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For me specifically, heart disease runs rampant in my family and a cheat day could do irreversable damage to my arteries.
One cookie never killed anyone but most people can't stop at one cookie.
Even if you eat ten cookies, it's not going to cause you to have a heart attack. I'm sorry, one cheat day, even weekly, isn't going to irreversible damage either. did your cardiologist tell you that?
Even if I was predisposed to heart problems, if you have an overall healthy lifestyle that includes regular exercise and eating healthy most of the time you should be ok.
I go to about 20 mlb games a season. Never go in the stadium hungry or thirsty.
Big salad stop before the game along with two light beers and I'm all set to watch him the game and the fellow fans pig out on junk food.....it's all about advanced planning
We were wasting too many tickets, so we cut two seats out this year and have a smaller package. They have 25 games this season. This is the fewest games I've been to in years, and it was my sixth. I will go to three more still though. More if someone cancels and I am drug along. They use me for my parking pass, lol. (I can see the stadium from my office, but I work from home a lot. So yesterday I worked from home, then made the 60 mile commute to my work parking garage. )
With traffic, it takes 90-120 minutes to get there for a night game. More if there is an accident. So it is hard to gauge, therefore even harder to plan. We try to get there early and eat outside of the park. But sometimes the plans don't work out
I was hoping last night for enough time to eat at my favorite seafood place. No such luck. It wasn't too bad though- we did have enough time to grab something quick. I ended up with a salad and a slice of cheese pizza. Not the best thing in the world, but one could do a whole lot worse!
No you won't be paying a fortune. It's just one day. Just eat better the next day. Or, you can try to make the best of it. What's going to make you "gain" the next day is the excessive sodium. If there's grilled chicken at the ball park, eat that. If you're going to eat the bun, skip the fries. Just skip the popcorn that's high in salt.
I meant fortune as in money
I don't mind spending a lot of money on a good meal. I have a hard time spending $7 on a piece of cardboard flavored pizza or $14 on a burger with fries that make McDonalds taste gourmet.
I know one bad meal isn't going to ruin my life. That is why I don't do regular cheat days- I do "I'm going to live life" days as they spontaneously happen
I feel cheat days are ok. you are exercising, and will burn off the calories. I would imagine a cheat day could trick the metabolism. I would also consider sticking to a daily fast of 12-14 hours, especially on cheat days.
cheat days do not need to be spent on garbage food though. If you are hitting the buffet on these days, it does not mean eating a plate full of egg rolls and spring rolls. you can still enjoy the indulgence of steamed dumplings. crispy fried general tso chicken is very tasty and crispy, but it is soaked in oil= no good. even on cheat days, one should avoid white starches, fried food and sugar.
I don't mind spending a lot of money on a good meal. I have a hard time spending $7 on a piece of cardboard flavored pizza or $14 on a burger with fries that make McDonalds taste gourmet.
I know one bad meal isn't going to ruin my life. That is why I don't do regular cheat days- I do "I'm going to live life" days as they spontaneously happen
lol we're more aligned than you'd think. you take a "random" approach, whereas I'm more structured and have formal "cheat days". In both cases, we've come to realize that one day/meal/whatever that is "garbage" isn't going to put a dent in our goals or for our health for that matter. Truth is I physically can't eat garbage day in and day out. I get bloaty and sluggish. I remember when I was on vacation and basically ate unhealthy for an entire week, I was actually physically ill. My digestive system was all sorts of weird. Maybe that's my body's way of preventing me from packing on pounds, because I'd have to basically ignore my body's discomfort.
I just have very strong opinions against deprivation dieting. Eating healthy all of the time would never work for me.
How damaging are cheat days. Before I started being conscious about what I put in my body let's say me and chinese buffets were best friends. I can't fathom to think the calories I consumed. Probably 2,000-3,000 in one sitting.
My question is how bad are cheat days? Can I go off the rocker for one day a week? Say instead of a 2,000/calorie day it's 4,000-5,000 calories.
I know most people go off of calories/day but does it make a difference if it's calories/week?
It's just calorie deficit.
If you normally eat 2,000 calories a day and burn 2,500 calories... you have a 500 calorie deficit x 6 days a week. So a 3,000 calorie deficit.
If on your cheat day you eat 3,000 calories at the buffet plus another 1,500 calories for a total of 4,500 calories then you have a 2,000 calorie surplus.
It's just simple math. You've taken your 3,000 deficit down to a 1,000 calorie deficit. If you just stuck with 2,000 calories a day and no cheat day you'd have a 3,500 calorie deficit for the week, or one pound of weight loss. If those are numbers that cheat day means you've gone down to a 1,000 calorie deficit or a bit over 1/4 pound a week.
The math isn't quite that simple as the body isn't 100% efficient so it takes some energy to store the excess calories in fat but it's pretty minor. The bigger variability isn't from that but from not knowing exactly how many calories you burn ever day or how many calories you're eating every day. For practical purposes, a calorie is a calorie. A calorie on Tuesday is a calorie on Thursday.
I don't do cheat days. I build flexibility into my diet. Usually I try and eat around 1,750 calories a day and have a 250 calorie buffer which is basically my cheat day. Some days I use it, other days I don't. It provides more flexibility and keeps me under the 2,000 calorie/day average I stick to when losing weight.
who knows. but as I've said throughout this thread, I regularly eat upwards of 3500 cals during my cheat days and I haven't gained a pound of fat yet. I freely admit though that I burn calories throughout the week via exercise, plus I usually eat far less other days of the week. Some people like to consume the same amount of calories each day. I'd rather eat less other days to compensate for one day where I just don't care. It's what you do over time and since I've come to realize that, the happier I am and not feeling bad about one day of indulgence. Or even two days if I'm inclined.
who knows. but as I've said throughout this thread, I regularly eat upwards of 3500 cals during my cheat days and I haven't gained a pound of fat yet. I freely admit though that I burn calories throughout the week via exercise, plus I usually eat far less other days of the week. Some people like to consume the same amount of calories each day. I'd rather eat less other days to compensate for one day where I just don't care. It's what you do over time and since I've come to realize that, the happier I am and not feeling bad about one day of indulgence. Or even two days if I'm inclined.
I do the same as you. I also have a day or two per week of very light eating, other days healthy eating, and maybe one day where I indulge a bit. I exercise every day so I am active. This works for me.
In all honesty, I would have cheat-meals more often, maybe even
cheat-days. But I have grown so sick of exercise and am not very active, don't burn a lot of calories.
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