Cheat Meal Calculations

fitgamercatlady

Hello MFPals!

I used MFP a year ago to track macros and I always had a cheat day. Now I'm only doing a cheat meal, but I have no idea how many calories to eat for the rest of the day. My cheat meals are always more than 1,000 kcal. On regular days I try to keep myself below 400 kcal for each meal since I'm trying to cut weight and eating 1,200 kcal a day.

When I had my cheat meal I just tried to keep my other meals that day under 400kcal, but I don't feel like that's correct. I heard that as long as I stay at my target deficit for the remainder of the time (which I always do), my cheat meal won't do too much damage.

Thanks for your input!

LazSommer

It depends on your goals and weekly deficit.... If you're trying to lose at a 1200 cal limit you're better off fasting until your cheat meal, or give yourself a larger weekly deficit with exercise and eat normally, using the extra cals for the one meal.

You still have to count the extra calories into your planning, so it's not really a cheat meal unless you accept a slower loss by going over your calories. Whatever floats your boat.

bemyyfriend0918

It is all a matter of how many calories you are content with eating that day. If you don't care and want to have the 400 calories for breakfast, 400 calories for lunch, and 1000 calories for dinner you certainly can. I don't believe you'd gain any weight from eating 1800 calories that day. If it makes you more comfortable why not try lowering the calories from breakfast and lunch that day to 250 and 250 - you'll save 300 calories and your total for the day will only be 1500, which for most people still provides a loss.

SueInAz

You could still have a 1000 calorie cheat meal and then 200 calories earlier in the day and not worry about it at all. Alternatively, you could eat 1800 calories which is your two 400 calorie meals and one 1000 calorie meal. That will impact your weight loss for the week by (600/3500) or about 1/6th of a pound vs. 1200 calories per day without the cheat meal.

So if you aren't concerned about losing 1/6 pound per week (or 2/3 pound per month) less than you could then just eat your two other meals as you normally would.

fitgamercatlady

SueInAz wrote: »

You could still have a 1000 calorie cheat meal and then 200 calories earlier in the day and not worry about it at all. Alternatively, you could eat 1800 calories which is your two 400 calorie meals and one 1000 calorie meal. That will impact your weight loss for the week by (600/3500) or about 1/6th of a pound vs. 1200 calories per day without the cheat meal.

So if you aren't concerned about losing 1/6 pound per week (or 2/3 pound per month) less than you could then just eat your two other meals as you normally would.

I'm just doing the deficit for a "casual" weight loss to get more muscle definition (I have no real goal date) but most of the food logging is to make sure I'm not eating too much sugar/fat and teaching myself portion sizes again. Thanks!