Do you allow yourself a day off?

A whole day unchecked is a lot of damage for me

Instead, I have more luck allowing myself one meal without worries. So if I have an upcoming date, or girls night out, I make sure my diet is spot-on all week, and let myself have that one meal with no counting. And I try not to do that more than a couple times a month, because it's just too easy for me to go overboard.

i still track but i allow myself one cheat meal a week. not a cheat day but a cheat meal. and i usually dont work out that day, which i know i should, but i jus t use it as a day to unwind. its usually sunday

Nope.

I took a week without counting at Christmas, but generally not.

When I was on lower calories I did allow myself one day where I would not worry about going over (although not go nuts or anything, as you said--basically I might go out to dinner and not stress about trying to fit it into my plan), but I still logged. I don't find logging particularly burdensome, though--I think I'd eat similarly whether I did or not, and like to have accurate numbers so I can in theory know my TDEE.

WickyDunn wrote: »

Just wondering if people do this? Not go totally overkill with eating everything in sight but do you allow yourself a day when you just don't count?

No. Although there are days where I will eat and then log later. Even if I eat over my goal, I make sure to log it and move on.

Sure. It's just life. But, I don't let the excuses or justifications begin like, "Oh, I've already blown it for today so might as well eat whatever I want", or "Well I've already blown it today and yesterday and the day before so might as well start back on it Monday".

I used to take Sunday as a "cheat" day but after taking a cheat month and a half and gaining 10lbs back that I worked very hard to lose prior to the holiday I don't want to take any days off till i lose those ten plus another ten are off!! Then, maybe I'll get back to a once a week or once every other week cheat day but right now with trying to get back on track its just too tempting to fall off again.

There are days I go over, but I always try to log it. If I can I try to make up for it over the next few days. Over the holidays, I'd bank some calories for a blowout day (Thanksgiving, X-mas, New Years).

Not really, although there are occasional days where I might not log beyond breakfast - like over Christmas, or big family gatherings where the food is all homemade, we're grazing all day long and it's just too much to try and guesswork all the foods I ate... But no matter what, logging or not, I make sure I'm not stuffing myself - not logging does not equal a free-for-all for me, because I know it will make me feel miserable. I hate that over-full feeling I get when I keep eating beyond satisfied/full, but keep going because the food is yummy. I guess that's a good habit I've developed over the years, stopping when I know I should.

But yeah - last weekend at my uncle's 80th b-day party, I ate all the foods, enjoyed everything, even had cake - a small piece the first time because I knew I didn't have room for much more after lunch. And hours later when we were all still visiting and having a good time, I had another small piece of cake. I eat what I want, but in reasonable amounts.

There are days (today is one of those, actually), where I will go out with a girlfriend to a local restaurant that does not list nutrition or calories. What I do in cases like this is to save as many calories as I can for dinner and then log it to the best of my ability.

deksgrl wrote: »

Sure. It's just life. But, I don't let the excuses or justifications begin like, "Oh, I've already blown it for today so might as well eat whatever I want", or "Well I've already blown it today and yesterday and the day before so might as well start back on it Monday".

I'll also note that, I don't do this every week, just once in awhile. And I have been tracking long enough to have a general idea of how many calories I'm eating so it's not a total blowout to gain weight on.

No. One day off could undo the wholes weeks calorie deficit, or more.. Some days I might take in more calories than target, but that's because something's going on (wedding, lads night out etc) but if not, I don't give myself one day off

Sometimes I raise my calorie goal closer to maintenance, for example when I went home for the holidays I raised by goal from 1800 to 2300 per day. I also did this more recently when I had a very hungry day around my TOM. But I always log as best as I can.

I try to live my life with a certain amount of flexibility, so yes. I allow myself breaks in diet and exercise. Getting set back by a week is not that significant in the grand scheme of things. So you reach your goal a couple weeks later than planned on some arbitrary schedule. Is it really that big a deal? I don't think so. I'm not willing to give up happy moderation in favor of neurosis.

There are days I don't count, but it is really just one meal that is bad. If I have a fun night out planned, I try and eat really healthy for breakfast and lunch, get a good workout in and then I don't worry so much. I don't log those days or at least those meals, usually it ends up being snacks and I don't track every chip I eat and every tablespoon of dip or what kind of pizza and how much of it. I try and not go extremely crazy, but sometimes it happens.