Pig Out Days?

I sometimes do 'cheat meals', but never ever a 'cheat day'....but even when i have a cheat meal, i still log it.

I think a cheat day is totally ok, as long as it doesn't happen more than once a week AND if it doesn't completely ruin all the hard work you did that week. I recommend that you have your cheat day but still log your calories, just so you can see what you were doing to your body back when you ate whatever you wanted. It'll freak you out a little bit, but it'll help you make better choices in the future.
Good Luck!

I have un-purposeful (is that a word?) pig out days. I sometimes just see food in front of me and then eat it even though I wasn't planning on it. I find that when this happens, I'm really guilty for eating my pig out food!

Do what works best for you. For me, no I do not have "cheat days", I worked hard to get all the junky stuff out of my system and I'd rather not tempt myself into going back to eating the way I used to.

Girl, looking at your pic and reading your post lets me know that you're really serious about this "Cheat Day." :flowerforyou:

However, I am somewhat curious: :huh:

1. Why are you limiting yourself, and starving yourself from your desires - just try to balance it w/coordinating your food intake and exercising to reach your nutitional goals.

Feel free to add me, and review my Journal. The devil is a liar, I'M GONNA EAT: SOME OF THIS, A LOT OF THAT, AND A LITTLE OF THE OTHER.

Good Luck!

BTW: If you decide on a Cheat Day, still log your food.

I don't think it is a bad thing to do a cheat day, especially if you have excess of calories to use over the other days leading up to the cheat day. I am going to have one every two weeks where I will NOT track any food. Good luck!

I prefer to call them "refeed" days.

Too bad I'm eating enough to feed a small army when I allow them. >.<

My friend has his cheat day every Tuesday and he calls it "Fat Tuesday".

LOL how appropriate.

I sometimes go over, but I try to limit how far I go, so that I don't ruin what I have accomplished. What I do more often is have a "cheat meal", where I eat more of something than I usually do (such as 2 corn dogs instead of a healthier choice). It is my way of treating myself and still maintaining control of my overall intake. I also drink a lot of water. Also, I try to keep my total Calories under what MFP allows me, at least by 100-150 Calories, but every so often I give myself about 3-5 days of eating all of my allowed Calories to keep my strength up and allow myself to build lean tissue along the way. Seems to be working for me. Important thing is to listen to suggestions but listen to your body, and find out what works best for you! Feel free to "Friend" me, as my food log is open to all Friends.


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I'll do a cheat day every 10 to 14 days when I see a plateau beginning. I don't ever go over my calorie goal each day. I just eat what I usually don't eat as a part of my healthy diet. It seems to be working for me, I don't know why for sure. I will usually see a weight loss slowdown after 2 and 1/2 weeks where I lose 0 to 1 pound a week for 2 weeks. As I have been doing these cheat days, my plateaus have lasted only 1 week and I've never lost less than 2 pounds in a slow week. I still have 100 pounds to go and as I get closer to my goal weight I realize all this will change but until then I'm going to stay the course.

I don't "cheat" because I am not on a "diet"

I also do NOT take a whole day off from eating foods that are good for me. I do allow myself to indulge from time to time. For example a few weeks I had dinner with a friend, she made a yummyyyy apple pie, I ate little bit of it. I was at the gym that day and had extra calories.

This weekend at my own grad party I skipped most of the junk food, but I did eat a piece of my yummy cake! I will eat a little bit of something if it sounds really good so that I indulge the craving and don't over do it later because I denied myself. I always log it. I am trying to change my lifestyle, not just lose weight.

I've learned that after extended periods of eating mostly healthy stuff (as opposed to mostly non-healthy stuff), the times when I *do* let the balance skew the other way aren't as satisfying. I think the reason is that food, while it is a social thing and should be pleasurable and tasty and all that other stuff, is also *fuel*.

To expand the analogy, and I'm sure y'all can see where this is going: My hubby and I went on vacation to the cottage this past weekend. On the way, we noticed that our new(ish) vehicle was getting pretty impressive gas mileage. We weren't speeding (much), took care not to accelerate too sharply, did a lot of "good driving" things to increase the mileage, and it paid off. We filled up somewhere over the weekend, didn't think anything about it, and watched our mileage on the way home.

The trip home was disappointing because we didn't get nearly the same mileage, even though we did all the same things to *get* good mileage. We dropped a mile or two off the efficiency, somehow, and nothing had changed about the contents of the car, the passengers...the thing that changed was where we bought the gas. I think (because I've excluded everything else) the quality of the gas at the 2nd gas station wasn't as good. I could be wrong, but go with me on this one because it makes my rambling work.

Anyway, back to food issues. When I go "off the wagon", or indulge more than I know is good for me, I feel it. I feel the letdown from the sugar rush, or bloated, or just plain "gunky" for lack of a better word. If I stick to the plan and make better food choices, even indulging a little bit doesn't make me feel like that. I get better mileage, as it were.

So it's certainly okay to pig out and indulge, and for heaven's sake don't feel guilty about it EVER, but for myself - it just isn't worth feeling "gunky" when I can keep on an even keel and feel physically fine.

I have "Cheat" days occasionally but if i ever go overboard it is that much harder to stay in my calorie target in the days following so it is almost not worth it. I am trying to get better at giving myself rewards that are still low in calories and still satisfy my horrible sweet tooth.

I tend to eat more on the weekends. I see weekend as my indulgence time! I am not dieting, but I let myself eat treats on the weekends- wine, cookies, bigger meals, and eating out. During the week I am SO anal, that I enjoy my weekend splurges!!!

Eat whatever you want, as long as you maintain a calorie deficit over the course of the week.

My first instinct is to say :"stay strong" and don't do it-yet. I think once a week is too often to have a cheat day. There is supposed to be some benefit from a one day spike in calories, but seems to me a day month is far better than a day a week. In my 36 days, I have yet to have a cheat day, despite eating pizza once, red robin once, ice cream multiple times. I have gotten close to my goal, and maybe even gone over by a little 4 times or so, but never a "blow up the plan" type day.

Pretty much this.

I feel better about myself and my goals when I have "cheat items" now and then but still adhere to my goals calorie-wise. It is quite rare for me to go over on my daily calories by more than 100 (usually I don't at all).

For me it's very satisfying this way. For example, tonight my husband and I are going out to dinner. We haven't decided yet between Thai or Mexican. I'm currently on 1,410 calories per day and won't be able to get in a ton of exercise today. So for breakfast, I had a cup of coffee and Greek yogurt with a little honey and six almonds. At lunch I had a small flour tortilla spread with hummus and an egg fried with red onion & artichoke pieces. I still have a lot of calories to use tonight, almost 1,000.

I also treat my weekends differently than weekdays...if I play an hour of tennis and walk around for 5 hours (not even fitness walking, just doing different things like sight-seeing) I'll conservatively log those calories and therefore can "afford" that boutique cupcake or 32 oz of apple ale.