Cheat days? Or cheat meals?
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ILiftHeavyAcrylics wrote: »jawilder230 wrote: »ILiftHeavyAcrylics wrote: »jawilder230 wrote: »How do you guys feel about cheat days or cheat meals? Today is my 15th day on a strict clean diet. I'm already down 6lbs. I don't want to mess with my progress but I do crave pizza or a burger or something in that nature!
First of all, 6 pounds in 2 weeks is pretty fast. That may damage your metabolism in the long haul.....but then again, it may not. How many calories are you eating? In my opinion it sounds like you could add more calories to your diet to slow you weight lost down to 1 to 2 pounds per week. Not only is healthier on your body but it will allow you to eat more food that you love, thus making your diet more sustainable long term. Personally I do cheat days but I still count my calories so I don't go out of control. I usually eat 1000 calories more than I normal on my cheat day.
But seriously, think about adding more cals. Weight lose isn't a race... It's a marathon.
Personally I think he just dropped some water weight. He said he had reduced carbs, and most people also eat less sodium when they start a diet plan. I'd give it a few weeks before determining whether the loss is too fast.
That is a possibility, I would be more inclined to agree if he had mentioned some type of strenuous cardio routine. It would be nice to know OPs current calorie consumption and weight. That would help us understand where the weight loss is coming from.
I am doing pretty intense cardio interval training with some strength training. 4-6 Times per week.
Are you eating back your exercise calories? 1400 is, imo, too low for a guy. Hell, it's too low for me and I'm a pretty small woman.
Yes I eat them back sometimes and sometimes I dont. I only lowered them temporary to lose more faster. Then I would raise them as I get to my ideal weight for maintenance.0 -
both, right now I am into the wine.0
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jawilder230 wrote: »How do you guys feel about cheat days or cheat meals? Today is my 15th day on a strict clean diet. I'm already down 6lbs. I don't want to mess with my progress but I do crave pizza or a burger or something in that nature!
First of all, 6 pounds in 2 weeks is pretty fast. That may damage your metabolism in the long haul.....but then again, it may not. How many calories are you eating? In my opinion it sounds like you could add more calories to your diet to slow you weight lost down to 1 to 2 pounds per week. Not only is healthier on your body but it will allow you to eat more food that you love, thus making your diet more sustainable long term. Personally I do cheat days but I still count my calories so I don't go out of control. I usually eat 1000 calories more than I normal on my cheat day.
But seriously, think about adding more cals. Weight lose isn't a race... It's a marathon.
I'm currently at 1400 calories, 52g carbs. Since I'm going for a faster loss. My stats currently 5'8 27 years old 178.6 lbs
Op: considering your weight and calorie consumption in addition with your activity level, it sounds like you are under eating. That is probably why you feel constricted with your diet. So yes...go ahead and have cheat days or adjust your diet appropriately.0 -
Honestly, i spent most of my life demonizing food as either good or bad (I was a competitive gymnast) and it was an awful way to live! Now, I eat what I like and just fit it into my calories for the day. Ideally I like to workout a little extra to make it work but sometimes I don't bother. It was my birthday this week. I ate a *kitten* ton of sushi and was over my calories that day. Oh well. Life will go on and one over eating day will not stop my progress.0
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jawilder230 wrote: »How do you guys feel about cheat days or cheat meals? Today is my 15th day on a strict clean diet. I'm already down 6lbs. I don't want to mess with my progress but I do crave pizza or a burger or something in that nature!
First of all, 6 pounds in 2 weeks is pretty fast. That may damage your metabolism in the long haul.....but then again, it may not. How many calories are you eating? In my opinion it sounds like you could add more calories to your diet to slow you weight lost down to 1 to 2 pounds per week. Not only is healthier on your body but it will allow you to eat more food that you love, thus making your diet more sustainable long term. Personally I do cheat days but I still count my calories so I don't go out of control. I usually eat 1000 calories more than I normal on my cheat day.
But seriously, think about adding more cals. Weight lose isn't a race... It's a marathon.
I'm currently at 1400 calories, 52g carbs. Since I'm going for a faster loss. My stats currently 5'8 27 years old 178.6 lbs
The idea of going for a fast loss and the whole concept of "I'm on a diet" is going to sabotage you in the end. Think long term. Isn't your REAL goal to sustain anything you lose?
You need to settle in to a way of eating that will keep you with the body you end up with once you lose the extra weight. If you go to extremes to lose the excess weight, you will learn nothing new, and develop no new habits to sustain the new you.
There are no quick fixes. Something made you put on extra weight. Figure out what that was. If it was just eating a bit too much, then just eat a little bit less. There's no need to give up anything, and there's no need to drastically cut your intake.
You've had some great tips on how to incorporate things like pizza and burgers into your eating plan. Use them. It's a far more balanced approach to losing weight, and it's a sustainable approach to eating that will help you maintain your weight once you reach your goal.
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mamapeach910 wrote: »jawilder230 wrote: »How do you guys feel about cheat days or cheat meals? Today is my 15th day on a strict clean diet. I'm already down 6lbs. I don't want to mess with my progress but I do crave pizza or a burger or something in that nature!
First of all, 6 pounds in 2 weeks is pretty fast. That may damage your metabolism in the long haul.....but then again, it may not. How many calories are you eating? In my opinion it sounds like you could add more calories to your diet to slow you weight lost down to 1 to 2 pounds per week. Not only is healthier on your body but it will allow you to eat more food that you love, thus making your diet more sustainable long term. Personally I do cheat days but I still count my calories so I don't go out of control. I usually eat 1000 calories more than I normal on my cheat day.
But seriously, think about adding more cals. Weight lose isn't a race... It's a marathon.
I'm currently at 1400 calories, 52g carbs. Since I'm going for a faster loss. My stats currently 5'8 27 years old 178.6 lbs
The idea of going for a fast loss and the whole concept of "I'm on a diet" is going to sabotage you in the end. Think long term. Isn't your REAL goal to sustain anything you lose?
You need to settle in to a way of eating that will keep you with the body you end up with once you lose the extra weight. If you go to extremes to lose the excess weight, you will learn nothing new, and develop no new habits to sustain the new you.
There are no quick fixes. Something made you put on extra weight. Figure out what that was. If it was just eating a bit too much, then just eat a little bit less. There's no need to give up anything, and there's no need to drastically cut your intake.
You've had some great tips on how to incorporate things like pizza and burgers into your eating plan. Use them. It's a far more balanced approach to losing weight, and it's a sustainable approach to eating that will help you maintain your weight once you reach your goal.
Very well said. Thank you so much. I will adjust my diet. This made a lot of sense and really made me think.0 -
I think I had pizza three times this week. But I had one or two pieces, not four. It's all about portion control and balance.0
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mamapeach910 wrote: »jawilder230 wrote: »How do you guys feel about cheat days or cheat meals? Today is my 15th day on a strict clean diet. I'm already down 6lbs. I don't want to mess with my progress but I do crave pizza or a burger or something in that nature!
First of all, 6 pounds in 2 weeks is pretty fast. That may damage your metabolism in the long haul.....but then again, it may not. How many calories are you eating? In my opinion it sounds like you could add more calories to your diet to slow you weight lost down to 1 to 2 pounds per week. Not only is healthier on your body but it will allow you to eat more food that you love, thus making your diet more sustainable long term. Personally I do cheat days but I still count my calories so I don't go out of control. I usually eat 1000 calories more than I normal on my cheat day.
But seriously, think about adding more cals. Weight lose isn't a race... It's a marathon.
I'm currently at 1400 calories, 52g carbs. Since I'm going for a faster loss. My stats currently 5'8 27 years old 178.6 lbs
The idea of going for a fast loss and the whole concept of "I'm on a diet" is going to sabotage you in the end. Think long term. Isn't your REAL goal to sustain anything you lose?
You need to settle in to a way of eating that will keep you with the body you end up with once you lose the extra weight. If you go to extremes to lose the excess weight, you will learn nothing new, and develop no new habits to sustain the new you.
There are no quick fixes. Something made you put on extra weight. Figure out what that was. If it was just eating a bit too much, then just eat a little bit less. There's no need to give up anything, and there's no need to drastically cut your intake.
You've had some great tips on how to incorporate things like pizza and burgers into your eating plan. Use them. It's a far more balanced approach to losing weight, and it's a sustainable approach to eating that will help you maintain your weight once you reach your goal.
Very well said. Thank you so much. I will adjust my diet. This made a lot of sense and really made me think.
Also don't forget that losing fast when you only have a few pounds to lose will cause you to lose muscle. This will make things much harder for you once you move to maintenance, because you will have to eat less than a normal person on your stats to maintain weight.0 -
So I set my calories to 1810 and carbs to 67g. It was 1400 and 52, any thoughts?0
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I typically fit what I want into my deficit. But today I'm going to eat 1000 calories worth of dessert. But it's not cheating, I earned it.0
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If you don't indulge once in a while, you are setting yourself up for failure. I wanted chocolate today so I ate a tablespoon of chocolate chips but I just worked it into my calorie plan for the day. I didn't overindulge but I gave myself just enough of a taste to satisfy my craving. If your goal is to lose fat then you have to remember that your metabolism doesn't reset every 24 hours. If you go over a couple hundred calories for a cheat meal, you can make it up by spreading out an extra 200 calorie burn over the rest of your week so that you aren't damaging your progress much if any.0
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Never really works for me because I end up cancelling out my work going overboard with the food. I am trying the approach where I can have things like burgers etc but I fit them in my calories, and eat less at other meals / snacks etc. That way I don't feel deprived to need to 'cheat' and I still achieve a deficit. I also have my calories goal set up in such a way that it is maintainable (I calculated the TDEE for my goal weight and aim for that each day).0
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Cortneyrenee04 wrote: »
Awesome! I guess I didn't realize I can still lose 2lbs a week with 1810 calories and the carb amount.0 -
higgins8283801 wrote: »I have lost 40lbs and don't have cheat days. I eat what I want. Yesterday, I went a little nuts with homemade tacos. I went over by 900 calories. However, when looking at it weekly, I am still on track to have a weekly deficit. So i don't really care.
This is how I work my food and drink intake too. I don't plan to give up on the occasional high calorie day and I'm really comfortable with that, so I don't consider it "cheating."0
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