Can One Cheat Day Ruin Your Diet?
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What kind of cheat day are you talking? XP 3,500 calories to gain a pound. So unless you eat that much added to your daily intake already, your not gonna gain a pound from that one day. Its not going to ruin you.
You should be able to enjoy something every once in a while. 0 -
I think it depends on your own self-control. I would do a cheat day before and as the diet progressed more and more cheat days came about. Now I don't do it.......
That is exactly why I don't have cheat days this time round either.
Strange phenomenon that is, I just figures it is best not to start - I never was one for moderation anyway, it had to be all or nothing :laugh:
I admire people that can have, say, one square of chocolate or a slither or cake and leave it at that. No, not I, it would have to be a giant bar of chocolate containing 65,000,000 calories or a cake the size of three wedding tiers :laugh:0 -
I think it's really about moderation. I know that if i want somthing i feel is "cheating" then I have to be willing to work it off later. It's a compromise i think.0
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I've been on my journey for about 2 weeks, have never cheated, but i just had a small bar of chocolate 240 cals. i feel so guilty , im thinking of skipping dinner. I didn even enjoy it the way i do normally.0
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If total body transformations happened in one day..................then yes. But we know that doesn't happen.
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I'm on the fence with the 'cheat day' idea. I had one last Saturday (first time in months after losing 40 pounds) and I ended up consuming 2,251 calories. Which means that in order to stay at a deficit for the week I had to reduce my caloric intake massively - we're talking under 1,200 caloriesa day. To me, it's just not worth it. I've been misrable all week
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No0
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No. It is preposterous to think one day of eating badly will prevent you from future health.
The key is to simply make being healthy part of your every day life going forward. Yoy may make mistakes now and then, but those are far less of a problem than giving up and not taking care of yourself every day simply because you had a cheat day and have deemed yourself to now be a "loser" or some other such nonsense crapola that people trick themselves into believing simply because they may not want to do the work to keep going at it for a lifetime.0 -
Ms_Natalie wrote: »I have cheated every weekend since I started this lifestyle change and I have lost ALL of the below pounds since joining MFP in April! In the week, I am excellent with my calories and exercise, but I go a little wild on the weekends...however, this wild, is nothing compared to what I would have done 6 months ago...my stomach has shrunk and I no longer crave junk food!
If you don't "cheat" then it is possible that you will cave in to the things you fancy and end up ruining your lifestyle change. That's what it is...so you can enjoy those naughty calories now and again...and savour every little bite of them...
Good Luck! :flowerforyou:
This! I am only 20 pounds down at this point (in 40 days), but have lost weight in the past with the exact same method. In the past I had an entire cheat day every wekk and lost weight. This time, I have more weight to lose, so I am restricting myself a little more, but I cheat every Saturday night and still lose just fine.
When I do eat healthy like this, I find that cravings for junk are less, but there are occasional days where I want said junk. Those days I just think "Well, you can have it on Saturday". I never end up caving in during the week-- I just look forward to the weekend!
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There have been days when I haven't been able to log because of business trips/vacation/dinners out, when I ate what I wanted with moderation (avoiding empty calories, avoiding desserts etc), and there are days when I'm eating at home and I work ice cream, muffins, cocktail, glass of wine etc. into my daily calories. I don't call either of them "cheating" (who am I cheating? myself?? huh?), and I've still managed to lose 70 lbs.
Now, if your treats start turning into something more sustained which pushes you out of deficit for a reasonable duration, then, yes, the laws of physics determine you will stop losing weight.0 -
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Answer: NO!
I lost 93 pounds with a weekly cheat day/food binge.
Whatever you decide, good luck to you!
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Can one day of dieting cause you to lose all your weight?
No.
Didn't think so.0 -
Im on the fence with this one. One day isnt going to make you gain weight but every extra calorie that goes in comes off your weekly deficit. I started doing a day off a week but decided to log it and was shocked to top 3500 cals. Now I aim to do 6 days at a deficit and 1 day at maintenance. Im still losing and I often work out on my maintenance day to reduce the impact. It tends to be a single meal too, something like pizza that I wouldnt fit into my weekly meals normally, monday just gone was pie as I had a hankering for pastry. But i fit chocolate into my daily allowance so I dont feel the need to pack away a 200g bar on a monday evening.0
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I recently went from 218 to 138. Started in Jan. 2014 and it is almost Nov.2014. In the beginning of my diet I did not cheat at all. Then as I started to lose weight, I added in a monthly cheat day. I would eat whatever I wanted that day. Not just one meal either. I still continued to lose weight. So, then I added in a weekly cheat day and still continued to lose. So, I added in another cheat day for a total of 2 cheat days a week, but made sure I had 5 days in a row where I did not cheat and followed a strict eating and exercise program. I walk at a speed of 4.5mph on the treadmill 5 days a week and take off from exercise on the weekends. But, I stick to an extremely healthy diet and exercise program 5 days a week. It works for me. I am 46 yrs. old. Soon to be 47. When I cheat, I CHEAT! But, this may not work for everyone. I am 5'10" and weigh 138lbs now. But, I think those 5 days in a row of exercising for 60mins.vigorously and eating healthy is the key. So when my cheat days come and go, I get right back on my plan. If I do gain a pound or so during those 2 cheat days, the calories get burned off and then some once I get right back on plan. Maybe I am just lucky. But, it has worked for me and I still continue to lose. But think I am going to try and maintain for now.0
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If I eat broccoli and chicken and go for a run one day does that make me healthy and fit?0
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Holy zombie thread0
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Yeah I'm really anti 'cheat days' because they just don't make sense.
It's much better to have a treat like a slice of cake, but build that into your calorie allowance.
When you have cheat days I think that encourages binging and then the awful feeling afterwards of "what have I done..."
I have accidently had a couple of days when I've completely blown my calorie allowance, and suddenly become very bloated. It's very demotivating, and the only cure is to do a load of exercise to work it all off, or have two or three days of very, very disciplined eating.
So yeah I think cheat days encourage cycles of "really bad" and "really good" eating rather than general self-control and moderation... cheat days can easily become cheat weeks if you don't get yourself back on track.0
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