Cheat Meals?

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concetta1123
concetta1123 Posts: 28 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm a very regimented person, so the idea of a "cheat meal" has been tripping me up.

Over the summer, I go out with friends every couple of weeks, and when we do this, we go to places that don't have calorie counts. I'm very worried about not having fun when I go out, because I'll be too worried I may accidentally eat too much. Even if I order something healthy, I'm afraid of not knowing the calories in that meal.

Does anyone else get stressed about this? How do you guys still have fun without beating yourself up about not knowing exactly how much you're eating?

I just want to enjoy my summer and not hinder my weight loss efforts either.

Thanks!

Replies

  • skinnycow1234567
    skinnycow1234567 Posts: 167 Member
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    Does anyone else get stressed about this? How do you guys still have fun without beating yourself up about not knowing exactly how much you're eating?
    concetta1123 wrote: »
    I'm a very regimented person, so the idea of a "cheat meal" has been tripping me up.

    Since im not competing for the Mr.Universe or the Olympics any time soon i allow myself cheat meals without beating myself up...
    A few extra calories here and there wont change my life.
    We didnt lose weight and get ripped from 1 day in the gym,so we wont get fatter from 1 cheat meal.

    Good Luck


  • T0M_K
    T0M_K Posts: 7,526 Member
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    Plan your day such that you bank your calories for your big night out then just freaking enjoy yourself! chill....if the "idea" of a cheat meal gets to you...you'll be a damn wreck if you have one. don't think of it as a cheat.

    its food. period. today you ate really well...one meal not so well...think if it in terms of a entire week, not just one meal. your fine.
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
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    Maybe it will help if you find a way to put these occasional meals/days in perspective?

    Feeling guilty about what you eat is not a good thing. Thinking on the numbers: imagine you eat 1000 calories over maintenance once every few weeks. That will not destroy you. If you normally aim for a 1 pound per week loss, this would be the equivalent of giving up the calorie deficit for 3 days. (Such as if you normally eat 1500, use 2000 in a day, and eat 3000 on Thursday.) So theoretically you are adding 3 days to your program. If you would have hit goal on Oct 15 2017, now you'll hit goal on Oct 18. And if you're in this for a life long system of having a healthier you, is that really a big deal?
  • ashliedelgado
    ashliedelgado Posts: 814 Member
    edited June 2017
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    I used to. I would not log days I was "bad". I'd take whole weeks off of logging because I wasn't on track.

    It didn't work. One day, I decided to log it. Even though my goal was like 1600 and I netted 2200 that day, I logged it. And the next week, I still lost. A little less than expected, but I still lost! That helped put it in perspective for me.

    As far as logging when calorie counts aren't available, I usually look up similar entries from other restaurants and go with the highest one I find. If I can't find anything similar, I enter things piece by piece and usually quick add 40% to buffer for oils/butters/additives I didn't think of used.
  • xo0candypops0ox
    xo0candypops0ox Posts: 13 Member
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    I had this the other day. I'm on quite a restrictive diet plan at the moment and the other day had a huge cheat day.... I'm talking a whole dominoes pizza, wedges, garlic bread, Fanta and cookies in one sitting totalling just over 2500 calories. I weighed myself the next day and weighed 4.5lbs heavier. I cried. I thought all my weeks of hard work had been undone by one epic greedy (delicious) meal. But it turns out the large amount of salt had just caused me to retain loads of water. I had a strict day the next and drank 3 litres of water and I'm back at what I was before, no real damage done :) so treat yourself and enjoy!
  • Running_and_Coffee
    Running_and_Coffee Posts: 811 Member
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    The key is to avoid a cheat "meal" from becoming, "Well, there goes that. I guess I'm done with this healthy lifestyle business! Maybe I'll have seconds." Which sounds absurd but is how a lot of us (myself included) get ourselves into a binge/purge cycle.

    You have to be OK with occasionally drifting upwards when you eat more. It's not permanent damage. What goes up can go down. It's probably not a "real" fat gain if it's from a few meals, but even if it is, you're not stuck with it for life.

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