Occasional "cheat" days

[NutritionIsMyJob]

I personally don't do well with cheating. It just creates a vicious circle for me, but then again, I have food issues. I think I would be okay with a dinner out on occasion, but certainly don't think I could handle a "cheat day".

[Lastfailure_xo]

I was wondering the same thing, since todays the 4th of July i am surrounded by food! I have GREAT self control and i know for a fact that i can get back on track tommarow, do you think ill do fine if i splurge a little today?

Ive lost 7 pounds so far, used to be 115 goal weight is 100-95

[Whitedov1208]

Originally Posted by Lastfailure_xo

I was wondering the same thing, since todays the 4th of July i am surrounded by food! I have GREAT self control and i know for a fact that i can get back on track tommarow, do you think ill do fine if i splurge a little today?

Ive lost 7 pounds so far, used to be 115 goal weight is 100-95

LastFailure,

How about putting your stats up? It sounds like you are tiny already. How tall are you?

IMHO: Nobody can tell you if you can cheat or not. Weight loss is a personal thing. If you are following Atkins, then those extra carbs may take you out of ketosis and it could take about 3 days to get back into it.

If you're going to stick to Atkins as a way of eating for life, then there will be occassions when you go off plan -that's life. If you are looking for a short term cure, ocassional cheat days will delay it.

It's all up to you.

[Lastfailure_xo]

I am looking at it as a low carb lifestyle, not a short diet. I ate quite a bit last night and only gained a pound. so thats good
going to get some cardio in anyways though just incase.


I am 5 foot 0", so yes i am pretty tiny lol. but ide like to lose those last few pounds before fall.

[BLUTTO66]

My body reacts weird. If I cheat for one meal on Monday, and then go back to under twenty carbs per day, I will gain one pound on Tuesday morning, and then another pound on Wednesday morning. It then takes me three more days of under twenty carbs to get back to where I started. Thats five days for one meal. If I take an entire week off, I will gain maybe seven or eight pounds, but then it only takes eight or nine days of under twenty to right the ship. So for me one meal equals five days...or twenty one evil feasts equals nine days of catching up. Truth be told I feel like crap and I get very bloated over the week Im off, and I hope to stop backtracking until I reach goal.

[anipomoni]

I used to have a planned cheat one day per month or so in my previous Atkins attempts. However, I had undiagnosed hypothyroidism and I rarely lost weight anyway so I can't say it helped/hurt me.

This time I am losing great with way less effort than ever before (thank you Armour)! But I am truly thinking of it as a way of life and I do end up eating off plan every once in a while. Not planned, and no binging, I never stuff myself! Today for example, I had a few bites of pizza bc I was starving. I definitely don't expect any gain tomorrow. And if I gain a lb, who cares? If this is forever, what's a lb?

I hate to even say it but I usually lose BETTER the week after eating off plan. I still don't plan to do it but it's something I really do notice. Like last week I went to the shore with my mom and sis and ate some bread, a cookie, a pretzel, etc and this week I dropped 5.5 lbs after a couple weeks without losing.

[therisamarie]

Originally Posted by Glendora

If you need regular "cheats," why not try Carbohydrate Addict's Diet or something which in fact has what would be considered off-Atkins-plan meals every day? Then they're not cheats at all.

Something to consider trying.

this makes sense, if I were to have a 'cheat' day it might make me want to cheat all the time...why not do a diet that has it built right in, it sounds like it would be easier for you and you don't have to worry about kicking yourself out of ketosis and having to start all over.

[hubcityraider]

My 1st 2 times doing Atkins involved me incorporating a cheat day every week or so after I had slimmed down from "fat" to "not too bad." But one of my main problems is that I love fast food breakfast biscuit sandwiches. So when I had my social "why not" cheat of Mexican food or pizza one evening I would inevitably end up grabbing a cheat breakfast the next day. So natually a couple of these cheat days ended up lasting for more than a year. Twice.

This time, I'm 10 weeks in and have only done this routine once. But I still did the late night burger combined with McDonald breakfast sandwich.

No more. I know myself better than to think I can consciously plan a cheat day. Not saying it will never happen, but it will never be a justifiable part of my WOE.

[MLD449]

I still consider myself on Induction but today, for the 1st time in 5 weeks, we went out for lunch and I voluntarily stepped off the wagon. We went for Mexican, and I had a modest sized chimi smothered in refried beans and cheese. Also had some of the corn chips (no doubt the worst part, insulin-wise). But while the food was fantastic, I was surprised that I could not eat the entire thing, nor did I want to...whereas before, I'd have needed to eat at least 1 1/2 of them to feel "full". That's my only substantial cheat so far.

Now, five hours later, I still feel full/not hungry, have zero temptation to do anything like it again soon, and mentally have already gone back into strict Induction.

I dunno...I might do something like this once a month, maybe. Then again, maybe not. I don't see myself planning for it; if it happens, it happens.

I'm just glad to know it didn't drive me mad to go out and devour a bag of potato chips.

[ldyj]

[QUOTE=MLD449;12279626]. . .I dunno...I might do something like this once a month, maybe. . . .

When does once a month become twice a month, once a week, every day?? Be careful. . . .