Day 3: Cheating Already…

January 3rd, 2008 · 1 Comment

Yes, it’s true. I’m only three days in, and already I’ve cheated on my diet. After last night’s post, I was so hungry after my 1600 calories-a-day limit, I sat down with a big bowl of chocolate trail mix – mucho calories. It felt so good though, that I didn’t even care…

But today, today I regret it. Especially considering tomorrow is weigh in day. So, I decided to do a little research today on “diet cheating” to see just how much damage I caused during my late night binge.

According to some weight loss experts, cheating is actually a good thing (hooray)! When you go on a diet, especially a calorie restricted diet, your metabolism slows in order to protect your body from starvation. But when you cheat, and thereby consume extra calories, your body responds by kicking up the metabolism (think of it like a campfire being stoked). In fact, some diets even “make” you cheat every third day in order to keep the metabolism from slowing. Of course, there is a downside – if you go hog-wild (like I did) and consume a TON of calories, the extra kick in your metabolism still won’t negate all those calories.

So if you did go all-out, here are some tricks I found to help lessen the damage. (I’m trying to do them myself now)

1) Stop immediately. Do not pass Go, do not collect 200 dollars. Do not wait for tomorrow, or Monday, or the first of the month to start over. Accept the slip-up and move on. Remember that every second is a fresh start. (This is probably the hardest thing for me to do because I’m an all-or-nothing type dieter)

2) Stop feeling guilty. Guilt will only make you more discouraged and increase the likelihood that you will just give up altogether. (Yup) Instead, focus on the good things you have accomplished so far. ( I’m trying to tell myself now that even though I cheated, I still stuck to my workout schedule, so that’s improvement)

3) Resist the urge to starve yourself or skip meals to make up for the cheat. Instead, cut a few calories each day for the rest of the week. (I can say from experience that trying to starve yourself to make up for a cheat doesn’t work. This morning for example, because of last night’s cheat, I skipped breakfast and lunch. Then, I was so hungry by 2 p.m., I downed a few handfuls of caramel popcorn. I would have been better off if I just went back to my diet plan.)

4) Likewise, resist the urge to burn those extra calories through a manic workout session. Instead, add an extra 10 or 15 minutes to your regular workout each day for the rest of the week.
-b