When you say "cheat day", what *exactly* do you mean?

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  • spidertheman
    spidertheman Posts: 38 Member
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    It's suppose to be an all day, all out, binge! honestly, if your having under 8,000 calories then your doing it WRONG! I have around 12 calories every Saturday and three days later, I weigh about 1lb less than what I weighed before the cheat day. The point is to put your body into shock and make it work overtime. One little meal wont boost your metabolism at all! in my personal experience i've lost more weight doing cheat DAYS over cheat meals. Just go all out. It really helps curve my cravings during the 6 days of healthy eating knowing in the back of my head "Just a few more days"
  • MissGeorgiaPeachy
    MissGeorgiaPeachy Posts: 313 Member
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    It's suppose to be an all day, all out, binge! honestly, if your having under 8,000 calories then your doing it WRONG! I have around 12 calories every Saturday and three days later, I weigh about 1lb less than what I weighed before the cheat day. The point is to put your body into shock and make it work overtime. One little meal wont boost your metabolism at all! in my personal experience i've lost more weight doing cheat DAYS over cheat meals. Just go all out. It really helps curve my cravings during the 6 days of healthy eating knowing in the back of my head "Just a few more days"

    I hope you mean 1200 calories? 12,000 calories? I'm pretty sure you probably eat more than 12 calories on Saturday, haha. Good though.. I don't feel so bad about the 3 donuts I ate today... or the Taco Salad... or whatever I end up eating for dinner. I needed a cheat day today.
  • spidertheman
    spidertheman Posts: 38 Member
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    It's suppose to be an all day, all out, binge! honestly, if your having under 8,000 calories then your doing it WRONG! I have around 12 calories every Saturday and three days later, I weigh about 1lb less than what I weighed before the cheat day. The point is to put your body into shock and make it work overtime. One little meal wont boost your metabolism at all! in my personal experience i've lost more weight doing cheat DAYS over cheat meals. Just go all out. It really helps curve my cravings during the 6 days of healthy eating knowing in the back of my head "Just a few more days"

    I hope you mean 1200 calories? 12,000 calories? I'm pretty sure you probably eat more than 12 calories on Saturday, haha. Good though.. I don't feel so bad about the 3 donuts I ate today... or the Taco Salad... or whatever I end up eating for dinner. I needed a cheat day today.

    Definitely meant 12000, haha. I call my cheat day faturday
  • AmyFett
    AmyFett Posts: 1,607 Member
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    depends on the person, some people have whole days once a week, some have one meal, some have one thing.
  • MsMuniz
    MsMuniz Posts: 399 Member
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    We go out to dinner one night a week, usually Friday and I make that my cheat meal, as in I order whatever I want and not worry about it. But I eat as I normally would the rest of the day.
  • thistimeismytime
    thistimeismytime Posts: 711 Member
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    "Cheat day" for me means I eat at least 3500 calories of whatever I want. I plan it ahead of time so it's guilt-free. It generally involves a sizable restaurant meal and a pint of cookie dough ice cream. :drinker:

    And yeah I still log it.....
  • raeleek
    raeleek Posts: 414 Member
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    I've been working really hard the last few months to eat better and be physically active daily. One surprising but pleasant side effect of this is that the foods that I crave have somewhat changed.

    I used to eat fast food a lot and I don't anymore. From a health stand point yes but way above that is that eating that kind of food makes me feel like CRAP. I've gotten to the point where I avoid foods that I know will make me feel gross. The only things I've flat out stopped consuming are trans fats, sodas, and highly processed foods. Again this cuts are mainly because these foods make me feel terrible. I'm now of the mind set that food should make you feel great!

    I do have "cheat days" but they don't consist of eating a ton of fast food or anything like that. When I have a cheat day I just eat what I want that is healthy and good without counting.

    A good "cheat" meal for me would be grilled chicken with avocados, a great pasta salad, a great salad with olive oil and vinegar, and some kind of chocolate dessert.

    I've also started cooking for myself a lot so the food I make doesn't contain preservatives or trans fat. Homemade desserts are the best!

    I will tell you that some days I just eat more and some days I just eat less but a cheat day here and there hasn't derailed me.
  • MissGeorgiaPeachy
    MissGeorgiaPeachy Posts: 313 Member
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    "Cheat day" for me means I eat at least 3500 calories of whatever I want. I plan it ahead of time so it's guilt-free. It generally involves a sizable restaurant meal and a pint of cookie dough ice cream. :drinker:

    And yeah I still log it.....

    Ok, I definitely feel pretty good about today then. I haven't eaten badly in a very long time.. well, badly as in fatty and going over my calories. My main struggle lately has been to eat enough every day because I'm always under 1200. Ice cream sounds amazing right now... I think I might go into sugar shock by the end of the day!
  • JTick
    JTick Posts: 2,131 Member
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    My cheat days are whenever I need one, usually every two or three weeks. I go over calories by about 500. My main thing is I dont log foods, I just quick add the calories. So it kind of breaks up the monotony of entering every. single. thing. But my calories are still counted.
  • heddy90
    heddy90 Posts: 144 Member
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    I don't really call them cheat days, but.. On saturdays, or very special occasions, I eat my favorite snacks, which is usually a bag of crisps, and sometimes also some sweets. I don't go totally crazy and eat 4000+ calories though, I just enjoy some extra snacks. I still log it on MFP, as that has become a routine for me.

    I don't really have cheat meals, as I eat the meals I like and want anyway. It's just that I have that one day where I don't refrain from snacks :)
  • MissGeorgiaPeachy
    MissGeorgiaPeachy Posts: 313 Member
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    I've been working really hard the last few months to eat better and be physically active daily. One surprising but pleasant side effect of this is that the foods that I crave have somewhat changed.

    I used to eat fast food a lot and I don't anymore. From a health stand point yes but way above that is that eating that kind of food makes me feel like CRAP. I've gotten to the point where I avoid foods that I know will make me feel gross. The only things I've flat out stopped consuming are trans fats, sodas, and highly processed foods. Again this cuts are mainly because these foods make me feel terrible. I'm now of the mind set that food should make you feel great!

    I do have "cheat days" but they don't consist of eating a ton of fast food or anything like that. When I have a cheat day I just eat what I want that is healthy and good without counting.

    A good "cheat" meal for me would be grilled chicken with avocados, a great pasta salad, a great salad with olive oil and vinegar, and some kind of chocolate dessert.

    I've also started cooking for myself a lot so the food I make doesn't contain preservatives or trans fat. Homemade desserts are the best!

    I will tell you that some days I just eat more and some days I just eat less but a cheat day here and there hasn't derailed me.

    I made a similar status update the other day. I started to notice lately that the foods I crave the most often are healthy now that I've been conscious of what I have been eating for the past two months. I don't get the fast food cravings for the exact same reason.. they make me feel like crud. Today I gave in to Krispy Kreme as a show of support for my community (long story) and I feel terrible.. not even guilty terrible, but physically terrible. I want to crawl under my desk and sleep it off. I hate this feeling.

    I've done pretty well so far not giving in to cheat days. This is probably my first REAL cheat day in two months and I don't see another one in my immediate future.
  • firstsip
    firstsip Posts: 8,399 Member
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    My cheat day is just a cheat MEAL. I pick one meal once or twice a month where I let myself have a major splurge meal that I don't log and is full of stuff I don't eat on a regular basis: homemade mac-and-cheese, pizza from the local pizza shop, hotdish, and a luscious dessert.

    This. If I "cheat," I usually am eating out for ONE meal maybe once or twice a week, and I always make sure to do a more intensive workout. It's worked in that I don't feel deprived, and I rarely go over my calories for the day.

    Jumping off other people's comments: I had a "cheat" meal by eating pizza from one of my all-time fav places I rarely go to, but a family member had ordered it when I was at their house.

    I was SO tired after eating 2.5 slices (even with strong work out), I feel like I'm done with pizza for awhile ;)
  • Nefetete
    Nefetete Posts: 343 Member
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    My 'cheat' day is probably every other week when I go out with friends for food/drinks and laughs ... That means I have my regular breakfast & lunch and eat anything I want for dinner. I will log it if I can actually guess how much dinner was but won't stress over it. 

    I want to be able to maintain this lifestyle and that's not going to be possible if I stress over it all the time. 
  • MissGeorgiaPeachy
    MissGeorgiaPeachy Posts: 313 Member
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    My cheat days are whenever I need one, usually every two or three weeks. I go over calories by about 500. My main thing is I dont log foods, I just quick add the calories. So it kind of breaks up the monotony of entering every. single. thing. But my calories are still counted.

    I ended up logging today anyway just for the fact that it was bothering me not knowing. It's funny that I made this post over a year ago and it mysteriously showed up under My Topics on the one day I chose to cheat recently, haha. I guess I needed to be reminded.
  • sgall123
    sgall123 Posts: 133 Member
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    my cheat day is easily in excess of 4000 calories as id have 2 bottles of wine which is about 1000 calories then easily 3000 if not more on food its amazing how much more you eat and drink when in a big group of people.. hasnt done me any harm though still lose every week
  • fatboypup
    fatboypup Posts: 1,873 Member
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    on my cheat days I start the day with a dozen donuts, then for lunch have a rack of ribs with all the sides, and for dinner an entire large pizza
  • MissGeorgiaPeachy
    MissGeorgiaPeachy Posts: 313 Member
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    I don't really call them cheat days, but.. On saturdays, or very special occasions, I eat my favorite snacks, which is usually a bag of crisps, and sometimes also some sweets. I don't go totally crazy and eat 4000+ calories though, I just enjoy some extra snacks. I still log it on MFP, as that has become a routine for me.

    <b>I don't really have cheat meals, as I eat the meals I like and want anyway.</b> It's just that I have that one day where I don't refrain from snacks :)

    I pretty much feel the same way about cheat meals... I'm not eating things I don't like and cooking at home has allowed me to control ingredients to the point where nearly everything I consume is healthy. I have to stay away from snacks or eating too much though because the next day I want to eat the same amount and it's hard for me to get back on track. -_-
  • alexis831
    alexis831 Posts: 469 Member
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    I eat whatever the heck I want to and I have 2 of everything!!! Usually I go way overboard, hah! This Sunday though I wasn't very hungry and busy so I didn't actually eat much at all which is unusual for me. Kinda had my cheat day last Wednesday.
  • TravisBurns
    TravisBurns Posts: 353 Member
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    I dont use the term cheat day. I think it's stupid to call it that (no offense if you do) . I use the term free day. Im not cheating anyone or anything.
    Free day...meaning free for all. Not necessarily watching my caloric intake or any macros.
  • MissGeorgiaPeachy
    MissGeorgiaPeachy Posts: 313 Member
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    My cheat day is just a cheat MEAL. I pick one meal once or twice a month where I let myself have a major splurge meal that I don't log and is full of stuff I don't eat on a regular basis: homemade mac-and-cheese, pizza from the local pizza shop, hotdish, and a luscious dessert.

    This. If I "cheat," I usually am eating out for ONE meal maybe once or twice a week, and I always make sure to do a more intensive workout. It's worked in that I don't feel deprived, and I rarely go over my calories for the day.

    Jumping off other people's comments: I had a "cheat" meal by eating pizza from one of my all-time fav places I rarely go to, but a family member had ordered it when I was at their house.

    I was SO tired after eating 2.5 slices (even with strong work out), I feel like I'm done with pizza for awhile ;)

    That's how I feel after the donuts today. x.x I feel tired and sluggish and just want to go home and take a nap, but I know I'll hate myself in the morning if I don't squeeze some kind of work-out in. It's amazing how your body changes and adapts to the good foods and wants to reject the bad.

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