# Dieters: Do You Ever Reward Yourselves With Food? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 28, 2013, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dieters-do-you-ever-reward-yourselves-with-food/667390 "2013-08-28T12:26:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![brazil84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@brazil84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brazil84)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dieters-do-you-ever-reward-yourselves-with-food/667390/21 "2013-08-29T08:49:05Z")
Thanks for the thoughts. Has anyone here ever tried it and found it didn’t work out? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dieters-do-you-ever-reward-yourselves-with-food/667390/22 "2013-08-29T12:58:11Z")
> [@brazil84](#): > > Has anyone here ever tried it and found it didn’t work out? Yes. Which is why I no longer use food as a reward. ---
**Author:** ![Septima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Septima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Septima)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dieters-do-you-ever-reward-yourselves-with-food/667390/23 "2013-08-29T14:04:13Z")
I have “off” days, but mostly for practical reasons, and I plan around them. Weddings and family holidays, that sort of thing. Oh, and my birthday. I don’t really reward myself with food, but I do parcel out the occasional treat - eat super strict for two days so I can “budget” for a slightly too carby meal etc. Seems to work well enough. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dieters-do-you-ever-reward-yourselves-with-food/667390/24 "2013-08-29T14:06:13Z")
> [@Merejane](#): > > The weight loss isn’t dramatic, but I have been losing a steady one pound a week. That’s fine with me! I’m going to give it a shot. I’ve been doing a tolerably good job of keeping my daily caloric intake down, so we’ll see if adding in a 5:2 schedule works. Thanks for sharing! ---
**Author:** ![Merejane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@Merejane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merejane)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dieters-do-you-ever-reward-yourselves-with-food/667390/25 "2013-08-29T15:54:18Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > I’m going to give it a shot. I’ve been doing a tolerably good job of keeping my daily caloric intake down, so we’ll see if adding in a 5:2 schedule works. Thanks for sharing! You’re welcome! I hope it works for you! As you can tell, I am definitely a fan of the diet. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dieters-do-you-ever-reward-yourselves-with-food/667390/26 "2013-08-29T17:52:16Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Bizarre. So you never eat unless you exercised _first_? And then you only eat as many calories as you’ve calculated as being burned off through that exercise? You always exercise on an empty stomach? How do you determine what point you are at in your daily basal metabolic rate? Yes, and something to keep in mind, people are terrible at estimating. We usually over-estimate the amount of calories we are burning thru exercise, and under-estimate the amount of calories we are eating. You can search the web, but the average runner will burn only about 3,000 calories while running a marathon. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dieters-do-you-ever-reward-yourselves-with-food/667390/27 "2013-08-29T22:20:53Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > Yes, and something to keep in mind, people are terrible at estimating. We usually over-estimate the amount of calories we are burning thru exercise, and under-estimate the amount of calories we are eating. You can search the web, but the average runner will burn only about 3,000 calories while running a marathon. Yeah, the general “rule” for net calorie burn (amount over your basal burn) is about 100 calories per mile for running for males and about 90 for females. Walking burns about half that. [Cite](http://www.runnersworld.com/weight-loss/how-many-calories-are-you-really-burning?page=single). Most “calorie counting” sites neglect to tell you that you should really subtract your basal metabolism from your exercise to get a more accurate picture of your calories in/calories out. Those are the numbers I use for estimating any exercise burn from running. They may be a little conservative sometimes, but better to slightly underestimate than overestimate. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dieters-do-you-ever-reward-yourselves-with-food/667390/28 "2013-08-30T05:12:42Z")
Jumping on the “bad idea” bandwagon. However, to be a contrarian: say there’s a food you love and is utterly awful for you… chocolate-covered fried butter or some such. You know you can’t have it very often but you love it so. You can go with the attitude that such a thing is OK in moderation if you plan for it. Eat less for the next 3 days, and you can indulge in a treat the next day. Not as a reward, but as a way of fitting in the occasional treat so you aren’t so tempted to completely jump off the wagon. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dieters-do-you-ever-reward-yourselves-with-food/667390.md?page=1)