Cheat days

If you are trying to lose weight I'd say for every 3lbs you lose reward yourself but only weigh yourself once a week and in the morning on an empty stomach and bladder! If you were on a bulk I'd say once a week

i HATE the phrase 'cheat day'. if its cheating then no, you shouldnt be doing it!

however, when i was losing weight i stuck religiously to my 1200 cals each day but had one 'treat' meal per week where i ate what i wanted, and it didnt hinder my progress, i lost 12lb in 12 weeks.

I agree.

Who are your cheating? Your body knows what you ate.

Fine to figure out when you'll eat a bit differently... a higher limit for a meal or a day, or a special treat. As someone else pointed out, if you eat something regularly, it's no longer a special treat it's a regular food.

If you consider what you eat as a short-term diet rather than a lifestyle change, your results are also likely to be short-term. So figure out what you can live with for a long, healthy lifetime.

Good luck!

A cheat meal is good if you need it, but use them wisely. If you know you have something coming up that's going to make it difficult to stay within your calorie goals **cough** Christmas **cough** then ramp up for that to be your cheat meal. Pu_239 has a great chart above that can help you have a "cheat" meal without ruining what you've been doing.

I knew I was meeting friends for Brunch last Sunday, so all week I cut back a couple hundred calories a day (kept myself above 1200 but below my daily calorie goals) so that on Sunday, I could eat what I wanted without too much concern. I still only had 2 pieces of bacon and passed on the cheesecake, but I didn't feel like I was depriving myself, had a great time with my friends, and still lost a pound that week!

There is evidence that flexible dieters are more successful long-term. Too lazy to go grab the link but Lyle McDonald has an excellent article on flexible dieting worth googling.

This is why I like zig-zagging my calories and having a weekly target rather than striving to hit a daily one. I have days where I've eaten so clean that my calorie intake is a bit on the low side. Add to that, intense exercise totally stifles my appetite. So it's easy to "bank" calories during the week to "spend" for going out to dinner or to a social event where I can enjoy a splurge or two without going over my weekly target. I still attempt to track (although sometimes it's just a wild guess and I try to guess high) but if I do eat into my deficit a bit, no big deal.

I have also read studies that show that people who have naturally stayed slim over their lifetime naturally do this in order to maintain their weight. I figure I should practice eating like a slim person now so I know what to do when I get there.

To each their own...for myself I don't have any cheat days-if I want something, I make it work and fit into my calories for the day, if it doesn't I won't have it or I'll work my day around it the next day. When I met with my personal trainer they told me to have a cheat day once a week, I decided not to do it cause then it makes me think of this as a diet and it's not

I've also read that cheat days are good for burning fat.
The gist of the science is this : when dieting, the body decreases in leptin levels, which are essential to burning fat, When leptin levels are low, the body holds on to fat for energy because calories are energy and fats have the most energy per macro.
So by having a cheat day you bring back your leptin level to 100%, the following day you go super low-carb and then back to a calorie limited diet.

Here's an interview with him where he explains how cheat days work.

http://blog.holygrailbodytransformation.com/?p=264

Depends on what you're currently doing. If you're eating low calories 6 days a week then yeah a cheat day is acceptable. They can eventually back fire on you. When i started MFP i was 343lbs. I did a cheat day every week, sometimes 2x a week. I got down to about 297 or so and it stopped working, I stalled out.

A cheat day can eventually cause you to stall out. The best way to use one effectively is to make sure you count your calories, even on a cheat day. I made an excel worksheet that can help with cheat days.

You enter your weekly weight loss goal, everyday you enter how many calories you ate and exercise calories. It will tell you how many calories you can eat tomorrow. If you went over today, it will subtract calories for tomorrow. If you went under on your calories today, it will add calories to tomorrow. WIth this you can save up calories, you always now where you stand with your calories.



there is link on my profile if you're interested to download it.

Interesting

i know that once in a while i will have a particularly bad day where i stress eat, binge, or just make horrible food decisions. this happens once a week, once every ten days, once a month, whatever.

so i don't have a planned out cheat day because life kinda forces once on me once in a while. but as long as i'm on point about 80% of the time, i'm okay with that.

I take one day a week and "cheat". I still stay within my calories but I do have a meal I wouldn't nornally eat. Oddly enough I haven't stepped on the scale and gained... I've always lossed! It has also helped me to work harder during the week cuz I know "cheat" day I can more relax. I like having my "cheat" day!

I take one day a week and "cheat". I still stay within my calories but I do have a meal I wouldn't nornally eat.

I may be wrong, but staying within your calories is not what most people consider a cheat day