How often do YOU “cheat”?

xSanoura

Before someone goes on about their side piece(s), I’m talking about cheat MEALS.
😝
Personally I go out and enjoy a cheat day/meals once every two weeks.
How about y’all? Or do you not believe in “cheating”? just curious

corinasue1143

When I started to lose weight, one meal a week, very strict rules, even about my cheat meal, per dietician.
Now, when I need one, no rules, just common sense.

anubis609

Nothing is a really "cheat" if it's planned. I don't like the word itself because it puts a moral value on food. Food is food. And just like a relationship, you're not obligated to stay emotionally committed to it.

Some days are over a goal and other days are under. That's pretty much how I see it.

So, it's not quite a cheat if you prescribe it once every 2 weeks, and it actually probably helps you (and others) stay adherent to your current goal, as long as you're making progress.

LyndaBSS

I don't. What's the point? I eat the foods I love, stay in a calorie deficit and lose weight.

If you're depriving yourself, you might feel the desire to "cheat".

Terytha

Whatever I eat, I fit in my calories. So nothing is a cheat, not even the fast food I had for dinner yesterday.

My diet is not a physical thing, cheating on it only cheats myself. I'm tired of cheating myself.

That said, I'm not like some paragon of perfection. Life happens and I go over sometimes. But I try to keep it as infrequent as possible and ideally under 200 calories extra.

RelCanonical

I don't really count it as cheating because I log no matter what, but I intentionally eat over maintenance on special days like my birthday, thanksgiving, and christmas. I don't usually have days where I intentionally eat over maintenance without a special occasion.

glassyo

To tie the two in, a character on General Hospital once called the guy she was sleeping with a side of fries.

I don't do cheat meals but anything I don't log is considered cheating to me. I do a lot of handfuls of cereal from the box until I can portion it out. Or eating broken pieces of cookies or crackers don't count. I'm actually trying to gain a little weight so if I lose one week, I'll buy a slice of cake from the market (usually around 800 calories) and fight myself on logging it.

Oh! And other than the cake, it's usually every day.

puffbrat

I'm working to make changes to sustain me for life. Having a cheat day or meal doesn't buy me anything. Instead, I have expected and unexpected meals or days of eating higher calorie. My husband and I go out to dinner on Fridays, so I always plan for Fridays to be at or above maintenance.

Luke_rabbit

I go a little over my goal about once or twice a month almost always on Saturday when we eat lunch out. I didn't track during vacation. I probably will also skip tracking on major holidays and our bbanniversary (one day: 2 birthdays + anniversary). I don't consider any of that cheating, just normal life.

elitesportsdude

I try to keep it just on the weekends or if there is a good football game on

kimny72

xSanoura wrote: »

Before someone goes on about their side piece(s), I’m talking about cheat MEALS.
😝
Personally I go out and enjoy a cheat day/meals once every two weeks.
How about y’all? Or do you not believe in “cheating”? just curious

It kind of depends what you mean by a "cheat meal"

I didn't have any foods off limit when I was losing weight, as long as it fit my calories, I ate it if I wanted to. But as I went, I learned that even though some foods fit my calories, they didn't fill me up much and made it harder for me to stay in my calories the rest of the day. So every once and awhile (maybe once or twice a month) I would have a maintenance day where I would plan to have a meal or foods (or drinks ) that I could really only enjoy if I had those extra calories to use. I still logged, I just had a higher calorie target.

Being a data geek, I don't find logging stressful, it's actually quite comforting to me. But if all the logging and numbers stress you out, having a meal every once in awhile where you don't log but you still try to make smart choices that would still probably fit your calories could be a good idea. However if you do have unlogged cheat meals and you find you aren't losing weight as fast as you expected, that probably means you are eating more during your "cheat" than you think you are and should look there first to fix the problem.

happyauntie2015

I just make room in my calorie budget for the day what it is I want that I don't normally have. I weigh that portion if I'm home and log it. I had 1 scoop of ice cream and shared a piece of birthday cake just last weekend for my mom's birthday. I don't want to be like the old me and deny myself food because then I was associating feelings of guilt with eating things like cake and candy when I'd then cheat. I'd then say I screwed up why bother and ruin months of progress! Sorry for rambling on. It's just how I handle things I don't "cheat" anymore because I shouldn't feel guilt over food.

missysippy930

We go out for breakfast about twice a month. I have more calories than my normal breakfast, but make up for it the rest of my day, so no cheating, just my new way of eating. Not much point in cheating yourself.

cupcakesandproteinshakes

I have a day a week at maintenance when I’m dieting. For sanity.

RealWorldStrengthLLC

I'm on the most half *kitten* cut attempt you've ever seen and it's working exactly according to plan so far. Started about 2 months ago at 243, I was 229 this morning.

I eat a 1000 cal deficit during the workweek and eat what I want (within reason), drink beer etc on the weekends. My maintenance is around 4000 cals/day so I can easily hit my protien minimum of 190g and do what I want with the rest.

The cut is averaging to about 1-1.5lbs a week depending on how the weekend goes.

FireyChimera

I am working on eating whatever I want when it pleases me. Most of my food is healthy choices, but if I want to reach out for a candy bar I do it and enjoy it. I am working on getting rid of thoughts of foods as cheat foods. They are all foods and some are better to enjoy more often than others

Cat_A_89

Like once a week because my parents like togo out for dinner alot fml, but most yhe time I still try to stay within a reasonable calorie number as much as I can lol. All you can eat gets me every time 😭

WinoGelato

Cat_A_89 wrote: »

Like once a week because my parents like togo out for dinner alot fml, but most yhe time I still try to stay within a reasonable calorie number as much as I can lol. All you can eat gets me every time 😭

Your parents wanting to take you out to eat is a fml situation?

Those of us who have lost our parents would give anything to have one more meal with them.

Sorry their generosity is ruining your life.

amusedmonkey

I have larger meals from time to time. Sometimes it's more often, like during the holiday season, sometimes less often, like when the foods I feel like eating are not particularly high in calories. I don't call higher calorie meals cheating, they're an integral part of how I eat. My calories fluctuate day to day but average to my desired number. This was how I lost the weight, and it hasn't changed for maintenance.

I just eat the things I feel like eating after I consider how they fit into my monthly calorie allowance, then consider how much I'm willing/not willing to make calorie accommodations for a certain food/meal. Sometimes I can't be arsed to accommodate a certain meal, so I don't have it until it feels worth it. This makes me happy because I get to eat all the foods I love whenever I want them enough but without stressing my calorie budget.

BelleRequin

I don’t do ‘cheat meals’ or cheat days, because then I’m more likely to go overboard trying to make the cheating worth it. Most days I eat on plan. Once in a while, for specific social get togethers, I say to hell with the plan and eat wheatever I feel like eating, and then try to enter what I think I ate without caring about the accuracy

imabeevampire

Obviously like it's dependant on what people consider cheat meals. Cause ill eat pizza but fit it into my daily calories and don't consider that cheat.

To me a cheat meal is usually going out for dinner with the boyfriend and not counting the calories and just enjoying life ❤️