After you cheat on your diet, how do you deal with the guilt??

Happily I have managed to shake off the habit of feeling guilty almost completely. I recognize that it does more harm than good. How big was this bag of Doritos? I could imagine eating a small bag and an Oreo and still being fairly close to maintenance. Regardless, I call these days "accidental refeeds". Harmless unless it upsets you enough to give up. Don't let it!

You have to indulge from time to time. And you have to learn to NOT feel guilty about it.

If your lifestyle is adequate, you should be able to eat smaller portions of what you want, on a regular basis. Too restrictive and then you suffer bouts like this.

Move on to the next day, keep your head held high, and ENJOY life.

It is NOT a mistake. It is LIVING! We all do it from time to time. Just remember that tomorrow is a new day, and you can start again

When I make a conscience decision to eat something I "shouldn't", I accept full responsibility (and all the consequences) for my decision, and have absolutely no guilt.

Why should I be guilty about something I willingly ate? If I didn't want to be bothered by the consequences or felt the consequences where too detrimental, I would have re-evaluated my decision.

No guilt. The more emotion you attach to food the easier it is to get off track. You ate something that wasn't the most nutritious, oh well. Move on. Make the next decision more nutritious

I've found it helps to log everything. It helps me put things in perspective. If you start out by eating in a deficit, then you exceed your deficit by eating foods you tend to assign guilt to, logging can help you look at it objectively.

Did you eat enough to put you at your maintenance # ? OK--then you break even--no gain, no loss. It's all good.

Did you eat enough to actually gain a pound? OK--a pound is really nothing. Just get back to your deficit & you'll lose it again shortly.

It was always the vast unknown that helped contribute to my feelings of guilt & shame & would make me avoid logging. Once I started putting in the actual numbers I could see that it was really not the end of the world & was no reason to go spiraling into binge eating (which is my own personal problem).

I don't restrict any foods. I eat everything I can fit in my calorie allowance. I know that I will not stick to a way of eating that does not include treats.

Two things. first of all don't look at it as a diet look at it as a lifestyle change. Diets suck you're constantly miserable and you're giving stuff up that you enjoy. That's why most diets fail.

Also I refuse to call it a cheat day and by calling it a cheat day you're implying that you're doing something wrong. For this lifestyle change to work you have to enjoy it. By giving stuff up that you truly enjoy you're going to fail for this to work the way it's meant to you have to be able to eat anything. It's just a matter of portion control and as crazy as it sounds you eat less calories than your body needs and you'll lose weight no matter what you eat.

If you wanted to you could lose weight by just eating Snickers and vodka. I wouldn't recommend it from a nutritional point of view but it's just basically that simple.

Just to put things in perspective at the end of March I weight approximately 250 pounds. Went on vacation for a couple days ate too much drink too much had a damn good time. I may get some haters here but one or two days I drink my calorie allotment in beers and shots. As of today I'm about 228 pounds. Remember this is a long-term Journey not a Sprint you will succeed if you just commit to it.

I feel no guilt at all. The only thing I do is I log it. By logging it I become accountable to myself and that's the only person you need to be accountable to. Tomorrow is tomorrow and enjoy it.

I don't cheat, but what you ate doesn't sound like a lot. Why don't you just make room in your caloric goal for that stuff occasionally?

If I gave food all the power then I might as well shrivel up and die....restrictions, limiting the things that I love really really doe not work for me.

But I thought of something that I have not had in a long time and would love to cheat with is a bag of Cheetos or Doritos.. Something that will make my fingers orange!

I don't stress over it. Eating healthy does not mean denying yourself. It's about moderation.

micca35 wrote: »

After 7 weeks of eating no junk food...I broke down and ate a bag of cool ranch doritos and a smores oreo cookie now I feel horrible. How do I deal with the shame...

If you feel horrible, then your relationship with food is the issue. There is no such thing as "bad food". It's either nutrient dense or not, and high calorie or not.
If you can't enjoy yourself occasionally with food you like, then mentally it interferes with happiness and that's ALSO part of how health is measured. I sometimes wonder if fit people who died early in life wasn't just because of genetics, but of how negativity of how they felt about themselves might have been associated with it.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

First of all, you delete the word "cheat" from your food-related vocabulary. Words shape reality, and the word cheat has nothing but negative connotations.

Then you remind yourself that one bag of chips and a single cookie among a ton of no-junk-food eating won't ruin anything, just like one salad and one piece of fruit among a ton of junk-food eating wouldn't make you lose weight.

And finally, I'd suggest making room in your regular routine for some of these less nutritious foods. If you do this and see that you can still reach your goals, it might help you feel better about eating them.

I used to feel guilty because of all the brainwashing that when you're dieting certain foods are for bidden. But the beauty of MFP is counting calories and you can include all of your favorite foods. I usually have a dessert every day. It would never work for me if I had to stop eating all the foods that I love.

micca35 wrote: »

After 7 weeks of eating no junk food...I broke down and ate a bag of cool ranch doritos and a smores oreo cookie now I feel horrible. How do I deal with the shame...

I feel your pain. You know what I do now? I log the food accurately and go on. Don't waste a minute of your precious emotional energy on feeling shame. Another suggestion: Once in awhile "pre-log" a junk food item into your diary for the next day. Then eat that item as part of your food plan. Lots of "clean eaters" have a Dorito or a cookie now & then! Congratulations on going 7 weeks with no junk food! Now lighten up a little...and good luck!