Opinions on cheat days

I used to go crazy on the weekends and spend all week re-losing the same weight I re-gained over the weekend. I've been on track since August 1st - other than last couple days I've been sick and ate some bad stuff. However for the most part I track my calories every day and I do fit the cheat meal (pizza) in and usually one cupcake (my weakness) on the weekend and I track it and fit it into my overall calories. On the weekend I eat closer to my BMR and then drop down to 1200 the first part of week then back to 1200-1400 rest of week. Tracking it makes me not want to go too crazy and I adjust my treats to fit into the rest of my day.

RocheBeukes wrote: »

Hi all,

I have been on this journey of weight loss for some time, fallen off the wagon and got back on too many times to count. I've now decided to make this a lifestyle and not a diet. I have about 20kg to lose, and I want to do it in a healthy way.

My question is do you have cheat days? Mine are one Fridays but then it turns into cheat weekends and then come Monday the scale is back to where it started. Is it healthy to have cheat days or should I just abandon the whole idea and restrict myself forever.

Any advice?

I am in the camp of just eating what you would normally eat with the right number of calories instead of trying to totally change your diet. Make smaller changes over time like getting more protein or adding more vegetables to your meals. Switch to lower calorie drinks.

Plan your day even on weekends so your choices fit your goal. Prelog food. Pick one thing that is higher calorie. Don't aim to have the triple cheeseburger, fried chicken, doughnuts, alcohol and a peanut butter shake all in one day.

No cheat days. Occasional maintenance calorie days are a better way to look at it IMO.

I don't agree with " your diet is so strict if you are feeling the need to cheat".....I love food and I'm a 5'6 35 year old women who weighs 131..... I love to eat and I could eat all day everyday foods on the not so "healthy" spectrum like pizza, Burger King, Mexican, Chinese, cupcakes and although I eat 1500 Cals a day ya sure I could eat that well one of those and that would be it for the day well who wants to only eat once a day so therefore I eat that and my other meals and there you have it I'm over my deficit and I've now considered that a cheat meal.... I can't "allow" cheat meals often because I have the all or nothing approach unfortunately or fortunately however you look at it. If I'm doing this new lifestyle it's all or nothing so if I know I'm going to eat one of my "cheat meals" I pretty much do it for a week. Until I get a hold on *kitten* this is how it is. But it's okay I'm learning because I work to damn hard to mess it up by thinking I need to eat this and that and this because I will never eat that again that's BS! So there you have my opinion and what goes on in my head. Basically it's easier to stay on track then derail for a piece of food that isn't going to give me satisfaction but only piss me off. Do I have a love hate relationship with food? Yes, but I do with everything in my life, haha!

I don't necessarily have cheat days because I eat what I want throughout the day as long as it's within calorie budget. Like today I had a soft pretzel and then buffalo chicken dip and chips and 2 ozs of hamburger and a chocolate lovers mug cake. Came in within calorie budget.

Cheat days: necessary for some people, helpful but unnecessary to others, detrimental to others still. It's a very individual thing.

For me, personally, I need them - I have a disorder that results in binging if I burn myself out too badly; I take them when I feel a binge coming on but I still do have some degree of control, because it prevents that control from burning out. The method is, instead of just mindlessly eating everything until I make myself sick as I would in a true binge, I remove my daily calorie limit but I still stop and ask myself why I want everything I consider eating. If I still want it after the ensuring internal conversation, I eat it - but that pause does often make me rethink going after junk food, and as a result, I usually end up eating right about to maintenance on those days.

Now, here I'm referring to them as cheat days just for the sake of clarity, but when I need them I try to think of them not as cheat days, but as mental rest days - it may not sound like that big of a difference, but when one has a disorder that tries to make them think of things in terms of what deserves a reward vs. what deserves a punishment, it's huge - "cheating" is bad. "Resting" is not.

But, for many people, especially people following super strict plans for the first time, a cheat day turns into a cheat week turns into a cheat year. Hell, that happened to me before I worked out the art of determining when I needed one and how exactly they work best for me.

So, whether they're good or bad depends a lot on an individual and how well they know themselves and what method works for them.