I cheated yesterday

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mom2boys
mom2boys Posts: 60 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I went over my calories yesterday, and I feel SO guilty! I know as long as I don't do it all the time, it's ok. But this was my first time in 6 weeks! I didn't use my exercise calories though, I try not to. SO, I guess technically, I didn't go over, but then I did. Going off of this, how many of you allow yourself a "cheat day" or meal? And when you do, do you feel guilty at all?

Replies

  • catysthename
    catysthename Posts: 278 Member
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    You are supposed to use your exercise calories or else it will be harder to lose weight.
  • UmbraForzare
    UmbraForzare Posts: 137
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    I allow myself a cheat day - although I don't call it that because it kinda makes it seem like a negative thing to my mind.

    For me, it's just a day where I'm not super strict with myself, I'm not obsessing about calories and I just relax and allow myself a little more flexibility and a treat if I want one.
    Saying that, I don't go overboard with it :laugh: but I don't feel guilty if on that one day I go over my limit, it just means that for the week ahead I plan so that things are balanced out.
  • owlwomyn
    owlwomyn Posts: 50 Member
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    Everyone has a day like that once in a while! However, If you didn't eat your excercise calories and you were still within your allowable calorie amountrange then you are FINE!
  • jfer1977
    jfer1977 Posts: 139
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    Don't feel guilty. Everyone needs to "cheat" every now and then to stay on track. The way my husband and I eat we follow how Bill Philips lays it out in his cookbook "Eating For Life". We eat healthy all week and have one "free day". Ours is normally Friday's. It's a day to eat what you've been craving so you are more likely to stay on track the rest of the week. It's been working great for us for the last three years.
  • debcarv
    debcarv Posts: 256 Member
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    I have done a cheat day, but try not to feel guilty if I planned it. If one happens that I had not allowed extra calories for that
    really bothers me, yes. Try not to beat yourself up if you usually stay on track. It's what we do continually that really counts!
    Deb
  • lclarius
    lclarius Posts: 34 Member
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    I do and I do feel guilty but I know i am making a life style change and some days will be better then others. Ill give myself those moments and just try to be better the next day. Its especially hard when i go over and feel guilty and look back and think wow that was totally not worth it. But i guess it just means next time I'll know and do better. Good luck!
  • fitnezrox
    fitnezrox Posts: 41
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    Try not to think of it as "cheating", and more of making healthy and not so healthy choices. The minute we start using negative terms for food or denying yourself a food group, it makes you want it that much more.........remember when you were a kid and mom and dad said you couldn't (fill in blank here), didn't it make you want it all that much more?!
    There are going to be days where you will make extrememly healthy choices and days where you may choose a slighlty unhealthier menu. It's okay, it is called life, lol. As long as you are tracking your foods, and realizing what you are puting into your mouth, and having way more healthy days that unhealthy days you will be okay. Losing weight is a marathon not a race, and there will be many lessons learned along the way. I don't think you should eat all your exercise calories back, but may eat some of them back. After all you are exercising so that there is a caloric deficit in order to lose weight, right?! If you are eating all those calories back, how will there be a caloric deficit? It takes 3500 calories burned (by exercise and caloric deficit) to lose one pound of fat. So as you go along this journey of lifestyle change, remember you goals, allow yourself the opportunity to learn along the way, and make positive healthy changes.

    Have a happy and healthy day
    Kim
  • JustAnotherBob
    JustAnotherBob Posts: 33
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    Try not to think of it as "cheating", and more of making healthy and not so healthy choices. The minute we start using negative terms for food or denying yourself a food group, it makes you want it that much more.........remember when you were a kid and mom and dad said you couldn't (fill in blank here), didn't it make you want it all that much more?!
    There are going to be days where you will make extrememly healthy choices and days where you may choose a slighlty unhealthier menu. It's okay, it is called life, lol. As long as you are tracking your foods, and realizing what you are puting into your mouth, and having way more healthy days that unhealthy days you will be okay. Losing weight is a marathon not a race, and there will be many lessons learned along the way. I don't think you should eat all your exercise calories back, but may eat some of them back. After all you are exercising so that there is a caloric deficit in order to lose weight, right?! If you are eating all those calories back, how will there be a caloric deficit? It takes 3500 calories burned (by exercise and caloric deficit) to lose one pound of fat. So as you go along this journey of lifestyle change, remember you goals, allow yourself the opportunity to learn along the way, and make positive healthy changes.

    Have a happy and healthy day
    Kim

    Ditto what fitnezrox said :smile:
  • mom2boys
    mom2boys Posts: 60 Member
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    You are supposed to use your exercise calories or else it will be harder to lose weight.

    I didn't know that! Good to know!
  • mom2boys
    mom2boys Posts: 60 Member
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    Don't feel guilty. Everyone needs to "cheat" every now and then to stay on track. The way my husband and I eat we follow how Bill Philips lays it out in his cookbook "Eating For Life". We eat healthy all week and have one "free day". Ours is normally Friday's. It's a day to eat what you've been craving so you are more likely to stay on track the rest of the week. It's been working great for us for the last three years.

    Wow, that's not a bad deal. I could go with one day where I eat what I crave instead of feel so guilty.
  • katekrise
    katekrise Posts: 178 Member
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    I have a cheet day about once per week. I just have a nice dinner without counting calories. It seems to work for me. I've lost 12 lbs. since January 30th.
  • mom2boys
    mom2boys Posts: 60 Member
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    Try not to think of it as "cheating", and more of making healthy and not so healthy choices. The minute we start using negative terms for food or denying yourself a food group, it makes you want it that much more.........remember when you were a kid and mom and dad said you couldn't (fill in blank here), didn't it make you want it all that much more?!
    There are going to be days where you will make extrememly healthy choices and days where you may choose a slighlty unhealthier menu. It's okay, it is called life, lol. As long as you are tracking your foods, and realizing what you are puting into your mouth, and having way more healthy days that unhealthy days you will be okay. Losing weight is a marathon not a race, and there will be many lessons learned along the way. I don't think you should eat all your exercise calories back, but may eat some of them back. After all you are exercising so that there is a caloric deficit in order to lose weight, right?! If you are eating all those calories back, how will there be a caloric deficit? It takes 3500 calories burned (by exercise and caloric deficit) to lose one pound of fat. So as you go along this journey of lifestyle change, remember you goals, allow yourself the opportunity to learn along the way, and make positive healthy changes.

    Have a happy and healthy day
    Kim

    This is AWESOME iunput! Thank you so much for saying this. I'm learning a lot. And I had no idea that 3500 calories burned equals one pound lost, very interesting!
  • jfer1977
    jfer1977 Posts: 139
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    Don't feel guilty. Everyone needs to "cheat" every now and then to stay on track. The way my husband and I eat we follow how Bill Philips lays it out in his cookbook "Eating For Life". We eat healthy all week and have one "free day". Ours is normally Friday's. It's a day to eat what you've been craving so you are more likely to stay on track the rest of the week. It's been working great for us for the last three years.

    Wow, that's not a bad deal. I could go with one day where I eat what I crave instead of feel so guilty.


    Forgot to mention.....I also log as much as possible on our "free day" just to keep on track with the logging and to remind me why I don't eat like that all the time. When I see it on here it really puts it into perspective.
  • taso42_DELETED
    taso42_DELETED Posts: 3,394 Member
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    In my book, it's a free day not a cheat day. It's once a week and feeling guilty is not allowed. I call it free day because it's part of the plan. Whereas cheat day implies breaking some kind of rule.
  • SheliaN1960
    SheliaN1960 Posts: 454 Member
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    Mr. america 2x winner here in the town where I live, said that your body's metabloism will boost up if you give yourself one (1) cheat meal a week! I did it last week and this week everyone is saying that I look like I lost more weight! Maybe they know I cheated!!! I know that feeling and doesn't if feel great to understand what healthy is all about? Best wishes!!!
  • marber
    marber Posts: 118 Member
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    I call it a maintenance day.

    I am set at 1lb per week which is a deficit of 500 calories a day, so if I go up to 500 calories over it is just what my maintenance calories would be. I try not to do it too often but all it is going to do is slow weight loss a little not stop it.
  • 123456654321
    123456654321 Posts: 1,311 Member
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    CHEATED?!?!??! GO TO YOUR ROOM RIGHT NOW YOUNG LADY.....YOU'RE GROUNDED!!! ;P

    jk jk Cut yourself some slack. I've said this many times, if you are a viewing this as a lifetime commitment to being healthier, then it's unreasonable to think you can always be perfect or make the perfect choices. Sometimes if you are too strict on yourself it can do major damage to the psyche (<<<<----speaking from experience.) Try hard not to view it as cheating, just as part of the plan. Allow yourself a little leeway. Moderation is key.
  • anubis609
    anubis609 Posts: 3,966 Member
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    Only if you got caught... Oh, wrong word association =B

    Guilt, remorse, regret, "cheat"... all words that cause you to feel stress. Stress will trigger the release of cortisol, the hormone that regulates the body to fight off stress and keep the body comfortable as much as possible. As good as that sounds, it will also fight off ANY stress, i.e. exercise, which is a physical stress on the body, so any exercise you do will actually not be as effective at calorie burning.

    Don't constantly indulge since too much of anything isn't good for you, but on those days or occasions you randomly splurge, enjoy them. You can always go back to doing what you were doing. Bodybuilders and others who believe in spike days actually plan to eat a MASSIVE amount of calories [in the mid to high thousands] for a day, just to keep the metabolism high from all that processing of food. You couldn't argue with the fact that they enjoy those days with sinful pleasure. So, don't trip. It was only a day. It won't hurt you.
  • pontprennau
    pontprennau Posts: 20 Member
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    You are supposed to use your exercise calories or else it will be harder to lose weight.

    This this this a thousand times. By not using your exercise calories you will be pushing your body into starvation mode and will hit a wall where you cannot lose more weight. It's isn't a contest to starve yourself, that's as bad as the overeating we all did to get here in the first place :(

    The idea and process should be that you lose weight at a steady SAFE pace. not eating exercise calories (especially if your doing 500+ exercise calories a day) is damaging long term and most likely to result in yoyo dieting. OFC that doesn't mean you have to eat every single one but if you feel hungry while dieting you are most certainly doing it wrong!

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