How far do you go on cheat days?

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  • glin23
    glin23 Posts: 460 Member
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    Okay, I am still confused on the whole cheat day thing. Some people say it is great to have a cheat day where you eat a lot of whatever you want. Some people say cheat days are good in maintenance. Some people say cheat meals are better. Others say no cheat meals at all is best. What is really best???

    That really depends on you. To me it's sort of like the issue about banned foods. I can say that for the most part, I don't need to ban a food (ie: I can consume pretty much anything in moderation and won't just automatically overeat). Some people can't though. I can be satisfied by having a smaller indulgence more often or even weeks apart. But some people need to have a cheat day/meal relatively often.
  • SkepticallyFit
    SkepticallyFit Posts: 71
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    Why bother being good all week if you're going to blow it all on a binge? Makes absolutely no sense to me and smacks of disordered eating. If you have a good relationship with food then you shouldn't feel the need to "cheat" especially not an all day binge.

    Going over your calorie allowance one day is NOT blowing your entire week. You're joking, right? Do your research, talk to a physician, nutritionist.. SOMETHING! It seems as if YOU have a more unhealthy relationship with food than the OP (if you can't even splurge once in awhile.) Sad.

    Going over your budget once in a while for an occasion or eating a bit over budget is much different than eating a whole batch of cookies plus other things on a "cheat" day. A pound is about 3500 calories which would be easy to exceed with that kind of a binge. There is no reason you can't budget for a special day and eat at maintenance without going crazy.

    Really? I currently eat 1500 calories a day for a 1000 calorie deficit. If I were trying to lose 1lb, then I would be eating 2000 calories. In order for me to blow a 3500 calorie weekly deficit in one day, I would have to eat 5500 calories. I would vomit well before that.
  • Ophidion
    Ophidion Posts: 2,065 Member
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    all the way lol oh wait we are talking about food, I don't do cheat days I just enjoy eating and log it honestly if I go over meh just get back on track the next day. No biggie, one must enjoy themselves.
  • calibriintx
    calibriintx Posts: 1,741 Member
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    Cheat day? That makes about as much sense as having a "cheat day" in your marriage.

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  • marhattap
    marhattap Posts: 149 Member
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    Mine varies. A TRUE, at home with the family, cheat day will cost me anywhere between 3500-5000 calories. I know, I know, its scary how much I can put down.

    Other times cheat day is between 2000-3000 calories.

    I usually only have 1-2 cheat days a month, or at least try not to have more :)
  • rosemaryhon
    rosemaryhon Posts: 507 Member
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    Why bother being good all week if you're going to blow it all on a binge? Makes absolutely no sense to me and smacks of disordered eating. If you have a good relationship with food then you shouldn't feel the need to "cheat" especially not an all day binge.

    Going over your calorie allowance one day is NOT blowing your entire week. You're joking, right? Do your research, talk to a physician, nutritionist.. SOMETHING! It seems as if YOU have a more unhealthy relationship with food than the OP (if you can't even splurge once in awhile.) Sad.

    Going over your budget once in a while for an occasion or eating a bit over budget is much different than eating a whole batch of cookies plus other things on a "cheat" day. A pound is about 3500 calories which would be easy to exceed with that kind of a binge. There is no reason you can't budget for a special day and eat at maintenance without going crazy.

    Really? I currently eat 1500 calories a day for a 1000 calorie deficit. If I were trying to lose 1lb, then I would be eating 2000 calories. In order for me to blow a 3500 calorie weekly deficit in one day, I would have to eat 5500 calories. I would vomit well before that.


    Okay, so you'd vomit. But the OP mentioned she ate an entire batch of cookies ~ which going by MFP database could be 5500 calories ~ that's not including the rest of the food for the day.

    So yea, really ~ as the poster you responded to said, it could be easy to exceed with the kind of binge the OP described.
  • calibriintx
    calibriintx Posts: 1,741 Member
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    Okay, I am still confused on the whole cheat day thing. Some people say it is great to have a cheat day where you eat a lot of whatever you want. Some people say cheat days are good in maintenance. Some people say cheat meals are better. Others say no cheat meals at all is best. What is really best???

    Do whatever makes you happy and is sustainable for you. If eating whatever you want all the time, while trying to hit your calorie target and macro goals, is it, do that. If it's eating super clean and restricting processed stuff except for a once a week cheat day, do that. If it's some other plan that works for you, do that. None of it is going to make a huge impact on your weight loss, outside of whether or not you can sustain your plan, as long as you're hitting your calorie target for the week. Sometimes I don't pay much attention to my daily numbers and I just try to have a good week. JUX DO WUT WERKS 4U. :wink:
  • SkepticallyFit
    SkepticallyFit Posts: 71
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    Why bother being good all week if you're going to blow it all on a binge? Makes absolutely no sense to me and smacks of disordered eating. If you have a good relationship with food then you shouldn't feel the need to "cheat" especially not an all day binge.

    Going over your calorie allowance one day is NOT blowing your entire week. You're joking, right? Do your research, talk to a physician, nutritionist.. SOMETHING! It seems as if YOU have a more unhealthy relationship with food than the OP (if you can't even splurge once in awhile.) Sad.

    Going over your budget once in a while for an occasion or eating a bit over budget is much different than eating a whole batch of cookies plus other things on a "cheat" day. A pound is about 3500 calories which would be easy to exceed with that kind of a binge. There is no reason you can't budget for a special day and eat at maintenance without going crazy.

    Really? I currently eat 1500 calories a day for a 1000 calorie deficit. If I were trying to lose 1lb, then I would be eating 2000 calories. In order for me to blow a 3500 calorie weekly deficit in one day, I would have to eat 5500 calories. I would vomit well before that.


    Okay, so you'd vomit. But the OP mentioned she ate an entire batch of cookies ~ which going by MFP database could be 5500 calories ~ that's not including the rest of the food for the day.

    So yea, really ~ as the poster you responded to said, it could be easy to exceed with the kind of binge the OP described.

    The point is it depends on the individual. If people can lose weight with cheat days, who are we to tell them it's a bad idea?
  • fourfiftythree
    fourfiftythree Posts: 203 Member
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    Sometimes I will splurge and do a cheat meal, but most of the time it is just "treat day". As in one treat. Like ice cream after dinner, or a Starbucks coffee. I can't imagine eating junk for an entire day - not worth it in my opinion.
  • Raddichio
    Raddichio Posts: 163 Member
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    I don't have any earmarked "cheat" days. As others have said, it seems contrary to readjusting my overall eating habits. I do go out to eat with friends and family once a week, and I often don't now where we're going until shortly before. I try to make sure I eat especialy healthy and light earlier in the day to minimize the impact of possibly going over on calories when going out to eat, and I allow myself to eat whatever I feel like at that meal, but I don't go crazy. With the exception of maybe the first week of realigning my eating habits, I haven't felt particulary deprived or hungry, however; and if I really want something, I eat it and log it. Looking back over six weeks of my food diary, I found that I only went over my calorie allotment once---on the day we go out to eat---and I consumed 2049 calories, so not that bad (and my daily average over that week was within the proper range of calories). If I'd exercised that day, I could have been within calorie allotment, but I didn't.

    If I made a regular habit of eating badly (i.e., "cheating") each week, I think it would make it harder to get back on track for the rest of the week. I prefer to maintain a comfortable, albeit small, deficit and stay on track without feeling deprived each day, rather than one day of free eating and six feeling restricted (and maybe hungry, too, after eating freely on the "cheat" day).
  • jusa1011
    jusa1011 Posts: 21
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    I usually give myself one cheat day a week. When I do, I try to keep it to one meal that day and eat sensible the rest of the day. I still log what I ate as best I can. Also, I will do an extra workout to justify the cheat meal. With that, I usually only go over 200 to 300 calories at the most.:happy:
  • chrisdavey
    chrisdavey Posts: 9,835 Member
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    Okay, I am still confused on the whole cheat day thing. Some people say it is great to have a cheat day where you eat a lot of whatever you want. Some people say cheat days are good in maintenance. Some people say cheat meals are better. Others say no cheat meals at all is best. What is really best???

    Depends on your definition of cheat. Some 'clean eating' folk have rules against "bad" foods. Breaking these rules would be a cheat to them.

    Others, fit some "bad" foods into their daily allowances and this is not cheating to them. Going over calorie/macro goals is however.

    A cheat/refeed day can be beneficial for psychological reasons for some, it can also trigger binges in others.

    An actual refeed day can be beneficial physiologically as you get very lean to work against adaptive thermogenesis. These are not all out binges but targetted refeeds.

    And if your cheat day cancels out your whole deficit for the week then that is not going to work well for cutting weight.
  • R55T
    R55T Posts: 172 Member
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    I don't call it cheat days or cheat meals. For me, I do go way over on daily cals occasionally, but that mostly happens after a night of beer drinking.

    Day before & during the day before beers, I eat healthy & book in 3 beers as my snack (so no other snacks for the day) before I plan out my meals to try stay within daily calorie intake. I almost always cannot stop @ 3 beers so any extra beers takes me take me past daily recommended cals to excess.

    Hangover day, I don't really feel like eating, prob due to all the alcohol consumed so I just stick to fruit, vegies & lots of water. Doing that makes up for the previous night's excess (that's what I tell myself anyway. Lol)

    I agree with the others, don't call it a cheat meal or cheat day. Plan out your meals & snacks for the whole week to include what you want to have, eg. for that one meal that you want to indulge, even if that meal may be 1200cals on its own. . .

    I believe you'll have more success this way than calling it a cheat meal or day. That term may make you overindulge, feel guilty afterwards, lose motivation etc. That's how I feel anyway, you might have other ideas.

    That's my 2 cents. . . Hope this helps.
  • Bobbie8786
    Bobbie8786 Posts: 202 Member
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    Okay, I am still confused on the whole cheat day thing. Some people say it is great to have a cheat day where you eat a lot of whatever you want. Some people say cheat days are good in maintenance. Some people say cheat meals are better. Others say no cheat meals at all is best. What is really best???

    There isn't a right answer to this question. You do what works for you and it takes trial and error to figure out what that is. Having a splurge meal (within reason) once a month works for me. A gigantic blowout binge day or weekend messes with my head (clearly I am one of those people who has an "unhealthy relationship with food," like it takes a genius to figure that out, as most of us who get to be 100 pounds or so overweight don't arrive at that point because we had a grip on the appropriate place of food in our lives).

    If you can eat a whole batch of cookies and move on afterwards, then maybe it won't be a big deal for you. Personally, I don't know how anyone can say "yeah, sure, eat a dozen or two cookies, no big deal" but apparently there are people who think that is perfectly normal and fine.
  • MelsAuntie
    MelsAuntie Posts: 2,833 Member
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    I see no need or reason for cheat days, I eat what I want to and stay under my calorie goal, always. If you have cheat days you're only "cheating" yourself. So I don't do it, ever. This may be different for some, but I can easily eat one cookie ( or half a cookie) and stop there, or one tablespoon of ice cream and call it enough.
  • susanlouise
    susanlouise Posts: 18 Member
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    Okay, I am still confused on the whole cheat day thing. Some people say it is great to have a cheat day where you eat a lot of whatever you want. Some people say cheat days are good in maintenance. Some people say cheat meals are better. Others say no cheat meals at all is best. What is really best???

    I think it depends on your reaction to "cheating." Some people can have "forbidden" food, enjoy it, and stay on track. For me, it opens up cravings. There's no problem in principle in splurging occasionally. But for me, I can easily lose control. There are foods I just have to stay away from, and I can't plan to have them. Not everybody has this problem, but a lot of people do, and it's best to recognize it.
  • naturallyme36
    naturallyme36 Posts: 155 Member
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    don't cheat, just live. Have what you want and just get over it. No big deal. if you dwell on it then the problems and feeling of guilt arrive. who wants to live like that?
  • arcticfox04
    arcticfox04 Posts: 1,011 Member
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    Cheat day about 5000-6000 calories. Though its at random I don't plan anything and I'm a crazy person when it comes to cardio/lifting. I just make sure I avoid sugars / simple carbs. Sleep for 10 hours and back to my normal day.
  • taidasrictar
    taidasrictar Posts: 100 Member
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    i try not to have Cheat Days just days i keep to my goal but ignore my macros completely, like today i knew we are going to Denny's for dinner and i want a red white and blue pancake puppy sundae in addition to my meal slow cooked pot roast about 1400 cals total out of my total 1,710 calories

    so i end up last night playing food gymnastic with my diary to try to get it to fit in under goal and not be hungry for the day but i got what i want within goal :)

    if i give myself a true cheat day i set up my diary to maintenance for the day (Giving me 1000 more cal since i am on 2lbs a week) and log everything trying to stay under that
  • cherio256
    cherio256 Posts: 219
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    I cheat once a week. Usually on Fridays so I can drink. I don't go all out all day, just usually for dinner and drinks. I go WAY over from drinking. Just be careful with it. I started off doing it on Fridays then realized I was going over some on weekends too and it made me only lose 1 pound in a month! Now I'm back on track just doing it one day a week. Tomorrow is my cheat day and I will eat and drink what I want, then back on track Friday. Also, I always eat what's want, just smaller portions.

    I had to back and look. I had 3187 calories on my last cheat day. I normally do 1200 plus exercise

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