Cheat Meal/Day: Myth or Fact

One of the great things people like to do when they know you are on a diet is give you tips. What they do not realize is that most of the information they provide is things we knew or have read. I did not become overweight because I did not know any better. I became overweight because I loved food more than myself.

However, the one statement that keeps ringing in my ear is that "Taking a cheat day will help you on your diet". I did some research and there are studies that agree with the statement, but they really do not discuss the guidelines.

I am hoping to get some feedback from the MFP community.

1. Thoughts on cheat meal/day.
2. How often and personal guidelines?
3. Alternatives to the concept?

Thanks in Advance!

Replies

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,162 Member
    Repeating advice above: Log it. No matter what else, log it. Then you can understand the impact, and manage it.

    Eating different numbers of calories on different days is fine, if that works best for you. Generally, if you average out right around your experience-tested calorie goal over a week or thereabouts, you'll lose weight at the expected rate. MFP may reset at midnight, but bodies don't. I'd suggest avoiding extremes, but the definition of "extreme" is somewhat subjective.

    For me, a rare day at extremely high calories seems to have relatively little impact, other than a big scale jump the next day (or few) that's more about water weight and food en route to being waste, less about fat regain. One rare day - holiday, birthday, whatever - is a drop in the ocean. The majority of our days determines the majority of our outcomes, y'know?

    I'm with Lietchi about the details, and also about the term "cheat". Who or what would I be cheating? It's just food; we need to eat some. It's not some epic battle of good and evil, sin and retribution. For me, drama isn't helpful.

    During weight loss, I stayed within my calorie goal the overwhelming majority of days, but didn't try to lose weight crazy-fast (thus making it more difficult). I didn't change my exercise routine. (I was already active.) I didn't much change the range of foods I ate, more just the portion sizes, proportions on the plate, and frequency of some calorie-dense things. Every once in a while (special occasions), I ate up to or even over maintenance calories, recognizing - calorie arithmetic for the win! - that I was willing to delay goal weight by X hours or days in some cases, for some special reason.

    During weight loss, I logged every. single. day. like it was a religion, even if I had to rough-estimate some things. I kept that daily logging ritual for some months into maintenance, so I was sure I had a good handle on personal maintenance calorie needs.

    Nowadays (year 7 at a healthy weight), I do calorie bank (eat a little less most days, in order to create some calorie wiggle-room for occasional indulgences). ("A little" = maybe 150-ish calories - not extreme.) I still log most days, but skip difficult ones where I'd have to rough-estimate (potlucks, buffets, etc.) or when I feel over-busy. (I watch the scale as an adjunct.)

    Eating less, eating more: Fine, for me. "Cheating": Seems analogous to believing in Santa Claus, as an adult, a pleasant myth. YMMV.
  • GlennMcMillan
    GlennMcMillan Posts: 36 Member
    Thanks everyone for the comments. I should have gave more content now that I open the door. My diet is extreme low carb <34g per day is the target or a balance of 5% Carbs, 55% Fat and 40% protein all with a caloric intake of 2200.

    My question was in reference to a meal I ate yesterday that I felt guilty eating. My wife wanted to go to Red Lobster and could not resist the Shrimp fest going on. I did get an hour of exercise that took away 500 cals but I exceeded the day by 800.

    So by "cheat", I am talking more about eating something in reason that is not in your died plan. Like the fried shrimp that provided me with 126 carbs.

    But after reading the comments, I definitely have a depreciation of the word "cheat".

    Thanks
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,162 Member
    edited November 2022
    Thanks everyone for the comments. I should have gave more content now that I open the door. My diet is extreme low carb <34g per day is the target or a balance of 5% Carbs, 55% Fat and 40% protein all with a caloric intake of 2200.

    My question was in reference to a meal I ate yesterday that I felt guilty eating. My wife wanted to go to Red Lobster and could not resist the Shrimp fest going on. I did get an hour of exercise that took away 500 cals but I exceeded the day by 800.

    So by "cheat", I am talking more about eating something in reason that is not in your died plan. Like the fried shrimp that provided me with 126 carbs.

    But after reading the comments, I definitely have a depreciation of the word "cheat".
    Thanks


    I'm going to repeat myself, then:

    One rare day is darned near meaningless, emphasis on the word "rare". Unless you literally ate/drank poison, a truly unusual day with sub-ideal nutrition or excess calories (even lots of 'em) just isn't a big deal.

    What is your weight loss rate set at, or - better yet - what have you averaged over a period of 4-6 weeks on your current routine? If you're losing a pound a week on average, you have a 500 calorie daily deficit. If you went 800 over your weight-loss calorie goal, but did 500 calories of extra exercise, you still lost 200 calories worth of stored fat. (It won't show on the scale right away, because of water retention.) Even if only losing half a pound a week on average (250 calorie average daily deficit), you'll reach goal weight about one day plus a few hours later.

    Is that really worth much angst or guilt? To me, it isn't.

    If you enjoyed it, think about whether that delay was worth the enjoyment. For me, sometimes it is. In that case, just go on happily, no harm, no foul.

    If it wasn't worth it, consider what you'd do differently next time. Don't spend more than 10 minutes, because . . . why? Rehearse a new answer in your head a few times to make it real, then just go on with your healthy weight-loss routine.

    Again, repeating: Food is not sin. It doesn't require expiation. Guilt is 100% optional. I don't indulge in it, because it burns no extra calories, plus it feels icky, and I don't like to feel icky.

    Weight management, IMO, is about experimentation and problem solving, on a route to finding a routine set of happy habits that gets you to a healthy weight and ideally keeps you there permanently, almost on autopilot. Whatever you decide about this meal, you learned something. That's useful.
  • Lori11223344
    Lori11223344 Posts: 14 Member
    Very helpful comments here, thank you. I have been logging and controlling intake for over about 7 weeks and have lost around 10 lbs. only 20 more to go to reach a BMI of 25. Food tracking has definitely helped me avoid overdoing treats.
    I have been reluctant to have a maintenance or overcaloried day, but I admit it is getting a bit tedious logging everything.
    This thread gives me renewed motivation.
  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,838 Member
    Interesting. I never knew there was a week view feature. I see now it's in Reports on the website. I don' t see any place to view that info on the Android app though.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,162 Member
    Interesting. I never knew there was a week view feature. I see now it's in Reports on the website. I don' t see any place to view that info on the Android app though.

    Nutrition (pie chart icon top right of diary) switch to week view, pick calories.
  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,838 Member
    edited November 2022
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Nutrition (pie chart icon top right of diary) switch to week view, pick calories.
    Thanks.

    Also re the Android app, is it possible to see the macros per meal? It's there on PC. When looking at the day on the app, I see breakfast, lunch, dinner, total cals for each, but I only see macros for the full day.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,794 Member
    If you turn your device in landscape mode, you should see more info per meal and food item.
  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,838 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    If you turn your device in landscape mode, you should see more info per meal and food item.
    Never thought of that!

    Just tried it. It's unusable though. The fixed parts of the screen fill 90% of the screen, and it's almost impossible to see or scroll through the actual entries as a result.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,794 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    If you turn your device in landscape mode, you should see more info per meal and food item.
    Never thought of that!

    Just tried it. It's unusable though. The fixed parts of the screen fill 90% of the screen, and it's almost impossible to see or scroll through the actual entries as a result.

    It varies from device to device I'm guessing, I can see three lines of data myself (but it used to be better before the new layout with the curved menu)
  • Jeff Nippard has a really good video on cheat meals and diet breaks. You should look it up on youtube, especially if you're lifting weights on your diet. (I would post the link here but idk if youtube links will get spam blocked)

    I lost a bit over 20lb in a few months over the summer while lifting every second day. Initially I was eating a strict 2300 calories a day. In the middle of the summer, I hit a plateau, thinking the problem was too many calories I started to eat less but nothing changed.

    I fixed this plateau by counter-intuitively eating 3000+ calories a day for a week, and actually ended up losing weight at the end of that week. I had gotten a blood test at the beginning of that week and it came back saying my thyroid was apparently underactive.

    After that I decided to implement "re-feeds" on my weekends as Jeff suggests in his video, eating more on the weekends than during the week, and I didn't run into another plateau. Never got my bloodwork done again but I would expect my thyroid has probably recovered.
  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,838 Member
    Feel free to post the video @MeMeImABigFatBoi

    I looked on his channel and there's at least a couple that could be the one you refer to.
  • Lori11223344
    Lori11223344 Posts: 14 Member
    why are you saying ONLY 10lb?

    10 lb in 7 weeks seems very good pace, especially for someone who only had 30 lb to lose.

    I didn't say that.

    I am very happy to have lost 10 lbs in 7 weeks. I am trying to not make it seem so daunting to myself by saying I have ONLY 20 more to lose. Because really, 20 more seems like a lot, and as someone else said, those last 20 can be stubborn. It will bring me back to a weight I have not been in about 8 years. And yes, this is chapter 2. Last fall I lost the first 18 lbs (out of almost 50 I need to shed) and kept it off until now. This year, if I can make it to 20 more (38 total) and keep that off, I will be so pleased, and maybe my blood pressure will go down. After that, its just another 10 and that might be chapter 3 to complete the whole 48 lb loss from where I started in Sept, 2021

  • RichGS23
    RichGS23 Posts: 9 Member
    I personally do not believe in a cheat meal or day. I think if you're clever enough you can maintain a calorie deficit without having to sacrifice everything. For example I had over 600 extra calories one day through extra training, so that evening I had a small piece of cake. I didn't take it as a cheat meal as I earnt it.

    If you want the sweeter things in life, just offset it with a little more exercise. I've lost almost 9kg in 8 weeks (19lbs) through keeping strict and focused but still reminding myself that if I've put in the effort and lost the calories, I can have a little treat.

    The biggest thing to remember is we're all built differently and different things work for us.
  • This is the video I was talking about :)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HVdLMnr40M

    It obviously depends how much you train (I would lift 3-4 times a week and then do a couple hours of sports after each session), but I was honestly shocked how easily I killed my metabolism, only took about a month even while eating 2300 calories a day (which I had initially thought was way too much for a diet).

    I think I may have a genetic propensity for low metabolism/thyroid function, as the rest of my family is pretty overweight so don't let this scare you. But yeah if you hit a plateau despite knowing you are doing enough work, this may be the problem.
  • Lori11223344
    Lori11223344 Posts: 14 Member

    I fixed this plateau by counter-intuitively eating 3000+ calories a day for a week, and actually ended up losing weight at the end of that week. I had gotten a blood test at the beginning of that week and it came back saying my thyroid was apparently underactive.

    After that I decided to implement "re-feeds" on my weekends as Jeff suggests in his video, eating more on the weekends than during the week, and I didn't run into another plateau. Never got my bloodwork done again but I would expect my thyroid has probably recovered.

    It is, in fact a method that many dieticians will recommend when weight loss has stalled in otherwise healthy younger (under 50) people. Working with people who were starving, I often saw thyroid function suppressed (underactive) while they were starving, but most recovered healthy thyroid function once they were able to eat more and restore their body weight. Some did not recover, whether that was due to underlying thyroid disease, or whether the hypocaloric diets they had been following had permanently impaired their thyroid, is a subject for more research.