Hello fellow Atkins low carb folks.

I just wanted to know if anybody ever cheats for a weekend here and there? I mean like if you diet hard all week and then Friday comes and you go out and get a pizza? I mean what else would you cheat with LOL.

I have been solid on the diet for 3 months and I am down 40lbs. I lost 11 lbs last month, I weigh myself once a month and from the last time I weighed myself I lost another 11lbs!! It just made my day. Not as good as May as I lost over 20lbs.

I took my Wife out for lunch yesterday to a great new Taco place they opened here and it was a beautiful day and we sat outside and I said the hell with it. I got a Burrito and had a few tortilla chips with salsa and guacamole. I really did not over do it, but it was indeed the first time I went off the diet, but I loved it!! However last night I went right back to it.

So my question is, will going off for a weekend here and there hurt your weight loss or affect ketosis? I have basically stayed on induction, but my only downfall is I am having whip cream and Jello a few nights a week and added coffee into the mix, other than that have been solid on the diet. Anyway, just wanted to see if anybody goes off the diet for a holiday or a weekend once or twice a month and still manages to lose.

Amazing results.


Considering your success I wouldn't worry about your recent cheat.
When you fall off the wagon, you are supposed to get back on ! And you did.

I guess one important question is .... do *YOU* think the cheating here and there will hurt you or help you ?

I wonder why you thought of the cheating as a "treat" ?

If a smoker told me they had a puff on the weekend I'd be sad.


When you have lota carbs you stop being in ketosis. But if you start restricting them again, you'll be back in ketosis soon.

Congrats on doing so well so far and DOUBLE DOWN and kick ass !!!

This was a good thread on wondering about "cheating" I still don't exactly know what "cheating" means so much, different for everyone I guess:

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=474758

For the record, I consider myself "cheat free" and by that I mean I have not "knowingly indulged" in Grains, Potatoes or Sugars (refined) since I began about a year and a half ago.

Thinking about doing this might be HARD, but doing it is EASY.

Being lazy, I'll almost always choose EASY over HARD.

Also, upping the carbs does seem to affect ketone levels but it's not like an on/off switch, it's more like a rheostat or sliding switch. I've been tracking net carb intake against Ketonix meter for awhile YMMV.

http://downhaul.com/lowcarb/daily.txt

Thanks for the feedback. I was so nervous today when I jumped on the scale. I stopped in the Dr’s to use their good calibrated scale and I stated to slide the weight and bam!! It leveled out and indeed I was down 11lbs. I was actually hoping for more, but I will take 11lbs. I am going to try harder this month, I want to be down about 15 next month. Hoping to get into my Tommy Bahama shirts my wife bought me last summer. They were very expensive and they never fit, those are the goals I am setting. We live at the beach, so I love my Tommy Bahama shirts on date night!! Those are the type of goals I have set to help shed my weight.

Nice explanation

If you jump right back and don't backslide.. I don't see the harm. Some people lose all control if they cheat..it is a slippery slope.

So, a personal choice.

I'm new to Atkins and hope to have a fraction of your great success. I did go on a trip two weekends ago.. i did my level best to stay on track...but dinners out with other people ended with me going off.. i got right back on and still lost a pound that week.

I don't feel tempted to do it again.. i feel more determined to stay on track..but so hard in social situations..and when reservations are made at a vietnamese restaurant with zero items carb free.

A cheat meal doesn,t derail me I make a point to keep the day as a whole low cal when I have a cheat meal. I usually end up with a weight loss .On the other hand I have kept diet journals for 18 years and its taken me that long to realize a whole cheat day or weekend always sends me off plan some times for years.

Thud has linked you to the long discussion. Check that out.

One thing you may want to think about is your description of your current efforts as a "diet" with the goal of fitting into some shirts you love. "Dieting" suggests a transient and temporary commitment. Way of Eating (WOE) describes a long-term commitment to healthy weight--and health in general, which is the key to a good life, and perhaps even a longer one.

If you hang around here a while, you'll learn a lot about damaged metabolism, carbohydrate addiction, and the weight management rollercoaster. Fitting into the shirts, the jeans, the wetsuit, the driver's seat--these could be considered side benefits by comparison to health and longevity.

Best wishes for Tommy Bahama and beyond.

I think it has a lot to do with how you react.

My story:

I started Atkins and was 100% committed for 4 1/2 years. I never even THOUGHT about cheating. I went to weddings, movies, anything and never strayed.

I lost 65 lbs and kept it off. I would be the LAST person to ever think that I'd gain it all back again but one day here at my work I guy had a Key Lime Pie and offered me a slice. I would normally not take it and it wouldn't bother me but I said "what the hell? It can't hurt..just one"


From that point several years ago until just this year, I ate. I kept gaining and gaining weight. I couldn't get back on track to save my life.

I realized that I had to go back and start all over again and I learned something about myself. I can't cheat. It blurs the line for me and I end up rationalizing the next little cheat bite of something.

Other folks can do that...I can't. I have an addictive personality and I have to have clear, understandable out of bounds lines drawn.

I had my first cheat day today since starting Atkins a few months ago. My husband and I went out to dinner. We shared a small dish of ice cream for dessert, and I had a couple of bites of bread with dinner. Back on the horse tomorrow.

Most of my cheating has been with borderline low carb foods--too many peanuts, cashews or pistachios. I can eat vast amounts of these, but I still prefer them to something higher in carbohydrate, because it will likely take me less time to get back on track.

The way I see it, being on low carb is like working the gears on one of those 18 wheelers. We take a long time to build up the momentum, but eventually we are boomin' down the highway!

Cheating is like slamming on the brakes... and then you have to work yourself up through the gears again.

I always have to ask myself, "Is this worth it?" Especially since my tastes have changed so much; most things I used to eat either taste like the junk they are, or are waaaay too sweet and I prefer my natural substitutes, like berries in heavy cream instead of ice cream, a Reuben omelet instead of a Reuben with bread, etc.

The real problem is that it either derails you completely into carb craziness, or you delude yourself into "carb creep," where it's a bit here, bit there, and before you know it things have gone backward.

We all have to figure this out for ourselves, but just be aware of the risks. They are real and everyone is sorry!

Great post, WB! Wow, I love your analogy!

Like you said and I've experienced personally time and time again in my past failures: I start with the carb creep then by the way side goes all my hard work b/c next up will be that I've completely face planted into any and all carb-age... Carbs are so insidiously addictive... <heavy sigh> so I don't cheat...

"Cheating", which is actually eating foods that are unhealthy for you, is prioritizing short term pleasure (and it might not even be all that pleasurable) for long term gains. Why do that?

Jean

There's a great saying from Dana Carpender, well-known low carb cookbook author:

You can have anything you want. You can't have everything you want.

So I can eat "whatever I want" and deal with weight, poor sleep, and painful joints. OR I can choose what I eat and enjoy good health.

I'm not "deprived" of guacamole; it's just as good dipped with vegetables. I'm not "deprived" of any of my favorite sandwiches; it's just as good on a salad base instead of bread. I can't eat fruit as a snack, it makes me hungry. But berries as part of my meal, or prosciutto wrapped around melon; that works for me.

When I go Mexican, I get fajitas on a salad instead of wrapped in a tortilla. When I go Italian, I have my favorite sauce over spinach.

I'm not deprived of anything; when I eat this way. I get so much of what I want!