Your definition of a cheat day

Enigmatica

My definition of cheating is when people don't LOG stuff they eat in order to make it appear that they're doing better than they really are.

Otherwise it's a matter of *choosing* not *cheating*. Ate something you shouldn't have? That's your *choice* - at least own it and log it so you're being honest with yourself and anyone you've asked to help you do better.

LiteBrite007

My never go over my calorie goals, not even on a cheat day. Cheating for me is not going to the gym. HA!!! Today is TOTALLY a cheat day for me.

P.S. I eat pizza, cookies, and what ever else I want. I just configure it into my calorie goal. If I go over. I go for a run to burn off the excess.

femmi1120

To me, a cheat day is a day where I intentionally either don't log at all or I'll go through the day monitoring what I eat, but without controlling cals and logging at the end just for kicks.

A day where I go over without intending to is labeled as a "total screw up", rather than a cheat day

And as long as I stay within cal goals, anything I eat is fair game for a normal day.

LittleSimoni

A cheat day for me is an extra slice of pizza or not worrying about what I want to eat when I go out. This month my favorite cup cake place is having a bake-sale so my cheat day will be two of their delicious cupcakes (and probably a veggie/protein stir fry for dinner). I don't want to "diet" if I have to say "no" to everything, I'll fail.

2Bgoddess

for me, i do a cheat meal. once every 14 days we go out for dinner and I eat what I crave. i log it all, and consider it a success if I am over what my maintenance would be. I try to eat lightly the rest of the day, though.

sweet110

I think a lot of folks just have a "diet" mentality. Where a cookie is "bad" or pizza is "bad" even if they don't overeat (I abstain from those things for health reasons and because I have a tendency to binge, but I don't think you need too if your objective is just to lose weight).

A cheat day for me tends to involve eating a "non-everyday meal". However I define it. For me, it involves a little too much alcohol, cheesecake, or an Indian curry. Mmmm. But, I also don't want to get into the strict calorie accounting that involves thinking things like "if I skip dinner, I can drink." Or to indulge in gluttonous thinking like "Its a cheat day, lets go to an Indian buffet and gorge." Drinking one's dinner or gorging are not optimal behaviors for me, whether I'm fat or thin. But, losing weight requires a level of sacrifice that is different from everyday, maintenance eating, so an occasional high calorie meal helps me keep my sanity.

Donnacoach

To mean a cheat day is eating junk food that I wouldn't normally eat, that would put me over my calorie goal. Otherwise if I happen to have room for cake or a choc. bar then I eat it and I don't feel guilty about it.

AVinmill

Build your diet of many different foods and don't deprive yourself of the things you want and then you never have to cheat. If I want chocolate I have it I just make sure it will fit within my daily goals and watch my portion sizes. If I want some chips I'll grab a small bag and build the rest of my day around it. Better to have things more often and in smaller quantities than to binge later and completely fall off the wagon. Depriving myself of things and then having a cheat day/meal has never worked for me because I'll be craving something like crazy and then go overboard on it.

wewon

I don't have cheat day per se, I allow myself 2-3 cheat meals a week.

Usually its a run to a fast food place, or getting dessert. If I had to go into more detail, I'd say it was a meal that blasted out the carbs.

But I like other's definition since it does take into account your caloric intake and macros.

XXXMinnieXXX

Tomorrow is a cheat day. Its planned I'm about 200 calories over goal. I'm having my weekly cheat meal, tomorrow is a roast dinner. I'm good the rest of the day though and still 500 under maintenance so not too bad at all! X

CandyAppleCockers

I don't do cheat days. I have occasional cheat dinners. I've gone low carb as a lifestyle change, not a short term diet. I've come to terms with the fact that there is no way I'll turn down every high carb item forever, so I'm trying to learn to live with it. My main cheat dinner is when my family orders chinese takeout. I eat keto for the day, and then have what I want for dinner knowing it's a one of. I don't stress over it, and don't do it often.

LaneAndKent

I am currently at 101 pounds lost and not at my goal weight, but close enough that I follow what I call a "modified maintenance plan" to lose the remainder very slowly and practice the controlled lifestyle.

I say that only so I can show that my method worked for me. For the last 11 months, the entirety of this journey, I have followed a few rules. The rules kind of serve as safety nets for each other, so if I break one, others are in place.

Rule 1: Leave 500 calories in the green each day. Since I was pretty good about eating at least 1200 (I'm REALLY good about that now, and then some), that means a lot of exercise. The more you lose, the harder this is to follow because exercise doesn't burn as much.

Rule 2: At least stay in the green as much as possible.

Rule 3: If you go in the red, at least don't go so far in the red that you are eating enough to gain. In other words, "if every day were like today, you'd weigh ___ in five weeks." If that ___ is higher than your current weight, DON'T DO IT. I NEVER broke this rule, ever. Not one day.

Rule 4: No matter how much you exercise, NEVER, EVER go over 2000 calories. I only broke this rule for the first time a couple days ago—I hit 2057 (but was still in the green).

I know it's a lot, but I'm a rules-numbers-structure person so it works for me.

Oh! I realized that I didn't really address the OP. Since I never broke rules 3 & 4, I considered a "cheat day" a day in which a significant amount of my calorie budget was unhealthy foods, like cake or "protein" bars (which I consider candy bars pretending to be healthy). (But I love them.) Any processed sugar or white flour product is pretty much cheating for me. I refuse to go over my calorie budget (at least the top end of it) because I can't stand the thought of all my hard work going to waste, even if just for a day.

mes1119

I don't consider it a cheat day. I just have days that I allow myself to enjoy life-usually on the weekend. I don't deprive myself on the weekends if I know I've worked really hard all week. I think of them as MAINTENANCE days. This is what works for me and I still lose about a pound a week. I'm aiming for fat loss, and not muscle loss as well. SO eating a little extra is a good thing to help preserve my hard earned muscles.

It is all about creating a lifelong, maintainable lifestyle. I can't expect to never go out with my friends and eat and drink and be merry. Everything in moderation!

Vanilladays

I eat and drink whatever i want and don't log it at all during the day.

then later, for kicks, with a bowl of ice cream or a few beers, I sit down and log it all.

Enjoy it guilt free, then laugh about it later................

then I am greatful that i haven't been eating like that everyday, like i used to................

I like how you think!!

LeisureRunner

I don't call it a 'cheat' day or meal because I don't consider myself on a diet. I choose to eat healthy most of the time, and to workout, tracking both food and exercise. Some days I indulge in less than healthy choices, and just log it. Sometimes I go over on calfories, fats, carbs, sodium, but I don't stress about it, and I don't go completely overboard with the less than healthy choices, like eating an entire pizza or a half a cake, etc.

It's my lifestyle now, and days will come, such as holidays and birthdays, when there are goodies around. Rather than deprive myself, I have learned to control what I put in my mouth, enjoy the goodies without going crazy. :bigsmile:

LOVE this answer!! I agree!

lotte24601

A "cheat day" (and boy to I hate that term. It's got such a "shame on me for doing something wrong" vibe to it, when, really, I'm making a choice that for me, personally, makes the lifestyle change work) for me is a day where I don't log anything. I may or may not go over my daily calories. I may or may not eat crap/processed foods/all carbs, all the time/12 different kinds of fudge. I may or may not eat a fantastic, all organic, brilliantly clean dinner prepared at home by free range, grass fed magic elves. Doesn't matter. I log nothing.

Generally, I take a cheat day when I'm on the kind of vacation where I turn off my cell phone, step away from the computer, and just let go. Occasionally, I take one just because it makes me happy. For me, they're not a regularly scheduled, weekly/monthly/whenever thing; they're just another tool in the toolbox of life, there when I need 'em. Heck, sometimes the knowledge that I could take a day if I wanted is enough to keep me logging.

MariFitBody

Hmmm that means eat everything I see day. I dont stress about it cuz I eat healthy 6 days outta the week. I take that one day and eat myself into a stomach ache. Who cares?

gungho66

making good choices, but knowing there will be "those " days

gungho66

I don't call it a 'cheat' day or meal because I don't consider myself on a diet. I choose to eat healthy most of the time, and to workout, tracking both food and exercise. Some days I indulge in less than healthy choices, and just log it. Sometimes I go over on calfories, fats, carbs, sodium, but I don't stress about it, and I don't go completely overboard with the less than healthy choices, like eating an entire pizza or a half a cake, etc.

It's my lifestyle now, and days will come, such as holidays and birthdays, when there are goodies around. Rather than deprive myself, I have learned to control what I put in my mouth, enjoy the goodies without going crazy. :bigsmile:

Very well said!!!!!!!!!!!

raevynn

For me, I have "free" days... where I don't bother to log.

I still eat Vegan... and I prefer real, whole food, organic, but I might go out to eat and not do any calculations, or I might decide it's bring on the tacos day...

I do this about once a month, I think. It's a way to keep it from becoming a grind.

Ralphrabbit

Just who are you cheating??
Take a day off & enjoy life occasionally then if you log it retrospectively you may be surprised at how little over you have gone.
We are learning how to live healthier & beating ourselves up is not healthy!

BlaireV

Not giving a hoot what i eat or drink on a particular day. For example, as i will have worked all weekend, the family are coming monday for Easter dinner, which will be roast beef and trimmings, plus beer, wine and dessert. I am not going to bother counting calories. I may go for a run before hand for some extra room. I know the rest of the week i will be on 1630 cals and will be execising almost eveyday. My long winded point is, live a bit, enjoy a whole day every so often. Just get back on it afterwards.

This!

Claire594

I eat and drink whatever i want and don't log it at all during the day.

then later, for kicks, with a bowl of ice cream or a few beers, I sit down and log it all.

Enjoy it guilt free, then laugh about it later................

then I am greatful that i haven't been eating like that everyday, like i used to................

<this>

I have a spike day every Saturday where I eat way over my cals. I get all my cravings etc out of the way in one day. Then I eat healthy Sunday through Friday. I find it easier to resist the 'bad' stuff during the week if I can indulge at the weekend. Plus the way I look at it, I used to eat worse everyday than I now do on a Saturday.

Someone told me that spiking ur cals every once in a while helps to keep ur metabolism going and avoids plateaus. Don't know if this is true or not but I'm 13 weeks with mfp and have lost consistantly every week.

SPNLuver83

I think of it has going over your calories by your favorite unhealthy food of choice. I used to have one cheat day a week, but all week I would just yearn for that day to come so by the time it did I really overdid it. Yeah, I lost weight that way, but man I puttin myself through undo stress! Now I just indulge in moderation when I want to while still staying under my calories, so I usually do it on the days i burn a lot through cardio.

cheshirechic

Cheat/re-feed/treat-day is just a matter of semantics to me. I'll have a "cheat meal" when I eat something that would put me over my net for the day, but I usually stick to what would still be consistent with my diet ("whole-foods" based, very little sugar if it any, minimally processed foods, etc.). One or two per week, depending on the "severity" (again, semantics). This can, however, (and frequently does) include copious amounts of wine.

(Or if I'm "trapped," and can't get to healthy food, but am so hungry that I could commit a felony, I'll eat whatever I can that I deem reasonably healthy. That has to be considered my cheat meal. Then I just stick to my plan and calories for the rest of the week.)

MelsieK

Like others I look at this as a lifestyle, so all types of foods simply have to fit into my lifestyle. I clean eat 95% of the time. When we have certain social functions on, I'll have a glass of wine, or a little piece of cake/muffin/pasta etc etc. I never feel guilty though, just fit it into my eating plan. I find now that one glass of wine, or small bit of cake is more than enough and I don't go looking or craving for any of it and could easily go without it most times too.


Mel

kiminikimkim

A cheat day for me is when I go to a potluck and I can't track the calories I am eating. SO many people make exotic food I can't even find on MFP. I just give up and have 1 bite of each dish... unless it is a common food I can find anywhere (egg salad sandwich) or it clearly looks unhealthy (chips, cupcakes).

funkycamper

Just who are you cheating??
Take a day off & enjoy life occasionally then if you log it retrospectively you may be surprised at how little over you have gone.
We are learning how to live healthier & beating ourselves up is not healthy!

Perfect!

I don't cheat. I splurge. Cheating sounds like I'm doing something bad. A splurge isn't bad, it's living.

Tajdancer

I don't bother logging on weekends. Works for me.

atjays

Cheat day for me is usually just 1 cheat meal . Typically fast food or pizza cuz that's really the only thing I miss. I make sure to plan the rest of my day around it so I stay within my calories, but I ignore my macros for the day.