NO!' to takeout after a long day at work. Plus, it gives me something to look forward to every week!
  • MzKelzBellz
    MzKelzBellz Posts: 1 Member
    hmm.. cheating is never a good idea lol.. however if you feel the need to have some days in the week to introduce some extra calories in the way of extra food, why not? :D Decide what extra foods you intend to have that day, but instead of every meal being an overload of max calories its probably more reasonable to have a couple of high calorie meals like breakfast & lunch as an idea. I love food and so I am very selective when it comes to my chosen higher calorie foods :) and so I know exactly what I want on my higher calorie days - and surprisingly its as plain as specialty bread for a gourmet sandwich or mashed potatoes & gravy! lol.. and I always plan a dessert once a week :D I do this because I want these foods included in my diet from time to time, but I don't think of it as cheating. You do need to be specific and selective, so take a minute to think about what foods you really love and enjoy and differently include them :D How I work my higher calorie days in is around how I train. I hope this helps and whatever negatives are created around eating the foods you love are better put into perspective and you can enjoy your food without the guilt! ;)
  • willnorton
    willnorton Posts: 995 Member
    personally I DON"T believe in CHEAT days....the word itself says it all.....

    you are cheating yourself out of good health......

    find an eating plan that works for you for life!

    you have plenty of food so you dont have to cheat....


    dont rob yourself.... one step forward, two steps back...


    GO PALEO
  • martyqueen52
    martyqueen52 Posts: 1,120 Member
    Don't do a cheat day.

    Do a cheat MEAL.

    Example: On Saturday, I always go to a local Italian pastry shop and get two cookies, a cream horn, and a brownie or a slice of cake... whichever they have on hand.

    I don't count the calories, because really, there's no way to. I eat the rest of the day like I normally would, just keep my carbs lower since I ate a bunch of sweets... and just do 30 minutes of resistance cardio, and walk my two dogs for 2-3 miles.

    I believe in cheat meals since it's an opportunity to get in those ... FOODS you crave. It's a once a week thing, it won't hurt you.

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