How many calories do you go over your base on cheat days?

Nanjass02 wrote: »

I usually eat 1200 calories but today I feel so guilty because I had 2066 , I ate 3 slices of pizza and some candy and I feel so bad with myself

The bolded is exactly why people say that the concept of a cheat day can cause a bad mental relationship with food.

I ate 3 pieces of pizza last night, and drank wine, and did not consider that cheating. I wanted to have pizza and game night with my family. I actually was under cals for the day, but the day prior to that I was over by about 700 from eating a bunch of yummy stuff at book club. No guilt either way, and because I had planned for both, I'm still right on track for the week. Until today when we go out for boozy shakes and popcorn at a movie...but even then, no guilt.

On those days when I go over my daily calories, it's usually no more than 2-500 over. See how I worded that OP?

I'm also usually 2-300 under every day anyway, so over the course of a week I'm in a deficit anyway. And there's no need to feel bad. Food is great stuff, and an awful lot of folks here love to eat, and eat some tasty stuff too. Perspective. Food isn't bad and you aren't a cheater. You're someone who exercised their right to eat what they wanted to on a given day. Log it, move on

I don't restrict myself to the point of needing to go out and blow things up. I just maintain a manageable deficit when I'm losing weight and go slow and steady.

I'm new to this. So I'm trying hard to eat healthy but also satisfied, so I can do as a life style. If you overdue it next day start fresh. DONT FEEL GUILTY

What i do is I still count calories during my cheat day, then the next 2-4 days eat slightly less than normal OR exercise more than normal, so that the average for that week is still around my goal. I allow myself a cheat meal if I'm abroad or once every few weeks as a treat.

I don't doc heat days. why do all that hard work just to blow it in one day? There is 0 point in them. I include what i want to eat in my daily calories every day.

I have days where I eat at maintenance on purpose, just because I wanted something that couldn't keep me within a deficit. Maybe that's a better guideline to aim for...rather than a "cheat" day that could easily become a binge, have a maintenance day, especially if your calorie goal is 1200. I personally couldn't do 1200 calories without wanting to "cheat" everyday. I don't like being hungry.

Try googling carb and calorie cycling, there is some evidence that altering calorie intake throughout the week can be beneficial to prevent the body going into starvation mode and keeping the metabolism revving. You would essentially distribute calorie allocation unevenly across the week - with two days per week at maintenance level calories (this is when you would indulge in treats that you wouldn't have on the lower calorie days) usually 48-72 hours apart as this is how long it takes for low calorie intake to slow metabolism. An example would be 1200, 1500, 2200. 1200, 1500,1200, 2200 - More intense exercise days are generally scheduled for high cal days and rest days on low cal days. Anyone have experience with this zig zag method?

I don't know if this is going to be enlightening or discouraging, but here goes ...

When you put your stats into MFP, it calculates your net calorie target in order to achieve the rate of weight loss that you entered. Something to keep in mind is that as you lose weight, and you get more fit (assuming you are exercising as well), your caloric needs will go down coincident with your weight. Here is an example ...

Ignoring exercise for the moment, assuming I had a sedentary/desk job, using this calculator, then

• at my starting weight (279 lbs), my maintenance intake was ~2500 cals, and my deficit intake ~2000 cals, to lose 1 lb per week
• at my target weight (174 lbs), my maintenance intake is ~2000 cals

Again, those are my sedentary numbers. I make further allowances for my activity levels and consume further calories to offset the workouts as needed.

So, that means the intake that I had while on deficit at my starting weight was pretty much the same as my maintenance intake when I am at my target weight. Your own calculations may be different, but keep this in mind if you are doing a drastic deficit and a massive cheat. If you hit your goal, and then go back to your old intake levels, you'll more than likely head right back to your old weight.

I don't disagree with cheat days. Different strokes for different folks and all that. But I don't do them myself. I find it hard to refocus if I do them. I set my calories for 1000 per day, and then I almost always hit about 1150 or 1200. Not sure why this works for me....but it does.