My mom was telling me a diet she did when she was a teenager. She said she stuck to a very strict diet and exercise program 6 days a week. And for one day (Hers was Thursday), she ate whatever she wanted, and snacked on whatever she wanted (Cookies,ice cream,etc). And didn't exercise at all...and she still lost the weight in the right amount of time. DO you think it really works well? It worked for her.

That would be great for me because my will power is SOO horrible, and I just LOVE sweets and sugar and whatnot..and i would love to atleast get one day a week where I snack on whatever I want.

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~*Melanie*~
I rejoined as of 6/20/08:

why not go for a lifestyle change where you can fit your treats into your calorie range for the day.. doesn't mean you go crazy but you can get i nyour favorite things -

just stay within your base calories...

"Cheat days" aren't bad - but you really want to have some consistancy..

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I firmly believe that letting yourself eat things you desperately crave is good for you, just keep the quantities down. So, rather than eat a big block of chocolate, eat a small one, but really take the time over it and savour it.

Also, I would not recommend having a whole day of eating. Let's say you exercise every day except one and burn off an extra 800 calories each day. That's 4800 calories gone! Then, you eat a big block of chocolate (1000 calories) a big bag of chips (another 1000?) a pizza (another 1000) a big bottle of sugary fizzy drink (many hundreds)... before you know it, that's too many calories!

You could eat 10,000 calories in a day if you spent the whole day eating the wrong stuff!

I recommend that you set a day on which, if you have applied yourself to careful eating and exercise, you get a meal of whatever you want, and a dessert too if you like. Eat it at one sitting so you don't keep grazing for hours and hours, enjoy it and then wait till the next week.

Today is my special dinner day. I eat takeway fried chicken and chips, maybe a fizzy drink or a couple of beers, then if I want it, something sugary. As the weeks are going by, I'm less crazy for this meal, it starts to seem excessive and too heavy on my stomach.

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June '07 - SW : 117.7kg - CW: 98.7kg - GW: 90kg (70.5% done!)

Grr, I hate cheat days, the very idea of them makes me shutter; I agree with Mal!

Is it ok for a man or woman, if they are in an unhappy relationship, to be good to there partner for 6 days, and then on that saturday, run into the red light district and do whatever they want for the whole day (you can use your imagination).

Sticking with a healthy life style is the best approach in my opinon.

However, some would disagree with me and claim that cheat days are actually benefical. Go ahead then, be my guest, and it may be sucessful for some folks. I always use the "is it all right to cheat in a relationship", for myself, as personal motivation, to say no to cheat days.

And if you think about it, the two are kind of related, sex drive and hunger drive...both primate urges.

So much with the ramblings, just wanted to express my opinon

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"Pray as if it's all up to God, work as if it's all up to you."

Start Weight: 210 lb (5/1) | Current Weight: 210 lb (5/1) | Goal: 185 lb (8/1)

I know this diet..my mum does it too. For her it's Sunday since on sundays everyone is at home and we cook food and have fun together. But it doesn't work for her at all...in fact i am here to get some weight loss tips so that i canshare with her and help her to lose weight.

It really depends on how much more you eat on that one day. If on that one day your surpluss is more than your deficit for the entire week, then you just undid all your hard work.

I dislike the analogy to cheating on a relationship. Cheating on a diet hurts no one but yourself, and I think it can actually be helpful if you do it in moderation. Tomble's example of having a cheat "meal" once a week is a good example of this. If you deprive yourself for too long you are more likely to slip up and overeat, but if you allow yourself a small regular indulgence it may be easier to stick to your diet in the first place.

Personally I don't plan cheat meals or days, I just try to make healthy choices. However, if I'm out with friends on a special occasion and I end up eating more than I had planned for that day I'm not going to freak out about it. I find smaller ways to get in my indulgences. For example, instead of eating chocolate bars, once in a while I will have a raw food bar made with fruit, nuts, and unsweetened cocoa powder. It's chocolately, but still healthy.

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Great advice so far.

It worked for your mom b/c she didn't go overboard on her "cheat day." And her overboard may not be your overboard.

Net net net calories is what really matters at the end of the week, month, year.... whatever.

IMO, if you have some crazy sweet tooth, having 6 days of torture with 1 day of pleasure doesn't seem to fun to me. Suffer 6 to benefit 1. That's not a great rate of return, aside from the fact that you can ruin your positive results in just one day if you aren't careful.

A healthier technique would be, as suggested above, work "treats" into your daily cal limits.

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I don't believe in cheat days at all because they are hard to limit to just one day a week. I tried them when I first started to lose weight last year and all it did was blow up in my face. If you are craving itthen have it in moderation I mean if potato chips sound good then buy a snack size bag it will make the craving go away instead of just continuing to eat out of the big bag until that is all gone! Yes I have done this and in the end it just made me feel worse so I ended up eating more. Changing the way you look at food as a whole is the best way to "diet". Try that 5 a day the color way fruit and veggie thing ( I don't have the link to it handy but I know it is on here somewhere)that is a wonderful way to change your outlook on food and I think it really helped me with cravings of all kinds from sweet to salty!

I don't think cheat days are such a bad thing, if you can control yourself that day, which a lot of people can't. I try to reward myself with something a little sweet a few times per week, but this week it has been everyday so far... It's not much, sometimes just a fun size candy bar, or 1/2 a cookie, or what not. I have a wicked sweet tooth. It's what is working for me though. I do know that probably within the next week or two I want to have a slice of pizza or two. I haven't had it in so long and I have been craving it for some time now.

Also, sometimes if I am around food that looks really good or looks like something that I really want to try I will only have one bite or something.

-Sam

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Eat fat free sugar free pudding its low on cals.

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I think it depends on the person. I feel cheat days are not ok and it is because some people have a hard time going back to healthy eating after this. Also, how bad would it feel if the scale goes up the next day after being good the whole week. All just so you could eat junk. And after that do you feel satisfied.... I stick to my 1200 calories and suck it up. After a while, fruits taste sweeter, veggies taste better and to me fatty stuff makes me feel sick after awhile. So really I think it is up to the person to see if they feel it is worth giving up so much hard work for junk food. I'm lecturing myself mostly right now, but I know some people feel the same way and some disagree... just something to think about,

Maribeth have you been listening to me lecture myself again??!! You are right about the fatty foods make you sick after awhile. If you go a couple of months without greasing deep fried foods and then you try to eat them it really makes you sick and you can actually feel yourself slow down. At least I can. I love things like onion rings and fried mushrooms but I have decided they are the enemy and must be wiped out!! Or at least wiped out of my normal eating routine!! I have learned to avoid them while enjoying the greater aspects of the veggies in their natural state!!

I agree with all those who said a full-on "cheat day" is not the way to go. It's way too tempting to just stuff your gob nonstop and chalk it up to having the day "off". (Been there ) I made a list of all the foods that I'm addicted to and put the calories/fat next to them so I can see exactly how much damage each food would do with one serving (and I'm notorious for eating like 5 servings of something yummy. ) I've found that it helps deter me from gorging myself and at least stick to one serving of that "bad" food. And if you plan your days around having a treat, then you can plan to have a full serving or a partial serving and treat yourself daily while still making progress towards your weight loss.

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