Does anyone have scheduled cheat days? If so what sort of guidelines do you use so that you don't completely undo your accomplishments.

I can't be trusted with them, I so wish I could! But as the bag of Lay's potato chips says: "You can't just eat one!" or something to that effect.

The cravings are totally activated with one small taste of pizza, chips, alcohol, any of my danger foods.

I hope someone posts here a good strategy but I am not hopeful for me!

Good luck to you.

Oh I can't do scheduled cheat days either. I do however not deprive myself of anything I want I just have to work it into my calorie count for the day. I am just wondering how other people deal with it. I am trying to learn about my fellow family here.

Don't do it. That slope is just too slippery for me.

Bargoo!!! Where the heck you been?!?!

elvislover324 What is your name if you don't mind me asking.

I don't have scheduled cheat days. That being said, this is the FIRST day since the 1st I'm allowing myself dessert!

My name? As in what does "elvislover" mean?

I'm like you Belinda, if I -want- it, I work it into my calorie. Like that ice cream the other day, I 'wanted' it at 9 am. I told myself if I still wanted it AND still had the calories for it at the end of the day, I could have it. I preplan my menu sometimes a day, sometimes 3 or 4. I didn't want to have to redo them. I ended up having calories left at the end of the day, so I opened it, ate half, tossed half. I seriously, just wanted half, it tasted really sweet to me.

I do and always have and will do days or occassions where I know there will be more calories than normal. So I treat my calories like my checkbook. At the end of the week, I can only have spent x amount of calories on food. As long as I underspend a few days before/after to make up for the occassion, say a wedding, birthday, something like that, I just don't beat myself up over it. Unless its gluten. hen my body beats me up for a few days. Gluten and I are not friends and need to just stay away from each other.

I questioned cheat days, in this forum actually.

FOR ME, I've found that having a cheat 'meal' on Saturdays has worked to curb cravings. I don't go crazy, but I'll make something super yummy, or go out maybe. Usually, i don't let it go past 500-600 calories for dinner. The biggest reason I've decided to award myself a cheat meal, is because it gives me something to look forward to. Obvioulsy I'm looking forward to weight loss, to a healthy life and lifestyle. But week to week, I've gotten discouraged, pumped up, discouraged and shot down again in terms of what the scale says. I beat myself up so hard that I'd finally binge on Saturdays. And when I say binge, I mean it. So now, I stay directly on target throughout the week, to look forward to my "mini-binge" for Saturday. If I screw up during the week, No Saturday mini-binge.

I find rewarding myself weekly with food that I LIKE, that is still HEALTHY. works really well.

Of course everyone is different. Good luck

I personally don't do cheat days but ONLY because I'm very low carb and getting into and being in ketosis is hard enough as it is just when factoring in veggie and dairy carbs. A BG spike and the resulting insulin response would basically negate days, even weeks of concerted diligence. That being said, if I'm hungry and I want to eat it if its low carb I don't fret. I do watch my calories, but with low carb I have the luxury of wiggle room.

There is no such thing as a cheat day for me (because nothing is forbidden). If something fits into my calories and I want it, I have it.

I guess it depends on how we define cheat. Is it a day or meal you eat whatever comes to mind without a thought to whether it fits in your plan or not? Or is it a day that you work out to eat more than you typically do?

I use LoseIt. It budgets me with 1515 "net" calories a day (food minus any exercise). In theory, just staying within that budget, should give me about a 2lb loss a week. For a fast loss rate and to combat boredom: 6 days a week I try to stay 300+ under that budget, 1 day/week I eat all the way up to or 200+ past that budget. Not sure I'd totally call it a "cheat day" because I'm still *way* under for the week.

Holidays such has Thanksgiving, Christmas, my birthday and anniversary: I log my calories and give myself 500 "bonus" calories to work with, which I try to get in as exercise the day before or on that day. I guess I look at it like a money. My paycheck is what it is, if I want to "spend" more, I need to pick up a little job here or there before hand.

I do not do planned cheat days. I'm not saying I'm perfect all the time, and it won't be the end of the world if I do have a day where I eat something off plan, so I don't want to set up feeling bad or guilty about it. But as ghost mentioned, on a low carb plan, they have more of an impact than on a strictly calorie counting plan so definitely not something I would deliberately schedule for.

But one thing that I like about my specific plan as that once you lose the weight, the maintenance part of the plan actually provides for weekly "Celebration Meals." So it's kind of the same as a cheat, except with a totally different mental out look. You are celebrating your success on the plan and also celebrating having a normal relationship with food and enjoying these special foods for exactly what they should be - a treat to be savored, not a way of life.

I schedule cheat weeks into my training cycle. i work on a 13 week system. every 4th week i allow my self a treat night. usually pizza and every 14th week i have off no training don't follow the diet etc.

Bascially after 2-3 days of seeing food and going MINE! i'm so sick of it i end up struggling to stay off plan until the weekend.

I don't have scheduled 'cheat' days (in part because like sontaikle I don't think of anything I do as cheating), but I DO have, essentially, a 'celebration' meal once a week where I worry less about calories, have a glass or two of wine or a beer (and not a LIGHT beer - a nice microbrew), and usually eat dessert.

This is generally Sunday dinner with my family. But could be some other day if I wanted it to. It's not a day of constant indulgence, though. I am still mindful about what I consume, and it's generally just the meal/drinks/dessert.