Well, I have been doing great on this cutting diet for the past 6 weeks or so (dropped ~8 lbs of fat). Today was my frist time home from college since before I started my 1800 cal/day diet. Well, I walk in to a counter full of brownies, cookies, freezer of ice cream, etc. I have a little bit, just figure I'll make today my "cheat" day.

Well, then came dinner out at a restaurant which wasn't too bad, but certainly not "healthy". And then on the way home from the concert I went to with my family was Friendly's (don't even ask what I had) and then, yes, some more snacking back at the house afterward. I don't know what got into me, I just couldn't stop eating no matter how many times I tried to stop.

How many calories and fat grams I consumed is unknown, but I'd guess from 4pm-midnight I ate as many calories as I normally do in 2-3 days. Yes people, 2-3 days worth of calories (and mostly wasted calories) in 4 sittings within 8 hours.

Now, I am so pissed that I lost my discipline, but there is nothing I can do about it to change it. My question is, what can I do over the next couple days to make this not hurt me too bad in my progress? I was thinking 2-3 1 hour cardio sessions tomorrow and the same for Saturday. Would that be a wise choice or is something about that going to only further hurt my results (though I can't see how it would).

Basically, I'm just looking for some thoughts on what I might do because I can't even express how pissed and upset I am right now with myself. And believe me, this will never happen again!

Any advice is welcome!

just keep doing what you normally do. Stepping up your cardio or cutting calories the next day won't really help you. One day won't make or break you, just don't do it again :p

Well, normally I wouldn't change my habits, but I've never gone as overboard as I did today. I'm honestly estimating I ate an excess of 3500 calories today, perhaps a bit more. It's hard to not try and do something about that, ack I dunno. I'm just so disappointed in myself and trying to rationalize it by saying I can "work it off".

Its unfortunate that you regret your cheat meal, however, whats done is done and guess what, I beleive that what you have done in your weight loss far outweighs the possible pound you may gain from what you ate, sure you may gain half a pound.

Im pretty sure that half pound gain isnt gonna cancel out all the gains you have made and sure you indulged but putting yourself down forever is not gonna make it anybetter. I advise just training as normal or maybe even a bit longer just use the desire to burn more calories as fuel for motivation to go those last 5 mins on your cardio or whatever.

However, what I advise against is fasting for a day to make up for the order of french fries you ate, all you will be doing is digging deeper into a hole, there is nothing wrong with a cheat meal once in a while and im sure the muscle you have gained will aid in burning off those extra calories.

In general, forget it, I regret when I indulge but overall, there is NOTHING you can do to undo it and you may as well accept it and get on with your dieting.

relax, juz one day in like u say, 6weeks, juz continue working on it normally, the most u will get less weight loss this week, thats all. no worries :nod:

Its unfortunate that you regret your cheat meal, however, whats done is done and guess what, I beleive that what you have done in your weight loss far outweighs the possible pound you may gain from what you ate, sure you may gain half a pound.

Im pretty sure that half pound gain isnt gonna cancel out all the gains you have made and sure you indulged but putting yourself down forever is not gonna make it anybetter. I advise just training as normal or maybe even a bit longer just use the desire to burn more calories as fuel for motivation to go those last 5 mins on your cardio or whatever.

However, what I advise against is fasting for a day to make up for the order of french fries you ate, all you will be doing is digging deeper into a hole, there is nothing wrong with a cheat meal once in a while and im sure the muscle you have gained will aid in burning off those extra calories.

In general, forget it, I regret when I indulge but overall, there is NOTHING you can do to undo it and you may as well accept it and get on with your dieting.


haha, I wish a "plate" of french fries was all I ate. It was not so much a cheat "meal" as it was more of a cheat "day". Like I said, probably around 3500 EXTRA calories today. Anyway, I know fasting is terrible, I did not intend to do that by any means. As a matter of fact, tomororw night is dinner out with mom, but thankfully we're going to a seafood restaurant, so that meal will be very healthy.

Anyway, my main thought was just to do an extra 1-2 hours of cardio the next 2 days, because I figured I'd burn about 1600-2000 calories in the extra 3-4, 1 hour sessions, but we'll see. Maybe I'll just do an extra half hour so it's not overkill.

I guess the bottom line is I was very upset about what I did and needed a place to rant and have people tell me it's okay, I'll live, like you all did to make me feel better! :tu: But any suggestions on how to lessen the detrimental effects are still welcome.

I read this page yesterday and found it quite interesting.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/likness10.htm

A few of the sections are possibly worth reading in your case
such as 7, 8, and 10.
It helped me to look at failures or setbacks in a different way and
turn them into a positive thing and regain motivation.

Stop punishing yourself. I've done this kind of thing a few times myself. Doesn't matter. It's trends that make or break you!

Yep, it's not how you live one day of the month, just stick with the normal routine, your body will burn a lot of the excess calories anyway.

I find that if I go overboard one day the worst thing you can do is "try to make up for it." This type of behavior lead to a viscious cycle - eat too much, eat too little, then eat even more because you are really hungry.
At best you fired up your metabolism, and at worst you set yourself back 1-2 days in your goals -- THAT IS ALL. Don't get crazy and don't throw it the towel. Remember how you felt afterwards, think about that feeling the next time you feel yourself giving in.

Once you set a goal there is no "if" only "when" :gl:

Everybody falls once in a while. Yyou fell 1 time in 6 weeks. That is nothing. Do not punish yourself. Admit it, get up, go over it, and stick to the program for another 6 weeks. You did great lately, punishing yourself is not an answer.
The fact that you fell just prooves that you are a human. Also, try to think that may you should reward yourself with a little bit of a food that you like during the week? I eat a square of chocolate every thrird day. A little square is nothing, but it helps me to kill my cravings for sweets. May be you should try something like that? It is up to you. But do not punish yourself.

Well, I have been doing great on this cutting diet for the past 6 weeks or so (dropped ~8 lbs of fat). Okay, that's really good. I've been at this for ~ 5 weeks now and have lost just a little less than you :tucool:

BUT, unlike the rest of the posters I'm not going to coddle you and tell you to get over it right away. Beat yourself up over it. A lot. Get angry with yourself. You've learned your lesson the hard way -- take all the knowledge you can out of it. This will not happen again.

The next time you go home and face all the brownies and cookies, remember this thread and how terrible you felt. Remember how much you hated yourself the morning after, and how you don't want to live that way.

Yeah, you screwed up. You're human, welcome to the club. Learn from your mistake and get on with life. The extra cardio won't hurt, but don't count on it helping either. Besides, I think you can find some better punishment for yourself that you know won't hurt your progress.

*cough*sparringwithoutpads*cough*

Looking at the BIG picture Karatetricker, worst case scenerio...you MAY be up one pound...it may take you 1 extra day to get to your goal...not much more than that. In the grand scheme of things, you have done AMAZINGLY well and had AMAZING discipline...don't let this go unnoticed. Getting down on ourselves only makes us feel WORSE! You slipped, your human, you may be up one pound...and move on. You've done too well to let one slip get you down.!! :tucool: :tucool:

Danielle
;)

Well thanks for the good words everyone! :tu: I took your advice for about 99% of what it's worth. The only "change" I made is instead of doing either a normal 27 min HIIT or 45 min moderate intensity workout this morning, I did a 20 min. moderate intensity and then went right into a 25 min HIIT to get the extended workout calorie burn, but also get my metabolism up with the HIIT. Other than that, everything else will stay the same.

And I know... I hate realizing I'm human! :p

Well, I have been doing great on this cutting diet for the past 6 weeks or so (dropped ~8 lbs of fat). Today was my frist time home from college since before I started my 1800 cal/day diet. Well, I walk in to a counter full of brownies, cookies, freezer of ice cream, etc. I have a little bit, just figure I'll make today my "cheat" day.

Well, then came dinner out at a restaurant which wasn't too bad, but certainly not "healthy". And then on the way home from the concert I went to with my family was Friendly's (don't even ask what I had) and then, yes, some more snacking back at the house afterward. I don't know what got into me, I just couldn't stop eating no matter how many times I tried to stop.

How many calories and fat grams I consumed is unknown, but I'd guess from 4pm-midnight I ate as many calories as I normally do in 2-3 days. Yes people, 2-3 days worth of calories (and mostly wasted calories) in 4 sittings within 8 hours.

Now, I am so pissed that I lost my discipline, but there is nothing I can do about it to change it. My question is, what can I do over the next couple days to make this not hurt me too bad in my progress? I was thinking 2-3 1 hour cardio sessions tomorrow and the same for Saturday. Would that be a wise choice or is something about that going to only further hurt my results (though I can't see how it would).

Basically, I'm just looking for some thoughts on what I might do because I can't even express how pissed and upset I am right now with myself. And believe me, this will never happen again!

Any advice is welcome!


No advice is really needed :tu:

So you cheated, big deal, we all have momentary lapses of judgement, but if you've stuck to a very restrictive cutting diet, this cheat day may have helped you re-fill your stores and make the next week better.

Check out this article, it's an interesting one: http://www.t-mag.com/nation_articles/body_230cheat.html

I'm sure you already know that it's not feasible to eat perfectly every single day for the rest of your life, so enjoy the cheat and get back to your workouts, I wouldn't change anything.

Sometimes it takes a step backwards to go two steps forward :nod:

Wow Chris, you went down 20% body fat in just 4.5 months! Did you post pics in the picture forum?

Wow Chris, you went down 20% body fat in just 4.5 months! Did you post pics in the picture forum?

Not as of yet :o for most of my life i've been overweight and ashamed of my body, so I guess that mentality has continued to stick with me to this day.

You know the strange thing is, i'm more concerned about how I look now than I was a year ago, the stretch marks on my shrunken belly is still something that really bothers me, so I still hate taking my shirt off!!

When I do hit my goal of 8%, I will definately post a few "after" pictures, but right now, i'm still not satisfied enough with my body to show the world ;)

I dont think you need to do anything if you continue with your normal diet and training. Actually it might improve your progress the next week. Because cheating one day like that will make your body burn more calories for a few days.

Sometimes things like that happen. If I go back to my previous eating habits for a day I would probably eat 5000-6000 calories. :D Ice cream, candy, burgers, cookies and so on. :cool: But I try to limit it somewhat if I need to cheat for a day....But it can be difficult...

Regards! :gl:

That cheat day probably did you more good than harm. 6 weeks of eating clean & exercising vs 1 lousy cheat day. 1 day out of 6 weeks seems about right if you want to have the occassional cheat day. It'll do you some good in the long run. Believe me, your body will still be an efficient, calorie-burning machine.

Yesterday I cheated too, For some reason I went all day to about 6pm without eating anything apart from a packet of tic-tac's (80cals for the whole day) then I went out with some friends and had just a few drinks, ok 3 big bottles of red square, I became so dizzy, because of lack of food I think. Anyway I purpously made my self throw up, because I had to drive home, and didn't want the drink in my system. When I got home I had a packet of crisps(200cals I checked)

So I had 280cals for the whole day, but there must have been loads in the red square.

A bit of a cheat day I think. :mad:

I ate 13000 calories last saturday and sunday, and I still lost more weight this week than the two previous weeks combined. :claphigh:

I've found that even a horrendous cheat day hitting 5000calories(and I've had many) doesnt really cause that much damage.

Sure, you'll feel crappy and bloated for 24hours, and your weight may be up for 2-3 days, but its not a real gain. Like someone else said, it is trends that really mess you up. My personal belief is that dumping that many calories in your body at once doesnt do that much damage because its WAY too much energy for your body to process so much of it get pooped out or burned off by your body in an effort to maintain homeostasis. However, eating like that several days in a row would likely cause a true fat gain.

when my weightloss stops sometimes if i feel the need I will eat 3 times my normal calorie intake for a couple of days or so, seems to get the weightloss kickstarted again as after the first day I will have lost weight (not gained) from eatting more. Then I go back to normal calorie intake and it just keeps dropping off :)

Tho I don't do that too often maybe once every 2 or 3 months :D

i've just had a great idea for cheat meals, i just had to post it somewhere

basically sometimes im surfing around looking at recipes, and there is so many things i wanna try, but cant cos they have a few ingrediets that conflict with my diet

but when (if) i decide to have weekly/monthly cheat meals im going to cook something different everytime! learn how to cook a large range of food, good or bad!
maybe have a nice honey soy chicken, or a slice of some fancy looking cake, for me the fancier and better looking the better! (as long as it tastes good too!)

just had to let that out :)

you sound so paranoid, relax man, its only 1day of cheeat. As for me every week i getta cheat on both sat N sun, keeps me sane, i dont wanna end up a anorexic! ;)

I have seemed to notice better results with a cheat day. It also gives me a mini goal to shoot for to reward myself. It sounds dumb but works.

;) don't worry about what you ate, you said you went strong for 6 weeks?well then don't worry about it! one day of cheating is not going to take away your gains that you made the past 6 weeks... now its time to jump on the wagon and get back to what you were doing!! and also, it wouldn't be wise to do so much cardio in one day(if you mean 1 day) because it isn't going to take away what you ate... just do what you normally do and you'll back in groove of things again! :tucool:

Hey relax dude!. your not the only one that has fallen out once and then. Last night I drank a 24 pack of 6% beers, and in my intoxicated state I accidentally lost my gymbag somewhere, with my new shoes and everything... It´s saturday today and I feel terrible, I normally don´t workout as hard on weekends, but I´ll have to deal with the consequenses of my stupidity on monday morning if I don´t find my bag huh!. Feels terrible!.