Cheat day on Weight maintenance
Faiqua0109
Posts: 1 Member
I’m on a weight maintenance diet of 1640 calories. How many calories can I consume on a cheat day? I really need this answer
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Replies
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If it's something you do on a weekly basis, the answer is 1640, unless you consume fewer calories throughout the week or exercise more. If it's a one off, doesn't matter. One day won't usually cause any significant weight gain.17
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amusedmonkey wrote: »If it's something you do on a weekly basis, the answer is 1640, unless you consume fewer calories throughout the week or exercise more. If it's a one off, doesn't matter. One day won't usually cause any significant weight gain.
This ^^^ if your maintenance level is about 1650 calories. Best advice if you wanted to do a weekly cheat day is to slightly reduce your daily intake and save those calories up for your cheat day. But word of caution, DO NOT starve yourself. Don't go from 1640 to 1000 so you can have one massive cheat day each week, that probably will not be successful long term. If you wanted to reduce your caloric intake during the week, say 5-6% (roughly 100 calories a day) you could eat back those calories on your cheat day, so long as you don't overeat you'll be fine. Goodluck.4 -
As many as you desire.
You just have to average 1640 over an extended period of time - how you divide that up is your choice.
I would disagree with your use of language though, who or what are you cheating?
Wouldn't "treat day" be more appropriate? You are allowed to enjoy your food without guilt.23 -
Weight maintenance is not about cheating. Instead of thinking about how to cheat the daily calorie goal, even one day per week, think, instead, about feeling better and being healthier.
Eat Less, Eat Better, Move More. Every Day.9 -
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You will have to make up for it with a deficit elsewhere or you'll gain. Guess how I know this
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My definition of a cheat day might be different from yours. It is certainly possible to consume 5000 cals a day and if you are eating at maintenance for a week, that cheat day is enough to derail your efforts and make you gain weight. Even divided by a month 5000/30 = 166 cals a day. Divided by a week 5000/7 =714cals and you can see the damage that reeks on a diet plan.
I prefer to think of cheat meals...knowing I am going out and really wanting to enjoy it, I eat very little leading up to it and can save up for it. An entire cheat day, I just can't justify in my current mindset anymore. That doesn't mean I hit my calorie goal everyday...but I definitely try to balance out on a weekly basis.
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Saving calories so as to be able to eat different amounts on different days is not "cheating". Just saying.8
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I ate 800 calories on Wednesday so I could wolf down 2500 at a Lenten fish fry on Friday. The average for the two days, , , 1650. So I'm still doing good. When I hear/see the "never go under 1200 calories a day" sayings, I know it's about not eating that little for a long time or averaging that little over a long period. One day at 800 ain't gonna kill me, if I can enjoy a feast with the family later.6
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I have noticed that I do not need cheat days when I adjust the macros to the needs of my body. Huge advantage to have this feature on MFP.2
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I ate 800 calories on Wednesday so I could wolf down 2500 at a Lenten fish fry on Friday. The average for the two days, , , 1650. So I'm still doing good. When I hear/see the "never go under 1200 calories a day" sayings, I know it's about not eating that little for a long time or averaging that little over a long period. One day at 800 ain't gonna kill me, if I can enjoy a feast with the family later.
Like quite a few, I do IF. My current schedule is eating 600 or less on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and around 1800 on the other 4 days. It is all about the average not how much you eat each day, both from the point of view of losing weight and making sure you get enough nutrients.0 -
I'd love to change the language we use from "cheat day" to something else. Really the whole mindset that we need to give special significance to eating a specific food or meal that we may not eat often. Eating is eating and we should never feel guilty about what and when we eat. Assigning a name, as cheat day, is a way to deflect the action or feelings. Focus on the long term and celebrate small accomplishments!7
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fdlewenstein wrote: »I'd love to change the language we use from "cheat day" to something else. Really the whole mindset that we need to give special significance to eating a specific food or meal that we may not eat often. Eating is eating and we should never feel guilty about what and when we eat. Assigning a name, as cheat day, is a way to deflect the action or feelings. Focus on the long term and celebrate small accomplishments!
I call it "I'm making the conscious decision of eating more calories than usual" or "a food I don't eat often feels worth the calories today", but neither of them has the same ring or emotional weight as "cheat day", and that's what's great about it.8 -
amusedmonkey wrote: »fdlewenstein wrote: »I'd love to change the language we use from "cheat day" to something else. Really the whole mindset that we need to give special significance to eating a specific food or meal that we may not eat often. Eating is eating and we should never feel guilty about what and when we eat. Assigning a name, as cheat day, is a way to deflect the action or feelings. Focus on the long term and celebrate small accomplishments!
I call it "I'm making the conscious decision of eating more calories than usual" or "a food I don't eat often feels worth the calories today", but neither of them has the same ring or emotional weight as "cheat day", and that's what's great about it.
Exactly. I eat more, I eat less, I log, I watch the scale, I adjust if needed. Occasionally, I eat as much as 2-3 times my maintenance calories in one day, by choice.
There's no cheating involved, just a series of interrelated decisions that strive to balance short-term pleasure with long-term health.
Guilt, anxiety, the "sin and expiation" conceptual frame implied by the"cheating" term . . . it's 100% optional, and feels icky. I'm not doing it.10 -
I call it reward day. I eat clean all week and have tried all different ways to lose but the reward day is the only thing that works for me.
All week I eat really clean and Sunday is what I thought of all week.
Now that I have hit maintaining, it is harder because I am continuing to lose3 -
How about about this as a Treat Day: Don't exercise on your scheduled day. Play WoW or something as wasteful as that. Your Druid is in sadder shape than you, so it'd work out....0
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ACanadian22 wrote: »I call it reward day. I eat clean all week and have tried all different ways to lose but the reward day is the only thing that works for me.
All week I eat really clean and Sunday is what I thought of all week.
Now that I have hit maintaining, it is harder because I am continuing to lose
Personally, I would then view the other 6 days as punishment days which isn't a healthy long term mindset for weight loss and maintenance. If you work out how to fit foods you enjoy into your diet on a regular basis there is no reward or punishment.7 -
ACanadian22 wrote: »Now that I have hit maintaining, it is harder because I am continuing to lose
Sounds like you're still hitting deficit instead of maintenance calories on an overall basis.
You may also want to consider that if your calories become more balanced you might find yourself with a reduced impetus to overeat on your over the average intake days.
Thinking in terms of reward and punishments seems... a bit off to me, and somewhat dangerous as a mindset... may be worth reframing this a bit.
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I just plan ahead for it. Maybe eat a low cal meal for a day or two leading up, or have a big late breakfast and skip lunch and have an early dinner for my "splurge meal". Or I'll add some extra exercise/cardio that day to get an extra allowance for my impending self-indulgence. There's lots of ways to do it, I just try to be mindful about it and plan ahead.
And at the end of the day, even if I go full-on gluttonous heathen and eat a 3,500 calorie meal, that's literally one pound. And I couldn't eat that if I tried.2
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