Chris Powell cheat day?
kak22283
Posts: 31 Member
Hello! I am wondering if anyone is allowing themselves extra calories once a week, almost like a cheat day? Chris Powell says to keep it controlled to about 1000 extra calories, once a week. What he recommends for a daily calorie intake is just about the same as what MFP recommends... Thanks!
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I dont see the point.
What do you do with your extra 1000 calories?
If it's a special event like a birthday or wedding etc then sure over eat and enjoy the day.
But a planed day each week to over eat seems silly. At least for me. It might work for you.
*Insert YouTube video of that one step forward two steps back song.*
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Makes no sense to me. Take much longer to meet your goal that way.0
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:huh: um, that's how we all got here... or at least some of using the site to drop the weight.I dont see the point.
What do you do with your extra 1000 calories?
If it's a special event like a birthday or wedding etc then sure over eat and enjoy the day.
But a planed day each week to over eat seems silly. At least for me. It might work for you.
OP - How about you eat at maintenance every so often if you feel like you want to do something special... that works for some.
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I do a different kind of cheat day (not every week). For me cheat day is staying within my calorie goal but ignoring the macros for that day. So if I want to blow all my calories on a big plate of Spaghetti Carbonara or only eat hamburgers that would be a cheat day for me.0
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Hearts_2015 wrote: »
:huh: um, that's how we all got here... or at least some of using the site to drop the weight.I dont see the point.
What do you do with your extra 1000 calories?
If it's a special event like a birthday or wedding etc then sure over eat and enjoy the day.
But a planed day each week to over eat seems silly. At least for me. It might work for you.
OP - How about you eat at maintenance every so often if you feel like you want to do something special... that works for some.
So you think people got here because they over ate at special events like birthdays and weddings?
That might be the case for a few but I imagine most got here because they over ate every day. Every week.
Do you really want to be watching your calories at a close family members wedding? Or just enjoy the day with in reason.0 -
If you're going to cheat by 1000 calories, why not just eat 170 calories less on the other six days?0
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I allow myself extra calories at one meal a week. Not 1,000, though. Maybe 300-400. I am a firm believer in this. Your body tends to adjust to a consistently lowered caloric intake with slowed metabolism. Eating slightly more once a week means your body won't adjust to that lower caloric intake. This helps you lose faster, with fewer plateaus.0
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Hearts_2015 wrote: »
:huh: um, that's how we all got here... or at least some of using the site to drop the weight.I dont see the point.
What do you do with your extra 1000 calories?
If it's a special event like a birthday or wedding etc then sure over eat and enjoy the day.
But a planed day each week to over eat seems silly. At least for me. It might work for you.
OP - How about you eat at maintenance every so often if you feel like you want to do something special... that works for some.
So you think people got here because they over ate at special events like birthdays and weddings?
That might be the case for a few but I imagine most got here because they over ate every day. Every week.
Do you really want to be watching your calories at a close family members wedding? Or just enjoy the day with in reason.
Yep. I know I got here because I overate most days of the week for a long time.
Overeating on special occasions is actually fun.0 -
TimothyFish wrote: »If you're going to cheat by 1000 calories, why not just eat 170 calories less on the other six days?
Planning that is out is a good thing.
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I think that was his point for the most part, keeping it under control. I'm grateful that we have the ability to come to a group to ask such question, because it's nice to get a variety of answers. Definitely food for though... (No pun intended) Thank you for taking the time to read my question, though, to some it seems like a no brainer, (answering without the snark), I'm still new and learning. 0
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When I was losing the last 10 pounds, I was at a .5 pound/week deficit. If I had an extra 1000 calories, it would more than cut that deficit in half. That just seems extremely high even for those with more to lose. I don't restrict any foods so I was able to have anything as long as I planned for it. Once a month, right before that TOM, I would feel extremely hungry and would eat up to maintenance but not over. That worked well for me. I know several folks on here that eat up to maintenance once a week or so but that's no where near 1000 calories more.0
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I allow myself to eat at maintenance one day a week. This allows me a special dinner out with the hubby, pizza (and soda!) night with the kids, etc. I am sure I would lose quicker if I ate at or under goal all 7 days a week, but this maintenance day gives me a little mental health break. Its usually only 400-500 cal over, not 1k though.0
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I do a different kind of cheat day (not every week). For me cheat day is staying within my calorie goal but ignoring the macros for that day. So if I want to blow all my calories on a big plate of Spaghetti Carbonara or only eat hamburgers that would be a cheat day for me.
This is how I "cheat" as well and the following day I do s double at the gym
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I allow myself extra calories at one meal a week. Not 1,000, though. Maybe 300-400. I am a firm believer in this. Your body tends to adjust to a consistently lowered caloric intake with slowed metabolism. Eating slightly more once a week means your body won't adjust to that lower caloric intake. This helps you lose faster, with fewer plateaus.
Omg this! I am relatively new to MFP (abour a month of logging)and I lost nothing last week. I also didn't go over my calories either (maybe by only 50) on any day. This weekend I didn't log as I usually do, but I am sure I went over both Saturday and sunday. I ate a homemade fried monte cristo sandwich and potato chips and two corn dogs for my lunches, and a few spoonfuls of cookie dough, etc. But I lost 3 pounds this week! And it didnt register till this morning as i weigh myself daily. I won't be making this type of eating g a habit, but it was pretty strange.0 -
I track across the week - some days I eat more, some days I eat less .. that's how food works
no cheats .. but I eat what I want most of the time once my protein macro is met0 -
^^ I have days in the week where I eat high cal, but as I track calories weekly, it comes out in the wash and I'm still at the right deficit over all. Well... that's the plan, I've been a bit crap at it lately. But they haven't been cheat days, just "dammit, I forgot to care again" days. Certainly not aprt of my plan.0
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Alatariel75 wrote: »^^ I have days in the week where I eat high cal, but as I track calories weekly, it comes out in the wash and I'm still at the right deficit over all. Well... that's the plan, I've been a bit crap at it lately. But they haven't been cheat days, just "dammit, I forgot to care again" days. Certainly not aprt of my plan.
"forgot to care" days .. Laughsss0 -
Hehe yepHearts_2015 wrote: »
:huh: um, that's how we all got here... or at least some of using the site to drop the weight.I dont see the point.
What do you do with your extra 1000 calories?
If it's a special event like a birthday or wedding etc then sure over eat and enjoy the day.
But a planed day each week to over eat seems silly. At least for me. It might work for you.
OP - How about you eat at maintenance every so often if you feel like you want to do something special... that works for some.
So you think people got here because they over ate at special events like birthdays and weddings?
That might be the case for a few but I imagine most got here because they over ate every day. Every week.
Do you really want to be watching your calories at a close family members wedding? Or just enjoy the day with in reason.
Yep. I know I got here because I overate most days of the week for a long time.
Overeating on special occasions is actually fun.
Calories in, calories out
Not just today, not even just this week but over the long term. So long as you have a sustainable method that keeps you in a deficit, you'll get and/or stay thinner. A lot of us use the weekly numbers to help guide these kinds of strategies. The apps have a nice bar chart to show how your average calories are looking over the week...
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Deficit is king.
Cheat/treat/splurge/whatever are terms your deficit doesn't understand.0 -
Gosh, not 1000 extra, but a few hundred for a treat meal and some drinks on a Friday night, saved up through the week and through very small breakfast and lunch during the day on Friday.0
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if you have 1000 calorie cheat day that means you just wiped out two days of your deficit, assuming a 500 calorie per day deficit…
stop view food as "cheats" and eat what you like, hit macros/micros/calorie goal, and if you go over some days then realize that is OK and get back on track the next day ….0 -
If I know an event is coming up where I might want to eat more or splurge a little, I "bank" calories by eating less than my regular goal each day. Then, when I do eat over, I still log my food and watch my net calories for the week to make sure I'm still within my goal calories. Cheat meals can be dangerous when you don't log because it's so easy to slip back into what made you gain the weight in the first place. Plus, you're only hurting yourself by having full fledged cheat days!0
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I am doing the turbo cycle and I am following the extra allowed 1000 calories on my 7th day. Chris Powell has a solid record of helping people lose a ton of weight over the years, some very obese. I trust he knows what he was doing when putting this program together. And although I agree it is about calories in and out... I only agree to a point because it is also about your metabolism. If you give it the same exact thing everyday, you will hit a major plateau. The free days on Sundays, that allow for the extra 1000 calories, push through the possibility of a plateau and in turn you lose weight because it shifts the metabolism into high gear. In fact, every 4th week all your days are high carb days for this reason. BTW, I lost 6 lbs this week.. I am sticking to this plan. It works.0
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GingerNoelle22 wrote: »I am doing the turbo cycle and I am following the extra allowed 1000 calories on my 7th day. Chris Powell has a solid record of helping people lose a ton of weight over the years, some very obese. I trust he knows what he was doing when putting this program together. And although I agree it is about calories in and out... I only agree to a point because it is also about your metabolism. If you give it the same exact thing everyday, you will hit a major plateau. The free days on Sundays, that allow for the extra 1000 calories, push through the possibility of a plateau and in turn you lose weight because it shifts the metabolism into high gear. In fact, every 4th week all your days are high carb days for this reason. BTW, I lost 6 lbs this week.. I am sticking to this plan. It works.
How many calories are you consuming on your non-cheat days, and how long have you been doing this? Six lbs of fat in one week is just about metabolically impossible, it's more likely to be water weight getting shed, and you'd fall back to < 2 lbs / wk pretty quickly. I don't want to knock Chris Powell, don't know him...but it sounds like he's weaving a lot of broscience in there.
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He alternates - for women, it's 1200 on low carb days, and 1500 on high carb days. He has four different plans but most use the guilt free 'cheat' day for no more than a 1000 extra calories.0
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I don't do cheat days in general, but I also never maintained a huge deficit. For someone who has a 1000 calorie deficit, I can see eating at maintenance once per week, if you are succeeding in losing weight at your expected rate.0
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Hi! I eat 2100 on my cheat or free day typically or below but its a challenge to get that high cause I typically still s5ay within the diet treating it as a hc day. I eat 12 to 1300 on lc days and 15 to 1600 on hc days. I am on turbo cycle for awhile now since march. But took a little duet break abd will be back on mon. So I have lost 20 lbs with it as long as I stick to the plan:)
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Cheating implies doing something wrong, I'm not. If I happen to go over on occasion, I log it and move forward.0
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Liftng4Lis wrote: »Cheating implies doing something wrong, I'm not. If I happen to go over on occasion, I log it and move forward.
+1
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Well I call it my free day. No guilt involved! 0
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