Cheat Days

So are cheat days only beneficial psychologically? Or, are they also beneficial physically? Does eating 1000 calories more than normal have any long-term positive effects on one's physique?

Cheat days usually make the rest of your weight loss less stressful.  Stress is bad for health and appearance. ;)  It also usually works to jump-start your metabolism, like, reminding it that there's still a lot of food out there and it doesn't need to start holding back on burning calories.

I think entire cheat days set me back big time, I would rather have a cheat "treat" or meal, than ruin the whole day, pizza for dinner tastes better if ive had egg whites for breakfast and a salad for lunch.

Ive always had extreme guilt with whole cheat days, plus cheat meals are treats can occur more frequently/

I'll agree with cheat meals rather than cheat days.

Personally I eat what I like for a cheat meal but less of it. No "stomach stretchers"!

And only cook what you think you should eat, NO leftovers. They call out to you from the fridge in the middle of the night....

Well I tend to have cheat meals, but because of their epic proportions, they are about the equivelant of a cheat day. haha

I'm trying to gain muscle with no fat right now, and with thanksgiving coming up, I was wondering if I can justify having a free day from a physiological standpoint.

i would practice some sort of self control and just relax and enjoy the company of your family ^_^

Original Post by moonbay:

i would practice some sort of self control and just relax and enjoy the company of your family ^_^

Yeah, I guess your right. :(

Except my family tends to make good desserts. :P

I don't plan a specific cheat meal or day, but when a special occassion comes up (once or twice a month) I let myself indulge...usually ends up being up to a 1000 more calories that day than usual. I make sure I exercise and drink water like normal on that day.

So far, I have kept losing weight at the same pace. No change at all from the occasional big meal.

I have a cheat night every week. It helps you keep your sanity, plus it helps your metabolism get all confused. From my experience, if you eat a set number of calories 7 days a week, you will hit a plateau. If your body never sets it's metabolism to run at a lower number of calories, it will work more efficiently.

I lost 175 pounds doing my cheat night routine, and I continue to use it for maintenance (except now I get TWO cheat nights + booze)

I also cheat at least once a week! I have found that to maintain a social life and or relationship i still need to be able to go out to dinner or out for a drink. If i know I am going out to dinner, i will try to conserve calories for the day. I will still eat about every two hours but instead of 200 calories every 2 hours, i will try to keep it at 80 to 100 (yogurt, fruit, crackers, veggies, cheese, etc) so i know i have saved some room for my meal. I also dont go overboard on the meal. BUT I will eat what i want and stop when I am full. and i drink my normal amount of water for the day also and i dont beat myself up about it the next day. it really helps my sanity! and my diet has actually been fun and successful!

I've been trying to alter my cheat days because I seem to use it as justification for eating out, or at least I did. Once a week is good for me, because it's sort of a ritual my friends and I have to go to Five Guys and get a burger on Mondays. Except I get a single patty instead of a double, split a regular fry with them, and get jalapenos and A1 instead of cheese and bacon.

Not that it's much butter, but hey... mm mm tasty.