Cheat day?

Does anyone here practice the "cheat day" idea--where you are super careful about your diet all but one day of the week, so that you don't feel deprived of certain foods?

I have read that doing this can actually help b/c it helps your body not go into starvation mode and thus slow the metabolism.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has done this for a while and if/how it has impacted their results. I'm so worried of sabotaging weight loss even just a little bit that the idea scares me!

You will probably get quite a few positive responses on this. I have heard a lot of people report losing tons of weight while doing this. Not only does it help scare away starvation mode, but it does indeed help keep you motivated (ie, two more days until my cheat day) and from feeling too deprived.

For me personally.... I have to be very careful with my cheats. If I actually took a whole cheat "day" each week I'm sure I wouldn't lose anything cuz I could easily consume that many calories. But I have a cheat "meal" or a cheat "hour" as needed. If I've been really struggling to eat well, or if a special occasion comes along, or if my fiance and I can actually get away for a date alone... I have absolutely no problem with relaxing and enjoying whatever I want. This probably happens on average about every 2 weeks or so that something like that comes along.

The trick is two-fold... Don't let it happen TOO often. When you start having a special occasion because you got your dishes washed, you might be overboard. Also, Get back on the wagon when its done. A lot of people have trouble starting with a clean slate the next day. They either "punish" themselves by restricting or go "all out" thinking they already blew it and it doesnt matter. Neither is true. If you normally eat 1500 calories and have a cheat day... just go back to 1500 the next day. If you think you will have a problem doing that, you might want to stay away from "cheating". Maybe just work a single cookie into your calorie budget once a week, or something.

The awesome part is, since I've been using this site (since February), I have found that even my cheats aren't so bad. I don't usually keep track of my cheat at all... that's part of the deal. But once in a while I will add it into my log to see just how bad it really was... and its not that bad!! I make automatically healthier choices and get full faster now, so the old urges are starting to be won over by new habits.

Happy cheating!!

edited to add: btw, I have gone from 233.5 lb in January to 196.5 lb now, so it hasn't hurt me too much to do it this way.

I think it's totally a matter of personal style, what works for you. I am a creature of habit, and find comfort in the day-to-day routine of planning so that my calories and macronutrients are exactly where I need them to be. Sometimes I go a little over....I almost never go under. So a cheat day would not make sense for me. Sometimes I choose to go over but only as high as maintenance, never more and never (gasp! the horror!) unrecorded. What would I enter on my spreadsheet for that day?? No that just wouldn't do.

If I want to eat a steak, I eat it. If we are out and everyone is getting ice cream and I want some too, I eat it. But I keep myself fully aware of how the choices I make affect my daily/weekly calorie deficits. It makes it much easier to make sensible choices on a daily basis. That's what works for me.

I have lost 60 lbs since January, so yeah I am happy with my methods :)

I don't exactly have a cheat day so to speak, instead I just plan my week to have an overall 3400-3600 calorie deficit for the week. 

Therefore,  Mon - Fri I have around a 600 calorie deficit, then Sat & Sun I have around a 200 calorie deficit.   And since I am much more active on the weekends as well, I'm really actually able to eat a lot.  So that's when I'll have my brownie or candy bar or heaven forbid fried(!) food. 

This has totally worked for me.  I'll be officially dieting for 18 weeks tomorrow, and have lost 35 lbs (so a 2lb a week avg) without a single plateau. 

I really do think by either using this type of a plan or having a zig zag diet, your metabolism will not adjust, where if you eat exactly the same every day, it might.

I admit that I give myself cheat days and sometimes entire cheat weekends but I always time them around events when it would be a lot harder for me to just stick with it like last weekend when I was camping, I'm not gonna bring my food scale with me. When I first started dieting and was morbidly obese I did actually binge on my cheat days so I tried to keep them spaced further apart, I think one day a week is overkill when you have a lot to lose. These days I find that even on my cheat days I'm making smarter choices, for example while camping I took turkey bacon and turkey hot dogs and when I noticed I was eating chips by the handful I closed the bag and popped in a piece of gum. I went over my normal calorie allowance I'm sure but as this diet becomes a lifestyle I find myself doing smarter things as habit. Now when I do cheat days they do turn out to be  more like cheat meals because for me egg whites and turkey breast for breakfast is an automatic, I do it in robot mode. I know I have a bad habit of turning what should be a sentence into a  novel so I'll do a summery-

Yes, I use "cheating" as a way to keep myself from going crazy but I only do it once every couple of weeks and I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS go back to eating super healthy the next day.

Yes, I have cheat days.  I do plan them out.  For instance if I am invited to a great party, wedding reception, or just cocktails with friends, I up my workout the day before, say to about 2 1/2 hours of both cardio and weights.  Then I feel no guilt.  Even with cheat days I keep it not going overboard.  Maybe just one slice of pepperoni vs. 3 slices, and have a large salad with my slice!   I don't advise people to have a cheat day where they are just stuffing their faces as it's not a good mind set, and I think you'd actually feel sick to your stomach if you're eating very healthy during your week. 

Tomorrow I'm having a cheat night, and have arranged to go for seafood to be healthy and off-set the 3-4 beers that I will probably have on a Friday night!  So yes, cheat away, but don't say go to McDonalds and have a super sized burger meal.... do it smartly and do it low fat. 

I have not noticed that my cheat day whatsoever affects my weigh ins, as I am doing extra workouts during those times.  I've only been at it (my diet and workout plan) about 5 weeks, and have had 3 cheat nights!  So as you can see it's not an over the top thing. 

I think for most people, this is a really good idea.  it allows you to have foods you like without the feeling of ' self - sabotage ' and at the same time remain totally in control of your eating.  however, for a few people, this could prove tricky - especially myself, as i think i would have the mentality of turning it into a ' binge day ' as a opposed to a ' cheat ' and feel i had to eat everythign as i would have to wait another 6 days!!!!!

jemx

I had my first cheat day about 3 days ago.  I had my normal calories and then had a bowl of pasta (whole wheat) and a fat free hot dog.  So it's not like I went nuts but I was still hungry and that's what I wanted.  My sister is coming home next weekend and I know we're going out to dinner with the whole family.  That will be the next cheat day but really when you get so used to eating healthier the last thing you want is something nasty for your body.  You just get used to making better choices and looking down on the foods that never did you much good anyway.

I go out to eat once a week and allow myself to have something on the menu that is normally a no-no... like yesterday I went to Chili's and my husband and I shared their nacho appetizer (1450 cals total). I don't know whether it has a positive impact on my dieting but it surely hasn't harmed it.

I know that many people have been successful with incorporating a cheat day into their program.   I personally didn't have the will power to limit my cheats once I got started.  The hole concept of cheating put me in the wrong frame of mind.  

Instead I decided early on that I needed to come up with a meal plan that I could live with long term and could transition into maintenance. I work in extras into my plan based on my overall daily calorie intake targets.  I know that it mostly a difference in semantics, but it helped me create a more positive relations with food.

Best of luck in finding what works for you.

nah i dont do the cheat days.. im usually able to eat what i want as long as i keep it within my cal intake for the day.   if i had one day off, then that one day would turn into a 2  than a week and so on... so...  usually i keep my cals 1500-1800 cause im not really active right now... so on the days i want more i add more...

does anyone really need a whole DAY of cheats?  if you are committing to a healthy lifestyle, working in treats and snacks so as not to feel deprived. is a must.  And, I have to go out I remind myself not to gorge myself unintentionally.

BUT if I planned to be totally unhealthy an entire day once a week as a 'reward' isn't the point of a lifestyle change lost?

I liked betsy's idea of working out and doing a little planning for events that aren't to be missed. (weddings, parties, outing with girlfriends, etc)  I think moderation, even when at an event/eating out, is key to long term weight loss success.