Cheat Days

[DeniseGoldberg]

Eating something "bad" occasionally - meaning something not in your normal healthy food diet - should be OK. But it scares me when you say that you usually gain 3 to 10 pounds on what you call your cheat days. To me, that sounds like a lot of weight. It seems that eating your "cheat" food in reasonable quantities might be a better approach.

--- Denise

[FreshNewbie]

I will agree with Denise, 3-10 lbs sounds like way too much even if it's just water. Also, I wouldn't think it's good for your liver to process so much cottage cheese which is plain protein at once. I am not sure which size of it you choose, but even the smaller once contain at least 32 grams of protein. Another thing, I think it's healthy to let yourself eat what you want one day a week, otherwise you will never be successful with a chosen diet. It's a good idea to eat in smaller portions maybe, so next day you don't feel as bad.

[Craicgirl]

I think my problem is I am not getting enough calories during the week which leads to a day of being ravenous. I need to work on getting the right amount for my activity level and I think this will help.

As far as the 3-10 pounds go. The 10 pounds was a one time thing and it freaked me to see it, but it was gone within a few days (this also happened to occur at the same time as that time of the month). Generally it is more in the 3 pound gain and again it is generally gone within 3 or 4 days (which is why I assume water weight).

It has been a tough battle trying to learn to "maintain" after losing so much weight. I am trying to find a balance between thinking like someone who doesn't need to lose any more and someone who doesn't want to return to the eating habits of the old days.

As far as the cottage cheese goes, when I go nuts it's generally a large size tub over the course of the day.

As I said, I think I need to just allow myself to have a treat (like Coldstone ice cream or whatever) once a week and not go hog wild, this way it's mentally a good thing and not such a body blow to my plan.

[Dogmama]

Frankly, I think your cheat day is playing with fire. Especially when you said that it lasted more than one day - that would really scare me if I had worked as hard as you did to lose the weight.

I would get with a nutritionist immediately and have him/her map out a diet plan so that you are getting your correct number of calories each day.

[salsabike]

In the years when I was a pretty serious (non-pro) ballet dancer, I managed to stay on a very low calorie diet for months on end by always allowing a single Hershey bar at the end of every day. If I DIDN'T do that, I learned early on, it was like holding my breath---I would diet for, say, two weeks, and then have a MAJOR binge day. It was much more manageable to diet for a long time once I'd learned to build in a treat every day.

[snapdragen]

Maybe it would help to go to Weight Watchers, you'll learn to eat enough during the week and not over indulge that one day. They can also help you with the maintenance, so you keep the weight you've lost off.