cheat day

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cottrell22
cottrell22 Posts: 48
in Food and Nutrition
When you have a cheat meal or day do you usually try to stay within your allotted calories or just ignore them for they day? I had my first cheat meal since joining MFP and I'm pretty sure I'm going to go over my allowed calories.

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  • cottrell22
    cottrell22 Posts: 48
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    When you have a cheat meal or day do you usually try to stay within your allotted calories or just ignore them for they day? I had my first cheat meal since joining MFP and I'm pretty sure I'm going to go over my allowed calories.
  • Keena
    Keena Posts: 5
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    If I have a cheat day I try not to go crazy but I definitely won't stay within the daily calorie limit. I usually cheat once a week and find it actually ends up helping me lose weight, as long as I get right back to 1200 calories the next day. I am not sure why.
  • deanea
    deanea Posts: 1,437
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    I put the cheat calories in as best I can, just so I know I'm being honest with myself. I've gone more than a 1500 over my daily calories with a cheat meal, but at the end of the week or month you can look back at your graph and see how many cheat meals you had and if it slowed or didn't slow your progress. Just what I do, but I have read many posts that people don't log in those calories.
  • cottrell22
    cottrell22 Posts: 48
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    Thanks:smile:
  • Erica92627
    Erica92627 Posts: 576
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    saturdays are my cheat days. I do alright , mostly, through the week. One day with family gathering and food you can't let that go. Right?
  • rem1979
    rem1979 Posts: 344 Member
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    I never allow myself a "cheat day". If I go somewhere where the food might not be so good, I will just have smaller portions. Since joining MFP, I have only had one day where I went over my allowed calories and it was only by about 150 cals. It was because I went out for breakfast and ate too much but worked most of it off when I went to the gym later that day. I will definitely think twice before eating 3 big crepes with whip cream!!!

    I think it defeats the purpose of trying to change your lifestyle to allow a cheat day and purposely eating bad foods. I find now that I have been on the program a for a month, I have no desire of eating bad for you foods. If I go out, I always make better for me choices than going to the pasta with heavy cream sauce like I would normally do. Granted, I occasionally have something chocolately but always within my caloric limits for the day.

    As for calculating you "cheat day" calories, I would definitely try to figure them out to the best of my ability and usually think twice before I would cheat again.

    Eat to live, not live to eat
  • deanea
    deanea Posts: 1,437
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    I never allow myself a "cheat day". If I go somewhere where the food might not be so good, I will just have smaller portions. Since joining MFP, I have only had one day where I went over my allowed calories and it was only by about 150 cals. It was because I went out for breakfast and ate too much but worked most of it off when I went to the gym later that day. I will definitely think twice before eating 3 big crepes with whip cream!!!

    I think it defeats the purpose of trying to change your lifestyle to allow a cheat day and purposely eating bad foods. I find now that I have been on the program a for a month, I have no desire of eating bad for you foods. If I go out, I always make better for me choices than going to the pasta with heavy cream sauce like I would normally do. Granted, I occasionally have something chocolately but always within my caloric limits for the day.

    As for calculating you "cheat day" calories, I would definitely try to figure them out to the best of my ability and usually think twice before I would cheat again.


    That is great! I admire your control, but don't worry if it ever happens. (ie: One thai food dinner will do it, that's my poison:wink::laugh: ) If you ever plateau or your weight loss slows: which most do, a couple cheat meals can actually keep your metabolism guessing and actually start to reboost so the calories start a burnin' again. Your body likes a little confusion once in a while because it starts to use your limited calories too efficiantly after a while and slows with the weight loss.:smile:

    Eat to live, not live to eat
  • aslavich
    aslavich Posts: 250 Member
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    I cheated all day yesterday... But today I'm not finding it too difficult to go back to watching every calorie. thank goodness! I was bad!!!

    Angela :flowerforyou:
  • beanyspoon
    beanyspoon Posts: 61
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    If I have a cheat thing, then I try and make it a small one. Like yesterday I had a chocolate caramel wafer, but it is only 100 calories and I made sure that I stuck within my calorie intake for the day.

    If I do cheat, then I always make sure I put it on my food log. Last Monday I had Chinese take away and it really boosted my calories for the day, but I don't plan on doing that again any time soon! I always make sure I do a bit of extra excersise if I go a little over, which hopefully won't be too often.
  • rem1979
    rem1979 Posts: 344 Member
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    That is great! I admire your control, but don't worry if it ever happens. (ie: One thai food dinner will do it, that's my poison:wink::laugh: ) If you ever plateau or your weight loss slows: which most do, a couple cheat meals can actually keep your metabolism guessing and actually start to reboost so the calories start a burnin' again. Your body likes a little confusion once in a while because it starts to use your limited calories too efficiantly after a while and slows with the weight loss.:smile:

    Thanks. I have heard that it takes 21 days to make or break a habit and I think I got myself to that point. It's not to say I won't have something occasionally bad for me, I just think about it differently now. The other night my husband decided to order food instead of cooking so I got a roast beef sandwich (Chicago style) with sweet peppers and only ate half the bun. Not too bad in calories, it was the best thing on the menu calorie wise. I tell you what though, I could have gone for a deep dish, so good but I know I would have beaten myself up in the end. I did have 2 "baby" pieces of my husband pizza and that satisfied that taste bud! :tongue:
  • deanea
    deanea Posts: 1,437
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    That is great! I admire your control, but don't worry if it ever happens. (ie: One thai food dinner will do it, that's my poison:wink::laugh: ) If you ever plateau or your weight loss slows: which most do, a couple cheat meals can actually keep your metabolism guessing and actually start to reboost so the calories start a burnin' again. Your body likes a little confusion once in a while because it starts to use your limited calories too efficiantly after a while and slows with the weight loss.:smile:

    Thanks. I have heard that it takes 21 days to make or break a habit and I think I got myself to that point. It's not to say I won't have something occasionally bad for me, I just think about it differently now. The other night my husband decided to order food instead of cooking so I got a roast beef sandwich(Chicago style) with sweet peppers and only ate half the bun. Not too bad in calories, it was the best thing on the menu calorie wise. I tell you what though, I could have gone for a deep dish, so good but I know I would have beaten myself up in the end. I did have 2 "baby" pieces of my husband pizza and that satisfied that taste bud! :tongue:


    I hear you, one of the first things I noticed that changed when I started counting was a craving for real food because I didn't want to waste my precious little calories on junk that would make me hungry all day!:happy:
  • blondyk727
    blondyk727 Posts: 3
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    yes! my one thing is ice cream! if i mess up other days i just run like hell but ice cream is the one thing i look forward to while working out! rules were meant to be broken!
  • cottrell22
    cottrell22 Posts: 48
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    Thank you for all your replies! I appreciate it so much:smile: I felt bad about having my cheat meal but I did make it to the gym that night and only went over my allotted calories by 100. It's my last week in Japan (I've been over here for the last 5yrs) so I'm trying to be good but also eating my favorite foods one last time...sigh:frown:
  • cjsm1cat
    cjsm1cat Posts: 18
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    I miss Japan. I was over there from 99 to 2002. I loved the different foods over there and the ramen noodle shops. Chicken curry is still a weakness of mine. I could never get over how skinny and healthy everyone was, but most japanese ride bikes or do physical labor all day. lol think I'll go have a cup of green tea now. continue the good work, and cheat days are okay every now and then, but not every day. Just get back on the bike, because you have to get off every now and again.
  • mbaker1169
    mbaker1169 Posts: 65 Member
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    I cheat one day every week. I LOVE IT!! And I totally Bust my calorie intake for the day. (By about twice) BUT, it has not effected my weight loss at all. It is my reward for doing a great job all week. (I do however work out an extra 20 minutes the next day)
  • jessneill
    jessneill Posts: 380 Member
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    I allow myself one meal a week where I'm not worrying about the calories. I do find that since I'm being more concious of what I put in my body that I will make better decisions. Like if we go out for italian I'm not getting the cream sauces with lots of pasta, but the chicken with a small side of pasta. I also like to go out once a weekend and have a few drinks with friends, so I include that as my off time. I usually try to get in a longer workout that day.

    Sometimes I track the calories in what I'm eating in those off meals, but I'm not too worried about it. Most literature I've read says you should allow yourself one meal a week like that. It does two things. 1. It gives you a chance to eat some things you dont eat on a regular basis, lessening the chance that you will feel deprived and go hog wild later, pardon the pun.
    2. It confuses your body into burning more calories, as someone else said, your body is very efficient and just like it gets used to a single exercise after a while and will burn less calories doing the same action, it is also efficient at using food and if you stay in the same calorie range all the time it will become very efficient at using those calories. Giving a boost in calories will tell it to go ahead and burn more because there are more calories to use.

    Just my two cents :smile:

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