Cheat day confusion please clarify

[pollyalice85]

So iv been doing so well!! 1300 calories a day and doing epic work outs. No eating back calories! I can do this for a week but need a day off.
So I researched cheat days before I had one. The majority say cheat meal...oops.
I had a normal breakfast but a big piece of cake after my lunch followed by a dinner party consisting of chips dip cake ice cream pasta and more carbs!
Today I had work and am exhausted so am picking up my gym schedule tomorrow. I feel so bloated and fat today. Did I seriously set myself back? I had 3000-4000 calories I'm sure! Today I'm only consuming 1000 because I'm to bloated anyway. Am I over reacting or do I need to actually never do this again?

[tomlaw91]

So iv been doing so well!! 1300 calories a day and doing epic work outs. No eating back calories! I can do this for a week but need a day off.
So I researched cheat days before I had one. The majority say cheat meal...oops.
I had a normal breakfast but a big piece of cake after my lunch followed by a dinner party consisting of chips dip cake ice cream pasta and more carbs!
Today I had work and am exhausted so am picking up my gym schedule tomorrow. I feel so bloated and fat today. Did I seriously set myself back? I had 3000-4000 calories I'm sure! Today I'm only consuming 1000 because I'm to bloated anyway. Am I over reacting or do I need to actually never do this again?

You're overreacting. Cheat meals are fine once in a while. If anything you'll get your leptin levels back up

[matthew2474]

So iv been doing so well!! 1300 calories a day and doing epic work outs. No eating back calories! I can do this for a week but need a day off.
So I researched cheat days before I had one. The majority say cheat meal...oops.
I had a normal breakfast but a big piece of cake after my lunch followed by a dinner party consisting of chips dip cake ice cream pasta and more carbs!
Today I had work and am exhausted so am picking up my gym schedule tomorrow. I feel so bloated and fat today. Did I seriously set myself back? I had 3000-4000 calories I'm sure! Today I'm only consuming 1000 because I'm to bloated anyway. Am I over reacting or do I need to actually never do this again?

You're fine but personally i would only go like 300 or 400 over maintenance and call that my "cheat day". Little extra calls will allow different types of foods. And another thing, it's not all about cals per day its more about per week. Whats the total cals per week, you don't gain lots of fat ina day worth of eating ****ty.

[pollyalice85]

So next time just cheat over 500 calories not a whole day., I'm thinking of dropping calories to 1200 this week to get serious

[RocknRollMuscle]

The majority say cheat meal...oops.

Who's the majority? You mean fat people or people on TV who have no idea what they're talking about?

Cheat days were designed EXACTLY like situations above. Instead of enjoying your dinner party like a normal person and living it up - you're miserable, guilty and beating yourself up over it. That's not how diets should work.

Cheat days allow you a nice break and you get to enjoy time with friends and eat what you enjoy eating. It also raises leptin levels and refills glycogen stores. You can't look at dieting/cutting in a vacuum. This is a LONG process for many people. 1 cheat a day, which helps you to STICK to a diet (for psychological reasons too) makes little difference overalll when you're cutting for say 4-5 months.

No way on earth I can handle cutting if on saturday when going out with friends I have to suffer with boring veggies and chicken breast while friends are drinking beer, eating pizza, tacos and mashed potatoes. Heck no! Homey don't play that.

btw: even if you cheat a bit here and there - who cares. 80/20 rule - as long as you stikc 80% to your diet, your'e okay. Forcing people to stick 100% to something is when people fail. Humans aren't robots.

[pollyalice85]

Advice taken!!! Thanks so much I feel better and now have clarity