Do you have your cheat day?

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  • MelissaPhippsFeagins
    MelissaPhippsFeagins Posts: 8,063 Member
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    Orphia wrote: »
    4 months and no cheating so far. Eating everything I feel like in moderation within my calorie limit.

    How tall are you? How much do you need to lose? You might have too severe goals.

    This. I lost from 197 to 157 in just over 5 months. I didn't stop eating anything that I didn't want to stop eating forever. I have maintained my loss with 5 pounds or so for 19 months. Some days I eat more than others and I am sure that my Saturday diary would look like a cheat day, but a) cheat has negative connotations that I don't apply to my food and b) I planned to eat that way that day so it may have been unusually indulgent but it isn't something I needed to feel guilty over. it's all about finding the balance that will work for you for the rest of your life. Good luck!

  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
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    I don't do "cheat", I make what I want fit, or sometimes I go over.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,996 Member
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    dinia07 wrote: »
    I already lose 2.5 lbs in 11 days. I aim for 1200 cal thrice a week and 1500 cal for the remaining days. And now i feel so deprived of food. I miss eating anything I want but so afraid of gaining back the weight again. :(

    With only 24 pounds to lose according to your ticker, your weekly weight loss goals are too aggressive, which is why you feel deprived. Try changing your goals to lose 0.5 pounds per week and see if you feel better with the additional calories.

    I eat more on the weekends but also up my exercise so I get more calories. (Because calorie burn from exercise tends to be inflated, many people suggest not eating more than 50% of the calories you earn from exercise back.)

  • strong_curves
    strong_curves Posts: 2,229 Member
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    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    I don't do "cheat", I make what I want fit, or sometimes I go over.

    This.

    I pre-plan the majority of my meals and I think that helps.

  • AspenDan
    AspenDan Posts: 703 Member
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    I have cheat meals, where I know it might be 1500 calories or whatever..but I don't typically have cheat days. I try to work the big meal into my plans by filling up on lown calorie volume, like lots of veggies and water, to stay full until that big meal.
  • becalee26
    becalee26 Posts: 185 Member
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    After 35 days of perfect logging (12.5 lbs gone) I went camping and decided to "cheat" for two days. Needed my wine and s'mores and didn't care how much. Now it's Monday, back to perfectly logging and not feeling quilty about my weekend activity. Won't happen again until I go away for Labor Day weekend. I did make sure to stick to my 12000 (5 miles) steps everyday. I won't give that up for any day.
  • dinsfamily
    dinsfamily Posts: 84 Member
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    DemoraFairy wrote: »
    Once I got close enough to a weight that I was happy with, I decided I wouldn't try to count calories for special occasions - birthdays, celebration meals, things like that. It's nice to have the odd meal without worrying about counting or limiting what I eat.

    This is my goal. Right now, I'm planning my calories around events and learning not to go overboard. It's tough since restaurant food is so calorie-dense, but I've been able to do it with decent food choices, working out, and planning. So much easier to eat at home, though. When I get to maintenance, I'm hoping that it will be easier or at least I can bleed those fun calories off over the course of a week.

    This is actually the first time I haven't planned any "cheating" in to my weightloss plan. If I want something bad enough, I just work-in those calories. Seems way easier this way and I feel more satisfied.
  • esorcel
    esorcel Posts: 459 Member
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    Francl27 wrote: »
    I have higher calorie days that fit fine in my weekly calories. Last week I had a 2800 calorie day and I still had a 1600-1800 deficit for the week.

    That might account for how I don't gain weight during the weekend. I tend to be extremely busy with limited times to track my caloric intake on the weekends. I still maintain portion control because I am afraid of ruining all of my efforts, and it seems to work out for me. I call the weekend my cheat days only because I am not recording my caloric intake, but I don't overindulge on anything, or feel deprived.
  • esorcel
    esorcel Posts: 459 Member
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    dinsfamily wrote: »
    DemoraFairy wrote: »
    Once I got close enough to a weight that I was happy with, I decided I wouldn't try to count calories for special occasions - birthdays, celebration meals, things like that. It's nice to have the odd meal without worrying about counting or limiting what I eat.

    This is my goal. Right now, I'm planning my calories around events and learning not to go overboard. It's tough since restaurant food is so calorie-dense, but I've been able to do it with decent food choices, working out, and planning. So much easier to eat at home, though. When I get to maintenance, I'm hoping that it will be easier or at least I can bleed those fun calories off over the course of a week.

    This is actually the first time I haven't planned any "cheating" in to my weightloss plan. If I want something bad enough, I just work-in those calories. Seems way easier this way and I feel more satisfied.

    Restaurant foods are also loaded with sodium!! Water retention can put a damper on your weight loss plans. I try to stick with home-cooked foods, too. It's so much easier to maintain your goals that way.
  • dinsfamily
    dinsfamily Posts: 84 Member
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    esorcel wrote: »
    dinsfamily wrote: »
    DemoraFairy wrote: »
    Once I got close enough to a weight that I was happy with, I decided I wouldn't try to count calories for special occasions - birthdays, celebration meals, things like that. It's nice to have the odd meal without worrying about counting or limiting what I eat.

    This is my goal. Right now, I'm planning my calories around events and learning not to go overboard. It's tough since restaurant food is so calorie-dense, but I've been able to do it with decent food choices, working out, and planning. So much easier to eat at home, though. When I get to maintenance, I'm hoping that it will be easier or at least I can bleed those fun calories off over the course of a week.

    This is actually the first time I haven't planned any "cheating" in to my weightloss plan. If I want something bad enough, I just work-in those calories. Seems way easier this way and I feel more satisfied.

    Restaurant foods are also loaded with sodium!! Water retention can put a damper on your weight loss plans. I try to stick with home-cooked foods, too. It's so much easier to maintain your goals that way.

    True that they are, but I eat out maybe twice a month so definitely not worried about the sodium. More worried about food choice since a yummy burger and fries could put me way over my calories for the day...add a beer and wowsa. The water retention would go away so not really hampering anything for me, right? I deal with water retention every week because of working out so I'm learning not to freak out at a little uptick in weight and go by the trend instead.
  • mbaker566
    mbaker566 Posts: 11,233 Member
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    I don't cheat, I make my food fit by preplanning both food and exercise.
    and on rare occasions I still go over but I don't panic. such is life
  • ladyrixx
    ladyrixx Posts: 12 Member
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    I do, on Saturdays my husband and I go out to eat with our friend and his family. He loves to take us to various ethnic buffets, so I have no clue what I'm eating, so that makes it hard to count calories.
  • Domicinator
    Domicinator Posts: 261 Member
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    I can't do it. It feels counterintuitive to what I'm trying to accomplish. If the end goal is to permanently be in the habit of not worshipping food so much that I feel like I have to gorge on it, then the cheat day concept makes no sense to me. I don't want to have that day to look forward to, because at some point it will need to stop anyway.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
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    No way, Jose. There is no cheating, IMO. I'm not cheated.

    I do have days where I eat over or under (sometimes well over or under) the calorie goal, but I'm not cheating. I feel no shame, no guilt, no nothing. I keep an eye on weekly and monthly numbers and I don't sweat single days.

    I just don't have the same amount of hunger every day. It seems crazy to me to stuff myself on Tuesday to meet a calorie number and then go to bed hungry on Thursday to stay true to the calorie goal. I cannot eat to numbers. I tried. It didn't work.

    It's not cheating to me, it's overeating. And it's okay to do sometimes. I make the rules easy because I have to follow them. :)
  • KGS01
    KGS01 Posts: 3 Member
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    I don't have a specific cheat day.
    I can eat junk whenever I want but I keep it within my calorie goal for the day, I still loose weight. There are still some very calorie dense foods that I have to avoid but that can't be helped. The longer you're on a diet the more self control you will have.

    I don't count calories for my birthday & other celebrations. But if I go to someone's party I do try moderation and adjusting my intake throughout the day, you could call it damage control xD

    I personally don't see there being a benefit in me keeping a cheat day to go all out because it'll hinder my progress but I know it's useful for others and I respect that.

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