Cheat Day

snickerscharlie

A cheat meal is different than a cheat day. You originally said you have a cheat day.

noaddedsugarx

Cheat days are the reason I've bounced up and down between the same 4lbs for months! I really struggle on the weekends.

atypicalsmith

It's all up to YOU. Either you want to lose weight or you don't.

patrikc333

I struggle to understand what a "cheat meal" is and why people who go out for a meal sometimes consider it as a cheat meal. deprivation is what will make people unhappy and going back to the old bad habits, not certainly going to a restaurant and eat even a 2000 calories meal, providing it fits in their day cal allowance of course.

caramariew1

I do a "cheat day" as a reward for losing a set amount of weight. Currently I do one as a reward for 5lbs lost. Nothing too crazy, but I let myself eat somewhere that I wouldn't normally and splurge a little.

Harleyb87

patrikc333 wrote: »

I struggle to understand what a "cheat meal" is and why people who go out for a meal sometimes consider it as a cheat meal. deprivation is what will make people unhappy and going back to the old bad habits, not certainly going to a restaurant and eat even a 2000 calories meal, providing it fits in their day cal allowance of course.

I don't deprive myself I just eat really healthy and have one cheat meal after 7 days

atypicalsmith

patrikc333 wrote: »

I struggle to understand what a "cheat meal" is and why people who go out for a meal sometimes consider it as a cheat meal. deprivation is what will make people unhappy and going back to the old bad habits, not certainly going to a restaurant and eat even a 2000 calories meal, providing it fits in their day cal allowance of course.

This is so wrong. There is no such thing as a cheat meal. There is such a thing as overeating and gaining back the weight you struggled so hard to lose.

haggs88

haha! I did mean cheat MEAL not cheat day!! Huge difference... Cut me some slack I wrote this article at 3am est..

atypicalsmith

haggs88 wrote: »

haha! I did mean cheat MEAL not cheat day!! Huge difference... Cut me some slack I wrote this article at 3am est..

Don't do even cheat meals. Work it into your daily/weekly caloric intake. Eat the food you enjoy except for hot dogs. They are forbidden. Worse than canned Vienna sausage.

Harleyb87

haggs88 wrote: »

haha! I did mean cheat MEAL not cheat day!! Huge difference... Cut me some slack I wrote this article at 3am est..

People shouldn't be afraid of having something you enjoy. Its not saying go on a all day binge and eat 40000 calories just a meal you enjoy without having to feel guilty to reward yourself for staying on a consistent healthy diet.

snickerscharlie

atypicalsmith wrote: »

Don't do even cheat meals. Work it into your daily/weekly caloric intake. Eat the food you enjoy except for hot dogs. They are forbidden. Worse than canned Vienna sausage.

Now hotdogs are the debbil? Who knew?

atypicalsmith

snickerscharlie wrote: »

atypicalsmith wrote: »

Don't do even cheat meals. Work it into your daily/weekly caloric intake. Eat the food you enjoy except for hot dogs. They are forbidden. Worse than canned Vienna sausage.

Now hotdogs are the debbil? Who knew?

patrikc333

BeckaFrieri wrote: »

patrikc333 wrote: »

I struggle to understand what a "cheat meal" is and why people who go out for a meal sometimes consider it as a cheat meal. deprivation is what will make people unhappy and going back to the old bad habits, not certainly going to a restaurant and eat even a 2000 calories meal, providing it fits in their day cal allowance of course.

I don't deprive myself I just eat really healthy and have one cheat meal after 7 days

assuming there is a difference between "healthy" and "not healthy", can you tell me what is a cheat meal then for you?

do you mean going over calories or eating for example 30 bags of haribos for dinner (just to make a silly example)?

atypicalsmith

What's a haribo?

snickerscharlie

patrikc333 wrote: »

BeckaFrieri wrote: »

patrikc333 wrote: »

I struggle to understand what a "cheat meal" is and why people who go out for a meal sometimes consider it as a cheat meal. deprivation is what will make people unhappy and going back to the old bad habits, not certainly going to a restaurant and eat even a 2000 calories meal, providing it fits in their day cal allowance of course.

I don't deprive myself I just eat really healthy and have one cheat meal after 7 days

assuming there is a difference between "healthy" and "not healthy", can you tell me what is a cheat meal then for you?

do you mean going over calories or eating for example 30 bags of haribos for dinner (just to make a silly example)?

If it's 30 bags of haribo sugarfree gummy bears, the cheat/binge won't be an issue for long.

atypicalsmith

Yuck, gummy bears! I have too sophisticated a palate for that!

patrikc333

BeckaFrieri wrote: »

People shouldn't be afraid of having something you enjoy. Its not saying go on a all day binge and eat 40000 calories just a meal you enjoy without having to feel guilty to reward yourself for staying on a consistent healthy diet.

and this is the problem in my opinion - you are thinking of something you enjoy as a treat/reward when, if you want to live happily with your new style, it should be absolutely normal and seen as just food.

I think that people who write "I'm having pizza/ice cream once per month as a treat" for example make a huge and non rationale mistake

maintaining is not dieting, just calling it "dieting" implies you are restricting yourself, and no one will be able to restrict themselves for years

Altagracia220

I don't necessarily do a cheat day but I will have a meal or two a week where I just eat what I want and don't worry about the calories. Doing this has not hindered my weight loss in at any point. I've had a steady loss since I've started with MFP 5 months ago. I say go for it.

Altagracia220

To all those who say: You're only cheating yourself if have a cheat day/meal.

Am I still only cheating myself if I regularly lose weight and enjoy these said cheat meals?

bpetrosky

haggs88 wrote: »

haha! I did mean cheat MEAL not cheat day!! Huge difference... Cut me some slack I wrote this article at 3am est..

I've come to avoid the idea of a "cheat" meal/day, for me it set up fairly unhealthy reward/punishment attitudes with food. That idea got popular with a lot of the very restrictive, rule-bound diets in the past few decades because it helped reduce the dropout rate and improved compliance because people had the mental crutch of a day off to look forward to. A lot of people who do this and have cheat days find themselves at the all-you-can-eat buffet and effectively null out their deficit for the week in one sitting.

But losing weight requires being consistently (but not necessarily constantly) at a deficit, and making some trade-offs. You can't become a social recluse just because you're watching your calories, but you don't want those events to cancel out your efforts the rest of the time.

The best strategy is to work it into your plan. Get some exercise in to build up a higher allowance that day, maybe have a meal that fits between your threshold and maintenance levels (but not over). If you're shooting for a 3500 cal/week deficit, and you have a day where you eat at maintenance, you're effectively at a 3000 cal/week deficit. You're still losing, just a bit less. If that helps you keep the long term goal, it's not a bad trade-off..

Good luck

Harleyb87

patrikc333 wrote: »

BeckaFrieri wrote: »

People shouldn't be afraid of having something you enjoy. Its not saying go on a all day binge and eat 40000 calories just a meal you enjoy without having to feel guilty to reward yourself for staying on a consistent healthy diet.

and this is the problem in my opinion - you are thinking of something you enjoy as a treat/reward when, if you want to live happily with your new style, it should be absolutely normal and seen as just food.

I think that people who write "I'm having pizza/ice cream once per month as a treat" for example make a huge and non rationale mistake

maintaining is not dieting, just calling it "dieting" implies you are restricting yourself, and no one will be able to restrict themselves for years

You cannot eat mac and cheese and pizza or mexican food or ice cream everyday and maintain a healthy weight or at least most people cannot so whats wrong with restricting unhealthy foods and eating healthy and let me clarify what I mean by that. I eat a lot of veggies, lean protein, fruit, healthy carbs, balanced meals using less oil or substitutes for heavy calorie ingredients. Once a week I'll eat pizza and wings with my boyfriend or I'll go out for drinks and a burger and fries. I dont see the harm in restricting unhealthy foods and eating them sparingly.

Harleyb87

patrikc333 wrote: »

BeckaFrieri wrote: »

patrikc333 wrote: »

I struggle to understand what a "cheat meal" is and why people who go out for a meal sometimes consider it as a cheat meal. deprivation is what will make people unhappy and going back to the old bad habits, not certainly going to a restaurant and eat even a 2000 calories meal, providing it fits in their day cal allowance of course.

I don't deprive myself I just eat really healthy and have one cheat meal after 7 days

assuming there is a difference between "healthy" and "not healthy", can you tell me what is a cheat meal then for you?

do you mean going over calories or eating for example 30 bags of haribos for dinner (just to make a silly example)?

Let me give you an example of what I eat and you will get the idea of my typical day. I'll eat fruit or oatmeal in the morning, a salad with some lean protein for lunch I stay away from ranch or other heavy calorie dressings and then I usually prepare something healthy for dinner like last week I made grilled chicken with fajita seasonings peppers and onions and I chopped up lettuce cooked some whole grain rice and made a fajita bowl. No tortilla just a little bit of low fat cheese on the top. For snacks ill have a veggie like steamed green beans, spinach ect ect.

ruggedshutter

I don't believe in cheat days. If your calorie reduction is so severe that you need a cheat day to feel satisfied then it's too much. Reevaluate your goals and find a good calorie deficit that leaves you feeling satisfied at the end of each day.

Harleyb87

ruggedshutter wrote: »

I don't believe in cheat days. If your calorie reduction is so severe that you need a cheat day to feel satisfied then it's too much. Reevaluate your goals and find a good calorie deficit that leaves you feeling satisfied at the end of each day.

So your telling me you never want something like pizza or pasta here and there?

Altagracia220

BeckaFrieri wrote: »

patrikc333 wrote: »

BeckaFrieri wrote: »

People shouldn't be afraid of having something you enjoy. Its not saying go on a all day binge and eat 40000 calories just a meal you enjoy without having to feel guilty to reward yourself for staying on a consistent healthy diet.

and this is the problem in my opinion - you are thinking of something you enjoy as a treat/reward when, if you want to live happily with your new style, it should be absolutely normal and seen as just food.

I think that people who write "I'm having pizza/ice cream once per month as a treat" for example make a huge and non rationale mistake

maintaining is not dieting, just calling it "dieting" implies you are restricting yourself, and no one will be able to restrict themselves for years

You cannot eat mac and cheese and pizza or mexican food or ice cream everyday and maintain a healthy weight or at least most people cannot so whats wrong with restricting unhealthy foods and eating healthy and let me clarify what I mean by that. I eat a lot of veggies, lean protein, fruit, healthy carbs, balanced meals using less oil or substitutes for heavy calorie ingredients. Once a week I'll eat pizza and wings with my boyfriend or I'll go out for drinks and a burger and fries. I dont see the harm in restricting unhealthy foods and eating them sparingly.

It's the argument as old as time.

Person 'A' eats whatever they want as long as it fit's into their calorie limits and that's great. 'Person B' decides it's not worth it to indulge in foods everyday they consider unhealthy or junk and decides to limit themselves to said junk once a week or every other week and that's great too. People do things differently, people do things that work for them. There's nothing wrong with that. I am like person 'B'. Yes, I could have one pizza a day and fit it into my calories, but will I? No, because I know I won't want to stop at one pizza slice. And If I've learned anything from being overweight, I'll have 4 or 5 slices and later on I'll think, "Well I already had all that pizza and screwed up my day, might as well have that pint of ice cream" Bad habits ensue.

It's great if you can have a slice of pizza and a tablespoon of cookie dough ice cream every day but not everybody can do it. I'd rather just do a cheat meal once a week or once every two weeks.

Certain people here just don't want to understand that.

patrikc333

yep, now I get why people get annoyed when certain food is labelled "unhealthy"

serenity1097

I fail to understand how pizza, pasta, burgers etc are "Cheating" or unhealthy if they fit into your daily or even weekly macros?

HoundstoothMFP

These discussions always go around in circles....but for ME I don't call them "cheat" meals, but any meal I don't prepare for myself is off-routine and I'm trying not to have them very often unless needed, i.e. meeting, social gathering.

Altagracia220

patrikc333 wrote: »

yep, now I get why people get annoyed when certain food is labelled "unhealthy"

I know, right. So annoying when people don't share the same opinion and label everything the same as I do.

Harleyb87

jazmin220 wrote: »

BeckaFrieri wrote: »

patrikc333 wrote: »

BeckaFrieri wrote: »

People shouldn't be afraid of having something you enjoy. Its not saying go on a all day binge and eat 40000 calories just a meal you enjoy without having to feel guilty to reward yourself for staying on a consistent healthy diet.

and this is the problem in my opinion - you are thinking of something you enjoy as a treat/reward when, if you want to live happily with your new style, it should be absolutely normal and seen as just food.

I think that people who write "I'm having pizza/ice cream once per month as a treat" for example make a huge and non rationale mistake

maintaining is not dieting, just calling it "dieting" implies you are restricting yourself, and no one will be able to restrict themselves for years

You cannot eat mac and cheese and pizza or mexican food or ice cream everyday and maintain a healthy weight or at least most people cannot so whats wrong with restricting unhealthy foods and eating healthy and let me clarify what I mean by that. I eat a lot of veggies, lean protein, fruit, healthy carbs, balanced meals using less oil or substitutes for heavy calorie ingredients. Once a week I'll eat pizza and wings with my boyfriend or I'll go out for drinks and a burger and fries. I dont see the harm in restricting unhealthy foods and eating them sparingly.

It's the argument as old as time.

Person 'A' eats whatever they want as long as it fit's into their calorie limits and that's great. 'Person B' decides it's not worth it to indulge in foods everyday they consider unhealthy or junk and decides to limit themselves to said junk once a week or every other week and that's great too. People do things differently, people do things that work for them. There's nothing wrong with that. I am like person 'B'. Yes, I could have one pizza a day and fit it into my calories, but will I? No, because I know I won't want to stop at one pizza slice. And If I've learned anything from being overweight, I'll have 4 or 5 slices and later on I'll think, "Well I already had all that pizza and screwed up my day, might as well have that pint of ice cream" Bad habits ensue.

It's great if you can have a slice of pizza and a tablespoon of cookie dough ice cream every day but not everybody can do it. I'd rather just do a cheat meal once a week or once every two weeks.

Certain people here just don't want to understand that.

I completely agree with you! It doesnt work for me to have junk food everyday because I like to eat and that throws a wrench in the amount of calories you have left for the day, and like you I am more likely to say screw it ill go have something else bad for me because I already had bad food. I have no problem is someone has the ability to eat junk food everyday and lose weight more power to them it just doesnt work for me.