How often ...

lucky2702
lucky2702 Posts: 23 Member
edited December 22 in Health and Weight Loss
Do you have a cheat day?

Replies

  • Hannahwalksfar
    Hannahwalksfar Posts: 572 Member
    I never have a cheat day. I don’t need one. It’s a personal choice for everyone
  • koalathebear
    koalathebear Posts: 236 Member
    I don't have cheat days - I just include things I like within my budget. I let myself eat more on the weekends because I can exercise more. It's mainly just because I do want to track/keep an eye on what I'm eating and exercising and so I'd rather have it all captured. It doesn't mean I don't have days when I eat a lot - I just make sure I've exercised enough to have increased my calorie budget to absorb it and minimise the damage.
  • emalethmoon
    emalethmoon Posts: 178 Member
    edited August 2019
    I have cheat days, but it needs to be done carefully so as not to become a binge day or a cheat week and a give-up-altogether.
  • nighthawk584
    nighthawk584 Posts: 2,024 Member
    edited August 2019
    my biggest problem in my obese days was fast food. I haven't touched it since starting my journey. I know I can fit it in my daily calorie log every now and then but I choose not too. Although, a triple cheese & bacon from Freddies sounds freaking delicious right now! (in a lettuce wrap of course) The problem with fast food, it always left me wanting more and feeling like garbage all over my body.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    NovusDies wrote: »
    I also do not consider anything I do cheating. It is a counter-productive mindset imo.

    When I go on vacation I eat a lot more food than I actually need. Even then I have rules that I stick to so that I am always engaged in mindful decisions. On holidays I may choose to eat maintenance. I still have a calorie goal it just happens to be more relaxed.

    My plan requires that there is always some structure because unstructured eating and thinking is what got me into a situation where I need to lose weight.

    I have made a lifestyle change which means cheating would be cheating on my life. Saying it is a lifestyle is becoming less meaningful because people who hop fad diets are not saying it each time they hop but for me it is now an 18 month reality. That is still a very short amount of time but I feel success coming.

    I totally agree, especially with the bolded. I quite hate the expression "cheat day" for all the reasons you mention.
  • lucky2702
    lucky2702 Posts: 23 Member
    Thank you everyone for your replies, i definitely wont be adding a "cheat" day after reading these.
  • LyndaBSS
    LyndaBSS Posts: 6,964 Member
    This question is the easiest to answer.

    Never. ☺
  • lgfrie
    lgfrie Posts: 1,449 Member
    Maybe cheat/off meals/days work for some people but definitely not for me. Every failed diet effort I've had since the day I was born fell apart over a cheat day, and its associated scale avoidance the next day and the urge to have just one more cheat day before getting a clean restart, which then turned into a cheat year, etc.

    If I want a few hundred extra calories, I just take them, log them, enjoy them, and move on. There is no reason to "cheat". It's all on plan, even taking a (reasonable) spontaneous break from the calorie quota.

    To me, a recovering morbidly obese person, taking a cheat day is the same thing as a recovering alcoholic having just one beer. With the same, predictable results.
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,748 Member
    If you are counting calories, there is no such thing as a cheat day, just days that you eat under goal, at goal, or over goal.

    When I was following Atkins, I did have cheat days. I simply couldn't stick to very low carb for long periods of time, so about once a week or 10 days I would have a day when I would eat some high carb foods. Then the next day I'd go back on program. Eventually I realized that the low carb lifestyle wasn't right for me. I missed fruit, bread, etc. too much. Calorie counting is easier because I can eat whatever I want, if it is within my calorie goal.
  • HoneyBadger302
    HoneyBadger302 Posts: 2,085 Member
    I don't have "cheat" meals or days, but if I know I'm going to be doing something special, say, a dinner out or traveling with a team dinner planned, then I simply build that into my day/week and plan accordingly. If I want to enjoy that meal without worry, I simply reduce in other places to fit it in, try to make "better-of" choices, and then enjoy that meal.

    I think the idea that it's cheating, or bad, or has "ruined" your other decisions only leads to more self-loathing and not owning the process. If you own the process, and make it a part of your plan, and plan it accordingly, I think that helps you build longer lasting processes that work long term.
  • grimendale
    grimendale Posts: 2,153 Member
    Depends on your definition. I'm training for a half marathon, so my long run days can burn an extra 1200+ calories, which means I can eat a lot of things I normally can't easily fit into my day, but I still stay within my calorie goal for the day.
  • DanyellMcGinnis
    DanyellMcGinnis Posts: 315 Member
    I bank calories during the week (about 200/day) so I can eat out on Friday without doing a ridiculous workout first, but I don't really consider it cheating so much as looking at CICO on a weekly scale instead of a daily one.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    lucky2702 wrote: »
    Do you have a cheat day?

    What do you consider to be a cheat day?
  • hixa30
    hixa30 Posts: 274 Member
    I haven't had a cheat day, although I guess I ate uncontrollably when I suddenly had a medical condition which caused some pain.
  • hixa30
    hixa30 Posts: 274 Member
    spiriteagle99 wrote: »
    If you are counting calories, there is no such thing as a cheat day, just days that you eat under goal, at goal, or over goal.

    Great way of describing what I subconsciously was thinking.
  • Terytha
    Terytha Posts: 2,097 Member
    I don't cheat myself. Sometimes I listen to my body and eat closer to maintenance, and sometimes I go on holiday and take a short diet break so I can live my life.

    But those aren't cheats, they're breaks. The idea of cheating implies that being on a diet is some kind of monogamous relationship or test and that's ridiculous.
  • MohsenSALAH
    MohsenSALAH Posts: 182 Member
    Every two weeks just to speed up my metabolism
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,302 Member
    How will having a cheat day (whatever your definiton of that is) speed up your metabolism??

    and why would it need speeding up anyway??
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    edited August 2019
    No designated cheat days for me, the concept is unattractive to me because it makes dieting feel like being in jail and you get the occasional scheduled breather. Not how I want to diet. If I want something I ask myself if I can fit it into my calories, if yes, I have it, if no, I plan it for the next day. If I want a very high calorie meal that I can't easily fit and the effort to fit it in feels worth it, I plan for it a few days in advance and have it. It's less of a jail and more of a responsible budget management situation.

    A few weeks ago, I had ice cream every single day for 8 days straight because it felt like it was worth the calories, then other things felt like they were worth the calories more. I haven't had ice cream for about 2 weeks now, not because I'm dieting, but because larger meals are more attractive to me than ice cream at the moment. I wasn't being "bad" then, and I'm not being "good" now, I just choose to spend my calories on different things. It's all food to me, the only difference is that some things are worth the calories more often than other things.
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