Are Cheat Days ok?

I have been allowing myself one cheat day each week, typically either a Saturday or Sunday. Sugar is my weakness, so my cheat day is usually one where I allow myself to each a lot of sugar. I noticed last night how awful I felt afterwards, and am still feeling the pain today. I hope that my hard work throughout the week was enough to counteract the consequences of those food choices!

When will people realize that there is actually no cheating going on. You aren't cheating, you're following the rules of human biology just like every other human being. If you cheat at the process, then you are a medical miracle who needs to be dissected and studied.

I know people like trend driven buzzwords, but there is really no such thing as a cheat meal, or cheat day.

You are either eating at a calorie deficit, at maintenance, or at a surplus. No buzzword or heavily filtered instagram photo will change that fact.

The whole concept of feeling like you're cheating surely just brings up issues surrounding food. Negative emotion surrounding food are a recipe for disaster.

Eat the foods you like, within a calorie defcit, lose weight. Why make it any more complicated?

lnnels14 wrote: »

I have been allowing myself one cheat day each week, typically either a Saturday or Sunday. Sugar is my weakness, so my cheat day is usually one where I allow myself to each a lot of sugar. I noticed last night how awful I felt afterwards, and am still feeling the pain today. I hope that my hard work throughout the week was enough to counteract the consequences of those food choices!

If consuming sugar causes you to suffer a sustained period of actual physical pain, then I'd suggest you seek medical attention.

You are not going to stick to your calorie target every day or week for the rest of your life. It's just not doable. I personally don't care for planning out a specific day of the week to "cheat", I just know that on any given week I have certain occasions where I'll want to be more lax with my eating. Some weeks I can work that in to a calorie deficit and still lose or maintain, other weeks I gain, but that's the way it goes. Don't strive for perfection... this is something you want to make doable long term. Whatever you want to call it, cheat days or meals or whatever else, find a way to make this something you can live with.

I didn't have any cheat day for 8 months and my weight loss slowed down once I started having them.

By cheat day I mean eating over my calories for one day... even if I'm still at a deficit for the week, it does slow down your weight loss.

There's nothing wrong with a burger or a milkshake if it fits your calories though (although I haven't had a milkshake in 2 years because it's not worth the calories to me anymore).

I consider it a "treat" instead of a "cheat." I try to stay within my calories every day. Sometimes I am a little over, and sometimes a little under. By doing it that way, I feel no guilt when I treat myself to a nice meal with friends or family. I think you have to allow yourself to eat things that don't necessarily fit in to your calorie count occasionally if you want to change your lifestyle. If you find yourself wanting the milkshake every day, it might become a problem for you, but don't feel guilty about an occasional indulgence. You are human, and milkshakes are delicious.

I think the words we use matter, and by calling something a "cheat" meal or day, you are setting yourself up to feel bad.

I have "maintenance" days or weeks. On a maintenance day, I indulge enough that I hit my maintenance calories for my current weight. It doesn't do anything bad; I don't gain (I occasionally retain water depending on the food choice, but that doesn't matter), and at worst, I've pushed off my hitting-my-goal date by one day. Most likely, I've brought it closer because allowing myself to indulge here and there means I'm more likely to not give up on my plan.

A maintenance week is usually still just one day during which I eat enough in one day (usually in one meal) to make it so that at the end of the week I'm at maintenance. I do these less often and save them for special occasions like an anniversary dinner with my husband at some fancy restaurant. Again, I might show a little increase on the scale the next day, but I know after seven days, if I stick to my goal on the other days, the week just ends up being a wash.

The important parts of the way I do it are these:
1. It's intentional. Maintenance days and occasional maintenance weeks are important to my ability to reach my goal. I have a small deficit, but that extra 250 calories in a day can be really satisfying. The extra 1750 I get when I give myself a maintenance week is awesome. And because I don't have to feel bad about it, I can enjoy it fully.
2. It's logged. I don't just throw logging out the window. If I'm eating out, I make my best guess. If I indulge more than I planned, I log it, accept it, and move on. Sometimes I do; it happens. If it bothers me, I'll try to stay 50 calories under my goal for seven days, but it usually doesn't bother me (probably because it usually doesn't happen. A rare over-indulgence is nothing to lose sleep over).
3. It's occasional. I probably have a maintenance day once every two weeks and a maintenance week no more than once a month. I try to make sure one of my maintenance days falls right about that time before my period that I want to eat everything. Also, because it's occasional, I choose to indulge in things I truly get satisfaction from. A meal at a favorite restaurant is going to bring me more satisfaction than eating a bag of chips while I watch a movie, even though they both might be the same number of calories. Because I think about it, I'm less likely to regret what I chose to indulge in.
4. It's guilt-free. I'm pretty close to my goal, so I could buckle down and lose the rest of it in exactly four weeks, or I could enjoy myself a bit and maybe lose it in six to eight. I'm in no rush (it took over a year for me to gain the weight, after all), so I choose the latter.

I don't know if this helps you, but it's what works for me.

Personally, I hate doing cheat days because they just break streaks and make me want to keep cheating. They're okay if you are able to recover from them easily, but if you don't need them I suggest not bothering with them.

I lost 61 pounds (First time around) doing cheat days once a week. Just make sure you don't go over what would be your maintenance calories for the day.

No such thing as a cheat day with me. If I decide I want something I will have it. I found that if I put it off for very long when I finally did have it I over indulged. This happened the other day. I went to the deli to get some ham and they had homemade S'mores Pie there for sale. I saw it and decided I would have a slice for desert after lunch. It is okay to have stuff like that the problem really comes when you have it all the time. I don't even budget for them in a day. If I go over for just one day I do. It wont hurt you.