Cheat Dinner and/or Day - Thoughts?

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  • jcpmoore
    jcpmoore Posts: 796 Member
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    I like to have a treat meal once in awhile. I schedule it though, as part of my regular weekly menu. I make sure to have my regular meals planned after it, too. Otherwise I have a tough time getting back on track. I tend to go just a little off my usual-get one thing I usually don't. Maybe I'll get some buffalo wings with dinner, but will still have veggies instead of fries. Something like that. That way I get my treat but don't feel like crap afterward.
  • daisiemae123
    daisiemae123 Posts: 277 Member
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    I think you can have an occasional treat when you feel like it without feeling bad. You don't need to call it 'cheating' because you shouldn't feel guilty. Just don't binge.

    ^
    This. Don't think of it as cheating, think of it as living. If you don't let yourself have what you want once in a while (the key is once in a while) you eventually start to get resentful and give up all together. Next thing you know you are eating whatever you want whenever you want and isn't that what got most of us here in the first place.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    Check out Tom Venutos take on it. Very interesting and honest. Makes yah think

    link?
  • blueroses_78
    blueroses_78 Posts: 85
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    I have a cheat day. Usually one day a week, I'll allow myself to go over by around 250-500 calories. If I decide NOT to do that, I will allow myself a little extra a couple of days. However, I have issues will the allowing myself to do this. I know from my own past experience that if I give in a little, I'll unconsciously take a LOT. So I try to avoid cheating by eating what I want, when I want, so long as I have the calories to spare.

    Tomorrow, for example, my fam and I are heading to a larger city (I have a training for work, and want to hit up the Healthy Life Market). My eldest son LOVES Olive Garden. That's where we are probably going to eat. Will I deny myself a breadstick? Nope. I'll just have to add in some extra movement tomorrow to compensate.
  • ellebish
    ellebish Posts: 50 Member
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    I think that this is pretty much an individual decision.

    I think that some people may have greater dietary adherence knowing that they can have a meal or a day to relax and eat what they want.

    I think that some people will use it as an excuse.

    I think that some people will go way overboard on their cheat day and potentially hurt their progress.

    I think that some people will not be able to resume their plan after a cheat day.

    Ultimately, it boils down to energy balance, so the cheat day still has a "cost" associated to it. But if it's what keeps a dieter on the plan, and if the average is a net deficit, it can be a successful method.

    I take regular days off, for mental reasons. I value being a normal person and not tracking every damn thing I put in my mouth.

    And this ^^^
  • MMKE4ever
    MMKE4ever Posts: 115 Member
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    It's different for everyone, but for me, I have a cheat day every Saturday. I haven't gained anything back. I've lost 27 pounds altogether. I only have 2 more pounds to lose and then I'm at my goal weight. Some people can do this, some can't. It's very hard to do I think because sometimes, after I've had a cheat day, I want to cheat again the next day. As a reward for only cheating for one day, I give myself a rest day. If I cheat for two days, I make myself workout.
  • jennifermaffei17
    jennifermaffei17 Posts: 158
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    I think if you incorporate enough exercise, typically 1 hour, then you can have your ice cream or brownie or whatever at the end of the night. Yesterday I burned 725 calories in 1 hour. That means I was able to eat 1900 or so calories. I eat healthy so I was able to enjoy a nice dinner out and a dessert after.

    If you plan your meals and eat healthy not just within your calories, then you will NEVER need a cheat day. You can have whatever you want in moderation for snack every night if you plan just right.
  • anastasia4279
    anastasia4279 Posts: 3
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    It depends on you .. If I cheat one day I generally fall right off the wagon but if you think you can get right back on track the next day do it :)
  • apedeb09
    apedeb09 Posts: 805 Member
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    i have cheat days all the time.. but i get right back on track the next day so it works for me.
  • NikkiTheRazor
    NikkiTheRazor Posts: 19 Member
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    Saturdays are my designated cheat days, mainly because that's the day I'm out with friends, eating and drinking. I still make a point to work out that morning and be relatively good with my eating throughout the day, so I'm not TOO thrown off. But as everyone else said, it varies from person to person.
  • Sailorwind
    Sailorwind Posts: 158 Member
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    I have cheat weekends. I usually eat most weekend meals with my boyfriend and as we are usually by his place and he's not got the most functional kitchen, so we end up eating out most meals (works better for us since I'm on a low cal diet and he's on a no-carb diet). I used to stress so much about staying under 1400 cal on the weekends it was driving me crazy and then I hit a plateau. I decided to just be more lax on the weekends, as long as I don't break 1800 on the weekends I don't care. I don't use it as an excuse to go crazy and eat massive pieces of chocolate cake instead of dinner or anything like that, I still try to make wise choices and stay away from too much sugar or mass amounts of carbs, but I'm more likely to choose what sounds good off the menu as opposed to what I know is the healthiest option. And I still log EVERYTHING. As soon as I started doing that I broke my plateau. My hugest weight loss drops are now almost always when I get on the scale Monday morning. Apparently my body needed the high calorie spikes to jump start it. Either that or it needed the protein, I mainly only eat meat on the weekends as I'm too lazy to plan ahead to prepare it myself during the week. I also discovered that I don't go over by as many as I'd think I would with this method. I usually hit closer to 1600 than 1800.
  • macnotes
    macnotes Posts: 210 Member
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    So what I'm learning about "cheat days" for me are that they tend to set me back about 2 - 3 lbs after the weekend. Usually I can drop this by the end of the week since it's usually because of just volume of food and sodium/water retention.

    Slowly, week after week I find it less and less urgent to eat a ton of "bad" foods and just look for high quality "treats" I can have on that day or perhaps integrated into my week. I usually have to "hide" bad foods in the freezer but its better if I don't have them in the house at all since I think about them.

    If I am REALLY good all week, I find that I go WAY overboard with the "cheat" day and feel like junk. Sugar makes me feel like I'm having an out of body experience (almost like being drunk) and my stomach hurts so bad. I find that I eat ANYTHING just because it's my only allowed day to "cheat" and therefore I eat things I'm not really craving possibly don't even want.

    So, for me, I think high quality, small volumes of good "treats" eg. Dark Chocolate, 1-2 specialtiy cookies or some honey on some bread (whatever I'm craving) is the best. I keep it within my daily intake, + or - perhaps a couple 100 calories. I make sure I eat good food first too! Treats aren't allowed until I make sure I have a proper dinner.

    I'm still experimenting with my "cheat" days but I think it puts me back to how I used to eat and I'm no longer that person. Also, sometimes on "cheat days" I find that I log generally what I eat, but maybe not everything because that makes me a little obsessive.

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