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Cheat day weight gain :(

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Replies

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    Russellb97 wrote: »
    A full cheat day was key to me losing 130lbs over the past 13 years. It allowed me to stick to a plan since I never felt deprived. gave a boost to my workouts, kept my metabolism from slipping, and put me in control over food.

    It's extremely difficult to ruin your progress with one bad day. I mean, could you offset 6 high-calorie days with one low-cal day? The logic is flawed.
    The immediate weight gain is mostly water. Besides sodium and water retention you will re-store glycogen on a cheat day. For every gram of glycogen, you retain 3 grams of water. Glycogen is then quickly depleted when you go back into a caloric deficit.

    Also, OP is not having a cheat day if she's having her regular smoothie breakfast, skipping lunch and then eating "unhealthy around dinner time".

    For me to lose weight, I would shoot for a deficit of about 250 calories a day. I can easily imagine many "cheat day" scenarios where I could consume 1,750 calories above what I need to maintain. For me, a day at 3,210 would wipe out my progress for the week (assuming I'm sedentary).

    I assure you, I could easily eat 3,210 calories.
  • Chadxx
    Chadxx Posts: 1,199 Member
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    Russellb97 wrote: »
    A full cheat day was key to me losing 130lbs over the past 13 years. It allowed me to stick to a plan since I never felt deprived. gave a boost to my workouts, kept my metabolism from slipping, and put me in control over food.

    It's extremely difficult to ruin your progress with one bad day. I mean, could you offset 6 high-calorie days with one low-cal day? The logic is flawed.
    The immediate weight gain is mostly water. Besides sodium and water retention you will re-store glycogen on a cheat day. For every gram of glycogen, you retain 3 grams of water. Glycogen is then quickly depleted when you go back into a caloric deficit.

    Also, OP is not having a cheat day if she's having her regular smoothie breakfast, skipping lunch and then eating "unhealthy around dinner time".

    For me to lose weight, I would shoot for a deficit of about 250 calories a day. I can easily imagine many "cheat day" scenarios where I could consume 1,750 calories above what I need to maintain. For me, a day at 3,210 would wipe out my progress for the week (assuming I'm sedentary).

    I assure you, I could easily eat 3,210 calories.

    Heck, I ate that much in one meal on Valentine's with no fried foods, gravy, dressings, cheese, or liquid calories. I if had a real cheat day with all the chicken fried steak, gravy, butter, sausage, cheese, sweet tea, sweets, etc. That I wanted, the number of calories would be insane.
  • NycoleML
    NycoleML Posts: 15 Member
    Maybe cut back on weighing yourself every day, maybe try weekly to give your body a chance to even out. I'm only weighing monthly because I can easily get discouraged at the slightest gain. Just an idea - good luck!
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