Advice for "Cheat Days"

I don't consider it 'cheating'. I know that if I deny myself the chance to once-in-a-while eat something I really like, I'll be discouraged. Once a month, I plan an 'eat whatever I'm craving' day. Funny story, though. Yesterday was my 'cheat' day and we went out for mochas (I love a good mocha!) and then to Indian food. I drank my whole mocha, but by the time dinner came around, I was so excited for Indian food! I was like, yah! Chicken tikka masala! Garlic Naan! Yeah! ... and then, well, I ate about six bites and felt completely satisfied. My "splurge" day cost me an extra 200 calories total. We brought home lots of leftovers. From now on, no more Indian food unless we can find another couple people to go with us to split dishes.

I haven't had a cheat day in over two weeks and today it hit me. I had two homemade smores and homemade Fajitas/rice/beans which wouldn't be too bad but I had already met my 1200 calories before dinner. I probably ended up hitting 1800 for the day. Oh well, as long as I stay focused the rest of the week I should be OK right?

I haven't cut out any of the foods I love. For me, that would be a recipe to fail. I just eat them in moderation.

When I started (almost a year ago) I looked at what I could cut down on without feeling ripped off.

It started with my morning coffee. It used to be a double-double for a whopping 210 calories. For one mug of coffee. Before breakfast. I switched out the cream for 1/2 and 1/2. Did that for a week. Replaced one of the 2 sugars with a packet of Stevia. Did that for a week. Went from 1/2 and 1/2 down to light cream the next week. Then I replaced the other teaspoon of sugar with a second packet of Stevia. The result? In a month, my morning coffee went from 210 calories down to 53. That's a 75% reduction. Just in my morning coffee. And I still enjoy every drop!

I made small bunches of similar changes very gradually. I tried low calorie options of products I buy at the grocery store. Found some winners. Greek yogurt is the bomb. Found a bunch of total losers, too. Fat free cheese is just plain nasty.

tl;dr - Start small, make gradual changes, keep the foods you love - just eat less of them.

I'm down 75lbs in under a year and I haven't suffered.

snickerscharlie wrote: »

I haven't cut out any of the foods I love. For me, that would be a recipe to fail. I just eat them in moderation.

When I started (almost a year ago) I looked at what I could cut down on without feeling ripped off.

It started with my morning coffee. It used to be a double-double for a whopping 210 calories. For one mug of coffee. Before breakfast. I switched out the cream for 1/2 and 1/2. Did that for a week. Replaced one of the 2 sugars with a packet of Stevia. Did that for a week. Went from 1/2 and 1/2 down to light cream the next week. Then I replaced the other teaspoon of sugar with a second packet of Stevia. The result? In a month, my morning coffee went from 210 calories down to 53. That's a 75% reduction. Just in my morning coffee. And I still enjoy every drop!

I made small bunches of similar changes very gradually. I tried low calorie options of products I buy at the grocery store. Found some winners. Greek yogurt is the bomb. Found a bunch of total losers, too. Fat free cheese is just plain nasty.

tl;dr - Start small, make gradual changes, keep the foods you love - just eat less of them.

I'm down 75lbs in under a year and I haven't suffered.

That is fabulous and way to go!!! You are doing it right

Zellyrus wrote: »

I've been doing well for a few weeks now (1200-1300 calories, eating healthier, exercising daily, lost 5 lbs). Yesterday I had my first diet "cheat day", 2 days a month I have built into my schedule where I can go out to eat.

But man.........I wolfed down a giant beer, a taco, and entire large pizza for dinner. Felt terrible afterwards and gained back most of the weight I'd lost in the last few weeks.

I like having these days, especially since I am faithful to my diet all the other days. But it's like if I give myself an inch, all my self control is gone.

How do you all use cheat days (and if not, why not)? Should I still count calories on these days, but just increase my limit for that day?

As others have said, I don't get the "cheat day" concept. Some days I go over my calorie goal. I log it; I go on with my routine. Cheating who or what? Real life happens. I don't see any need for drama or angst over food. Life is too short.

If you lost 5 pounds before your "cheat day", and gained the same after it, it's almost certainly water weight (mostly). (I've gained that much in pure water weight in 24 hours, BTW, though it's rare - 2 or 3 pounds is not rare at all.) But to gain 5 actual pounds of real (not water) weight, you'd have to have eaten (roughly) 17,500 calories more than your maintenance calories. I'll bet you didn't.

Giant beer? Well, my pint of craft beer once a week or so usually clocks in around 300 calories (I like IPA). One big pizza chain's web site says a large meat lover's stuffed crust pizza is 3,440 calories. Highest calorie single taco I found in the MFP database before I got bored with looking was 565 calories. So, 300 + 3,440 + 565 = 4,305. Of course your actual details will differ, but this should be fairly close to a worst-case scenario, just for discussion purposes.

Let's assume you'd already eaten an entire 1300 calories that day before this meal(s), so 5,605 total calories for the day (4,305 + 1,300) . You're losing 1.5-2lbs/week, so your deficit is at least 750 calories/day. So, let's estimate your net daily maintenance calories at 1200 + 750 = 1950 at your current weight.

Therefore, your "cheat day" was 3,655 calories over maintenance (5,605 - 1950). That means a real weight gain on the order of 1 pound (1 pound = about 3,500 calories). The rest is likely water weight. To lose this cheat-day weight at your current deficit, it will take about 5 days (3,655 / 750 = 4.87). After that you'll start losing new weight again, if you stay on your current deficit. You'll probably see the water weight drop away by then, too, if not sooner.

This is how I think about over-goal days. It's just a story problem in arithmetic. If you choose, you can do this kind of arithmetic on your real data, to get a better estimate of the impact. There's no reason to feel guilty, panic, feel you've ruined everything, give up, or anything of the sort. Drama is optional (personally, I hate drama).

Was your cheat day worth a (roughly) 5 day delay in reaching your goal weight? Only you know the answer. Would you be less likely to go wildly over on cheat days - or less likely to want cheat days at all - if you increased your calorie goal (slowed your loss rate)? Only you can guess. Or experiment.

Personally, I log every single day. Sometimes I go over goal - occasionally by quite a lot. I try to reserve it for true special occasions. If it's extreme, I calculate the impact as above and decide whether it was worthwhile, and if not, I think about how to modify my behavior in the future. If I see an over day coming, I sometimes fit in extra workouts or cut 100 calories for a few days in advance, so I come out OK for the day or week despite the splurge. (I wouldn't cut much more below 1200, by the way - I'm currently at 0.5lb/week loss so I have more wiggle room). But if something comes up, and I go over, and I'm keeping it rare, I just get back on track without worrying about it.

Zellyrus wrote: »

Thank you for all the math and the overall perspective.

AnnPT77 wrote: »

If it's extreme, I calculate the impact as above and decide whether it was worthwhile, and if not, I think about how to modify my behavior in the future. If I see an over day coming, I sometimes fit in extra workouts or cut 100 calories for a few days in advance, so I come out OK for the day or week despite the splurge. (I wouldn't cut much more below 1200, by the way - I'm currently at 0.5lb/week loss so I have more wiggle room). But if something comes up, and I go over, and I'm keeping it rare, I just get back on track without worrying about it.

The idea of counting calories.....long term....is new for me. I tend to just think day by day (which is why I probably had so much drama from so many calories!) Glad I did have a bad cheat day though, so if nothing else I know what NOT to do!

I think I'm going to have to avoid beer personally, if only because I get drinking munchies like crazy.

Cutting something out of your diet for a while is fine if you recognize that the particular item is currently an issue for you. But if you're thinking more along the lines that this is a lifestyle change as opposed to a diet, in the long term it's better to re-introduce that item into your repertoire at some point and learn to deal with it in the context of your overall nutrition unless you're willing to give it up forever.

I say have fun. Go get that beer and taco. Just don't lose yourself. It's an easy thing to do

Best advice for cheat days is to have them everyday. Thank me later.