OK I started lc almost a month ago and lost almost 15 lbs which is awesome... But to make a long story short I went to Kennywood (amusement park in Pittsburgh) today and convinced myself I deserved a cheat day.. I dove right in and shoveled down a supreme funnel cake with ice c ream and strawberrys.. Then on the way home my mind went to "well I already cheated I might as well end the day with a bang" mindset.. So I stopped at sheetz on the way home and ordered a burrito lol.. Sooo my question is how much damage did I do? .. I intend on going no carbs the next couple days and getting back on track.. I hope I didn't ruin all the hard work I put in :-(

Been there, done that. Diabetes now. No cheat days ever again, because it will KILL me. If someone had shaken it into me I might have GOT IT before it got me. Now I can be glad that by eating perfectly to plan all the time I may be able to keep sight, feet, kidneys and my life for a reasonable span of time. Consider yourself shaken...with great love.

The biggest damage you did was not weight gain or knocking yourself out of ketosis and fat-burning for a few days. It was establishing a mindset that if you do get back on plan you will be able to cheat again and get away with it. Sooner or later you will not get away with it. One cheat day will turn into several days, then a week, a month and when you are fat enough and sick enough that you want to start again, you will be starting from scratch, heavier than ever with all the cravings and temptations to overcome again and your body will not let go of the extra weight as easily as it did the first time around. That's the damage that you did.

Wow it almost seems like you guys are making it sound like I should just go blow my head off now.. Thanks for the words of encouragement.. Getting back on track is not the problem.. I like being on the diet I don't have a hard time with it.. I kind of like eating strip steaks and all the other foods I can have... I'm not depressed or sick over it I just wanted to hear other people's experience with this and what I gotta do to get my body back on track.. I enjoy life and if people with experience tell me I can't ever have a cheat day then so be it... Remember I'm new to this thing and am not 100% sure about all the rules yet.. But from the sounds of it the couple of replies I have gotten so far imply that I should just go jump off a bridge lol... Maybe try to lighten up instead of scolding me... I simply need advice.. Have a festive day everyone :-)

How do you know she didn't gain weight or lose ketosis, I didn't read that in the original post. Just curious.

I know the mind set of I blew it I might as well blow it good and how it leads from one meal to three to days and weeks. Been there, done that. In fact, I have been back on the LC wagon since May 28th and two days ago ate 3 pieces of pizza crust and all. Thankfully, I was able to get back on track the next day and stayed that way. I have to be real careful though.

Yea I don't plan on having a cheat day any time in the near future.. It was just one of those things where I was out at an amusement park with a bunch of friends and decided to treat myself for a day.. I knew before hand i was going to throw my body off for a couple days and I was OK with it.. So today I feel good and plan on getting right back on track... I bought groceries yesterday so I have plenty of good meats to choose from ;-)

Well, in the mindset of going forward, the fact is, you won't know the damage until you weigh or measure or whatever you do to track yourself. You say you're new so I'll just let you know that people react differently to these kinds of days. I went to a baby shower and cost myself two days. It would have been more if it weren't summer, with the yard work in the heat. I sweated it out and later in the week I was losing again. There actually is a chance that further down the road you will stall and the memory of this easy recovery will lull you into complacence and a full regain. Just remember that and don't go that route once your loss slows down.

My experience is that I will wake up 5-7 lbs. heavier after a cheat day (water retention). If I get right back on, by the next few days, my weight is fine and no terrible damage. For me, being keto-adapted helps me get right back to burning fat so long as its only a day or two. I do not plan cheat days but they happen and I am not so hard on myself for them. For me, it is a very strong addiction, and sometimes I just eat the junky food and i try not to hate myself for a slip here or there. July 4th was an incredible day with family and the food was wow, to say the least. I ate what I wanted and it is what it is, I guess. The way I think of it is I am NOT in that situation very often so at least that is good!
There are people here who will respond, in your opinion, 'harshly' but we are a passionate group. It took me 15 years to succeed and many, like me, do suffer with thinking cheating is ok/fact of life, only to fall off plan for longer and longer periods of time and then gaining our weight back. I restarted about 30 times over the years. When we say 'Never cheat, ever!' It is because it is statistically bad for us. Sometimes we choose tough love here, and it has really benefited me to hear and deal with the truth. I won't beat every food temptation, but I have beat more by hanging out here with this gang!
Good luck, and just get right back on like you planned!

I can see how you felt you've been scolded. There is so much wrong with text communication. I think it was meant more as a caution as many of us have done what you did and then it turned out to knock us completely off-kilter and off-program. I did that so many times and gained all my losses back.
I just keep going, oh I'll just get back on plan tomorrow, until I ruin all my work.

But you've jumped right back on, so other than a few possible pounds of weight gain, you should slip back into it after a week or 2 and lose all you gained. Maybe even less time than that. Everyone is different.

It wasn't catastrophic. Glad you had a good time.

You should probably stay on a stricter diet for a while until you gain the mentality that once you cheat, you move on. You don't cheat and then say, "Well, I already cheated. Might as well cheat again." You probably burned most of that funnel cake off walking around the amusement park anyway, so the burrito kind of killed it. I didn't let myself go off plan at all until I started hitting plateaus. I made the mistake of binging my first cheat meal and I felt sick to my stomach and was throwing up into the early hours of the morning. Now a "cheat" is brown rice or oatmeal. Something that I can have when I start to maintain my weight, but still off limits now. Hopefully you are still on plan. Would love to hear any progress you've made

Same here. On the bright side, if you have to be sentenced to a lifetime on a particular diet, low-carb is a pretty tolerable one.

Cheese, steak, bacon, and butter? Boy howdy! I can do this forever!