I'm just curious about this. A lot of people (including myself) allow themselves a meal each week (or each month or whatever) where they splurge a little and eat something that's not normally part of their diet. Does that actually affect your loss? Will you see it on the scale a day or a few days down the road? I don't mean water weight, I know that will show up right away on the scale if the meal was high sodium. But honest to goodness gain (as in fat) will it affect? Or is one meal too insignificant in the grand scheme of a person's diet?
For me there is a huge difference between a full out cheat meal (i.e. eat whatever I want, whatever portion I want) vs. a somewhat off-plan meal (i.e. I'm out a a restaurant and I make a decent choice but it is definately worse than on-plan at home).
For myself I do not find that either significantly impacts weight loss physically (although as you mention it might affect the scale for a day or two for non-fat reasons).
It does have more of a psychological impact on me though. If I do full out cheat meals, I find it easier to cheat more at other times.
I don't worry too much about the somewhat off-plan meals. If I make a "good" choice for the situation I am in (not perfect or the best choice necessarily) and am within my calories, I don't worry too much about it.
I think the answer to your question also varies by person. If you are starving yoruself on 800 calories a day with no fat in your diet, and then go wild once a week on a 3000 calorie fat-laden meal, I wouldn't be surprised if your body will store some of that. But I honestly am not sure from a pure nutritional perspective.
If the "calories in-calories out" formula is for real (and I have my doubts this fits everyone), then 1 meal certainly won't ruin your weight loss trajectory.
But I don't look at my weight loss as a diet any more - instead it is a way of life and sometimes a special meal or time to loosen up is more than allowable. The key is planning and getting back to whatever your plan is.
We went on a 2-week cruise in December. I ate 3 meals a day, including desert and other stuff not on my plan, but only ate at meal times and increased my activity. I lost 4 pounds. On Christmas eve we had a romantic 5-course dinner - I allowed myself to enjoy the smells and tastes of exotic cuisine in a special surrounding then hopped back on plan.
Like others have said the important thing is to get back on plan. Before, if I ate one meal or one item not in my "diet", I would get down on myself and then binge or just end up in a downward (weight upward) spiral. Now, I plan for these occasional situations and go merrily along losing 2-pounds per week. Life goes on.
I generally have one splurge meal a month (usually surrounding a special occassion) and I don't feel it has effected my overall weight loss that much. However, if I were to splurge like that every week, I do think it would stall my weight loss and even possibly start sending me back in the wrong direction.
I have found over the years that if I have a rare splurge (something between $30 worth of take out chinese but more than making "not great" choices - I mean going out and ordering what I want and not worrying about it), I generally have a loss for the week.
But the key is that is has to be rare and it has to not derail me and make me keep going off plan.
At this point, I've found that I don't have that much desire to splurge, and that at most, I've had a few days with not great choices, nothing really crazy. So I think my tastes and my level with how much food I can comfortably eat and enjoy have changed.
Like everything else when it comes to weight loss, what works for one person may have the complete opposite effect for another person. You'll never know what impact it has on you unless you try and see what happens.
But for me, mentally, I have tried to commit to changing my life, not being ON a diet. So I know that I will have meals out in restaurants and there will be times when I make not great or even downright bad choices. I am willing to accept that my weight loss may be slower, but it's something that helps me feel like I can never fall OFF a diet, since I'm not on one. And that helps keep from one bad choice being the start of many. Instead, it's one choice, and the next choice I make, I go right back to making good ones.
I don't believe one reasonable meal or cheat can really affect weight loss. Key word being reasonable. If I ate a whole pizza, yeah, I'd probably gain at least 1lb, plus have to tackle water weight gain from the sodium, and my body holding onto the fat. But if I have one or two slices of pizza? I don't think that will do anything, provided I don't make it a habit.
I keep myself to one fat splurge a week. I do it right after I do my weekly weigh-in (provided I actually lost... if for some reason I gained, I don't allow myself the treat), so it's early in the day and I have the rest of the day and week to burn it off before my next weigh-in. Usually I have a smoked Hungarian sausage or two (20g of fat for a 60g sausage), but today I had whole-fat yogurt with coconut and chocolate in it (28g of fat).
My calorie intake says pretty much the same, but normally I'd have that much fat in a whole day, not in one meal. It doesn't seem to harm my weight loss, and I think that has a lot to do with my timing. I would never splurge the night before my weigh-in, or even a couple days before, because of the aforementioned issues with water weight and sodium.
Here's my 2 cents. If you eat a crappy diet all week but eat healthy low cal one day a week you will not be doing yourself any favors. So, the opposite must be true too. If you eat very well all week and allow yourself a free day you will not wreck your overall weight loss. Plus the more cheat days you have, say its your 4th or 5th, the less crappy stuff you want. #1 because you get it out of your system (mentally, not literally) and #2 you realize you feel better on the good diet and lose your desire for bad food.
It depends on how big a calorie deficit you are creating on your "on plan" days. If 400/day 6 days a week and you eat 2000 calories extra at a restaraunt on the 7th day (not hard to do at all), then your down to only a 400 calorie deficit for the week and you need 3500 for a 1 lb. loss.
And yes, I am a numbers geek who is losing weight by tracking my calorie deficit, not by actually stepping on the scale more than once a month.
It all depends on how much you 'splurge' ... if I do decide to have a cheat day I still make sure that it's a healthy cheat, and not a upsized fast food meal
I agree with a lot of people that I find 1. It might mess up my motivation and make me start a downward "cheating" spiral 2. It might motivate me more because I don't like how I feel.
Last week I started and stayed on plan Sunday and Monday, Tuesday I started going off-plan, then by Wednesday I was just having a completely off day which ended with a headache from all the sudden sugar intake. I ended up with a net loss for the week even though I didn't exercise as much as I'd hoped to, and I was motivated to get back to healthy eating after realizing how much the sugar messed with my body.
Will 1 Meal Affect Weight Loss?
