Take away/cheat meal

kindrabbit

It's Friday night and that means take away in my house!!
I've done my best to pick low cal (plain rice and prawn shaslik which is dry) but does anyone know of a website where I can look up typical calorie content for foods? I am tracking with My Fitness Pal but they don't have many entries for junk food!

Is it OK to save up calories over the week to have a cheat on a Friday or is it best to just enjoy the meal, keep it as 'good' as you can and just move on and not worrying about it?

I'm not going to worry about tonight's meal as I have trained weights and done 50 minutes of insanity today!

honeybee_kisses

I don't know where you could accurately look up the calories but with regards to saving up calories I think that's ok. As long as you're in a deficit for the week as a whole it should be fine. That's what I do anyway so I hope I'm right! Looking forward to my chow mein tomorrow night enjoy your treat!

Francl27

All it's going to do if you just say 'it's only one meal' and don't save calories for it is decrease your weight loss. So it's up to you to decide if it's what you want to do or not.

debubbie

If I know I am going to eat out on Friday night with friends, I will save up 150-200 calories a day for the week plus I make sure to exercise that day to have exercise calories to eat back too. This has worked for me and I still lose weight. I try to make sure that I don't go completely crazy and eat a cheat meal that wipes out all of my deficit calories for the week, therefore causing me not to lose weight for the week. I usually try to drink water because I easily can drink 4-5 cups of pop or sweet tea while eating dinner out, I could easily drink all my calories before I ever ate my dinner!

AlisonH729

There's that saying, "You can't out exercise a bad diet." But darn it if I don't try to out exercise cheat days.

DebzNuDa

USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference Release 27 - free web.

kindrabbit

Thanks everyone. I only started logging with MFP at the beginning of his week and already had 434 calories to spare. I only went over by 356 so I'm still in range. I have to say I do feel really good with this calorie counting. I have been on slimming world for the last 2 and a half years and training for about 2 years. My weight loss has come to a halt so I wanted to change to a diet that works in conjunction with the training I do and allows me to loose fat and keep and build lean muscle. Even just in the last week I don't feel so bloated and I can tell my glucose levels are a lot more stable. Looking forward to seeing what the scales say next week

My_Butt

Sunday is my off day. I don't log my calories and I eat a pint of ice cream during the evening. The key is to not binge. Having a cheat day with treats, keeps me focused Monday through Saturday.

kindrabbit

I don't think I could do 'this' without a cheat day. I will confess to being a binger though. I'm hoping the novelty of the cheat day will wear off and I'll learn a little more self control!

WinoGelato

Weekly deficit is what matters OP. Many people have "cheat meals" or "free days" but I personally prefer to not look at it that way and instead just plan to fit in all the foods I love on a daily or weekly basis. Calling it a cheat implies that there is something wrong with it, in my opinion, and I don't think there is anything wrong with your weekly takeaway meal. I too save up some calories throughout the week if I know there is going to be a special event or more calorie dense meal later in the week.