Cheat meals? What are the boundaries?

yayhappygirly

When you have reached a point when you are completely content with your figure/exercise routine, and you are aware of what your macros and calories are needed in order to maintain. How do you implement cheat meals in as sometimes you naturally go over 500 calories within a cheat meal realistically. Will you begin to put the pounds on? Obviously a one off is absolutely fine, however overtime surely you'd put on weight.
Experiences and advice would be appreciated.
Thank you.

kimny72

I've never really used cheat meals, I always eat what I want, just stick to my calories. There is no official definition for what a cheat meal or cheat day is. I know some people who only eat specific foods during "cheat meals", others who mean it as a meal they don't log, and others who mean it as a meal where they know they will eat more than usual.

Maintenance is about finding balance. Some days I eat more, others I eat less. If it doesn't balance out, either I'll gain weight or lose weight. I've never really had the kind of appetite where I could eat so much more in one meal that it wasn't fairly easy to balance it out over the next week or so, so I'm lucky that way.

Weight is about the math. If every day you eat your maintenance calories, and then once a week you eat 500 extra and do nothing to balance it out, over time you will very slowly gain weight.

rodrig462

I am part of an active bicycling group. That doesn't mean that everyone is perfectly satisfied with their weight/fitness. However, exercise does give you an additional "lever" to manage things.
A couple of the guys in the group are experimenting with intermittent fasting. Their interpretation of that is to eat whatever they want for a six hour window each day, and nothing outside that window. I am going to keep an eye on their progress.
I mention this because it seems a variation on "cheat days/meals." You use a clock instead of a nutritional log.

funjen1972

I don't have 'cheat' meals. I have higher calorie meals that I balance with lower calorie meals and exercise.

MikePTY

A lot depends on what your goals and calorie levels are. Be aware that your body counts calories just the same during a "cheat" meal as it does a regular meal. For me, my daily goal (TDEE) is 2250. That leaves me a lot of room to eat what most people would traditionally consider "cheats" from time to time and still hit my goal if I plan my day. I have a big McDonald's burger (no judging) and fries coming for lunch today. I'll still likely be under or close to under my calorie goal today. If you have lower limits, obviously that is harder, but you can still find ways to work it in. One way is by banking some calories for the week. Say you eat 100 calories per day under your goal for 6 days, that frees up 600 calories extra for a 7th day you can use on your cheat meal. You can also decide one day you just want to eat at maintenance and not worry so much about your goal, but try to stay within a limit of what your maintenance calories are *take your goal and add 250 calories for each half a pound you told MFP you wanted to lose)

Those are a couple of strategies you can use to do a so called "cheat" but actually still stay within your goals. I wouldn't recommend just completely off the rails eating whatever you want, as that can stunt your progress. But having a heavier day now and again can actually help with weight loss as it keeps you on track and feeling like you can enjoy things.

EDIT: I realize this is in the maintain section, so the part about "eating at maintenance for a day" probably doesn't apply. But it does make it easier to bank some calories during the week for a heavier day, or just plan your "cheat" meal within your day and eat lighter the rest of the day.

cwolfman13

I don't log...I have higher calorie days and lower calorie days and just monitor what's happening as a trend on the scale. Maintenance for going on 6 years...I ate half a pizza last night.

kzshelbi

I dont know for sure, but I feel like if you have like one day occasionally where you eat one really bad meal as long as the meal dont really go over 1000 calories or something you wont really gain weight from it. You might a small bit but only from the sodium and water retention. Like I said though... maybe once every two weeks or something or once a month if you have that much control.

sardelsa

I have higher and lower calorie days. I look at the overall picture. Especially when maintaining, I have a lot more flexibility. I will start to put the lbs on when I am in a sustained surplus over time. I track my trend weight and adjust as necessary.

Maxxitt

You'll notice a fat gain if you consistently overshoot your maintenance calories. What I have noticed is that my 2-3 pound normal weight variation begins to have a higher floor after a couple of weeks of overshooting a few days a week so that my weekly intake is 1000 calories above maintenance needs. However, I have noticed no ongoing gain from exceeding maintenance every now and then. The other thing I have noticed is that the day following a larger-than-usual calorie intake I am not really hungry, and tend to eat at a bit of a deficit.

pierinifitness

I think there are better ways to "cheat" in life than pigging out with a cheat meal. Since attaining goal weight, again, I'm tired of the thought of letting it get away again so I'm continuing to remain steadfast in my efforts. A cheat meal might be a sign of relapse for me. Relapse is not the act of going back to a poor relationship with food but the thoughts leading up to the act. My personal opinion, your mileage may vary.

Scottgriesser

rodrig462 wrote: »

I am part of an active bicycling group. That doesn't mean that everyone is perfectly satisfied with their weight/fitness. However, exercise does give you an additional "lever" to manage things.
A couple of the guys in the group are experimenting with intermittent fasting. Their interpretation of that is to eat whatever they want for a six hour window each day, and nothing outside that window. I am going to keep an eye on their progress.
I mention this because it seems a variation on "cheat days/meals." You use a clock instead of a nutritional log.

Their interpretation is incredibly wrong in terms of weight loss. Eating 50000 calories in 6 hours is just as damaging as 50000 calories in 18 hrs. There is no magic window where eating counts for more or less. IF is simply a means of calorie intake control as it is harder to overeat if you only have a small amount of time to eat.

As far as maintenance and cheat meals/days go, it totally depends on definition of cheat. As with anything (gain/maintain/lose), as long as you are hitting your numbers, you will do what your numbers say you will do.

spiriteagle99

As several others have said, I don't have cheat meals, I have days when my calories are higher than others, usually because of restaurant meals. After years of watching my weight, I have a reasonable idea of what foods will put me way over my calories and which won't. If I am in the mood for something high calorie, I go ahead and enjoy it, but I know I'll be eating less for several days afterward. If I'm training for a race, I try to do those after my long runs, but can easily still eat more calories than I burned. I balance that with days when I eat less than maintenance level. If I don't, then I gain weight. I have a 5 pound weight window, and when my weight starts going up past the higher number, I cut back until I'm satisfied.

apullum

This is my completely unscientific and anecdotal observation, but just about everyone here who's maintaining seems to have gotten to maintenance without "cheating." We figured out how to eat what we wanted within our calorie goals.

kami3006

apullum wrote: »

This is my completely unscientific and anecdotal observation, but just about everyone here who's maintaining seems to have gotten to maintenance without "cheating." We figured out how to eat what we wanted within our calorie goals.

^ yep.

I balance higher calorie days with lower ones and have what I like within my calories. Following a weekly calorie goal made loss and maintenance much simpler and less stressful for me.

Tolstolobik

kami3006 wrote: »

I balance higher calorie days with lower ones and have what I like within my calories. Following a weekly calorie goal made loss and maintenance much simpler and less stressful for me.

Ditto.

WilmaValley

Great discussion!

pierinifitness

I’ll be a prude and suggest that if you fuel your body smartly each and every day there should be no need for a cheat meal day.

cheryldumais

I agree. I don't do "cheat" meals but some days are higher than others. I simply balance that out with lower days to offset it. If my weight starts to climb I cut back. I still log daily and have for over a year of maintenance.

prdrivas

My wife and I have been using a "Free" day for about 4 years, ever since we reached goal. We eat whatever we want and don't track. The rest of the week, we track macros. We're also usually training for something, so we exercise regularly. Our weight can fluctuate, but we adjust as needed during the week. The "Free" (I won't use cheat), day basically let's us indulge whatever we've been craving during the week. I like it.

zeejane03

Scottgriesser wrote: »

rodrig462 wrote: »

I am part of an active bicycling group. That doesn't mean that everyone is perfectly satisfied with their weight/fitness. However, exercise does give you an additional "lever" to manage things.
A couple of the guys in the group are experimenting with intermittent fasting. Their interpretation of that is to eat whatever they want for a six hour window each day, and nothing outside that window. I am going to keep an eye on their progress.
I mention this because it seems a variation on "cheat days/meals." You use a clock instead of a nutritional log.

Their interpretation is incredibly wrong in terms of weight loss. Eating 50000 calories in 6 hours is just as damaging as 50000 calories in 18 hrs. There is no magic window where eating counts for more or less. IF is simply a means of calorie intake control as it is harder to overeat if you only have a small amount of time to eat.

As far as maintenance and cheat meals/days go, it totally depends on definition of cheat. As with anything (gain/maintain/lose), as long as you are hitting your numbers, you will do what your numbers say you will do.

I've gained weight while doing IF so yeah-nothing magical about it

OP, I'm 6 years into maintenance so I've got a pretty good handle on things at this point. I go more by my daily/weekly/monthly weigh-in trends vs daily calorie tracking. I do some mental calorie math throughout the day and still use my food scale to measure out portion sizes of certain foods, but besides some periodic check-ins over on cronometer (mostly to see where I'm coming in for micros), I don't worry about tracking so much. I also don't have 'cheat' meals-I eat what I want and am just mindful of my calorie intake over the week (my pattern is lower calories during the week, higher calories on the weekends).