To all of you thinking of having a cheat day


(Keirra) #1

I had been debating with myself on whether to have a cheat day. I did my research and found out it probably wasn’t a good idea (my primary care doctor has been keto for years and she even told me it wasn’t a good idea) but what do those professionals know? It’ll be fine.

I had become fat adapted and I went from a binge eater to basically not thinking about food and honestly not wanting to eat at all, it was liberating. After the cheat meal I felt fine, however the next day which is today the carb cravings, the binge urges, it had all returned and for the first time in months I binged. I feel an intense amount of regret because now I’m back to constantly fighting urges and thinking about food.

To all you carb addicts out there on keto it’s best if you just stay on track, this isn’t a “diet” it’s a lifestyle change. The captain D’s was greasy and I only cheated myself.


#2

Hi Keirra. Welcome to the forums!

When I started keto (late last year), if I cheated, I would feel fine that day, but like you, my sweet tooth would come back and I felt like having more. This told me that I wasn’t fat adapted and that cheating this early is not a good idea. I was able to ‘reset’ by fasting for a full day. It was hard at first, but at the end I felt the cravings went away.

BTW, I cheated this weekend for my wife’s birthday. She wanted pizza and cupcakes, and I obliged. Today I’m fasting and resetting myself. Thankfully I’m fat adapted now and don’t feel any sugar cravings. So they do go away. And I was quite the sugar addict back in the day. I don’t cheat often at all (every 3 months or so)

Nowadays I don’t really want to cheat. I feel great doing keto. It is a lifestyle. I love the mental clarity, not having my energy fade in the early afternoon and wanting a nap, not having constant cravings, having more energy, etc etc. I don’t like sacrificing it for a bagel or muffin.

We say ‘Keep Calm and Keto On’ KCKO around here a lot. Getting back on the wagon is only a keto meal away.


(Susan) #3

Welcome to this fabulous forum, Keirra, and I totally agree with you about Keto being a lifestyle change.

I wish you all the best in your continuing Keto journey, and it is great having you aboard =).


(Butter Withaspoon) #4

Hi Keirra
Could you reduce that intense regret by 2 scoops - 1 for the excellent experiment you did on yourself with solid results on what to do (not do) next time, and another for an excellent post telling us of your experience. Good work!

It’s normal to find your way in a major lifestyle change, it’s a progression of smaller steps towards better health rather than immediate perfection


(Laurie) #5

Thank you so much for posting, Keirra. I’ve been through this many times. It was as if I had two selves. An ideal one that was doing keto, and an imaginary one that could eat other things without gaining an ounce.

When I saw your topic heading, I had a flash of insight. Cheating is cheating. Whether you’re cheating someone else or cheating yourself, it’s a terrible thing to do.


(Alex ) #6

everyone should read this thread…!

cheat days always become cheat weekends and cheat weeks. It’s not worth it unless you’re consistently doing 10-15 hours of cardio to burn off all that glycogen!


#7

Your problem is cheat DAY! It’s NEVER a cheat DAY. It’s a cheat MEAL! I think chugging veggie oil would be healthier than Captain D’s. There’s no fish in there :rofl:


#8

yea the words cheat day and ‘cheating anything’ are out of my life forever.

I had my ‘planned cheats’ which backfired all the time, then I had ‘unplanned cheat days, weeks’ that tore me up.

I was allowing it. Once I said NOPE, no more cheat anything, my life was eat on plan foods ONLY at all times in my life, as much as I needed at all times, never limiting my food intake was the day I was free from ‘cheating’ and omg I hate that word truly LOL

Some can do it, I know full well I am not a moderator at all. I am an abstainer and that is all that will work for me. But for those who can, enjoy your life as you can with what food ya want in it, but me, had to pony up full truths on what it takes for me to find a healthy long term lifestyle.


#9

I say my usual: it’s very individual. @Mavro may be right about it’s different when one is fat adapted - I can’t really know as I stuck to keto until my fat adaptation changes, it was important for me. But I can say fat adaptation doesn’t mean we don’t get back cravings. It probably helps a lot but some carby food items are more powerful than others. It really matters what and how much we eat on our off days. Having an off day is usually no problem for me BUT some items are hard drugs and I am familiar with chaos but they do it at some too high level… It’s probably mostly mental, we have our weaknesses and we should be abstainers regarding some stuff. It’s true even on keto as keto allows every kinds of food in tiny amounts but they may still cause problems and not only for 1-2 days after consuming it.

And if we finally forgot about some trigger food but bring it back… And let’s say, we cook that food multiple times a week for our family members… Or just seeing it all the time in the kitchen… I can imagine that makes our near future way harder. Not necessarily, if I really cut ties with something, it can’t easily come back but there are all the other items… And why to make our life harder for a while if I have the power not to eat the dangerous item (or in dangerous amounts)? (If we can’t resist, that’s another thing, we still have options then, of course. I train myself and figure out things to avoid temptation. As I don’t resist it. Everyone should figure out these things for themselves. I know how much I can safely relax my ways under which circumstances and where dangers lurk. I don’t always act accordingly but I know it. If I manage to run back to carnivore, my eating problems usually cease to exist but the chance for it is slim if I went too far but not far enough to make myself sick… So I better think before I go off and being forced to it usually means I was too optimistic about the options somewhere far from my house. I always must bring food with me if I leave the house for long, even if there are 20 chicken thighs waiting for me. It was my latest lesson. It’s amazing how things are able to ally against us. I couldn’t buy food the next day either as it was a national holiday. There are always ways for the determined me but I was in a different, not that determined state. I keep learning…)

I have my on/off times since ages and now I know it’s best to find the style where we just don’t feel like going off all the time. We don’t need physical and emotional rollercoasters, it’s not nice. It may took much time to arrive to our sweet spot but it’s great to find it. It can help tremendously with our control. I train myself to eat better since ages but carbs always interfered, even in ketosis. I couldn’t go very low until I stopped clinging to vegetables so I have no idea what would have happened on some average keto style but my newer carnivore-ish woe suddenly made things WAY easier.
We here know that just being in ketosis or just eating below 20g carbs, net or total doesn’t mean things get much better. Some people need tweaking to find there sweet spot. Too strict isn’t good, too relaxed either, some items may interfere with things, certain very keto foods can’t satiate us well…etc. No wonder problems arise, most of us aren’t super determined “strong” ones. I was determined once but it couldn’t stay forever especially that I got about zero noticeable benefits. Tweaking my woe was needed and now I need way less efforts to do my woe better. So sometimes we don’t need to use more willpower or sacrifice, we just need some change, not like it’s necessarily easy to see WHAT and how :slight_smile:

I am sure I am not the only one. It’s always a day for me. It’s my smallest unit, my body and mind works this way. I may have a carby meal but it must be very very late. If I eat carbs at noon, I will eat carbs at 3pm, 6pm, 9pm and maybe even at 2pm. I may decide not to (I actually did and tried) but it never will work. I don’t give up things easily but as years pass without a single success, I accept my limits.
If my carby meal isn’t very late, it must be a big OMAD meal not earlier than 3pm. But I need very much carbs and calories and sweets then to make sure I won’t eat another big carby meal after midnight.

I am all for a single off meal if it’s realistic for others, though. (I COULD do a carby lunch with not much carbs later if I wanted, it just would consume more willpower I want to use in a year regarding eating. I rather don’t eat lunch then, that’s way more enjoyable, probably healthier too. A well-fasted state is a more controlled state for me.)


(Roberta Worley) #10

Cheat days. Nope. At least not in that particular context.

We own a small business. There are days where we hit the ground running. I never know when it will happen and I’m not always prepared to throw some things together for us to take with us. Kind of reminds me of my time in the military.

However, I do know how to think outside that proverbial box and do it relatively quickly. Just the other day it saved our ‘bacon’.

When we ‘eat out’, it’s become more ‘what do we need to survive’. Hardboiled eggs from some gas stations and some pharmacies that have cooler cases. Then there are nuts and seeds and cheese sticks, cheese squares or little cheese rectangles. Premade salads without the enclosed dressings.

Then there’s the entertainment nights where we go out with friends. Just the other night, we went out to a steakhouse and had a wonderful meal that was mostly keto friendly and we had talked about doing dessert beforehand. My husband didn’t finish his carrot cake and I gave some of my dessert to my friend because she didn’t want part of her husband’s dessert.

It was my choice. I got a beautiful bone-in ribeye with tomato burrata and a very tasty side salad. I have to go back. It’s a moral imperative because the last tidbit of steak I put on my fork slipped off the tines and onto the floor!

Since I didn’t eat my entire steak, I made plans that evening to make it into steak and eggs the next morning. It was delish!

Believe me, this is a ginormous switch for us.

Before we were married, we’d go out to eat almost three meals a day, seven days a week. And that’s far from exaggeration. We ate out so much after we were married that one day the same friend we went out to dinner with asked me if I knew how to cook! It wasn’t that we/I don’t know how to cook. Oh contrare!

It’s more that we know how to dirty dishes. There should be a competition for such!

For and to me, going out is mostly an option not typically an imperative.


(Tracy) #11

I have no proof of my theory, I’m just living by this logic - if you fill your car up with diesel fuel, you will screw up your car’s engine. I burn fat for energy and by body is adapted to it. If I have a cheat day, a cheat meal, here and there, I’m mixing high fat with with high carb and confusing it. I don’t think you can splurge here and there and just go right back to Keto. It doesn’t work that way no matter how much we think we can just straighten up the next day. It takes a long time to be fat adapted. I wouldn’t risk undoing it for a carby meal.


(Marianne) #12

Thank you for your post. That is exactly how I would feel. That was my entire relationship with food before keto. Put the club away and just reassure yourself that your days of dancing with the devil are behind you.

P.S. You are so fortunate to have a pcp on keto!!!


(Marianne) #13

My husband has always kept his weight in check and works out (cardio and weights) every day. Shortly after I started keto (Feb. 2019), he got on the bandwagon, too, because that is just how he prefers to eat. Lost probably ten stubborn pounds of inflammation and belly weight that he couldn’t take off before that. His nemesis is candy. Once he starts, he can’t help but binge on it. On those days, he compensates and eats less (sound familiar?). I remind him that he’s not just playing with weight and cravings, he’s totally messing with his metabolism. This does seem to get him thinking more than anything as he does what to be healthy. At this point, however, it hasn’t been enough for him to stay away from the candy completely. Having been a food addict and overweight most of my life, I have learned the hard way and don’t want to go there anymore. The benefits far outweigh the restrictions (and I “can” eat anything I want at any time, I just choose not to.).


(Marianne) #14

I bet you have saved a ton of money!!!

Before keto, we’d eat out or get take out probably 3-4 times a week. I couldn’t believe how much we were spending on that, in addition to groceries. The only times now for a year and a half that we’ve eaten out is when we’ve been invited by friends or have gone to weddings, etc. There are always delicious choices to be had that are keto appropriate when we find ourselves in those situations - meat and a salad and/or vegetable, no bread or fried food.


(David Solberg) #15

I try not to think of it as cheating, but rather as deliberately poisoning myself for a temporary pleasure — sort of like deciding to start using cocaine for the temporary high. I’ve had plenty of sugar before I started keto but never tried cocaine, so I don’t actually speak from experience. It’s just a mental model that seems to help me. Of course, I’ve been doing this for four years, and I’ve had time to see how much better my body works now, and I’m scared to go back to all my previous problems (no more cavities at the dentist, no more canker sores, much less joint pain, much faster healing, and so on).


(David Cooke) #16

Not sure what you guys will think of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eThYHEj5d14
I tend to agree with him.


(Marianne) #17

It helps me to think of it this way, too. More importantly than weight or any other consequence, I am messing with my metabolic process and that isn’t good. My body, for all it’s been through, deserves to be treated better.


(Bob M) #18

For a lot of my cheat “days” (more like meals), they tend to be self limiting. For instance, I never have acid reflux if I eat meat + certain plants. But if I eat cheat foods, I almost always get that. Or allergies. Or constant hunger lasting through the next day or so.


#19

If I eat much carbs (and inevitably a lot of fat and protein), I ensure I will be super full the next day :smiley: (I still eat my dinner but I need a smaller one, usually). Because I overate so it’s not a good deal but still, it could be worse… It matters what we eat on carby days (and what exactly is “much”). But we are different too, of course, even from ourselves at different points of our journey.


#20

I’ve been doing strict Keto for 6 months now. It’s been amazing. Spectacular. Wonderful.

Part of what has made it easy to do, however, is the pandemic. I’m home. All the time. I cook nearly everything. We occasionally get Chinese take-out, which I no longer eat (maybe I’ll have a plate of chicken with broccoli, no sugar added, no rice). It’s fine.

But I do wonder about what it will be like when “real life” returns. We used to eat out about once a week. We live in NYC and once a year or so we like to really splurge on a high-rated restaurant “experience”. Once every year or two we go on a 2-week vacation overseas. Recently it was Italy. A few years ago SE Asia.

I can’t help but wonder what is going to happen once “real life” begins. Now, granted, we probably won’t be able to afford to do these things for a good while, but when we can, then what? I don’t want to go back to my relationship with food pre-Keto. I really don’t. Keto would be impossible in so many countries. Keto is impossible at a wine dinner. Are these things now out of my life? I know, I know. First world problems, right?

One of my favorite things to enjoy is Dim Sum. 3 or 4 times a year we have always gone to Dim Sum Brunch here. Dumplings. I guess this out of my life as well? I can’t imagine eating dumplings right now. My entire life would unravel. Weight gain. Feeling like crap. Food cravings. Heart racing. Never being full. It’s all caused by sugar and carbs. It’s what keeps me from cheating. I don’t want to live like that again. Nothing I would like to eat is worth that. After 45 years of dieting and struggling with my food, I’m finally free from all of that. The hardest thing to do with food right now is how to get in enough fat. That’s a problem I can handle.

So, for me, no cheating. Not even a taste. I don’t want it. I’m tired of food struggles. I know where that cheat leads and I don’t want to go there. I just take it one day at a time. And if I start thinking about going out to dinner or going back to Thailand, I just tell myself, “Well, I can’t go right now anyway, so I guess I don’t have to worry about it”. Then I go and get some pork rinds.