Cheat Days

hbarnesccs

Hey guys! I was just curious as to how you viewed your cheat days. Do you schedule them? Do you just decide a random day of the week is going to be a cheat day? Do you have cheat days at all? What constitutes a cheat day?

livingleanlivingclean

I don't have "cheat" days.... How do you cheat on, or with, food? It's just food. "cheating" implies there are good and bad foods, which I dont agree with either.

I make food fit my macros. I have a "meal plan" I stick to during the week (made up by me), then have different foods on the weekend because I have more time to plan and cook, and I have a different schedule. I cycle carbs, so have days with higher carbs which allow for more "fun food" if I want it....

Pelamblue

Mines normally a Friday, ( fatboy Friday) where I have a naughty meal like a take away and the rest of the day just eat what I fancy but be aware of what I'm eating, ie not eating 10 chocolate bars

cityruss

Your calorie deficit doesn't care about "cheat days".

seska422

I just work what I want to eat into every day so that I don't feel the need to have a day off.

I've only been using MFP for a little over a month. I'm sure I'll have some non-compliant days in the future. I'm planning to log everything and then spread out some extra deficit into the following days.

samgamgee

I used to do 'fat Friday' and eat whatever, more of a mini binge tbh, but that was when I was restricting more than I am now, it wasn't very healthy or successful in the long run. Now I fit in fast food and booze into my daily calories, I'm losing well and feeling good! I don't feel the need to do cheat days cos I'm not feeling deprived.

999tigger

You need to decide what you mean by a cheat day
i.e
Are you eating within your allowance i.e going up to maintenance.
Exceeding maintenance?
Not counting and eating what you like?

Is that for a meal or for a whole day?

How often are these cheat days happening, every week, month special occasion?


As pointed out above your calorie deficit doesnt know its cheat day, so every extra calorie (counted or not) is one that your body will need to burn If you want weight loss. As long as you accpet the slowing of your journey and want to take the hot, then knock yourself out. If you have them on too regular basis imo you start to sabotage the whole effort. Your diet and your choice, but id rather get to taraget faster. If I ever had one then it would have to be a special event B day / Christmas/ event/ major target. I normally make up the calories from elsewhere so its more of a controlled splurge. The only other way I might cheat is if I was feeling meh, in which case I might eat but fully accept the consequences and get down the gym to work it off. Exercise is the big equaliser in that case.

IvanOcampo

I don't have "cheat days".. If I feel like ice cream, or a burger, or pizza, I simply fit them into my macros....

Pelamblue

Let's not over complicate things and get all anal about fitting it in to our macro's... A cheat meal/ cheat day to me and probably most other people is that big fat slab of cream cake or some fish and chips or something that the little devil on our shoulder is poking us a saying ' eat it '. We know it's bad and in most cases probably has little nutrition value....but so what.. We only live once and I'm not going to worry about my macro's on cheat day.

rockmama72

I've had success by keeping within a daily calorie range rather than a calorie limit. If something comes up where I want to eat, I just do it and then compensate the next meal or next day. So if I have a few slices of pizza, I'll stick to the lower end of my calorie range the next day. Some days I eat less just because I'm busier and it's easier, so I have a few extra calories to play with during the week.

I guess I've always done this anyway, but now I make better choices overall.

Machka9

Cheat days are how I got here in the first place. I ate reasonably well during the week, but let myself go on weekends. It took 4 years to gain 15 kg, and now I'm trying to get rid of the 15 kg.

So ...

1) I eat good food within my calorie limits so I don't need to cheat. By good, I not only mean low cal and yet nutritious, I also mean food with lots of variety and flavour.

2) I exercise a lot. When I cycle 90 km, like I did yesterday, I have lots of extra calories to play with. Yesterday, I had a cauliflower & cheese pie + a large apricot custard tart for lunch. Then I had a chocolate ice cream bar from the nearby convenience store after the ride ... good recovery food. I also had quite a large dinner. But I worked for it all.

None of that is cheating. No need to cheat!

sharkmeat00

I prefer a refeed day over a cheat day....getting a taste of something you really been craving can corrupt a diet plan. About the days I usually go off feel. When my muscles look really flat then I'll have a refeed.....

smae1980

I try to stay within my calorie goal and eat healthy foods every day. Cheat days for me are special occasions such as birthdays and holidays. I still try to be "reasonable" meaning not eating everything in sight and I try to log everything to see how I did for the day, but on those days I don't concern myself with staying within my calories. My cheat days aren't often so they're not really detrimental to my overall goals. On "regular" days if I want to eat certain foods I just make sure they fit in my calorie goals for the day or just eat a little less the next day. It's been working for me so far

oilphins

I'm a 45 year old male and I have my so called cheat day every Saturday. A cheat day for me doesn't mean I go on an eating binge but I do intake a lot more calories. Everyone needs a day to sort of "let themselves go" so to speak. I still do a 15 k run or have a workout that day as well and burn between 800 to 1000 calories on Saturdays. Especially in the summer or if your on holidays, you need that day to have a cheat meal or two, maybe a beer or whatever you usually don't have on your other days. Everyone's different in how and what they eat everyday. I allow myself only 1600 calories a day 6 days a week, and I need that so called cheat day. I've been doing this for a long time and still maintain my weight where I want to be. It's the ONLY day I don't log what I eat. It's been working for me. And having one cheat day a week will not cause you to gain weight back provided your still exercising and logging the other days.

hbarnesccs

Thanks for all of the responses! I honestly was just really curious about how other people viewed cheat days, as it's a term that's thrown around a lot but everybody latches on to their own definition. Sundays are my "day", because we always have a potluck lunch at church, and I am not one to turn down free food! Everyone works hard to prepare food to fit the theme. A lot of it is healthy, as we bring a lot of leftover farmer's market food, BUT I don't want to be rude and turn down food people bring, or have to count calories in homemade food. I enjoy what I eat, go back for seconds, and even have a dessert, but I don't stress over it! I don't log these days, either. I do take a run on Sunday afternoons if the weather is pleasant.

Pelamblue

Good answer

ChaseRobinson85

Can you all just shut up about what you call it, or how you 'prefer to reference it'. Nobody cares. Some of you guys way over think things and regurgitate lines from your beloved health mags. She (the OP) had a question about cheat days. Have a cheat day and make it awesome. Go to work and be disciplined 6 days a week and then eat as your heart desires. Just make that cheat day about eating what you want. It's great for your soul. If you listen to some of these guys you will burn out, hbarnesccs.

RoxieDawn

I had a cheat day by mistake yesterday! It was planned what I was going to eat, but once I started logging it all, it was much worse than I thought (I hadn't had this meal in 6 months) then I ate cookies and milk to top it off.. LOL..

Actually it was good for me to get off the deficit for a day..

Francl27

cityruss wrote: »

Your calorie deficit doesn't care about "cheat days".

This.

I keep a bigger deficit to make up for the days I end up eating more (because there's a special event or we're going out or I'm just hungrier). But typically I just have small treats in my calories.

Pelamblue

ChaseRobinson85 wrote: »

Can you all just shut up about what you call it, or how you 'prefer to reference it'. Nobody cares. Some of you guys way over think things and regurgitate lines from your beloved health mags. She (the OP) had a question about cheat days. Have a cheat day and make it awesome. Go to work and be disciplined 6 days a week and then eat as your heart desires. Just make that cheat day about eating what you want. It's great for your soul. If you listen to some of these guys you will burn out, hbarnesccs.

Ha ha ha ha, message of the post!!! well said that man!!!!

avskk

I don't have cheat days, exactly, but I do save back calories throughout the week so I can have a good booze-up at the weekend if I want to. If I weren't saving calories during the week I wouldn't splurge, though; one good "cheat" day can undo a week of effort pretty handily.

pebbe

I don't have "cheat days" as such, but I allow myself to relax my regime a bit more at weekends, especially if I am seeing friends; and then try to exercise more to balance it all out.

Unknown

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nonoelmo

I have so many food intolerance (i.e completely gluten-free since 1995 before it was well know) that I've had to be disciplined, know what I am putting in my body, do most of my own cooking so that for me a cheat day is a day where I eat a food that I'm borderline intolerant of -- having cheese once a month or so knowing it will give me dark circles under my eyes, for instance. Or garlic makes all my joints ache is another example. For me it is not so much about the calories as the other things that negatively affect my body that I plan for on special occasions and would be the closest thing a person might consider "cheat" days. I always pay for them and they are relatively rare.

On a normal basis, I do have things I love almost every day so I never feel deprived.

jnv7594

ChaseRobinson85 wrote: »

Can you all just shut up about what you call it, or how you 'prefer to reference it'. Nobody cares. Some of you guys way over think things and regurgitate lines from your beloved health mags. She (the OP) had a question about cheat days. Have a cheat day and make it awesome. Go to work and be disciplined 6 days a week and then eat as your heart desires. Just make that cheat day about eating what you want. It's great for your soul. If you listen to some of these guys you will burn out, hbarnesccs.

No moderation will not cause you to burn out. Moderation is what makes a diet sustainable. I eat regular servings of the foods I love and fit them in my calories because this is the way I plan on eating after I lose the weight. Many of us that do that don't need cheat days because we don't deprive ourselves to begin with. Depriving yourself is what will lead to burn out. Cheat days are one of my pet peeves. If you need a cheat day, then you are doing something wrong and may need to reevaluate your diet to see if it's something that will be sustainable for you in the long term. Now I can see OPs point about get togethers and not counting calories on certain days when it's not practical, but honestly, I don't agree with planning a weekly cheat day and suffering through the whole week to get to that day. Like I said, if it's that hard that you need to have a break, you might need to reevaluation what you're doing.

By the way, moderation is one of the main ways most people fit foods into their diet on this site. If you don't agree with it, you are in the minority, and perhaps this isn't the place for you.

Hearts_2015

I've always found the term 'cheat day' to be odd. As shared above.. 'who we cheatin?' Treat day...see now that has a nice ring to it, we'll see if it catches on. lol

ChaseRobinson85 wrote: »

Can you all just shut up about what you call it, or how you 'prefer to reference it'. Nobody cares.

LOL Actually I did enjoy your post, it was to the point and makes sense regarding what she asked. I simply tossed my view in because I hate the term 'cheat day'... it's the most bizarre term to be used on here.

@ChaseRobinson85 I actually didn't see your post until after I'd already 'not shut up and realized nobody cared'.

ChaseRobinson85

jnv7594 wrote: »

ChaseRobinson85 wrote: »

Can you all just shut up about what you call it, or how you 'prefer to reference it'. Nobody cares. Some of you guys way over think things and regurgitate lines from your beloved health mags. She (the OP) had a question about cheat days. Have a cheat day and make it awesome. Go to work and be disciplined 6 days a week and then eat as your heart desires. Just make that cheat day about eating what you want. It's great for your soul. If you listen to some of these guys you will burn out, hbarnesccs.

No moderation will not cause you to burn out. Moderation is what makes a diet sustainable. I eat regular servings of the foods I love and fit them in my calories because this is the way I plan on eating after I lose the weight. Many of us that do that don't need cheat days because we don't deprive ourselves to begin with. Depriving yourself is what will lead to burn out. Cheat days are one of my pet peeves. If you need a cheat day, then you are doing something wrong and may need to reevaluate your diet to see if it's something that will be sustainable for you in the long term. Now I can see OPs point about get togethers and not counting calories on certain days when it's not practical, but honestly, I don't agree with planning a weekly cheat day and suffering through the whole week to get to that day. Like I said, if it's that hard that you need to have a break, you might need to reevaluation what you're doing.

By the way, moderation is one of the main ways most people fit foods into their diet on this site. If you don't agree with it, you are in the minority, and perhaps this isn't the place for you.

What? Am I in the minority? Really? You know the thoughts, theory's and opinions of every MyFitnessPal community member? How in the hell do you know what she needs or wants to eat? Do you think everyone's brain/body chemistry is the same? And if I don't conform to your way of thinking then I should leave? WOW. I'm not going to waste my time debating your poor sense of logic. As we like to say here in Nashville, Bless your heart.

areallycoolstory

I haven't used any cheat days at this point. I'm not sure if I will in the future. Like some of the folks said, I have been trying to fit the things I like into my meal plan. Right before Easter I had Zachary's Chicago Style Pizza, one slice at a time, two meals a day, for three days in a row, along with a green salad. I logged my meals. Didn't stress. And made sure I was under in my calories, micros, and macros. I planned ahead. It was not a spur of the moment thing. I think you have a great attitude about your church socials. You have a plan, and you are comfortable with it. Life is short. Enjoy your time with your family and friends. As long as you are meeting your personal goals it is all good.

arditarose

I don't have "cheat days". I have a calorie deficit that is a range. I eat a little less a few days out of the week, and eat above maintenance one day a week. I look for a weekly net calorie intake that will give me a .5 lb per week loss.

khaled3006

i don't have "cheat days" i have cheat meal its better ,i think cheat day will make you get some fat lol

alone_aqua

It's my experience (like most things) you'll have to find out how much your body can "handle" without stunting your progress. Personally, I do not schedule cheat days. I find that a random outing or surprise party leave enough room for naughty behavior that I don't need to plan it out. Plus psychologically I find scheduling them compels me to really really look forward to them and therefore not look forward to eating healthfully most of the time. I'm a mesomorph, I can lose weight and gain weight pretty easily. So if I do cheat it's typically my favorite foods, not just sorta-kinda-bad foods, I'm talking jumbo buttery croissants or a large slice of cheesecake. I've read a lot of articles about how bad cheat days can be for new dieters because they make new habits harder to form. You may be better of focusing on reshaping your thinking about food entirely (cold turkey on all garbage) OR finding clean version of all of your favorite foods. I prefer the former, I'm an all or nothing type of girl. Good luck!!