Should you "cheat" when on a diet?

[Atchcraft]

@rob_s

When I did the Body for Life thing with the ex we couldn’t WAIT for our first “cheat day” and had the whole day planned out around what we were going to eat. We both wound up feeling so sick that it wasn’t worth it. Ultimately our “cheat day” turned more into just not being so rigid about things, but what we ate didn’t vary much.

I see “cheats” all the time and find most of the behavior odd. Like the 300 lb broad that comes into the breakroom at work and cuts a donut into 1/4 slices as her “cheat”. Bitch, it’s not the donut that’s the problem, it’s the gallon a night of icecream you’re downing in the dark! Or the guy at the Arby’s drive-through who’s Hyundai is actually canted due to his weight ordering a bunch of shit and then a diet coke. child please.

This happened to me the other day. Went to happy hour at Chili’s. That place sucks to begin with, but I kind of binged on fried food. After all, I hadn’t eaten like that in a long time and it was a “cheat day”. I felt like 10lbs. of shit in a 5lb. sack. I just can’t handle that kind of stuff any more and really don’t want to.

@rob_s

Extreme diets don’t work, but when we look at “diet” as the simplest definition in terms of eating habits, having a common sense, healthy diet works great. Do people “cheat” for convenience? sure. But outside of weird bulking up diets, or crash slim-down diets, what most people need is brain-engaged diets not crazy ass plans.

common sense diets work very well and don’t require cheating. but if you’re eating smart 99% of the time then “cheating” and having that one piece of chocolate, really isn’t.

Couldn’t agree more. Some times I gotta have a cheese burger and that’s exactlly what I’m going to do. I just don’t have to make it a 4x4, animal style whatever. Ummm… animal style!

[chuckman]

I am in my mid-40s, so now it takes twice the work to burn half the calories. I don’t have ‘cheat’ days now. That said, when I was in my 20s, I would take two days a month–the 1st the the 15th–and eat damn well what I wanted. I found that if I ate the food I wanted (ice cream, pizza, burgers), I had no ‘cravings’ and did very well the other two weeks. I should point out that although I ate what I wanted, I still did so reasonably and in moderation. Now, I eat what want, just small portions and few seconds.