Verdict on cheat days?
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cahubbard6421 wrote: »Redordeadhead wrote: »cahubbard6421 wrote: »
Why not just have the snacks you enjoy as part of your normal daily/weekly diet? I still eat chocolate, popcorn, peanut butter, burgers, pizza etc., but in appropriate quantities as part of a balanced diet. It's not cheating, it's just eating.
Because sometimes the foods I want to eat are almost my entire day of calories. Chipotle burritos are really high in calorie. That's a cheat meal.
I suspect that chocolate, popcorn, PB, etc can all fit into the vast majority of people's calorie budget if they plan for it. The same is true of the occasional burger (that isn't loaded with various toppings) or burrito. A Chipotle burrito with barbacoa, corn salsa, white rice, no guacamole, and no dairy is 570 calories. That's not a cheat meal.
Well, it's around 570 calories. The guy making your burrito isn't weighing the ingredients, so you don't really know what you're getting. I'd definitely consider Chipotle a cheat meal because you have no idea what you're putting into your body.7 -
I never used to do any "cheat" days or meals. But, I'm seeing a dietitian regularly and she said I should have one "free meal" every weekend. She said for people who need to watch their weight for the rest of their lives, she feels it's an important part of making it doable for life. So I started doing that about a month ago--and I'm losing weight better than ever. I haven't asked her yet, but I think varying my calories like that must be doing something helpful weight wise, not just making it easier mentally.1
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newhopeind wrote: »I will tell anyone that “cheat days” are vital to success.
Let’s review: did you get where you are after one bad day? Nope. It’s a string of bad days and bad decisions. NOT ONE.
So how I say it is to keep to a cheat “meal”, once a week. Just go nuts. Whatever you want, whatever you see, go for it. BECAUSE...
After a while, even on your cheat meals, you won’t be splurging. You’ll start valuing eating healthy, even if it means going to bed craving something. And eventually, your values will change enough you don’t even crave the old stuff.
The WORST you can do is “fetishize” your food. “Oh don’t touch that, that’s bad.” What’s the FIRST thing you’re going to want? Lol allow yourself to indulge once in a while!
At the end of the day, your weekly caloric defect is what matters, not the daily. So go nuts, have fun, and then spread those calories out over the next few days. THATS being responsible and healthy! And like I said, eventually, you won’t want many cheats because you value the changes you see!
I'm sorry, but this seems like terrible advice for most people. Cheating once a week is way too frequent and will create bad habits. Let me give an example.
Suppose a person is in a 250 calorie per day deficit. That translates to a half pound of weight loss per week and a weekly deficit of 1750 pounds (well, 1500 because one day is a cheat day now). Now you have a cheat day in which you could easily hit a 1500 calorie surplus if you aren't careful. You've completely undone your work in a single day. Even if you still don't eat a full 1500 extra calories, any surplus is now going to slow your rate of loss to a crawl which has negative psychological effects for people trying to lose weight and many will just give up at that point.
When people see results from a weight loss program, they are encouraged to keep it up. Losing weight isn't fun, so we need some sort of positive reinforcement to keep going. Cheat days once a week are completely detrimental to progress.7 -
newhopeind wrote: »I will tell anyone that “cheat days” are vital to success.
Let’s review: did you get where you are after one bad day? Nope. It’s a string of bad days and bad decisions. NOT ONE.
So how I say it is to keep to a cheat “meal”, once a week. Just go nuts. Whatever you want, whatever you see, go for it. BECAUSE...
After a while, even on your cheat meals, you won’t be splurging. You’ll start valuing eating healthy, even if it means going to bed craving something. And eventually, your values will change enough you don’t even crave the old stuff.
The WORST you can do is “fetishize” your food. “Oh don’t touch that, that’s bad.” What’s the FIRST thing you’re going to want? Lol allow yourself to indulge once in a while!
At the end of the day, your weekly caloric defect is what matters, not the daily. So go nuts, have fun, and then spread those calories out over the next few days. THATS being responsible and healthy! And like I said, eventually, you won’t want many cheats because you value the changes you see!
"Cheat days" might be vital to YOUR success. They are not vital to EVERYONE'S success. Not everyone's cravings or approach to eating are going to follow the pattern you experienced.
The one thing you said that is absolutely true for every person is that you can lose weight following a weekly calorie deficit rather than a daily one. If you're eating a large meal or two and still in your calorie budget for the week, then you're still on track. That is very different from simply eating a lot and not logging it, and/or intentionally exceeding your calorie goal.
I lost 100 pounds and have maintained that loss for over a year and a half. I didn't have "cheat days." I ate what I wanted within my calorie goal. That usually meant going out for a bigger meal on long run days, or saving up a few calories for the weekend. The folks who have been here for a while and have lost a lot of weight or are successfully maintaining generally approach their eating this way. Few, if any, of us had "cheat days" in the sense of eating anything and everything we wanted without making it fit into our calorie goals. Instead, we ate what we wanted and fit it into our weekly calorie goals.6 -
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Just an observation: We spend a good many electrons here, posting our competing opinions of "cheat days".
Very often, we do so without even clarifying what we mean by "cheat day":
* Over weight-loss calorie goal?
* Over maintenance calories?
* Skip logging, don't know the calories?
* Eat above some macro goal (carbs, say) but within weight-loss calorie goal?
* Eat some "bad food(s)" (<eyeroll!>) we've been denying ourselves?
* Etc.
No wonder there's plenty of disagreement: We're using the same words ("cheat day"), but meaning different things.11 -
Cheat days are great. Once/week. They give you a little bit of guilt to get you motivated for the next week's calorie counts. Also I've found that if I was very constant hitting my calorie deficit that I would plateau. And then I started going -100 extra for say six days then +600 for the 7th day and that seemed to kick start some losses. (all for the same weekly calorie goal)2
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If you have a good plan you shouldn't need to "cheat" on it. I run my deficit on a 6 day not a 7 day cycle so that I always eat my maintenance calories on Sunday. This gives me a break each week and something to look forward to. I also do not force myself to be miserable so if I am having an especially bad day I allow myself to eat up to my maintenance calories.
For special occasions I usually think in terms of either my maintenance calories or my deficit. In between Christmas and New Year I had some days at half deficit so I could have extra treats. I will also schedule a maintenance and a half day or even a maintenance x 2 day depending on the occasion.
I don't do completely unleashed days/meals. I always want to have a plan and a calorie cap even if it is not totally accurate because I am guessing at some of it. I have estimated at some of the calories I would eat in one sitting in the past and it was a stupidly high number. I believe I need those days to be completely over.5 -
Just an observation: We spend a good many electrons here, posting our competing opinions of "cheat days".
Very often, we do so without even clarifying what we mean by "cheat day":
* Over weight-loss calorie goal?
* Over maintenance calories?
* Skip logging, don't know the calories?
* Eat above some macro goal (carbs, say) but within weight-loss calorie goal?
* Eat some "bad food(s)" (<eyeroll!>) we've been denying ourselves?
* Etc.
No wonder there's plenty of disagreement: We're using the same words ("cheat day"), but meaning different things.
Good point. It depends on your goals. Most people don't track macros, so for the majority I don't think that qualifies. My personal definition is eating over maintenance or eating something you want to eat without regard for caloric intake. I said above that I would qualify eating a Chipotle burrito as cheating because you don't really know the calorie count for it, just a very rough estimate. A couple of people disagreed, but I wonder if they would say that eating a Western Bacon Cheeseburger from Carl's Jr. would be also not be a cheat meal even though you can find the estimated calories for it online as well. If you're trying to lose weight, "cheating", IMO, is eating something you want to eat without accounting for or caring about caloric intake, but I know many wouldn't adhere to that definition.3 -
Just an observation: We spend a good many electrons here, posting our competing opinions of "cheat days".
Very often, we do so without even clarifying what we mean by "cheat day":
* Over weight-loss calorie goal?
* Over maintenance calories?
* Skip logging, don't know the calories?
* Eat above some macro goal (carbs, say) but within weight-loss calorie goal?
* Eat some "bad food(s)" (<eyeroll!>) we've been denying ourselves?
* Etc.
No wonder there's plenty of disagreement: We're using the same words ("cheat day"), but meaning different things.
I think this is a HUGE issue in the discussion. we are all talking about slightly different things.3 -
DevilsFan1 wrote: »cahubbard6421 wrote: »Redordeadhead wrote: »cahubbard6421 wrote: »
Why not just have the snacks you enjoy as part of your normal daily/weekly diet? I still eat chocolate, popcorn, peanut butter, burgers, pizza etc., but in appropriate quantities as part of a balanced diet. It's not cheating, it's just eating.
Because sometimes the foods I want to eat are almost my entire day of calories. Chipotle burritos are really high in calorie. That's a cheat meal.
I suspect that chocolate, popcorn, PB, etc can all fit into the vast majority of people's calorie budget if they plan for it. The same is true of the occasional burger (that isn't loaded with various toppings) or burrito. A Chipotle burrito with barbacoa, corn salsa, white rice, no guacamole, and no dairy is 570 calories. That's not a cheat meal.
Well, it's around 570 calories. The guy making your burrito isn't weighing the ingredients, so you don't really know what you're getting. I'd definitely consider Chipotle a cheat meal because you have no idea what you're putting into your body.
Even if you rounded up to 600, maybe 625, that's something that most people can carve out. By the, "you have no idea what you're putting into your body" standard, people who aren't exclusively eating food that they've cooked from scratch are eating cheat meals every day. Likely multiple times per day. Right now I'm out of town attending a conference. Everything I'm eating has been/will be prepared by someone else. I guess I'm having a cheat 4 and a half days.8 -
If it fits into your caloric goal then no, I wouldn't see that as "cheating". I also think that the word "cheat" is really poorly used, but that's a slightly different conversation.DevilsFan1 wrote: »Just an observation: We spend a good many electrons here, posting our competing opinions of "cheat days".
Very often, we do so without even clarifying what we mean by "cheat day":
* Over weight-loss calorie goal?
* Over maintenance calories?
* Skip logging, don't know the calories?
* Eat above some macro goal (carbs, say) but within weight-loss calorie goal?
* Eat some "bad food(s)" (<eyeroll!>) we've been denying ourselves?
* Etc.
No wonder there's plenty of disagreement: We're using the same words ("cheat day"), but meaning different things.
Good point. It depends on your goals. Most people don't track macros, so for the majority I don't think that qualifies. My personal definition is eating over maintenance or eating something you want to eat without regard for caloric intake. I said above that I would qualify eating a Chipotle burrito as cheating because you don't really know the calorie count for it, just a very rough estimate. A couple of people disagreed, but I wonder if they would say that eating a Western Bacon Cheeseburger from Carl's Jr. would be also not be a cheat meal even though you can find the estimated calories for it online as well. If you're trying to lose weight, "cheating", IMO, is eating something you want to eat without accounting for or caring about caloric intake, but I know many wouldn't adhere to that definition.3 -
Cheat days are great. Once/week. They give you a little bit of guilt to get you motivated for the next week's calorie counts. Also I've found that if I was very constant hitting my calorie deficit that I would plateau. And then I started going -100 extra for say six days then +600 for the 7th day and that seemed to kick start some losses. (all for the same weekly calorie goal)
IMO, guilt is optional. Food is not sin, and requires no expiation. Allowing emotion (like guilt) to enter the situation can be a slippery slope to a worse psychological state; IMO we should be trying to take the emotion out of it (other than enjoyment/celebration/joy, sometimes, tempered of course by sensible intake).
Beyond that, guilt makes me feel bad, however briefly. I'd rather feel good.
Eating sensibly, and making that good-sense eating as much as possible tasty things, is a something good I give to myself: Tasty for current self, sensible for future self, in balance. Eating that way makes me feel good, in diverse ways.
Some people like guilt, I guess. I'm not one.6 -
Cheat days are great. Once/week. They give you a little bit of guilt to get you motivated for the next week's calorie counts. Also I've found that if I was very constant hitting my calorie deficit that I would plateau. And then I started going -100 extra for say six days then +600 for the 7th day and that seemed to kick start some losses. (all for the same weekly calorie goal)
You can't plateau if you are in a calorie deficit. You can have water weight and food waste mask your fat losses for a period of time but that is completely different. I never plateau but I will very often only see a new low weight every third week.
Guilt was a stumbling block for me in previous weight loss attempts so I don't do that anymore. I give myself permission to do everything I do related to eating. Even if I screw up I have my permission not to be perfect. I need to remain objective so I can correct any problems that need addressing.1 -
DevilsFan1 wrote: »
Yes I saw that but there are naysayers everywhere.
For me, one cheat meal a week wipes out my entire week's deficit so that doesn't work for me. I have known many people who have done the same, had cheat meals, worked hard all week otherwise, and got frustrated when they didnt lose weight.
For people that have a higher daily calorie budget, maybe cheating can work for them. I do feel that the whole concept of cheating and good/bad foods is not good though1 -
I've stopped having "cheat" meals, but rather maintenance meal. This occurs on Saturday night - and I still log the meal. I usually go 400 above my 1600 net, sometimes a little more.
Why maintenance meal? It "maintains"
- my sanity
- my calorie deficit for the week
- my healthy relationship with food - this is the most import one IMHO
- my need to try out new recipes (love this one!)
I used to not log the meal and this is a big mistake. If you cannot come to terms logging your cheat meal, then figure out/work on those reasons first. Then you will realise your cheat meal isn't really a cheat meal after all 😊6 -
I like cheat days once in awhile1
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