Do you do free days or "cheat" days?

Options
2»

Replies

  • deehovey
    deehovey Posts: 14 Member
    Options
    Ok, I think l'll exercise more to earn extra calories, ration my calories through the rest of the day and perhaps eat up to maintenence if needed. I'm talking maybe once or twice a month. Of course I'll continue to track calories as much as possible. (hard to be exact with food trucks and local non-chain restaurants.) Right now I'm doing lower than 2 pounds per week. My doctor said to do 1200 calories. MFP says 1550. I've got it set at 1300 and coming in under most days.
  • TJR88
    TJR88 Posts: 37 Member
    Options
    deehovey wrote: »
    Ok, I think l'll exercise more to earn extra calories, ration my calories through the rest of the day and perhaps eat up to maintenence if needed. I'm talking maybe once or twice a month. Of course I'll continue to track calories as much as possible. (hard to be exact with food trucks and local non-chain restaurants.) Right now I'm doing lower than 2 pounds per week. My doctor said to do 1200 calories. MFP says 1550. I've got it set at 1300 and coming in under most days.

    Sounds like a good plan!
  • PrizePopple
    PrizePopple Posts: 3,133 Member
    Options
    Today is a splurge day for me. I've been pretty good lately about staying in my caloric range, and even hit my macros the last few days. I didn't intend for today to be a "cheat day", but that's what it's turned into. Tomorrow I'll go back to eating like I had been, and drinking lots and lots of water because today is an epic sodium fest. :stuck_out_tongue:
  • 50sFit
    50sFit Posts: 712 Member
    edited October 2014
    Options
    deehovey wrote: »
    And if so, how? Do you just give yourself one day that you don't count? Do you save up deficits during the week to use on your free day? Allow yourself a set number of extra calories on your free day?
    I'm a foodie and I worry if I don't get to indulge every once in a while at a fantastic restaurant that I'm going to lose motivation. What are your thoughts?
    I lost 93 pounds with a cheat day that amounted to a 24 hour food binge.
    Whatever; it worked.
    B)
    After losing that weight, my goals changed, and I needed to sharpen the saw while maintaining weight. To lower my body fat, I needed to tighten up my cheat day, and now I have all but eliminated it but for a few days in the year.
    The higher the fitness goals, the more I must clean up my eating.
    Below is me at 185 pounds with 3 years of weight maintenance and fat loss.
    u6sxr80csa0w.png
  • DonM46
    DonM46 Posts: 771 Member
    Options
    No. Why would you want to? It will just impede your progress. If you feel you absolutely MUST have some calorie dense food, work in a small portion into you allowable calorie count. If even the small amount of the food makes you exceed your daily limit, compensate for it on the following day or two.
  • starryphoenix
    starryphoenix Posts: 381 Member
    Options
    Yes, but only once a month.
  • JazzFischer1989
    JazzFischer1989 Posts: 531 Member
    Options
    Kinda sorta. Fridays and Saturdays are when I usually get the chance to go to dinner so that's when I tend to eat way over what I normally would.
  • UnicornAmanda
    UnicornAmanda Posts: 294 Member
    Options
    I used to do the whole cheat meal or cheat day thing when I was younger but it used to just trigger me to mess up the following day and the day after etc. Now, instead of thinking of it as a cheat, I think of it as I can have whatever I want as long as I stay within my calorie goal. And if some days I go over because I went out to eat with family, or had drinks with friends, or had a special dessert and movie night with my hubby then yeah, I went over, but I do not continue, and I try my hardest to log 100% truthfully!
  • 04hoopsgal73
    04hoopsgal73 Posts: 925 Member
    Options
    In the beginning Sunday was my day to just log it without retribution. After several months I knew for me to initially lose some serious weight, I had to go 24/7 with planned eating. I also did the dry 30 days. Once I lost some I started occasional moderation. Now I do moderation as pleased. Every few months I'll do a dry 30 days to help my metabolism but that's me. The slow pace loss has kept it off and works for me.
  • libbydoodle11
    libbydoodle11 Posts: 1,351 Member
    Options
    I don't have cheat days or free days. I make sure the ice cream I want will fit into my calories for that day.
  • mike_ny
    mike_ny Posts: 351 Member
    edited October 2014
    Options
    Everybody needs a free day once in a while just to mix things up a bit.

    I dislike the word "cheat", though. Cheating means you got away with something, as if the calories didn't count at all because you didn't record them or nobody saw you eat them.
    So, you ate over your target for a day... Big deal. Move on and get back on track tomorrow and over the course of a week it shouldn't make that big of a difference anyway.
  • SmartAlec03211988
    SmartAlec03211988 Posts: 1,896 Member
    Options
    Every Friday. Usually 800-1,000 over maintenance.
  • stephaniebnelson
    stephaniebnelson Posts: 2 Member
    edited October 2014
    Options
    I use MyFitnessPal and Fitbit together. I allow myself one day each week to eat over my MyFitnessPal calorie limit and one day to not meet my Fitbit step goal. The only rule is that they cannot be the same day. On the day that I eat over my calories, it doesn't matter if it's 1 calorie over or a bazillion. That's it. But I still track EVERYTHING I eat, no matter what. I've found that works for me, keeps me from being so stressed out about what I'm eating that I lose motivation, etc. I may not be losing as fast that way, but I am losing, which is what matters to me.
  • Asheea
    Asheea Posts: 211 Member
    Options
    I have a free meal every Sunday. Sometimes twice a week if we have a date night on Friday but that's like once a month kinda thing.
  • MsHarryWinston
    MsHarryWinston Posts: 1,027 Member
    Options
    Hmmmmm nope. I eat everything in moderation so I never really feel so deprived that I want an extra 2,000 calories in pizza or something. If I know that I'm going to want a more calorie dense treat then I pre-plan my day around it so that it all fits in. I've never eaten 2,000 cals a day when tracking so far (about 2 months) even on dense calorie food days. My maintenance is 2,500. I think the closest I've come is 1800. And I track everything that I can, though some foods like at Thanksgiving were just untrackable.

Categories