How often to cheat?

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  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    ILiftHeavyAcrylics wrote: »
    My advice is to structure your diet around most whole foods, get enough fat and protein, and then fit in a few treat foods here and there. I usually eat about 1500 calories worth of foods that meet my fat, calorie, macro, and micro goals. Then I usually have about 200-300 calories of ice cream or cookies or whatever.

    If you feel like your diet makes you need to cheat, then I'd recommend rethinking it so that it feels a little less restrictive to you.
    Or wine. Great advice.
  • RebelDiamond
    RebelDiamond Posts: 188 Member
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    Personally, I have been eating a low-calorie diet (for my height/weight) and eating 1-2 cheat meals a week. For me it has worked. However, now that I'm almost at my goal weight the cheats put me in maintenance. I'm happy with that for now, and I know that when I'm ready to kick it up a notch I'll just have to cut back on my cheats.
    Different methods work for different people, find something that suits you :)
  • njitaliana
    njitaliana Posts: 814 Member
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    I think it would help to get rid of the word "cheat" from your vocabulary in regard to dieting. You can eat anything, but just keep it within your calories. Then you won't feel like you cheated or failed.

    With burgers, it depends. A Ruby Tuesday bacon cheese pretzel burger has 1750 calories, and it comes with fries that have 450 calories. I don't order that meal, as it's more calories than the 1600 that I get in a day. But, a McDonald's double cheeseburger is 430 calories, and a small fries is 230 calories. I can fit that into my calories and still have the rest of my meals for the day. Or, if I'm really craving that Ruby Tuesday burger and fries, I could eat half and bring the rest home for the next day. I'd just have to eat lightly for my other meals those days. Chain restaurants all have calorie info online, so do your research, and you will find there are tasty things you can have.

    It's all about fitting things into your calories.

    If it's a special occasion, like your birthday, and you just want to eat what you want to eat, go for it, since you only get one birthday a year. Just do a little extra exercise, since we can eat back about half of our exercise calories.

  • SergeantSausage
    SergeantSausage Posts: 1,673 Member
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    If you feel the need to have to cheat, you are doing it very wrong.

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