Is it Okay to have a cheat day?
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amyrluk
Posts: 13 Member
I let myself have a cheat because I have heard that cheat days can speed up your metabolism. When you hit a platue. But are there certain rules about cheat days. like how many calories you can go over. And what you can eat?
I let myself have one yeasutrday but I think I ate to much.
I let myself have one yeasutrday but I think I ate to much.
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Replies
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All that matters for weight loss is eating under your maintenance calories on average. Doesn't matter what you eat. (For health is another thing of course) Doesn't matter how you spread those calories over the week, whether it's eating the same amount each day or having lower calorie days throughout the week and a cheat day on the weekend, etc.
I do recommend logging your cheat days to make sure you're not cancelling out your calorie deficit of the week. The precise numbers will depend on your chosen weight loss rate, what your calorie goal is (and how much you're actually eating),... To give you an idea: losing 1lb of bodyfat per week corresponds with a calorie deficit of around 3500 calories.20 -
I don't like the term "cheat" because of its negative connotations. Instead, I have "spending days".
I often "save" calories (eat under my limit) during the week, and then "spend" what I have saved over the weekend.
I don't have any hard and fast rules on what I "spend" those calories on-- sometimes it's good beer, sometimes it's fried mushrooms or potato chips, sometimes it's half a sleeve of cookies.
How much I "spend" depends on how much I've "saved". If I've only saved 400 calories in the previous week, I'll try to keep my Saturday "spending" within that 400 calorie limit. But I've had weeks where I've "saved" as much as 1400 calories during the week by not eating many of my exercise calories, and I have occasionally (though rarely) "spent" all of those on a weekend, too!
On VERY rare occasions, I will spend more than I have saved. So the next week, I make sure I "pay back" the calories I loaned myself.28 -
Cheat days don't speed up your metabolism. Refeeds (within certain constraints) can help moderate some hormonal responses that may make weight loss more difficult for some people. More information here:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1
IMO, it would be a good idea to be skeptical of anything that implies that one's metabolism has anything like an accelerator, or brakes. Metabolism is pretty much the summation of the energy required at the cellular level to keep you alive, while at rest.
Lietchi is right about logging the cheat days: If you do so, you'll have a better idea of the effect. Sometimes it's just a nice psychological break to eat a bit more, when on restricted calories for a long time. If you know how many calories were involved, so know how much impact those calories had, you can decide whether the delay in reaching goal weight is worth it. Sometimes, IME, it is.15 -
Yes. It’s ok if that’s what works for you. The “best” diet is the one you can easily follow all your life.
Personally, I have a cheat meal once a week, not a day. For me, it’s a meal to practice maintenance and awareness. If I’m actively trying to lose, I never eat out without
Researching first. Look up the menu and calories online before I go, figure out what fits my calories and macros. Cheat meal, I just go. Figure out what comes sorta close when I get there, but no worries if it’s not as good as I thought, or if they really don’t have anything low calorie that I like. I know I’m trying to eat less, so even on a cheat meal, I try not to go way overboard. You CAN eat all the calories you saved all week in that one meal, but that would defeat the purpose.4 -
I let myself have a cheat because I have heard that cheat days can speed up your metabolism. When you hit a platue. But are there certain rules about cheat days. like how many calories you can go over. And what you can eat?
I let myself have one yeasutrday but I think I ate to much.
Who or what are you "cheating"?16 -
I don't think the speeding up the metabolism thing is important here. Giving yourself a break from "restriction" is fine now and then but if you "cheat" for a whole day, you'll have set back your "losing" for sure. Occasionally having a treat or going over your calorie goal for a meal now and then is fine but eating a lot one day, isn't a great idea!7
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Just make sure 'cheat' doesn't mean 'binge.' I don't know about you, but if all bets were off, I'd have no problem downing an entire frozen pizza, a half batch of chocolate chip cookies, an entire box of ice cream bars and a big bag of Doritos - all washed down with a jug of milk or 2 liters of Pepsi and happily call it a 'cheat day.'19
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Agree with others here.
I don’t do “cheat days” - really dislike the term. I love @freda78’s question. Exactly what I did.
AND I didn’t want to ever activate that “free for all” eating again - not saying you would- but I knew it was not the mindset I’ve worked hard to develop. In fact if I notice that thinking or a small beginning of that behavior in myself, I figure it out & bay it back down.
AND once I figured out that food gets broken down into nutrients &that’s what labs measure, nutrition clicked for me. Why would I want to over feed my body & make it have to deal with the extra. (This is heightened in my case due to one kidney & strict dr request to keep protein in a certain range to maintain kidney function.)
I eat to live now (after 5.3 years) not live to eat (out) like I used to.
PS I know others who use cheat days very well. We each just need to figure out what works for us!!6 -
What does "cheat day" actually entail for you?
I assume the general range of meanings of that term could be anywhere from eating at maintenance to an all out uncontrolled binge.
Which would make the range from perfectly fine to an absolutely terrible idea. Can see you went a long way over your goal but is that logging everything or not as lunch is blank?
Why do you want a "cheat day"?
Is it because your dieting method is unsustainable and you need the release? Is it because you want to enjoy a social event involving food?
Again a big range!
"I have heard that cheat days can speed up your metabolism" - sorry but that's not true.
It comes from a common misconception of what metabolism actually is, plus pandering to a desperation for some magical calorie burning. Sorry but life and dieting isn't like that.
If you have a weight loss plateau then maybe stop drinking so many empty calories in Mountain Dew and increase the accuracy of your food logging?7 -
Who you gonna cheat on?4
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I consistently drop scale weight a couple of days after eating more than my usual calories more for me is at maintenance rather than at a deficit.
I suspect this is where the metabolism boosting myth comes from.
Reality? I think I drop scale weight because my body drops WATER weight because the long deficit sort of stresses it out and it holds water a bit and the extra food prompts it to go. Alternatively I drink more coffee those days and pee more. Since I have been eating closer to maintenance this is less of a thing.
Either way, I do days (and sometimes weeks) out of a deficit and it does nothing for FAT loss. Except keeping me sane which is long term useful.12 -
I agree with everyone else. Your cheat day is likely knocking out your deficit for the week.
I never understood the point of a cheat day. You can have days where you indulge but why not just plan for them and still count calories so you know what to expect. If you log your cheat days you can see if you are wiping out your deficit for the week. Or if you enjoy having a day eating a little more, just budget for that day in your calories.10 -
Like lots of others, I don't like the term cheat days. I definitely allow myself some days when I eat over my daily calories, but I balance that out by eating some days when I am under, so over the week, I am within my weekly allowance. This allows me to socialise with friends over a meal, and/or lets me enjoy some higher calorie foods like pizza which would be tricky to fit into my daily allowance AND still have other meals that day too. Whatever I eat, I log... I do this to help with accountability. Sometimes it's actually to make sure I am eating enough as I don't want to lose any more weight, but most of the time it is just to reassure myself that I am in control of my eating, it is no longer in control of me.
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Cheat day? Nope. TREAT day!
And the secret is to still log every bite. Then, like @rosiekin says, see how it all works for the week. There's a little challenge on one of the groups I'm in where the goal isn't to be UNDER a calorie limit every day, it's to be CLOSE to the limit. On a daily basis, we try to get within 10%, and then there's a bonus if you're within 5% for the week. . For weight LOSS, your target already includes a deficit, so you can eat a little into that deficit and still lose, just not as quickly. The scoring also rewards you for not going too far under your goal.
To be honest, the reason I started that challenge was that once in maintenance, it's definitely not a goal to always be under a target; being over some and under some and averaging out over time is the goal. It's still hard!
Treat days are great. Keep them in context. If they get out of control, well, don't go nuts and throw it all out the window. Defenestration does nobody any good. Just get started again, and don't wait until tomorrow. Just tell yourself the kitchen is now closed and then you're back on the wagon.
Logging it all also gives you better data so you can more effectively reset targets based on actual results.
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freda78 "Who or what are you "cheating"?
I don't know if I agree with your philosophy that I am somehow cheating myself. Because a cheat day is not a bad thing. I saw a weight watchers post of facebook. and several of the posters said that cheating actually helped them break a plauto of not loosing. I hit a platue. and a i cheated and I broke it. Cheat days are not bad. I just want information on how to do it right.
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What’s “right” is what’s right for you. How did it help you? Mentally? Day off? Got to have some food you were missing? Physically? Able to eat where you were and what was available, vs worrying and hurrying to get something that “fit” your eating plan.
For me, a cheat meal is giving myself permission to relax and roll with life every once in a while instead of always being so rigid. It relaxes me, allows me a mental break.
What does it do for you?6 -
To me, it depends partly on how you define "cheat day". No holds barred, the sky's the limit? I have occasional days when I eat something I've been craving (usually mixed nuts or trail mix), but I log those calories and still remain within my limit for that day. (So I have to eat less of the healthier foods and my diet is not balanced that day). I consider that a "cheat" in the sense that I've pushed aside better choices, but I log every bite and stay within bounds. I haven't maintained for as long as most of you - just 7 months at this point - so I do feel that I need to be more vigilant still than others are able to be.3
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Some people say you can eat up to maintenance on cheat days(I’m not really one of them, but it does make sense).
When you eat between your goal and maintenance, you are just slowing your loss, not stopping or reversing it.
What you can eat? Is there something you haven’t been allowing yourself to eat that you’d really like?
For me, it was mostly just to sit and eat with everyone else and eat what they were eating, or go to a restaurant and order off the menu. No substituting lower calorie options. It was the relaxation of the rules and just enjoying life.
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freda78 "Who or what are you "cheating"?
I don't know if I agree with your philosophy that I am somehow cheating myself. Because a cheat day is not a bad thing. I saw a weight watchers post of facebook. and several of the posters said that cheating actually helped them break a plauto of not loosing. I hit a platue. and a i cheated and I broke it. Cheat days are not bad. I just want information on how to do it right.
So why is that "a cheat" rather than "a strategy"?
In the thread I linked up above, there's information about "how to do it right", if there is such a thing as "doing it right". (By which I'm not saying you shouldn't have a higher intake day; I think that's something a person can choose to do for various reasons. My implication is that I don't think it's something that requires profound technical correctness, if we're talking about something that happens relatively rarely. Other than avoiding allergens or poisonous/dangerous things, or foods contraindicated by some health condition or medication, I don't think it matters a lot what the over-goal calories consist of.)1 -
What about a "treat" day while doing keto?0
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