Thoughts on Cheat Days?
ninalondon
Posts: 15 Member
Hello!
Just curious as to what everyone’s thoughts are on cheat days. Do you have them? Are they helpful? Why do you disagree?
I currently do not have cheat days but I am just wondering if anyone does.
Thanks!
Just curious as to what everyone’s thoughts are on cheat days. Do you have them? Are they helpful? Why do you disagree?
I currently do not have cheat days but I am just wondering if anyone does.
Thanks!
3
Replies
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I have never cheated on my husband. Not even 1 day :-)19
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Nope. If I want something, I work it into my weekly calorie goal.6
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I have "accidental refeeds".
ETA: I let my body tell me when I need to take a break, or the situation, rather than scheduling cheat days.14 -
goldthistime wrote: »I have "accidental refeeds".
ETA: I let my body tell me when I need to take a break, or the situation, rather than scheduling cheat days.
^Same. I'm having one of those today, actually. It keeps me sane.4 -
No I don't like the idea of cheat days. It would give me an excuse to be a pig for a day. But sometimes accidents happen. Lol
By accidents I mean unexpected coffee or lunch dates. S - - T happens, enjoy those, and do better the next day.7 -
I never tried eating at a deficit every single day. I fail to see the reason for it. But I've always logged. I've been doing this successfully for 2+ years.
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I don't like to cheat myself out of my goals.5
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From the National Weight Loss Registery, behaviors of those who have lost weight and maintained the loss:
Maintaining a consistent eating pattern is key. It’s amazing how many calories can be consumed in just a couple of days of relaxed eating. Avoid the weekend binge, and indulge in one cheat meal a week, not an entire cheat day (or days!).
https://blog.fitbit.com/6-habits-of-highly-successful-weight-losers/10 -
A full day of just doing whatever is probably Thanksgiving or Christmas. In a day I could do some serious damage and I find that kinda pointless and regrettable. I do build in cheat items (as in, this item will put me over today but I'm going to do it and enjoy it), rather than days or meals, but mostly I build in the things I like to my calorie allowance - you just can't have them all at once!5
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I just had a cheat day and I believe it helped me. It was my reward for finishing the insanity workout and I set this as a goal while I was in the middle of the program. It helped me complete the program and I then it satisfied my craving for that steak bomb sub and fries that I wanted so bad. Next day, right back to counting calories and started another round of insanity. Same goal as before. Finish it and get a cheat day.5
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When I was doing Atkins (low carb) I had cheat days because I simply couldn't stay on that restricted a diet indefinitely. Every couple of weeks I would allow myself pizza and beer or ice cream. As long as I occasionally had the treats that I couldn't have the rest of the time, I was able to stick to the diet over several months and I lost weight.
On a low calorie diet there are no forbidden foods, so cheat days aren't a necessity for me. There are just days I meet my goal and days I go over. As long as my weekly calories are as expected, I'm good. If I go over too often, I gain weight, and I know why.6 -
I never do. If I want to indulge in something, I fit it into my macros. Around the holidays I discovered the best ice cream ever lol. It was Haagen Dazs Peppermint Bark. Thank God it's a seasonal flavor! Anyway, I bought a pint and ate just 2 spoonfuls whenever I was craving it. It literally took me 3 weeks to finish it.7
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I don't have "cheat days". I just eat and log what I eat. After my longer workouts, I need more food usually (which comes from my excercise calories usually).
I don't like putting a negative label on myself because I felt hungry from working out.
Negative attitudes towards oneself can trigger eating disordered thoughts and behaviors.
And that ends up being a vicious cycle that works against your efforts to reach your goals of weight loss and better health/fitness.7 -
I don't enjoy cheating as much as I thought I would, and I don't enjoy waking up the next day. I do enjoy sleeping, though.5
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Thank you all for your thoughts and opinions!
It’s great to have such a knowledgeable community!2 -
Absolutely not. All they do is make me have regret which hurts my motivation. Having a pizza sounds amazing, until I eat it, and then realize it wasn't enjoyable enough to justify the calories.
If you eat healthy long enough, those "bad foods" will actually start tasting bad. 2 slices of pizza and I get a headache from the grease, when I use to be able to down an entire pizza with ease.
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ninalondon wrote: »Hello!
Just curious as to what everyone’s thoughts are on cheat days. Do you have them? Are they helpful? Why do you disagree?
I currently do not have cheat days but I am just wondering if anyone does.
Thanks!
What is a cheat day?
I eat pretty well for the most part...and sometimes I don't. Sometimes I over eat, but that's not the norm...it's just life and BBQs and pool parties and holidays are fun. I don't consider any of that "cheating"Absolutely not. All they do is make me have regret which hurts my motivation. Having a pizza sounds amazing, until I eat it, and then realize it wasn't enjoyable enough to justify the calories.
If you eat healthy long enough, those "bad foods" will actually start tasting bad. 2 slices of pizza and I get a headache from the grease, when I use to be able to down an entire pizza with ease.
Oh please...8 -
I can't. At least, not that often. I know one day doesn't make that much difference long-term, but after a cheat day my willpower just vanishes and I almost always want another, then another. I aim to have one every 4 months or so. That I can deal with.3
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A cheat day for me consists of eating in a way that won't make me gain weight, but won't necessarily make me lose weight either. In others words, maintenance. I still count, but if I have days where I eat more, I just make sure it's not enough to matter in the long run. I just don't eat with wild abandon and without counting.3
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cwolfman13 wrote: »ninalondon wrote: »Hello!
Just curious as to what everyone’s thoughts are on cheat days. Do you have them? Are they helpful? Why do you disagree?
I currently do not have cheat days but I am just wondering if anyone does.
Thanks!
What is a cheat day?
I eat pretty well for the most part...and sometimes I don't. Sometimes I over eat, but that's not the norm...it's just life and BBQs and pool parties and holidays are fun. I don't consider any of that "cheating"Absolutely not. All they do is make me have regret which hurts my motivation. Having a pizza sounds amazing, until I eat it, and then realize it wasn't enjoyable enough to justify the calories.
If you eat healthy long enough, those "bad foods" will actually start tasting bad. 2 slices of pizza and I get a headache from the grease, when I use to be able to down an entire pizza with ease.
Oh please...
Sounds like somebody needs to stay getting better pizza.2 -
I don’t have cheat days, but I’ve taken vacation breaks of a week or longer or I will plan to go over on calories on special occasion meals. I try to stay in a deficit for weight loss until the next special occasion or vacation.0
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Absolutely not. All they do is make me have regret which hurts my motivation. Having a pizza sounds amazing, until I eat it, and then realize it wasn't enjoyable enough to justify the calories.
If you eat healthy long enough, those "bad foods" will actually start tasting bad. 2 slices of pizza and I get a headache from the grease, when I use to be able to down an entire pizza with ease.
I am just into maintenance and I find some of the things I could eat again I don't choose to.
I didn't cheat on the way down. Some days I indulged and carried forward some of my food (logged on the next day) so that the total was right. Sometimes I carried forward for three days before I made it fit. In other words, I might eat 2000 calories one day, log 1500 that day and push forward 500. The next day I might eat 1300, log 1500 and push 300 into the next day. After a few days of that, nothing was being pushed forward and I was logging and eating 1500 each day.1 -
What is your definition of a cheat day OP? Why do you feel they are needed? Have you changed your diet dramatically, cut out foods you enjoy eating?
I’m in the camp of “don’t make your diet so restrictive you feel you need cheat days, eat the foods you love in moderation as often as you can fit them into a balanced diet”.
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I'm not a fan of cheat days - having used this in the past, I found they were just days when I would eat everything I wanted (with no limits) and feel poorly the next day. For me they undid a lot of the good.
Now, there are days when I just want pizza or a burger and I'll have that but try and incorporate them as part of that day's plan. I try and eat healthy but I also try not to restrict my diet so much that I find it hard to follow it on a daily basis.1 -
depends on what you define a cheat day as.. I never do a "i'll eat whatever and as much as I want without logging" because I could easily wipe out a week's worth of work and it's just not worth it... I might take advantage of an occasional "still logging/monitoring my portions but letting myself eat around maintenance and enjoy food that doesn't usually fit into my meals" day though2
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I don't do cheat days. I do have a cheat meal every now and then but no more than once a week1
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PowerliftingMom wrote: »I never do. If I want to indulge in something, I fit it into my macros. Around the holidays I discovered the best ice cream ever lol. It was Haagen Dazs Peppermint Bark. Thank God it's a seasonal flavor! Anyway, I bought a pint and ate just 2 spoonfuls whenever I was craving it. It literally took me 3 weeks to finish it.
A pint of Haagen Dazs Peppermint Bark would have lasted about 30 minutes for me. I'm going to try to forget about this before next winter
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Absolutely not. All they do is make me have regret which hurts my motivation. Having a pizza sounds amazing, until I eat it, and then realize it wasn't enjoyable enough to justify the calories.
If you eat healthy long enough, those "bad foods" will actually start tasting bad. 2 slices of pizza and I get a headache from the grease, when I use to be able to down an entire pizza with ease.
I'm all for eating healthy, but if two slices of pizza gave me headaches, I'd wonder if something was wrong with me or the pizza.
http://www.md-health.com/Headaches-After-Eating.html4 -
I have a free meal once a week. Yesterday, my husband had the day off and the kiddos wanted Chick-Fil-A so that's what we had. I enjoyed it very much, had my treat, and was back on it by dinner. I'm not one of the people that quits craving the 'bad for you' food so I treat myself once a week to stay on track.1
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