Does an occasional binge day help you refocus?

[wefly]

Like the odd day where you just say "sod it" and eat for England.

I find sometimes it's a necessary thing for me to do, to give me a refocus and a shot of motivation.

Today has been one of those days!

Anyone else?

It doesn't do any harm.

I've not been doing a binge day but on Saturdays I have whatever I want for my evening meal plus some cake 😊

It doesn't work for me. It just gives me a taste for all those foods I am trying to avoid. If I have a binge day I struggle to get back on track after. For me weight loss has to be quite black and white - I either allow myself those foods or I don't.

I do it but it is quite a problem for me. I have recently lost 4 stone and am now 10st exactly and i am obsessed with staying there or even losing a bit more. My husband goes out one afternoon every week on a hobby/activity and i have found myself planning my 'binge'. I buy in all sorts of crap and spend the afternoon watching rubbish on tv and stuffing my face. I love it and i look forward to it........until ive done it and then i just feel gross and disgusting and promise myself that i wont do it again. Then the next week comes around!

I don't do it regularly but do it when an occasion arises eg invited to a big bbq or a birthday so semi regularly every other week. Also on holidays. I lost a lot of weight a few years back and am on maintain and track daily on mfp and I have set up special meals like "bbq" or "out out" and " birthday" with big calorie counts soiling but then don't track. Think that keeps me on the wagon.

No. My problem was portion control and it took me a long time to learn to eat what my body needs instead of stuffing myself full and feeling bloated, sleepy and sore afterwards.

It’s not a feeling I would ever want to recreate willingly again and being in pain from overeating is not something I’m looking forward to.

I don’t restrict what I eat and I do eat snacks (usually fruit or a handful of edamame) every day. I also eat sweets, not every day and within my calorie budget. I’ll have a mochi or a 100g piece of cheesecake on Sunday or a no sugar bubble matcha tea. Just in moderation. I find this works better for me than restricting and then overeating.

If it's not causing you to gain weight why beat yourself up? Maybe gradually aim to have less that day or make healthier. Joyce's, but what you eat one afternoon a week won't affect the balance of your diet and if it's not affecting your weight either 🤷‍♀️
Moral judgement of eating is so destructive. You aren't spending the afternoon kicking puppies, you're just eating a bit more than you think you should.

Thankyou @cardibach , that is a good way to look at it. I do really love chocolate and it is hardly heroin is it?!

I don't think there's any harm in enjoying the odd meal which has more calories than you'd normally have. I don't think I'd do a cheat day any more. Me treating every weekend like Christmas was basically why my diets so often failed. You can easily undo the deficit you have spent the week creating.

Yes, @AhBiscuits - I don’t think the idea of a ‘cheat day’ is psychologically helpful. It’s not cheating. It’s not morally bad. It’s just sometimes we might eat differently. If we know it’s regular, as @Tana433 does, just price it in to the rest of your weekly choices. It’s about the whole food intake and lifestyle and getting some balance.

Also this. I decided that there were some things I definitely didn’t want to eat ever again simply because they were bad for me. So eating them on a “cheat day” would be more of a punishment than pleasure.

Not a whole day no. I will have a meal or whenever it is that’s special but I don’t write the whole day off. All my diets failed before for this reason of letting go on weekends and treating every weekend like it’s a special occasions, it’s just another day

binge eating is not good for your mental health, I really do know how this feels its connected with shame and intense dislike of yourself after the euphoria of the binge wears off so I try to avoid engaging in this. I don’t like feeling overly full up or nauseous from food anymore

I've really lost the taste for junk food, so if I'm having a bit of a splurge it won't be on UPF crap (it will generally involve excessive cheese 😅) I find that you just can't overeat real food in the same way.

We need to move away from seeing junk food as a treat. It has been designed and manufactured to stimulate the reward centres in our brain. It's addictive. Humans and chimps share 98.8 percent of their DNA. If we fed a chimp pringles, chocolate biscuits and ready meals etc we'd be done for animal cruelty. It's not fit for animals and shouldn't be fit for us either.

Cheese for me too nowadays. I always assumed it would be cakes and sweets but I have found them easier to swerve, cheese not so much 😂

I can see how it might help while dieting. That feeling of being deprived 24/7 can be overwhelming so it's natural to want to give in and self soothe.

If you're at a healthy weight and still doing it, I'd suggest looking a little deeper at your lifestyle and to why you are still feeling that urge.

I tend to eat for health during the week and eat freely (but not to the point of feeling sick) at the weekend. I don't binge anymore because I don't really feel deprived anymore. It's about finding that balance.

Many elite athletes and high performance PTs etc do this, it's called a cheat day. I used to when I was super fit years ago, competing for certain events that meant I needed to meet a particular weight category. I'd only do one cheat meal but it was wonderful (lovely Chinese takeaway and then choc for dessert) every Saturday and it kept me really well focused for the rest of the week with a clean diet.

I don't really like the idea of a 'cheat' meal because it implies that the rest of the time (i.e. your normal life) is some kind of arduous challenge.

You need to find a way of eating that meets your health needs but doesn't feel awful and like you're constantly denying yourself.

The ideal is not to need a 'cheat' day because your daily routine is OK.

I find it helps to have a realistic approach and first and foremost think about moderation as an actual virtue one wants to cultivate and develop.
So I will absolutely eat a takeaway, with a busy schedule we don’t have time to cook seven days a week, but I will go for the most healthy option and only eat half of the portion. This means for instance choosing Indian vegetarian dish, skipping naan altogether and eating only half of it with 100g of rice. 350-400 grams of food for dinner is already a lot, so I can save the rest for lunch.
Or drinking tasty, well-made lungo after dinner instead of dessert.
Or if I want a sweet treat, I will have it as a snack between lunch and dinner because it’s the time when I’m hungry and I tend to eat something anyway, so it can as well be a mochi or something else I love to eat.

So in a way I cheat every day, it’s difficult and nearly impossible to be perfect 100% of the time. I think it’s easier to avoid going totally off the rails when I’m being realistic and not very restrictive.