Cheat day

I was wondering how many of you allow yourselves a weekly meal that you eat whatever you want without counting or tracking the calories. A cheat day. I have been doing this every Saturday since I started tracking my weight. On Sunday through Friday I log every bite that I eat and I stick as closely as I can to my calorie allowance but on Saturday I cut loose. It seems to be working out as I am recording a weight loss every week and it gives me something to look forward to at the end of the week. Every time I get a craving during the week I start planning and thinking about what my cheat meal is going to be. Today it was Red Robin Burger and fries. That meal was probably close to what I allow myself in a whole day during the week. I feel guilty after doing it even though it is planned but I really think that my cheat meal helps me to stay on track the rest of the week. Sorry if I am rambling.

I believe they advocate a "cheat" meal in the abs diet, and your scheduled once-a-week cheat meal appears to help you stay on tract, so that's wonderful. I also think your idea of postponing the craving during the week is brilliant!

I don't plan a weekly indulgence but when I am with my BF, I cook the things he enjoys and I just eat a reasonable portion. When I am alone, I stick to my diet. The daily average calorie intake over a month seems to balance out.

There are some people who don't like the words "diet" or "cheat". I think it is only a matter of semantics. You are improving your health by doing whatever you are doing, so who's to argue with success?

The only thing I have to add is: enjoy your meal and don't feel guilty.

If it works for you then do it. Personally I would not follow a routine that involved any kind of guilt but that's just me. I am carb cycling, which means I eat low carb 6 days a week & high carb on the 7th day. Although my carb-up day is the day I allow myself to indulge, I still record my food the best I can regardless of what it is. If I'm holding myself accountable for what I'm eating, what is there to feel guilty about?

I still have macronutrient targets for that day, though I don't hold myself to them as strictly as I do on my low carb days. It's definitely more relaxed...I wouldn't call it a "cheat" day but I'm thinking this is the type of thing you're asking about.

I'd be more worried about the guilt than the extra calories you're taking in, but if it doesn't bother you then it ain't broke.

I don't have a cheat day or anything like that. If i have something off plan I have it and say oh well. No regrets I suck it up and I just work harder the next time I'm out. I made my bed so I sleep in it type thing. I do try to figure out why I didn't try to go for the more smart decision to begin with but other then that nope no cheat days cause I find one cheat day or shortcut leads to two, leads to three leads to increasing my cals all around and getting away from what made me successful to begin with.

The way I see it is this, I don't restrict myself to the point of deprivation but when I indulge I do end up reverting to an unhealthy lifestyle and eating stuff that I've tried to teach my body NOT to eat like cakes, refined grains, loads of fats and procesed foods.

I am doing this as well. I just started but they do this on biggest loser. They stay on their calorie count for 6 days and then up it like 300 for the 7th day. Today we spur of the moment went out to eat so this will be my day instead of tomorrow. This is my first week and I hope it works for me as well. I havent been working out as much as I should but I dont have a weigh in till tuesday morning. If its working great, but I would still not go hog wild, I still track my calories to make sure I dont go over the 300 extra. Its suppose to help your metabolism guessing and working efficiently.

I don't do it as like King, it leads me down a path to self destruction, but I do think my idea of a "splurge" is very different now than it was 6 months ago.

A splurge now is a whole sweet potato rather than the half or 7 oz of rib eye instead of 5. I think I have more of the things I really like that are healthy rather than going off the rails with a bucket of KFC with a side of white bread lathered with white gravy... (not that I ever ate that but you get the idea)

Since I calorie count, I really just try to be honest with my food journal, record everything no matter how painful to admit I screwed up and put the fingers to the keys about it. I just pledge to myself to do better the next day. No deprivation, just make better choices is what I continue to behaviorally adjust.

I like to have a little cheat everyday, that way I don't binge & eat 4000 calories in one day. I've learned that moderation all the time is better for me than over eating & feeling bad about myself afterwards! (Which I do occasionally)

I allow myself one splurge meal a week and one small portion of Ben & Jerry's ice cream on Friday night. But the longer I've been on this lifestyle change, the less often I really take advantage of the splurge meal. I did it on New Year's Eve, and twice over the holidays, I went for Mexican food -- my personal favorite: cheese chile rellenos. I would never have believed it when I started six months ago, but I no longer have to go through the routine that Bongoscot describes -- staving off cravings by planning my splurge. Incredibly, I've come to LIKE the way I eat now, so instead of that sense of needing to cut loose and eat whatever I want, I now find that like every normal person, I occasionally get a craving for a specific thing -- like chile rellenos -- and if I satisfy that craving, I might go 2-3 weeks without craving anything else. Well, except ice cream. That's why Friday night is ice cream night. I don't think I will ever get over my love of ice cream.

I sometimes declare diet days off-- those are days where I still try to eat responsibly, but don't bother to log what I eat. Sometimes I just don't bother putting some meals on the books, simply because they would be impossible to track. I was at a celebration dinner a couple of weeks ago where we had sushi and Japanese small plates. Plates got passed around like crazy, and even if I could have identified everything I ate there's no way that I could have figured out calorie values for it.

My diet has no concept of cheating, though-- I have permission to eat anything I want. My goal is to choose wisely and almost always stay within a calorie goal. If I'm craving ice cream, for example, I think about whether I want it enough to go get some. Most of the time the answer is no. On the rare occasion where the answer is yes, I go eat some without guilt.

This afternoon, for example, I found myself craving bubble tea. I thought about it for a few minutes, decided I did want it enough to invest 300 or so calories in it, and so I got some. It was tasty, and I had zero guilt or remorse.

Even when I eat things that aren't all that diet friendly, I record them.

I live by eating whatever I want, but never in oversized quantities. I have learned the first bite is the best . It's all downhill from there. I have taught myself that overeating is unpleasant and disrespectful to my body.

I'm one of the aforementioned who doesn't like the word cheat when it comes to diet. It implies there are rules to be broken, rather than just choices to made.

The connection between over-eating and self-loathing is so interesting. For me, I try not to think about it as "cheating" or feel guilty when I splurge on something (of course I still sometimes do feel bad about - but I TRY not to) - because I don't want to send myself down a spiral of self-loathing which will send me straight back to the fridge. So like the others have said, I just try and make conscious choices and record them if I can.

This discussion is interesting to me because I realize that I also no longer think in terms of "cheating" -- and I also have that moment of thinking about whether I really want to waste the calories on whatever it is I'm contemplating -- and usually the answer is "no." The biggest temptation for me occurs when I go out to eat and a bread basket is planted on the table. I really struggle with this, because it isn't a question of cheating, it's that I know intellectually that this diet is working for me because of the interaction of protein, good fats, and complex carbs, and if I give in to the bread basket too often, it doesn't matter if I still hit my calorie count, the presence of simple starches will screw up my metabolism, and I won't continue to lose weight. All those thoughts go through my head before I reach for the bread, and most of the time, I just skip it. One thing that helps me get through that pre-meal risk period is that even when others with whom I'm dining are just munching on bread before the main course comes, I order a salad or a high-protein appetizer like grilled calamari. Or sometimes I can get a veggie appetizer like ratatouille. When I dine out for a splurge meal, I always look at the dessert menu -- but then I have that conversation with myself about "is there anything here I really want enough to waste calories on" -- and if the answer is no and everyone else is ordering dessert, I order a decaf skim cappuccino and savor it while my friends are having dessert. It's a whole retraining process, but it is truly working for me.

Whatever works for you is right.

I can't do it, personally. I need to keep counting or I won't count at all.

Yesterday, I had a splurgy day with brie, dip, and a dinner out at the Keg including crème brûlée for dessert. However, I was really careful about amounts and split the decadent dessert. I also made sure to have ahi tuna and salad for my meal. I get a certain amount of flexibility during the week (similar to WW), so I just lost some of that. If I have a day where I don't count, for me, it would turn in to days, then weeks, then months...

For active weight loss, I found cheat days (or splurges or whatever one might call them) were derailing for the weight loss itself. One day "off" meant 2-3 days of not losing. (Perhaps because the only thing I care to splurge on are carbs?) At a certain point, it just wasn't worth the mini-stall it created to do it.

Having gone so long without "cheating," overeating has mostly lost its appeal. Now that I am maintaining, I eat anything I want, but I find that my portions are much smaller than they once were, so the quality of the food is less of an issue.

As Hermiones said, it is all about retraining, about being able to balance the calories instinctively when the food diary is gone.

I think your point is well taken, Relz. And I want to clarify something that may help people just starting out: For me, a splurge meal now is not overeating -- it's giving myself permission to eat things that are really delicious but that I would not and should not eat every day -- EVER. Good example: My family went out for Thanksgiving this year to Smith & Wollensky. My splurge that night was steak and some chocolate cake. It was Thanksgiving for heaven's sake. (FYI, I chose steak over turkey because I eat turkey all the time.) And I saved my leftovers for my neighbor, because the next day, it wasn't Thanksgiving anymore -- it was the rest of my life. I don't see this as cheating, because I have really come to accept that this is not a diet. This is a forever way of eating. Even after I reach my goal, which I figure will take another year, I will continue to eat low glycemic, because I think it's the best thing for me and may be my best defense against family history.

"...It implies there are rules to be broken, rather than just choices to made." - k8yk

Nice job. It's not cheating if it is a part of your plan.

I am pretty rigid Sunday-Thursday. On Fridays, I'll probably workout and then have a few pops of scotch. I will not do that during the week anymore because that's how I got up to 279. I record all I eat on Saturdays, but I don't kick myself if I have some wings or a beer or 3 during the game on the weekend. PointsPlus allows for 49 flex points per week. I choose to use them Friday Nights-Saturday.