Cheating meals

Makingmyselfover

Is it true cheating meals r important to boost your metabolism? Do they slow the losing weight process by much? Do u do it? How often? Do u control a bit or go all the way with them?

MissusMoon

For most people, no, they do not boost your metabolism. For high performance athletes, high calorie days can be helpful to performance. We're talking serious athletes here. As far as dieters, no.

Some people do cheat meals and are ok. Many others find they turn into cheat weekends and/or get frustrated with a stall in their progress.

lemurcat12

No, they aren't important for metabolism.

How they effect progress depends on how you use them. When I first started I had a 1000 calorie/day deficit and used some exercise calories to allow myself to eat higher (but always under maintenance) on one day a week. I consistently lost at least 2 lb/week, which was my goal. I was pretty fat, but don't think a higher goal would have been sensible, so it did not negatively affect my loss at all.

If you are going for 1 lb per week and have a consistent deficit of 500 calories 6 days and eat at maintenance on the 7th, you will likely lose less than 1 lb, but not a lot less (and with fluctuations and inaccuracies in logging and variable movement) it might not actually be a noticeable difference. You could flex calories to the "cheat" day if you wanted to keep overall deficit the same.

If you eat at about 500 calories less than maintenance 6 days a week and then use the other to eat however you want and for you it feels like an opportunity to binge or make up for overrestriction on other days, then yes it could prevent a loss. (Or it could simply lead to a water weight gain which some shrug off and some would find demotivating and an excuse to going way off their calorie plan for several days.) Similarly, if you find it hard to eat at a higher calorie level and then stop, then it's a bad idea.

I personally find fitting in a high cal meal a lot easier than a day where I just eat whatever, and back when I was logging I'd log a planned high cal day (and not call it a cheat day), but YMMV.

fr33sia12

I don't have cheat meals or days. For me a cheat meal would be pizza, ice cream, a big roast dinner, or what I class as junk food, but most people already include these types of meals in their calories so it wouldn't be a cheat meal to them. If I did have what's classed as a cheat meal I would still have to count it into my allowed calories so I'd rather spend those calories on healthier foods which means I can have more for the same amount of calories.

Makingmyselfover

I was more worried my metabolism getting slower. I don't wanna use it as i can't just do acheating meal. It will became days of overeating. ...

lemurcat12

fr33sia12 wrote: »

I don't have cheat meals or days. For me a cheat meal would be pizza, ice cream, a big roast dinner, or what I class as junk food, but most people already include these types of meals in their calories so it wouldn't be a cheat meal to them. If I did have what's classed as a cheat meal I would still have to count it into my allowed calories so I'd rather spend those calories on healthier foods which means I can have more for the same amount of calories.

I always think people mean a day in which they go over calories or a particularly indulgent meal. I don't use the term, but for example I went out for Ethiopian last night. Probably didn't fit in my overall calories (I did a 5 mile run, but also ate a normal breakfast and lunch), but since I do my biggest workouts on the weekend I won't be over for the week by Sunday.

I don't think an Ethiopian meal is particularly "unhealthy" (lots of veg, plenty of protein)--just higher cal, mainly because I lack restraint.

LisaKay91

My cheat meals are meals that hit the top range of my calorie goal for the day.. but never over maintenance. I don't believe a cheat meal helps with anything but keeping sane, for the most part. They are not required for weight loss and your metabolism won't slow down from eating at a deficit.. unless you are literally licking apples and smelling peanut butter as a meal for months and years.. even then the change is so minimal it's not really worth thinking about right now.

zyxst

lemurcat12 wrote: »

fr33sia12 wrote: »

I don't have cheat meals or days. For me a cheat meal would be pizza, ice cream, a big roast dinner, or what I class as junk food, but most people already include these types of meals in their calories so it wouldn't be a cheat meal to them. If I did have what's classed as a cheat meal I would still have to count it into my allowed calories so I'd rather spend those calories on healthier foods which means I can have more for the same amount of calories.

I always think people mean a day in which they go over calories or a particularly indulgent meal. I don't use the term, but for example I went out for Ethiopian last night. Probably didn't fit in my overall calories (I did a 5 mile run, but also ate a normal breakfast and lunch), but since I do my biggest workouts on the weekend I won't be over for the week by Sunday.

I don't think an Ethiopian meal is particularly "unhealthy" (lots of veg, plenty of protein)--just higher cal, mainly because I lack restraint.

For me, I used to think it meant going over calories, but it's become going over sodium*. Sometimes it's both though I've gotten good at staying around maintenance calories.

*inb4 "sodium doesn't matter unless you have HBP"; guess what I have?

rankinsect

I have certain special occasions I don't log (birthdays, Christmas, etc.) I am sure I do go over my usual calorie allotments on those days.

I would never want to have those too often; I enjoy the food but don't enjoy the loss of control. Mostly I just work what I want to eat into my normal calories.

Chieflrg

I eat whatever I want on a cut as long as both my macros and calorie intake hit.

At least 1200-1500 cals from ice cream daily and the weight drops.

If you can't stop eating a type of food then maybe it's time to take a break, otherwise no reason to stay away from anything you enjoy.

Makingmyselfover

Chieflrg wrote: »

I eat whatever I want on a cut as long as both my macros and calorie intake hit.

At least 1200-1500 cals from ice cream daily and the weight drops.

If you can't stop eating a type of food then maybe it's time to take a break, otherwise no reason to stay away from anything you enjoy.

Really? Does still work? Can i eat a slice of nutella with my coffe and if fit my cal/macros i will still lose weight? Fat weight?

JeromeBarry1

Makingmyselfover wrote: »

Chieflrg wrote: »

I eat whatever I want on a cut as long as both my macros and calorie intake hit.

At least 1200-1500 cals from ice cream daily and the weight drops.

If you can't stop eating a type of food then maybe it's time to take a break, otherwise no reason to stay away from anything you enjoy.

Really? Does still work? Can i eat a slice of nutella with my coffe and if fit my cal/macros i will still lose weight? Fat weight?

Yes. Food isn't fattening. Too much food is.

Dove0804

You can eat whatever you want as long as it's within your calorie goals. I don't like the idea of "cheat days" or "cheat meals", but I do budget for the foods I am craving or want to eat. I find I crave certain foods less and less over time. Sometimes if I know a party, wedding, holiday or other big event is coming up, or if I know I'm going out to dinner later in the week I'll try and eat a little less for a few days in anticipation of the days where I know I'll be eating more.
Today I went to Starbucks for an iced mocha and a chocolate croissant. I haven't had that in a while and it was a decent amount of calories, but I accounted for that today. That was my "cheat meal", since there are obviously healthier options for breakfast, but it's still not going to be my undoing and I don't go crazy from trying to restrict myself too much.

Makingmyselfover

Dove0804 wrote: »

You can eat whatever you want as long as it's within your calorie goals. I don't like the idea of "cheat days" or "cheat meals", but I do budget for the foods I am craving or want to eat. I find I crave certain foods less and less over time. Sometimes if I know a party, wedding, holiday or other big event is coming up, or if I know I'm going out to dinner later in the week I'll try and eat a little less for a few days in anticipation of the days where I know I'll be eating more.
Today I went to Starbucks for an iced mocha and a chocolate croissant. I haven't had that in a while and it was a decent amount of calories, but I accounted for that today. That was my "cheat meal", since there are obviously healthier options for breakfast, but it's still not going to be my undoing and I don't go crazy from trying to restrict myself too much.

That's the best new I have in a long time!!!!!!!