Cheat Days????

I'm not an expert, but I think as long as you're not going over a net of 1,800 it should be ok to have one "treat" meal.

I do one full day of cheating, as a reward for myself. I indulge in whatever I have been craving that week, to get it out of my system. Not that it is advisable for everyone, but I have lost 26 pounds.

I've been doing a cheat day once a week since joining this site, and it has not hindered my weight loss at all. I've actually hit my goal weight. I probably eat double my norm cals, which is awful- I know, but it helps to have that one day/week where I can just let loose. Also, it helps me to stay more focused the other 6 days knowing that I have a treat day around the corner.

When i'm working hard to lose, I don't do full cheat days, because I know myself and I can do a lot of damage in one day. (And I have a hard time getting back on the wagon after a whole day of cheating.) What I do instead is allow myself 2 cheat meals per week. I don't schedule them, I just use them when I feel like it. This way if I end up going out to dinner or something, and haven't had my cheat for the week, I can use it then and not stress about how to eat strictly while i'm out.

weekends and holidays are free for me but within reason.

Yes I do a "Treat Day" I do it on the day of weigh in it's nice to have a reward to look forward to at the end of the healthy week for me that is every Friday :bigsmile:

This is for life so I want to enjoy it :drinker:

I do one cheat MEAL every second week. A whole day would ruin me.

If it weren't for treat days, fugedaboutit!!! lol...I couldn't it do without my cheat days!! But you know what I have noticed is that I subconciously (sp) make better choices even on my cheat days. For instance, I drink absolutely nothing but water on my "on" days but I allow myself to drink soda, juice, or whatever on my cheat day...but I have learned to have one glass of soda with dinner and start drinking water after I finish that. I don't feel deprived, nor did I undo a weeks worth of work. Or when I have my restaurant meal of 1200 calories a pop, I naturally eat less...

I think one day of not tracking is adviseable. Although I have gone back and tabulated what I ate just to help me learn just how much calories are in the food I am eating.

For me a weekly cheat "meal" gives me something to look forward to. A whole day to cheat would totally derail me.

FYI, I'm typing this while eating a cheese danish :happy:

Stop calling them cheat days, they are "Spike Day's"

"Cheating" causes a negative connotation, and they are nothing but good for you. A cheat day spikes leptin and metabolism!

If you read the article "Fat Trap" in the New York Times, you would see they talk about hormones and how they are affected during dieting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-fat-trap.html?pagewanted=all

Leptin is the "anti-starvation" hormone and "starving" is simply having a negative caloric balance. If your body is living off of stored energy and is never storing energy, our brain picks up on the imbalance and senses a period of famine.
Leptin levels decline drastically in as little as 7 days of calorie restriction, when leptin levels are low our hunger & cravings increase at a rate connected to the amount of decline in our leptin. In an effort to make us search out food. Also when this happens our brain slows metabolism down to prolong the use of our stored energy.
A diet is really a type of self induced famine and our brain doesn't know the difference.

Now on the flip-side, studies have shown leptin rebounds quickly after a short 12 hour period of overfeeding!

Some people think that having a day of eating higher calories will make them crave it more often, but that just is not the case. Cravings are much less after leptin is increased,

So a cheat/ Spike Day is a solution to the hormone problem dieting creates and it's a huge advantage psychologically having a weekly "day-off"

I've lost over 100lbs and kept it off for several years, I Spike every week, and I exercise about an hour a week. According to the "Fat Trap" article most people in my position (lost a large amount of weight and maintained it) exercise an hour+ daily. There's no way I could do that. Spiking is a much more manageable way to keep the weight off permanently.

FYI, I'm typing this while eating a cheese danish :happy:

Stop calling them cheat days, they are "Spike Day's"

"Cheating" causes a negative connotation, and they are nothing but good for you. A cheat day spikes leptin and metabolism!

If you read the article "Fat Trap" in the New York Times, you would see they talk about hormones and how they are affected during dieting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-fat-trap.html?pagewanted=all

Leptin is the "anti-starvation" hormone and "starving" is simply having a negative caloric balance. If your body is living off of stored energy and is never storing energy, our brain picks up on the imbalance and senses a period of famine.
Leptin levels decline drastically in as little as 7 days of calorie restriction, when leptin levels are low our hunger & cravings increase at a rate connected to the amount of decline in our leptin. In an effort to make us search out food. Also when this happens our brain slows metabolism down to prolong the use of our stored energy.
A diet is really a type of self induced famine and our brain doesn't know the difference.

Now on the flip-side, studies have shown leptin rebounds quickly after a short 12 hour period of overfeeding!

Some people think that having a day of eating higher calories will make them crave it more often, but that just is not the case. Cravings are much less after leptin is increased,

So a cheat/ Spike Day is a solution to the hormone problem dieting creates and it's a huge advantage psychologically having a weekly "day-off"

I've lost over 100lbs and kept it off for several years, I Spike every week, and I exercise about an hour a week. According to the "Fat Trap" article most people in my position (lost a large amount of weight and maintained it) exercise an hour+ daily. There's no way I could do that. Spiking is a much more manageable way to keep the weight off permanently.

I saw this thread and was planning to talk about calling it a 'spike' rather then 'cheat' day but I think Russell pretty much summed it up!

NAILED IT!! :drinker:

Bob Harper, from "The Biggest Loser," said on the Thanksgiving special in 2011 to get in a good workout before eating at meal that's out of character from your normal healthy stuff.

FYI, I'm typing this while eating a cheese danish :happy:

Stop calling them cheat days, they are "Spike Day's"

"Cheating" causes a negative connotation, and they are nothing but good for you. A cheat day spikes leptin and metabolism!

If you read the article "Fat Trap" in the New York Times, you would see they talk about hormones and how they are affected during dieting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-fat-trap.html?pagewanted=all

Leptin is the "anti-starvation" hormone and "starving" is simply having a negative caloric balance. If your body is living off of stored energy and is never storing energy, our brain picks up on the imbalance and senses a period of famine.
Leptin levels decline drastically in as little as 7 days of calorie restriction, when leptin levels are low our hunger & cravings increase at a rate connected to the amount of decline in our leptin. In an effort to make us search out food. Also when this happens our brain slows metabolism down to prolong the use of our stored energy.
A diet is really a type of self induced famine and our brain doesn't know the difference.

Now on the flip-side, studies have shown leptin rebounds quickly after a short 12 hour period of overfeeding!

Some people think that having a day of eating higher calories will make them crave it more often, but that just is not the case. Cravings are much less after leptin is increased,

So a cheat/ Spike Day is a solution to the hormone problem dieting creates and it's a huge advantage psychologically having a weekly "day-off"

I've lost over 100lbs and kept it off for several years, I Spike every week, and I exercise about an hour a week. According to the "Fat Trap" article most people in my position (lost a large amount of weight and maintained it) exercise an hour+ daily. There's no way I could do that. Spiking is a much more manageable way to keep the weight off permanently.

I saw this thread and was planning to talk about calling it a 'spike' rather then 'cheat' day but I think Russell pretty much summed it up!

NAILED IT!! :drinker:

By the way this is AWESOME and you are AWESOME for posting this. You made my day lol

What about eating is cheating. Eating responsibly means you can eat ANY food. 20+ years ago a regular hamburger was 1/8th a lb of ground beef. Now that's a burger on the kids menu. Adults is 1/4lb plus. I used to eat the 1/2 lb burger now i eat the 1/4.. It's still alot of calories but half of what i used to consume. I now eat 2 slices of pizza instead of 4-6. I get a mini blizzard instead of a large. I share a foot long Subway sub instead of eating it all by myself. With that being said all those things mentioned are not on my weekly menu and more then not 1-2 times a month.

When you schedule a cheat day it kinda defeats the reasoning behind moderation. If your starving yourself during the week or eating a menu that doesn't satisfy you then you will never keep the weight you lose off ever. If you want a burger then you should have one but not set aside a day where you can just go to a buffet and have an all you can eat meal. I think its important to adapt a lifestyle that you love 7 days a week therefore not needing a free for all binge day.. You can have it all and lose weight still.

I see your point, and moderation can work very.

Spike Day's work on our hormones so long-term weight loss is possible.

Also as far as fat gain is concerned, it's actually extremely difficult to eat enough to store even an ounce of fat if you had 6 days of calorie deficit. Extra energy is stored as glycogen first before fat is stored. Glycogen is generally depleted while dieting. Another benefit of 6 days deficit and one day surplus is our body can actually begin to increase the amount of glycogen stored from the constant deplete/storing of it.

For you folks that do have cheat days/meals...what kind of deficits do you create on regular days? For example...I'm trying to create a calorie deficit of 500-700 calories a day (approximately 1-1.5 lb loss per week), but if I have a cheat day i feel like it would be pretty easy to eat 1000+ extra calories (just grabbing a burger and fries at a burger joint could add that on) and theoretically that would negate a lot of the work I've done during the week.

Do those of you who have cheat....er, I mean, spike days/meals are you still losing at the rate you set for yourself weekly? If you're exercising extra hard or for a lot longer to make up for it, that seems like it's not really "cheating/spiking"...that sounds like simple "eating your exercise calories back" to me.

Would love some input on this!