Are cheat days good?

sillywilly221

sillywilly221

New member
I read that allowing yourself "cheat days" are good. Or days where you eat however you like outside of a diet for achieving certain goals, such as losing 10lbs or sticking to a diet for two weeks.

Has this worked for anyone?

Is it counterproductive?

What is the best way to do it? Certain amount of days? At a weight loss point?

I appreciate the feedback!
 
I think its up to you. But if you go overboard on the cheat day its going to negate the rest of the weeks hard work.
I prefer to have a smaller treat each day and work it into the amount of calories i allow myself.
 
I have considered this myself since I am just beginning my diet and I won't be allowing my self "cheat Days". I think it is a personal decision based on your motivations and will power perhaps. I believe that allowing myself to eat poorly for a day as a reward for eating well for a week is counter productive to all my hard work and the good habits I am trying to teach myself. Plus I feel it only puts me further form my goal.

Almost like a junky getting to smoke a little crack on a Saturday because he was able to restrain himself all week...

Is that too strong an analogy? Maybe I have a food addiction and no will power that's why cheat days are bad for me :p....
 
If you make it a cheat meal instead of a cheat day it can be alright.

Like for example one meal of hamburger and fries and a glass of regular Coke but the rest of the day you eat healthy.

Then it would be fine but not eating badly the whole day.
 
Hmmm...

My thought for a cheat day would be a small Pizza from Dominoes -- less than 2000 calories --- and that would fill me up or the day.

Basically, to me, a cheat day is allowing yourself foods you wouldn't normally eat, but in a productive manner.
 
why would you have any foods you normally wouldn't eat - just work anything you like into your daily calorie range?

Dominoes pizza?? oh yuck - surely you can do a better cheat than that...
 
ive read that every once in a while its good to take a day off because it kicks your metabolism. i did it when i was dieting before and it always worked but you cant do it that often- like maybe oince every 2 weeks or something.

i found that i couldnt even eat that much on my cheat days once i was well into the diet. good luck!
 
I'm not really a fan of the "cheat mentality."

I think it's unhealthy, mentally. You shouldn't feel so terrible about eating something that might not be considered healthy.

I work junk food into my diet on a daily basis. It's all calorically controlled. Well, most of the time anyways. Other times, when I want something bad enough, I eat it no matter.

I don't feel bad for doing so at all b/c the majority of the time, I eat excellent and I am achieving my goals.
 
I actually have tried this before because I read about it in a magezine. One diet that I was on, I decided to have one meal every Sunday where I would eat whatever I wanted to eat and then I would eat healthy the remainder of the week. I actually found it to work for me because it gave me something to look forward to each week. I honestly lost weight this way and I don't know how true this part is but I read that it gives your body a metabalism boost due to the sudden change in calories but again I don't know if that is true or not. I can honestly say that it was actually one of my most successful attempts at dieting, I did it that way for about 3 months and lost about 45lbs but then one week I didn't return to the healthy eating, and that's where it all went down hill. So as long as you go back to your healthy foods on the following meal you should be ok. Good Luck!
 
more2hold said:
I actually have tried this before because I read about it in a magezine. One diet that I was on, I decided to have one meal every Sunday where I would eat whatever I wanted to eat and then I would eat healthy the remainder of the week. I actually found it to work for me because it gave me something to look forward to each week. I honestly lost weight this way and I don't know how true this part is but I read that it gives your body a metabalism boost due to the sudden change in calories but again I don't know if that is true or not. I can honestly say that it was actually one of my most successful attempts at dieting, I did it that way for about 3 months and lost about 45lbs but then one week I didn't return to the healthy eating, and that's where it all went down hill. So as long as you go back to your healthy foods on the following meal you should be ok. Good Luck!
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Certainly some truth to a bump up in metabolic rate.

But you can do that through other mechanisms. Obviously the 'diet' didn't work or you wouldn't have "went down hill."

IMO, a diet is as much calorie fundamentals as it is mentality fundamentals.

Pretty much anything works as long as calories are controlled. However, if a diet f*cks with your head, it's probably not going to lead to long term success.

Just my 2 cents.
 
Steve said:
Pretty much anything works as long as calories are controlled. However, if a diet f*cks with your head, it's probably not going to lead to long term success.
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So true, and as i saw somebody say in another thread,
its a cheat day, not a binge day, dont confuse the two
 
I just want to clarify what I didn't in my earlier post.

I meant to say a cheat meal as in once a week would probably be ok.

Every day would probably screw up your chances of losing weight that week no matter how much exercise you did.

Really though the best and long term lasting plan is one that simply puts you in a caloric deficit but still allows you to eat many of the things you like each day keeping things so that you lose weight yet don't feel deprived of your favorite food and drink constantly which would eventually gnaw away at you enough to abandon the weight loss journey entirely.
 
I use the cheat days to kick and "trick" my metabolism. See, your Body gets used to eating healthy (The daily routine) and then it stops the fat burning process. Allowing a day off and a not-so-ordinary healthy food is good for your body, it confuses your body in a good way.


I do it Once every 3 weeks. I go to Texas Roadhouse. One of my favorite restaurants.
 
curnaco said:
I use the cheat days to kick and "trick" my metabolism. See, your Body gets used to eating healthy (The daily routine) and then it stops the fat burning process. Allowing a day off and a not-so-ordinary healthy food is good for your body, it confuses your body in a good way.


I do it Once every 3 weeks. I go to Texas Roadhouse. One of my favorite restaurants.
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It's a little more complex than this and really fat people don't need to 'confuse' their bodies for the most part.

For everyone, if a plateau occurs after an appreciable length of dieting, bumping your intake up toward maintenance caloric intake is a good way to reverse some of the physiological adaptations that took place during the diet. Sometimes a week at maintenance is required to kick-start things again.

But the fatter you are, the less likely this is going to be required.

It's not really about the types of foods you eat. It's about the calories you consume.
 
Steve said:
It's not really about the types of foods you eat. It's about the calories you consume.
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Listen to the above! its both wise and true advice .
Some people are so paranoid and self critical over eating something small and bad, and end up depriving themselves so much the go on massive bender binges and then guilt the heck out of themselves.

Its a great way to screw anything up. I always make sure i work a few 'fun' or 'bad' foods into my calories each week.
 
Steve is right about calories and pretty much everything he's saying.

Did you go to that link that maleficent posted? It's a great read.

Calories are key. If you have a cheat day...make your cheat day fit into your calorie range OR work your "i gotta have a big juicy _____" times into your routine.

You'll be a lot happier, and anyway are you gonna have cheat days for the rest of your life? After a while though you may realize that you have cravings for healiter things. Protein Pancakes with FatFree cool whip & Boysenberry Syrup! Talk about great eating!!

Pizza?? Come on now...make it good! Lol j/k

Kattwoman*
 
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