"Cheat Day"

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  • susanswan
    susanswan Posts: 1,194 Member
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    I have a "cheat day" once a week to every ten days or so. But I definitely don't eat anything I want or go nuts. I do not consume processed carbs in my regular diet, but on my cheat day, I might have homemade macaroni and cheese. I still stay within my calories, though. Tonight, I'm making a pork and rice dish that my kids love and I'm going to have some too. Rice is not on my list of foods that I eat on my regular diet, so it's my "cheat." Not restricting myself entirely has helped me maintain a pretty clean diet 95% of the time. As long as I stay within my calories, I'm unlikely to sabotage my weight loss efforts. And I generally keep it to a "cheat meal" rather than a day.

    Good points - keeping it within your calorie range and not going "nuts". A cheat item - like my piece of See's Candy yesterday. That is about all the cheating I can handle! I felt better I could find the calorie count for it when I got home!
  • tamarab3
    tamarab3 Posts: 64
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    I plan for and eat up to my maintainance calories one day a week (usually a weekend day). I have consistantly lost weight each week.
  • lsd007
    lsd007 Posts: 435
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    It's your diet, you make the rules. :drinker:
  • webbed1
    webbed1 Posts: 86
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    tamarab3: your "cheat" day is different than what most of these folks consider; they are proposing over and above, and in some cases, WAY above their maintenance.
  • rlysrh
    rlysrh Posts: 244
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    I try not to have any days where I go about my maintenance amount of calories but if I do it'll only be by about 300 max. But thats only when I go really off track. I give myself a day of not worrying about counting calories once a week to keep myself sane and motivated but like I said I tend not to go too overboard when I do this anyway so its not really too detrimental.
    But I don't think there is a certain thing everyone should or shouldn't do, you've just got to do what works for you.
  • chattychick
    chattychick Posts: 90 Member
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    I try to plan accordingly. For instance, this coming up Friday a group of friends and I are headed out for Mexican food and margaritas. I am planning to do a workout on Friday (which is not a normal workout day) and am limiting myself to one frozen strawberry margarita, a handfull of chips and salsa, and am splitting an entry with a friend who is also trying to lose weight. I try to just think ahead and say "well... if I make choice _____ then I need to do _____ to offest it". I am not perfect by any means when it comes to this. Just remember that hte basic formula is to expend more cals than you take in.
  • smashleymcgee
    smashleymcgee Posts: 135 Member
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    I would say only have a "cheat day" when you have exercised enough to cancel it out. Go to the gym or take a walk for an hour and that will cancel out the bad. Plus, working out personally gives me to motivation to eat healthier, so I will minimize the damage done. If you do have an overwhelming urge to cheat, I would suggest doing it after you hit a mini goal :). Good luck!
  • Shelli_G
    Shelli_G Posts: 14
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    Wow...a somewhat difference of opinion here. It was to be expected though. I knew that this was a great topic. And I know what works for some doesn't always work for others. Like in this case.

    The reason I posed the question in the first place was because I was seriously considering doing something like this. A 'cheat' day per say. I read one of MFP's member's blogs this morning and one of his 'rules' is that he allows himself a cheat day once a week. Hey...it works for him. (Here's his blog: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/secostley/view/pictures-of-what-a-30-pound-loss-looks-like-109593)

    Anyway, I like the 'plan ahead' tactic, and I think I'm going to implement that, however, I know that sometime things get thrown into the mix and your plans get screwed up. The ONLY good thing for me is the fact that I don't eat sweets. It's funny because that's what I do for a living... I bake event cakes / sweets / treats. From wedding cakes, to cupcakes, to yummy chocolate treats, etc. But I don't eat it. I just don't really care for much sweet stuff. My downfall is chips...chips and salsa...chips and onion dip....that type of junk food.

    I don't think I'd be 'cheating' myself if I take a day where I eat over and above my normal maintenance calories, however, I will do a little more in the exercise arena to try and gain some of those calorie intake back....perhaps not all of it, but I'm hoping enough to keep me on pace.

    Again, thanks for your opinions!!!
  • barbiex3
    barbiex3 Posts: 1,036 Member
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    i don't think people should have a defined cheat day where they just bindge all day, but I feel like if you really need to you can go over one day by a MAXIMUM of 500 calories. But I don't do that. I've gone over about 5 days in the past month by a few calories, but I still managed to loose weight.
  • lmvrbaby
    lmvrbaby Posts: 30 Member
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    I dont pick any certain day to cheat, but I try to stay below the calorie intake everyday, just that one day usually weekend day I don't do my exercises and eat that something special. I am a chocolate lover so it is hard, but have found that eating a bite size candy bar once in awhile (45 calories) is fine. I walk every day even for breaks at work and do Zumba every night after work. I will say when I don't do my Zumba I do feel guilty, because I love doing it, 20 minutes seem to fly by and before you know it an hour has passed....I guess I am saying it is a personal choice, you-yourself know you the best!!!
  • Valtishia
    Valtishia Posts: 811 Member
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    I have cheat meals and cheat days occasionally.. but I don't really plan for them. Sometimes I will even go weeks without one. When the occasion comes along or I get a craving, or good ol TOM, then I go for it. I am pretty strict on what goes in my mouth the rest of the time. This week I was super good, although I didn't log a few days, then today.. I had a good breakfast and went shopping for the whole day and evening with my husband from about noon until 9pm. The rest of the day after breakfast, I didn't eat well at all. I had wendy's and cookies from tim hortons. I did manage to stay under my calories and all my other stats though, despite my crappy food choices.

    I don't really know if cheat meals/days has helped me along in my weight loss, but I can atleast say it didn't inhibit it. Its a personal choice for everyone. Some people can't do it, or they can't seem to get back on track afterwards, others feel guilty at the slighest bit of not so healthy foods going in thier mouths, and others are perfectly fine with indulging here and there. For myself, I think its fine. I just make sure I don't go overboard with it.
  • webbed1
    webbed1 Posts: 86
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    ok, here is my second thought on this, based off what I have read here, and what people have emailed me with as questions.

    Here are the varieties of cheat days, fellow MFPs add on if I missed one

    Version#1 Eating up to your maintenance calories. Good choices or not.

    Version#2 Eating slighly over your maintenace calories, Good choices or not (remember, 500 cals x5 a month= .71lbs gained or could have lost...

    Version#3 Eating significantly in excess of your maintenance calories, such that you wipe out a week or two or more of progress. In this particular case, this can be compounded if poor choices are included, particularly high glycemic selections, since insulin spikes from high GIs combined with excess calories WILL facilitate fat storage.

    A member asked me if it was ok to reward themselves with a box of hohos and "some" cookies with milk. My response? I guess, if you'll be happy with what the mirror tells you when you stand in front of it naked...

    HMMM, it just came to me, why do very few people binge on steak, or grilled chicken, or fish or eggs (I know some do, but very few comparatively) but damn, watch those sweets and sugary drinks-- Refined sugar, insulin spikes, excess fast calories, repeat--

    IMPORTANT: I am not judgmental. Eat what you want and be happy with what you look like, have good esteem and self image and screw everyone else, really. I know people who are like this. But people, please don't make behavioral choices and then abuse yourself, castigate yourself, feel like crap, go through guilt trips, avoid the mirror or swimsuits, etc. That is insanity. Don't do it to yourself.
  • kymmixxx
    kymmixxx Posts: 151 Member
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    I wish it was steak and grilled chicken i craved. right now theres 4 mississippi mud pies in the fridge and i am determined not to have any as i know how rubbish i felt after eating one..ok two! last week.
  • kittybitz79
    kittybitz79 Posts: 213
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    My hubby and I have one meal a week that we call our cheat meal. It can be us going to one of our favorite restaurants, a family gathering or time with friends. We still log everything we eat and we don't go crazy. If we have pizza, we often share a small. If we go to mexican, we bring half home. The main thing for us is trying not to go hog wild and logging it.
  • saldous
    saldous Posts: 4
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    You've got to enjoy life too, if there are some foods you like I think it is ok to once in a while to enjoy it and give yourself a break. You only live once, let yourself have a few treats now and then, but make up for it with some extra exercise so you don't feel bad about it.
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
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    I don't consider what I do to be a "cheat" day. I think of it as living normal. :laugh:

    Say I have a party to go to. A bridal shower, or a family bbq. Lots of yummy foods are going to be available to me. I want to be able to pick and nibble on whatever I want, without making a tally of "I had three grapes, two strawberries, a brownie, a kabob, some chicken breast, a small glass of wine, four baby carrots, maybe a teaspoon of ranch dip with those..." It'd be crazy! I'm there to enjoy myself, not be a menace to the party hosts asking how many carbs are in their homemade bbq sauce. I just don't log on days like those. They happen maybe once a month.

    Now that I'm nearly at my goal, I'm experimenting with eating for a half pound loss during the week, and free-styling the weekends. No logging. Just eating what I feel like eating. I probably don't eat any more than I do during the week, but I do admit I go over the sodium because I do like to either go out, or enjoy a pizza or something similarly high in sodium at home, on the weekends. My weigh in day is Saturday morning. My sodium "binge" is gone by then. :wink:
  • Shelli_G
    Shelli_G Posts: 14
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    ok, here is my second thought on this, based off what I have read here, and what people have emailed me with as questions.

    Here are the varieties of cheat days, fellow MFPs add on if I missed one

    Version#1 Eating up to your maintenance calories. Good choices or not.

    Version#2 Eating slighly over your maintenace calories, Good choices or not (remember, 500 cals x5 a month= .71lbs gained or could have lost...

    Version#3 Eating significantly in excess of your maintenance calories, such that you wipe out a week or two or more of progress. In this particular case, this can be compounded if poor choices are included, particularly high glycemic selections, since insulin spikes from high GIs combined with excess calories WILL facilitate fat storage.

    A member asked me if it was ok to reward themselves with a box of hohos and "some" cookies with milk. My response? I guess, if you'll be happy with what the mirror tells you when you stand in front of it naked...

    HMMM, it just came to me, why do very few people binge on steak, or grilled chicken, or fish or eggs (I know some do, but very few comparatively) but damn, watch those sweets and sugary drinks-- Refined sugar, insulin spikes, excess fast calories, repeat--

    IMPORTANT: I am not judgmental. Eat what you want and be happy with what you look like, have good esteem and self image and screw everyone else, really. I know people who are like this. But people, please don't make behavioral choices and then abuse yourself, castigate yourself, feel like crap, go through guilt trips, avoid the mirror or swimsuits, etc. That is insanity. Don't do it to yourself.

    For me, my 'cheat' days would be comparable to your version #2. Eating slightly over my maintenance calories. Not going wild hog crazy or anything like that.

    For instance....take today as an example. We have friends coming over for an early dinner. I plan on making either a Lasagna or Spaghetti. Now, I'm not going to NOT EAT any of it just because I'm watching my calorie intake, but I'm going to eat a small portion. I know with everything going on throughout the day, (with the exception of my not eating breakfast AGAIN) I may go over on my allotted calories for the day. I consider this my 'cheat' day.

    Yes, I'll be making a wonderful dessert...perhaps some yummy 'better than sex' cupcakes or 'irish car bomb' cupcakes because they're our friends' favorite. Thankfully, I won't be consuming any of those because...well....as I mentioned before, I simply don't like sweets of that nature. (cakes...cupcakes...candies...etc.)

    As I've read on this thread.... what works for some, may not work for others. We shall see.
  • ChaseyandLillysmama
    ChaseyandLillysmama Posts: 5 Member
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    I do have a cheat day, and personally i think its the only way im ever going to lose the amount of weight i need to. I cheat on saturdays, and I eat anything i want to. It helps me not cheat during the week, because I always know that Saturday is coming and whatever craving I may be having, I just eat it that day and its all done. :) Doing it this way I don't feel deprived, I have something to look forward to, and im still following my diet plan 6 out ot 7 days. But this is just my opinion and what works for me. Good luck figuring it out! :)
  • ChaseyandLillysmama
    ChaseyandLillysmama Posts: 5 Member
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  • webbed1
    webbed1 Posts: 86
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    If you are true to your scale and mirror, and are making progress, then continue. Just don't allow yourself to rationalize if it ever stops working. AND, most importantly, STILL document it. You NEED to be able to refer back when you are trying to interpret a stall later on down the road. MEMORY NEVER tells the truth in this regard. Rock on.

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