Cheat day/meal?

jackievarley9574

Do most of you guys do a cheat meal/ day? Or recommend having one? I was on a 14 day streak and had a cheat day this weekend and as I was logging it in my diary it blew my mind how many calories was in it. Just the one meal was over my calorie limit for the day. Not even including my brownie sundae afterwards. What do you guys do? Cheat or not to cheat??

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LatoyasTime

I think depriving yourself and treating certain foods like they're bad is a great way to drive yourself crazy and make all of this a lot more difficult than it has to be.

DoubleUbea

This comes up again and again. Cheat days are counterproductive.
It is perfectly fine to go over one day, don't worry about it, but cheating only hurts you.

vanityy99

One day won’t hurt you just don’t make it a long streak. I don’t plan for cheat days unless there’s a special occasion coming up.

NorthCascades

Your body counts calories whether you log them or not.

I eat when I'm hungry, regardless of what the app says.

I find it's useful to log the things I eat even when I go over my calorie goal. Sometimes it's worth it, sometimes it's not, sometimes something is "a really bad deal" in terms of how much enjoyment or satisfaction I get compared to how many calories it was. For example, good pizza is worth it, bad pizza isn't. By logging stuff, I can pick up on some patterns, and make it easier on me.

swatson99

I 'try' just to do one cheat meal with dessert every month or so. If I do a whole day I end up gaining some of the weight back I've lost. If I do one cheat meal it usually doesn't show up on the scale too badly.

apullum

You lose weight when you consistently eat fewer calories than you burn. If you are in a calorie deficit for 6 days of the week and then eat back your deficit on the 7th day, you will not lose weight. It's as simple as that.

bemyyfriend0918

So I normally have cheat meals rather than cheat days, or I set my calories to maintenance for the day. I wouldn’t eat over maintenance because that’s undoing some work from the week and I don’t want that

PowerliftingMom

I never do cheat meals. If I plan on going out to dinner, I'll eat high protein/low carb/low fat meals during the day so I can use the remaining macros to have dinner out

lbryans929

nope. I went into minus yesterday, but I do not call it a cheat day.

amusedmonkey

Some people do well on restricting then letting loose every once in a while, I personally don't. I don't restrict in the first place so I don't have a need for cheat days. I have everything I want in smaller quantities or less often within my calories or take occasional maintenance breaks where I have more freedom with my calories. I sometimes save up calories for about a week if I have something high in calories planned. None of that feels like cheating, it all feels like part of my plan. What would feel easier to you?

Lillymoo01

I try and have a treat meal once a week. I did this during my weight loss and continue to do so through maintenance. I do however make sure it fits in with my weekly calories. As I know it will happen I prepare for it. People who do this will normally;
- eat a little less on the other 6 days to give extra calories for that one meal
- eat at maintenance calories for the day if eating at a deficit
- eat a little less with their other meals during that day and/or
- exercise more that day

As my treat meal is normally on a Saturday my usual go-to is exercising more because I have the time. Also, never consider what you are doing cheating because you aren't. You are trying to work out how you can change your habits of eating to make it work for you long-term. If you give up foods you really enjoy because you have decided there is something wrong with having them you are not making sustainable changes. If you feel guilty about eating certain foods you could develop an unhealthy relationship with food.

AndThenIWoreIt

Yes, I do.

I recently went through birthday season in my family and personally called those days “cheat days.” I logged everything, though I wasn’t especially careful about every little thing (was that big piece of chocolate cake 1.5 servings? 2 servings? More? Whatever.)

I feel like I learn from these experiences— and one thing I learned was that 3 hours of kayaking and a long run on the beach were an excellent way to make room for an order of restaurant calamari and a beer. Do I know exactly how many calories I burned on the river or exactly how many calories of fried food I ate? No. But I totally let myself enjoy it for my b-day treat. Will I do that regularly? No. I’ll keep it very, very rare.

With the holidays coming up, I’m planning ahead to *not* have cheat days, because that food isn’t personally special to me. I’ll make healthy versions of my favorite dishes — and go for long runs, too — and feel great.

AndThenIWoreIt

I forgot to mention the s’mores. It was a truly fantastic cheat day 😎

nexangelus

I do not "cheat"...nothing happens with negative connotations in my life. If I plan to eat over because I am hungry, I log it all, it is not "cheating"...how about flexibly dieting, that is to say, eat everything you enjoy, as long as it fits your calorie and macro allowances? I eat chocolate, icecream, biscuits and anything I enjoy, I log it and it is part of my food for the day/week. Allowing yourself more flexibility might stop the negative associations with planned surplus eating, eating sugary stuff, eating fatty stuff (insert whatever food you like to put in the "naughty" pile here) etc...if you deprive yourself of things you enjoy, you are bound to crave them and cave in and eat them (possibly/inevitably to excess)...if you want to get technical, I also go on a diet break every 3 months/12 weeks (eat at maintenance to let hormone and other things come back to normal levels) and if feeling the hunger I refeed - maintenance cals with higher carbs, lower fat for 1 to 3 days...

carrieross733

I do every once in a while..just for sanitys sake. But for me, I find the more cheat meal/days I have..the harder it is for me to stay on track (the more I cheat..the more I crave "bad" foods) so I try to avoid them as much as possible...depends on your triggers though and how well you are able to control yourself

serindipte

I don't do "cheats", but I do bank calories ahead of time if I know I'm going to eat a higher calorie meal. If it comes up unplanned, then I eat it, log it, and eat a little less over the next several days. In the end, one meal here and there isn't going to hurt anything at all. For me, it works best to look at my weekly average rather than daily. Some days, I'm more hungry than others, so I eat more on those days. In the end, it averages out and my body doesn't keep time.

countcurt

I, too, detest the term 'cheating' which implies immoral behavior and self-victimization. Why would one plan to undermine themselves?


That said, I like the occasional splurge. It is true that the occasional splurge (or treat) slows down overall progress to goal, but I live to eat which means some choices I make will 'cost' me at the scale.

I don't have a set schedule. I also know pretty well what I'll have to do to stay my course in terms of where I'll have to forgo other treats in order to maintain my weight.

kami3006

I follow a weekly calorie goal so some days are higher than others but it balances out in the end. I'm able to enjoy the foods I want while still working them into my calories.

nooshi713

I do a maintenance day once a week, sometimes 2. That is my cheat.

patrickaa5

I currently am eating 1,750 cals per day (12,250 per week). I set my MFP calories as 1,650 per day (Sun-Thur) and 2,000 calories on Friday and Saturday - which are normally days we'll eat out for dinner. I don't really consider these "cheat days", but just my normal calories for those particular days.

FroFitMom39

Yeah, I'm not really a fan of cheat or treat meals. However, if and when I do indulge.....it's planned out and it's only one meal. When I say planned, meaning its fits my macros for the day.

makkimakki2018

I do cheat meals once a week. It took a while to find out how much i can handle without overdoing it. For me that calorie count was 2500. If i went past that I'd be in for a 2 week period of fighting to get back on track. Trial and error is what i would suspect everyone goes through.

missysippy930

No, no cheat days. What is the point?
The only one you are cheating is yourself.

BigFlinch

You should always treat yourself to a satisfying meal. Personally I choose to have a “cheat” dinner so when my endorphins are at their peak from the savory or sultry foods it’s bed time soon enough so I don’t overindulge. Life has to be worth it, enjoy while we can!

pinuplove

Cheat day/meal = easy way to wipe out my weekly deficit. If I know I have a special event coming up or just want to have a more relaxed weekend, I bank calories during the week for it.

AnnPT77

I don't believe in cheat days/meals, in pretty much the same sense that (as an adult) I don't believe in Santa Claus. Mythical!

I'm in maintenance now, but when I was losing, I ate very near my calorie goal the overwhelming majority of the time, a couple/few hundred calories under or over occasionally, and way over my goal on very rare occasions (usually special events like my birthday, or restaurant meal with out-of-town friends). I logged it all, every day, even if I had to estimate, and when I had to estimate, I'd try to guess on the high-but-believable side.

Afterward, in the cold light of day, I could do the math and figure out the impact: By how long had I delayed reaching goal weight? Usually, the answer was a few hours; a very few times, the answer was a small number of days.

Then I could consider: Was it worth it? If it was worth it, just get back on goal calories and soldier on. If it wasn't worth it, think about the trigger(s) for doing it, what alternatives might have been better, rehearse that in my head a few times as prep for next time . . . then get back on goal calories and soldier on. Learning from it is good; stressing about it is pointless (burns no extra calories, makes me miserable).

I also recorded my morning weigh-in, every day, even after big-eating days (using a weight trending app).

By the time I was a few months into calorie counting this way, I could predict with great accuracy how much fat-weight I'd gained, how long it would take for any water weight/digestive contents from the excess to disappear on the scale, and how long it would take to re-lose that (small) bit of fat and be back at previous low scale weight. Just facts and data, not any kind of big drama - kind of a fun science fair project for grown-ups.

Weight management is not a morality play, not a measure of self worth; it's just about health, feeling good, enjoying life (ideally for a long time in the future).

The rhetoric around "cheating", "bad foods", "good foods", "being bad/good" casts eating as a cycle of sin and expiation, failure and redemption. It isn't. It's just food. It's about fueling, nutrition, health, enjoyment. They have to balance. Why cheat on that?

xmarye

I can have anything I want, within my calories. If I go over, no problem. Just get right back on the next day!

But to avoid being in a situation where I lose control and my treat turns into a full on binge, I have something sweet daily after dinner. Also, if I want a burger, I'll just have a burger. Maybe only pick 2-3 fries from my hubby and switch the pop for a diet one. I don't want to feel deprived! Usually I can work around it and tweak the rest of my day so that it's not even an issue!

I actually lost 1.4lbs the day after having a Big Mac this week. And for the record, it was soooo satisfying. No regrets. It also kept me full for hours and I only had a small salad for dinner around 9, and skipped the dessert cuz I just didn't want it that night! Win-win!