Treat days?

I don't have treat days, cos I can easily imagine undoing a week or more's deficit with an entire day of 'treating'. But I have a treat meal on a Friday night, a treat dessert on Saturday, and a bit of treat alcohol on the weekend. I also have a little 'treat' every day. This is sustainable for me and all easy enough to keep within my weekly goal.

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I have a fairly inclusive diet anyway but I have a treat/cheat evening once a month while cutting or once a fortnight while maintaining. I often go out for my cheat evening, it's never prevented me hitting my weight goals either. If anything it's helped as it keeps me sane and if I feel like eating the entire fridge I can think "if I do this then no lovely treat day... I'll wait for treat day." One day in a big surplus won't ruin a monthly deficit but lots of little treats will imo. (I also drop loads of water weight after treat day which is fun to watch.)

It's personal to everyone and what works for one person may not work for another.

Some people it helps stay sane, others don't handle treat days and cheat meals well. I find a whole day is a recipie for disaster in my case. But never letting lose at the buffet/resturant will eventually drive me insane and lead to overeating.

Experiment with it and see what works for you.

Every day is a treat day for me. I just keep my treats below my calorie goal.

I have a cheat.meal.once every 1-2 weeks

I dont necessarily have treat days but just treats here and there. Of course the last few days look like treat days thanks to friends who brought food while I was at the hospital with my daughter. I lost a good amount of weight a few years ago and was super restrictive with my food. This time around I have let ago of guilt and if I want a treat I have it. I allow myself one day every 15-20 days where I go over my calories and on all the other days if I want a treat I have it. I just log it and make sure it fits into my calories for the day. I need this to be sustainable, so never having treats just isn't reasonable for me.

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I don't do them. They have been bad for me. This time around I'm finding more success working treats into my calorie allowance when I want them. I find myself making better choices on treats too.

For example, this past Thursday Lindt truffles were at work. I checked my calories and decided that I would have an 80kcal truffle. I didn't go over calories that day, and I had my treat.

I used to treat "treats" as binges. A box of cookies, half a cake etc. treat days were an excuse to eat all that and a bag of chips. Now I'm trying to redefine treat to mean "a" cookie, "a" slice of cake. And just spread out their enjoyment.

Ymmv

Of course you should have treats. Just know how many calories it is, log it, and do some extra cardio to cover the extra calories. I am debating right now if I want to go get an iced latte from Starbucks. ...

I have treat days once in a while. Most of the time I eat pancakes with butter and real maple syrup, plus vegetarian sausages and eggs. Not exactly junk food, but definitely a lot of calories and usually I go over my weight goal.

Absolutely no regrets. I just eat a little less the next day or two.

Cheat days make me feel like I have to eat everything I can possibly get my hands on as long as I'm allowed to, so I don't do those. I do eat ice-cream and chocolate almost every day though, sometimes few times a day even. I just make sure the portions are small enough to fit into my calorie goal and do not rob me of the food that's actually filling. And I'm on 1200. It should be even easier on plans with 1500-2000+ calories.

I try and keep my treat days for only special occasions and after I do a half marathon. Last, "treat day," there was an all you can eat brunch and my sister had just announced her engagement... I stuffed my face with probably 3000 calories that meal and I don't regret a bit of it.

Weight loss is about calories in - calories out. My advice is rather than rewarding yourself with food and setting youself up for failure, fit foods you enjoy into your diet while still maintaining your goals. I've been losing a lot of weight eating things like ice cream and chocolate every day. How? Portion control. If I have a bad craving for ice cream and I've been fairly active throughout the day having a small bowl ~50g for maybe 100 calories isn't going to break your diet. Once a week I'll save up some calories and have something like a burger or a hotdog, while keeping the rest of my meals to healthy ~400 calorie nutrient rich meals that will keep me full.

This is my strategy

For breakfast I usually have ~420 calories of steel cut oatmeal with some berries and peaches.

For lunch I usually have no-carb protein pancakes made of egg whites (350 calories) and 10 cals of syrup.

For dinner I usually eat 5 ounces of chicken marinated in buffalo sauce with a cup of cauliflower and green beans (230 cals)

These 3 meals end up being about 1000 calories and they are all filling and reasonably healthy. This leaves me with around ~800 calories a day to eat whatever I want without feeling hungry or deprived.

Sometimes I'll have a bowl of ice cream. Sometimes I'll have a home-made protein bar. Sometimes I'll have a hotdog, a burger or even a cookie or two. I would recommend getting fruit early in the day; I try to eat an apple a banana or a yogurt at least once a day too.

This is what works for me, but the point of this overly long post was that if you just enjoy smaller portions of the foods you like, rather than letting food control you and binging during a diet you might find it easier to lose weight.

I used to eat more bro-ish and once a week I would pig out on donuts or Dairy Queen or cereal and just eat back my deficit under the false premise that I was "re-feeding" and boosting my metabolism, when in reality I was wasting a lot of time running on the treadmill or going for jogs just to eat back the calories in an hour.

Good luck.

I plan to go out for food/have something higher in calories 1-2 meals a week usually. I still log it all, and I keep track of my calories over the course of the last 7 days. I've been doing half marathon training and the number of exercise calories I have on long run days sometimes is a bonus because I have a tough time eating ~2000 calories of nutritious food. If I feel like having pizza, though, then the 2000 is easily reached

I have some kind of dessert every night - I love sweet things - and sometimes during the day, too. I just make it fit in my calories.

If there's some kind of event where there will be all the food ever, sometimes I just go for it; sometimes not. I do still log it all and try my best to estimate what I've eaten. I see the information logged in my diary as reference data more than anything else. As long as I'm not going 3000+ calories over budget on a weekly basis, I'm doing OK

~Lyssa

I tend to have a big blowout with food and booze on Saturdays (though this week it was Friday), but I save calories back all week and make sure to log everything accurately to maintain my weekly deficit and stay on track. It's just easier for me to plan that day of excess -- weekdays are a breeze for me and I usually come in under my goal anyway, so I use that wiggle room for the day I'm at home and bored, so likely to have cocktails and more food.