How to not sabotage results with a cheat day
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Raegold
Posts: 191 Member
How often do y'all do a cheat day, and is it a cheat meal or whole day? I don't have a ton of wiggle room with my deficit since I'm only trying to lose 5-10 lbs. BUT I won't be able to continue the deficit if I don't have ice cream to look forward to sometimes!!! Curious how you successfully fit these kinds of things in.
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For reference, I'm doing 1350 per day, and I'd like to do one higher day per week. 1350 with one day at 1800ish puts me at 1 lb per week loss1
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On 1800 you should be able to fit in some ice cream.
With 5-10 pounds to lose, you should have your Goals set at, "Lose 1/2 pound per week," NOT one pound. That will help. "Lose one pound," is too aggressive. With higher daily calories, ice cream won't be a problem.
The other thing is that on this site it is expected that when you exercise, you add it to the Exercise tab and then you get more calories added to your day's goal. So, take an hour walk and you "earn" 100-200 extra calories.6 -
Eat the ice cream3
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I eat a treat everyday. But I also eat a bit less during the week and bank calories for the weekend to enjoy more treats and larger portions. I also do a small deficit at 0.5lb per week so I get more calories.4
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I might need to up my calories a bit or eat back my exercise calories to fit in ice cream. I'm trying to maximize the food I can eat on 1350/1400 calories and it can be tough because it just not that much food to have wiggle room for ice cream. Also, just to be completely honest, I don't want to have a super tiny scoop of ice cream. If I'm going to have some, I'd like to have a nice portion!5
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Having ice cream is not a “cheat day” if it fits in your calories. I eat treats more days than not because I refuse to give up things I like.
What works for me is I skip breakfast, eat a light lunch (300-400 calories usually) and then my balance of calories are available for dinner and snack/dessert. Now, that being said I do measure out my ice cream and treats because I can’t be trusted, and unfortunately “a tiny little scoop” is closer to a serving than I would like but it is what it is.
With so little (relatively speaking) to lose, you should be going for a slower loss and eating back exercise calories. That should help you a bunch with having room to still eat the foods you like,6 -
What works for me is I skip breakfast, eat a light lunch (300-400 calories usually) and then my balance of calories are available for dinner and snack/dessert. Now, that being said I do measure out my ice cream and treats because I can’t be trusted, and unfortunately “a tiny little scoop” is closer to a serving than I would like but it is what it is.
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I do the exact same thing! "Cheat days" do not work for me. At one point I tried "cheat meal" and that didn't work either. It just sets me up to keep overeating. I think it is important to learn how to fit treats in normal portions into my regular day rather than "cheating." I also enjoy the food a lot more if I don't have to feel guilty/like I'm doing something wrong.
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In lieu of ice cream, a serving of fat free Greek yogurt whipped with a serving of sugar free pudding mix, then refrigerated or thrown in the freezer for a while is about 100 calories and is soooooo good. And you could have that every night........3
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I might need to up my calories a bit or eat back my exercise calories to fit in ice cream. I'm trying to maximize the food I can eat on 1350/1400 calories and it can be tough because it just not that much food to have wiggle room for ice cream. Also, just to be completely honest, I don't want to have a super tiny scoop of ice cream. If I'm going to have some, I'd like to have a nice portion!
Is 600 or less calories a "nice" portion for you? Are you happy with eating it one day a week? If so, you could just bank 100 calories per day for 6 days and enjoy it as a treat instead of as a cheat.1 -
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springlering62 wrote: »In lieu of ice cream, a serving of fat free Greek yogurt whipped with a serving of sugar free pudding mix, then refrigerated or thrown in the freezer for a while is about 100 calories and is soooooo good. And you could have that every night........
@springlering62 I'm going to have to try that!
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I might need to up my calories a bit or eat back my exercise calories to fit in ice cream. I'm trying to maximize the food I can eat on 1350/1400 calories and it can be tough because it just not that much food to have wiggle room for ice cream. Also, just to be completely honest, I don't want to have a super tiny scoop of ice cream. If I'm going to have some, I'd like to have a nice portion!
Your body counts those calories and when you get to goal weight accounting for that perfectly normal energy requirement is a skill you will need to learn.
More exercise / more ice cream?
(PS - not a bad nutrient profile as a recovery food!)2 -
Rid yourself of the Cheat Meal mentality. How you speak to yourself matters. I'm not married to my food so I don't need to cheat on it. Cheat Meals can easily become just another permission slip for a glorified binge mentality.
Eat the foods you like and moderate your portions every single day. Cheat meals after the deficit/weight loss cycle can go sideways and result in eating it all back. If it were not so there would be no such thing as rebound weight gain with friends
Cheat meals that start out with only one meal or one full day sliding into a weekend food lollapalooza can undo progress. So it depends on how much progress you're willing to give up. There's eating at the maintenance level which can include more of those favorite foods you enjoy.
Simply eat at your maintenance level and you won't have to cheat on yourself or your food or anyone. You can eat at your maintenance level whenever you want to and it will not affect your progress one iota.
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I agree with @ninerbuff. We just word things differently.
Learning how to eat at the maintenance level is the best practice for what's coming for you for the rest of your life. It's the main tool. Use it whenever you need to.
Practice maintenance instead of falling right back into those old eating behaviors. Think of it as Maintenance.
Maintenance is where the rubber really meets the road for long term weight stability.1 -
@WandaVaughn sugarfree lemon pudding is the best. The white choc late is pretty good, too. Hubs loves the cheesecake pudding/yogurt with frozen blueberries on top.
For an extra oomph of luxury, Rediwhip makes a 5 calorie/serving fat free whipped cream that’s pretty darn tasty, and a coconut whipped cream that’s delicious and super low cal, but crazy hard to find. Their almond milk whipped cream is so-so, imho.
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No cheat days.
Fit whatever foods I want into my calories for the day. Nothing is off limits.2 -
springlering62 wrote: »@WandaVaughn sugarfree lemon pudding is the best. The white choc late is pretty good, too. Hubs loves the cheesecake pudding/yogurt with frozen blueberries on top.
For an extra oomph of luxury, Rediwhip makes a 5 calorie/serving fat free whipped cream that’s pretty darn tasty, and a coconut whipped cream that’s delicious and super low cal, but crazy hard to find. Their almond milk whipped cream is so-so, imho.
I really enjoy the Lite Dannon Greek yogurt . Wonder how it would mix in with the pudding? I'm totally going to try this! They make a lemon meringue yogurt that I really enjoy.0 -
I just bank for my meal or ice cream by eating a smidge lighter for breakfast and lunch and very low cal healthy real food snacks. Do NOT skip meals if it will cause you to binge or feel really bad from lack of nutrients. I learned that the hard way 💩0
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I think maybe I need to think more about how I have been wording things and "cheat meals/days". I definitely appreciate what everyone said, because I can see how that isn't really a mentally healthy attitude. I DEFINITELY struggle with binge eating- not like pathologic or insane amounts of food, but for example, I want to eat the entire pint of ice cream. Like I don't want just a 1/2 cup serving, I want the whole thing. Which I don't think is that uncommon but also it's probably more than is necessary and ends up being 900-1000 calories in one sitting. So I guess the question really is, can I have one serving of ice cream, which I could fit into my calories, or will that be extremely difficult to do mentally.4
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