Binge Guilt
Quiche867
Posts: 38 Member
Does anyone allow for "cheat days"?
I've been doing lchf/keto for about a month. I've been doing really well, feeling great, and I lost 10 lbs. It hasn't seemed all that difficult either. Well, yesterday and into today I've been binging on anything I can find that I shouldn't be eating. What I ate was just plain ridiculous. I even hid the evidence from my husband.
I was thinking about easing off on the weekends. Maybe just to up my carbs from 25g to about 50g or so? I would love to have my plain greek yogurt, fruit, and nuts, or maybe some toast & PB w/ sliced banana for breakfast... Maybe that would help not eat 2 corn dogs and then 5 granola bars in a row?? Or will it trigger me to crave and eat more carbs?
Is there something I can do to prevent binging on carbs? I really want this to work this time.
I've been doing lchf/keto for about a month. I've been doing really well, feeling great, and I lost 10 lbs. It hasn't seemed all that difficult either. Well, yesterday and into today I've been binging on anything I can find that I shouldn't be eating. What I ate was just plain ridiculous. I even hid the evidence from my husband.
I was thinking about easing off on the weekends. Maybe just to up my carbs from 25g to about 50g or so? I would love to have my plain greek yogurt, fruit, and nuts, or maybe some toast & PB w/ sliced banana for breakfast... Maybe that would help not eat 2 corn dogs and then 5 granola bars in a row?? Or will it trigger me to crave and eat more carbs?
Is there something I can do to prevent binging on carbs? I really want this to work this time.
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Replies
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My plan is one cheat day per 3 months, but keeping it under 50 carbs. But I don't want it for sweets or dessert. I want it for Scrapple.... a breakfast staple here in Philly.0
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This is a really timely question for me as I've been allowing myself the odd higher carb day but have been wondering whether it's actually increasing my desire for them as I've been struggling to keep on plan recently. I haven't quite decided what's best to do yet. Looking forward to seeing the replies!0
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Carbs beget more carbs (and calories) for most us. That's why we cut them out.
Cold turkey worked best for me, but you can be selective if you're aware of your own triggers. For example, I can eat broccoli without triggering cravings, but bread or baked goods or pizza -- forget it.
Edit: and the longer you avoid them, the less you crave them -- even when reintroduced. So if you insist on "cheating," at least wait several months until low carb is a solid habit for you.0 -
Oh yes, pizza was my downfall last weekend, we had a dinner disaster and the boyfriend went "we could always get pizza". Cue my complete collapse and a pizza binge0
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The hospital I work at makes cinnamon rolls on Fridays and the whole building smells heavenly- and it triggers my carb cravings. I have had a harder time sticking to it- I allowed myself a dark chocolate square. I'm not able to do cheat days, but if I were able to, I imagine it would just make me crave more.0
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Why do you think your binge happened? Did it come from an emotional place of denying yourself? "I haven't had the yogurt/fruit/PB/nuts that I love and darn it, let me fill that up". If so, maybe you'd benefit from just allowing yourself enough daily carbs to fit those things in. I have my carbs set at 50 (still LCHF). I rarely go higher than 30 (close to KETO limits), but just knowing I can fit some berries (etc.) into my self imposed limits keeps me mentally there. Or, was it from a physical craving? Once the carbs hit your system, you just got those sugar cravings? In that case, your body may just not be forgiving of a higher carb "treat".0
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Cheat days cause me to crave more, so I don't have them. My wife tried a cheat day for her birthday last year and it took her 12 weeks to get back on track. It's playing with fire in my opinion. Some people do them and it works for them. It doesn't work for me.0
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Rather than talking about "cheating", try changing your thinking completely. Research whether a carb-up meal (or day) would work better for you (especially as a female). www.healthfulpursuit.com has some information related to this. Carb-up or carb-cycling isn't usually about eating a sugar filled donut or potato chips either! It also isn't for every one as pointed out above, but it can work for others.0
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The deprivation aspect is a tricky one. You can absolutely rebound from deprivation with a binge. So for me, the trick is to not feel deprived. Think of what you'd like to eat to make this sustainable for the long-term. Find the things you LOVE that fit into your macro framework. There's no shortage of good things to eat once you leave those factory-made foods behind.0
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Cheat days cause me to crave more, so I don't have them. My wife tried a cheat day for her birthday last year and it took her 12 weeks to get back on track. It's playing with fire in my opinion. Some people do them and it works for them. It doesn't work for me.
Yeah, I would crave too, if it was something sweet. But Scrapple is a mix of scrap pig parts, cornmeal, and spices. The brand I use is 6 net carbs per serving. So, I would maybe do 2 -3 servings ( a serving is 2 ounces ). Then go on as normal for the rest of the day.
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I've had two cheat days in the last 55 days and they both made me ill. I probably only made it up to about 100g of carbs on those days, I was at 35g /day at the time, I'm under 20 net carbs now, but it was enough to wreak havoc on my body. For the simple fact that it makes me sick, I won't be doing that again. Not to mention the fact that I just don't crave carbs anymore and I don't want to trigger those cravings. My husband can stuff donuts, cake, bread, crackers in his mouth and it doesn't phase me.
However, there are plenty of times that I am famished with hunger because of hormones and stress or am just struggling with emotional eating desires. When that happens, I just eat more, but keep it LCHF that way, even if I've binged a bit, I'm not throwing myself out of ketosis or triggering cravings.0 -
Ok so this sounds like me last year. I was like, yeah I'll do keto for a month, then after that I'll do keto Monday through Friday and just low carb on weekends. I can tell you from experience that plan Does Not Work.
What happens is, you eat great during the week, your producing tons of ketones and your body is trying to adapt to keto and it's doing good you're feeling good and on your way. Then the weekend hits and your throw a bunch of carbs at it, you might not intentionally do it, but once you start bringing certain things back your body wants more of it and mentally you think that's ok I'm still lower than I would've been before so I'm good. However your body now has no clue what you are doing. It thinks, oh sweet carbs, stop making ketones we're good. Then Monday hits and you take the carbs away again and the cycle continues. You never fully adapt, or you do but it takes much longer and is a struggle. Think about when you first started low carb, you felt great for a few days, then you probably started feeling kinda cruddy because you underestimated how much sodium you really needed to avoid low carb flu, so you started sucking down broth to up your sodium meanwhile you have headaches and feel drained. Now try doing that every week.
So this may not be exactly how your path goes but that's what I had when I tried to do what you are thinking of. What I'm doing now is trying to stay around 50g a day, some are higher some are lower but none are an extreme shock to my system. I'm also not going for the all out carb binge on a given day (I did earlier this year and it sucked). I think someone else suggested, if you want to have a carb binge to wait till you are fully adapted, I agree with that. But don't do the in and out of keto thing you'll drive yourself nuts. Just like I did, and be on here everyday asking why you feel like crap (just look at my old threads)
Hope this helps
I don't want to see anyone struggle like I did. 0 -
The deprivation aspect is a tricky one. You can absolutely rebound from deprivation with a binge. So for me, the trick is to not feel deprived. Think of what you'd like to eat to make this sustainable for the long-term. Find the things you LOVE that fit into your macro framework. There's no shortage of good things to eat once you leave those factory-made foods behind.
I think wabmester is onto something - changing perspective from what we don't "get" to have to what we do! I love home made whipped cream and hardly put any sugar in it before low carb high fat so eliminating it completely is totally not a big deal as long as I put vanilla in it. I make sure I have enough carbs for blueberries and mix those together and that is definitely A yummy alternative.
@Paleo in Scotland - I'm with you on the hangry thing. If I'm still hungry I will eat lchf and that assuages my potential blow out. I had a crazy lady hormone day yesterday to the inth degree and just made some extra lchf snacks and I made it to the other side. Feel like if I can make it through a day/night like that and stay the course, I can make it through anything.0 -
I "cheat" all the time. I just try to make sure that it's as keto friendly as possible. For example, I play in a dart league on Monday nights. It always involves some drinking and often alcohol can be my gateway drug to food. I will order chicken wings and I know they have been "dusted" in flour. I really shouldn't eat the flour, but it's minimal and the fatty wings help offset the small amount of carbs. Also, while I would prefer to drink craft beers I stick to Vodka soda and that helps control the carbs too. So, basically I'm at a bar drinking like a fish and eating chicken wings. I would say that's some pretty good "cheating" right there. LOL
Edit: I forgot to mention that I totally avoid things like Pizza, sweets, breads, etc. etc. I just shouldn't eat that stuff and like @wabmester said, the longer I go without those things the less I crave them. I've been Keto now since mid October and I don't find myself craving any of that stuff. Even if I try to think about it and make myself crave it I just don't. It's sort of weird, but it's really true. You may find the same for you in time. I would encourage you to try to find the will power to get through a couple of months and maybe you will notice a change. Good luck.0 -
It's playing with fire in my opinion.
SO THIS^^^^!!!! Here's a suggestion for you: what specifically is it that you are craving from carbland? Try googling for LCHF recipes for whatever those items are and get into your kitchem and MAKE a healthified version of it for yourself that way (1) you eliminate your craving for it and (2) you stay on plan too. I have found that the best way to kill a craving is to feed the craving (i.e. eat a healthy version of it). This practice works extremely well for me. Why not give it a try?0 -
Thanks for your input everyone. I definitely feel like crap from all the carbs. Stress probably is a really big factor in my binge. I also know I've been craving something sweet and I'm just not finding what will satisfy that. I don't want to make anything with low carb pie crusts or sugar free jello, and I absolutely hate stevia. Maybe I'll try to fit a full fat plain greek yogurt with strawberries and small amount of walnuts as a treat. It's simple, and relatively low carb (14 net carbs for 8 oz yogurt w/ 1/2 cup strawberries, and 1 tbs walnuts). I have a zoku popcicle maker. Maybe I could do sugar free pudding mixed with HWC and make a popcicle out of it?
Anyone have suggestions on simple low carb sweets?0 -
It's playing with fire in my opinion.
SO THIS^^^^!!!! Here's a suggestion for you: what specifically is it that you are craving from carbland? Try googling for LCHF recipes for whatever those items are and get into your kitchem and MAKE a healthified version of it for yourself that way (1) you eliminate your craving for it and (2) you stay on plan too. I have found that the best way to kill a craving is to feed the craving (i.e. eat a healthy version of it). This practice works extremely well for me. Why not give it a try?
My downfall has always been "Friday night beer and pizza". We have done this as a family forever!!! So here's what I did tonight... I made homemade pizza crust for the family. We always do take out and so tonight everyone was calling me Luigi!! I chopped up amazing toppings like mushrooms, peppers, onions, chicken, BACON, olive and cheese. Then I made mini crusts from cauliflower for myself. Hubby has beer and I had some tequila with club soda. So good!!! We all put together our own pizza and I felt like l was missing nothing. In fact I feel like my cauliflower pizza tasted better than any other takeout pizza I have ever had!! It made me feel full and satisfied and I know tomorrow I won't feel like s$@t!!! LOL!!0 -
@Quiche867 I eat Quest cravings peanut butter cups and 90% cacao chocolate squares to enjoy something sweet. For me neither of those things trigger cravings or tempt me to eat more than I have accounted for with my macros. Though they may trigger cravings for others.
In the past I've blended chocolate low carb protein powder into double cream, that's really yummy, but can be very caloric if you make more than a couple spoonfuls.
Sounds like you're on track with fitting your yogurt treat into your macros. I'm a stress eater too and struggle so much less now. Stick with it, we all have good days and bad days, the important thing is to get back on track the next day if we let out good eating habits slip 0 -
The deprivation aspect is a tricky one. You can absolutely rebound from deprivation with a binge. So for me, the trick is to not feel deprived. Think of what you'd like to eat to make this sustainable for the long-term. Find the things you LOVE that fit into your macro framework. There's no shortage of good things to eat once you leave those factory-made foods behind.
This, totally.0 -
The deprivation aspect is a tricky one. You can absolutely rebound from deprivation with a binge. So for me, the trick is to not feel deprived. Think of what you'd like to eat to make this sustainable for the long-term. Find the things you LOVE that fit into your macro framework. There's no shortage of good things to eat once you leave those factory-made foods behind.
l agree. I made that shift in thinking early on with this WOE and I think it's really helped me compared to previous diets I'd tried. I also trained myself to think about salty or savory snacks when I found myself (out of habit) craving something sweet, especially in the evenings. I'm amazed at how often I can be craving DH's chocolate chip cookies and find myself satisfied with a baby dill pickle or two, and/or maybe a slice of pepper jack cheese, etc. I do have sweet options at times, too, but I've gotten better about thinking I *have* to have something sweet every day and when I do, it's keto-friendly.
I've still had a few days in the past 3 months where I had carbage for various reasons (still relatively low carb days with one exception though, just not keto) but I was able to rebound from them pretty quickly. The key for me, too, is to plan ahead and make sure I have good options on hand, especially if I'm going to a party, potluck, etc. And not to feel defeated or give up if I have one "off" day.0
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