Food. Food. Fooood. That's all my mind keeps screaming at me right now. My stomach is perfectly content, it's not rumbling or in the slightest bit hungry. Yet, my mind won't stop telling me to shove another Reeses in my mouth. It's on a sugar rampage and it just won't leave me alone.

Only four days ago, I was eating so healthily and was on track for success. Then came my cheat day... which turned into cheat days. Now I can't seem to get back on track! It is so upsetting. I was doing so well for almost two months! The scale doesn't lie either... In the past 4 days, I have gained 4 lbs! That is crazy! I know some of it might be water weight/bloating from all the unhealthy foods I have consumed. Does anyone else have this problem? What can I do to get back on track?

What is your usual diet and routine like? Diet as in "stuff you eat" not "diet plan."

Do you spend your week thinking "I'm starving today but only 14 hours and 23 minutes until I can really eat something good?" Sometimes having cheat days can lead to having TOO MANY FEELINGS about food - like "I gotta cram it all in there, tomorrow I'll be back to dieting" or a last hurrah type mindset - which cancels out the other days of course.

I usually eat between 1500-1700 calories a day. I basically eat the same breakfast and lunch everyday, then have whatever my family is having for dinner, but just a smaller portion.

Throughout the week, I'm pretty content with what I'm eating. While I do look forward to the cheat day, I normally do not binge on it. I just pick a few things I normally would not eat. This week we had a celebration at work, I told myself just to eat a little cake. I did that successfully, but it intensified my sugar cravings. Little by little, I kept telling myself that I could eat something, as long as I only had a little. Four days later, a little has turned into "you already ruined it, you might as well eat anything." Then I tell myself tomorrow is a new day. So far that hasn't worked. It's just frustrating. Sorry for the rant.

This is exactly why I don't agree with the concept of cheat days. To me, it's like saying it's ok for a heroin addict to have heroin just "one day" and then expecting to get back on track with sobriety the next day. Ain't gonna happen. For me, this doesn't work, no cheating allowed. Twice, in long stalls, I've allowed a higher than normal calorie MEAL (not day, one meal) to see if I can jolt the scale back in to action. Otherwise, it's on plan for me, or it just won't work.

I cannot do cheat days and I think they are why so many dieters fail. Sugar, processed food, high fat ... when we eat these things it starts up cravings that we find very difficult to fight. People say that they fall off of the wagon because they feel bad about cheating, but I firmly believe it is because cake and chips and things are addictive in the way that drugs are. Unfortunately, drug addicts can easily avoid their triggers but food addicts will always struggle. We have to eat and sometimes we will eat the wrong things.

I do go off of plan from time to time, but I'm always very careful when I do it. I am learning to control my cravings but it's hard. These are the rules I follow:

1) Never eat anything unplanned. There's a huge psychological difference between "My sister is getting married today and I choose to have a small piece of her cake," and "Oh wow, someone brought a cake to work!"

2) Make sure the extra calories are budgeted in advance.

3) I eat low calorie and bland at my next meal, something that I won't crave. Original Fiber One cereal with a splash of skim milk does a great job of damping down my cravings.

4) I do not eat anything else off of plan until my cravings have subsided.

5) During a craving, I keep binge food out of my sight. My husband keeps his snacks locked up, I avoid stores that sell binge foods, I don't go out with my friends if I think they will be eating unhealthy. I don't even turn on the TV since there are so many commercials for junk foods.

6) I look at old photos of myself, read my scrapbook of reasons to lose weight, read the posts here, anything I can do to keep myself motivated.

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I hope that helps. You had a little slip up, and now you are having trouble getting back on plan. This is not your fault! This is the hardest part of a diet, but you can do this! Good luck!

I had "cheat days" that turned into cheat years, literally.

I do very rarely go off plan, but it is seriously hard and the difficulty of getting back on plan is not to be under estimated. It's freaking HARD.

Some people can do a once-a-week free day or cheat day or high-cal day or whatever. I can't. I can do a once every 3 or 4 months, tightly-controlled, rigorously-planned single meal with treat foods. And even THAT is really, really hard.

I never ever used cheat days in the past and I do use cheat days now, and they have made all the difference for me in a positive way. However, not everyone is alike. What works for me may not work for you and vice versa. I think you have to figure out what is "good" and "bad" for you. As for getting back on track, since this is your thread, why not post what you're eating? Let us see what you're doing. Post everything you eat here for the next few days. It's not so easy to eat that cookie when you know that we know you shouldn't be eating that cookie!

So true, Jacqui. It can take time to figure out just what works for you! Be flexible and prepared to try different things -- and try to know thyself!

Thank you everyone for your advice and/or opinions. I think it's true that I will just need to figure out what is best for me. This is all trial and error. I had 2 months of cheat days and it worked out perfectly fine. Perhaps I had a certain trigger food that set it off. I will just have to be a lot more careful. These next few days will be rough getting back into the swing of things, but I reallllly want and need to do it.

Loved reading this thread.

We used the treat day to lose most of our weight (lest you think I have a mouse in my pocket, I mean me and DH) lately we have both been maintaining at about 10 for him 15 for me above where we want to be.

After reading this, I'm pretty much convinced it is the treat day/weekend that is causing the lack of losing. I'm happy to be able to maintain at this weight/size but would like to get to the next level. Even if it turns out to be temporary....which I think if I could just get there I could maintain, just saying...

That being said, I think there is a place and time for the treat/cheat day/meal, like all things you may need to reevaluate and see if it is still working for you and if not make an adjustment.

I find that sometimes what may seem like drastic measures are needed to stop the treat/cheat cycle, I have used juice fasts on a Sunday or Monday to stop the weekend madness, all fruit/veggie day, no or very low carb day, any number of restrictive strategies to break that cycle and get back on track. It is hard, but not as hard as convincing yourself you can lose that same 50 lbs you lost a couple times already, stop and get back to your plan that was so successful for you.

I speak from experience, losing the same weight is not fun, but can be done!!

Best to all