Cheat days??? do you have one or not?

ReddRidingHood
ReddRidingHood Posts: 13 Member
in Food and Nutrition
So I'm wondering what everyone's take is on "Cheat Day"...the one day a week you let yourself eat whatever you want. Do you let yourself have one whole day or do you just allow yourself one indulgent meal? Weekends are tough for me when it comes to sticking to diets.
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Replies

  • Babeskeez
    Babeskeez Posts: 606 Member
    Uh, yeah. If I didnt I would fail miserably. In fact, I dont deprive myself really. On the weekends I ease up on my eating. During the week its healthy eating. But lets say I want a few m&m's, I dont deprive myself of a few.
  • lynnie07
    lynnie07 Posts: 52
    I do have a cheat day but I have to eat healthy 2 out of the 3 meal and I try to cheat at the end of the day where I won't eat as much calories.
  • alimarie53
    alimarie53 Posts: 102 Member
    I have a cheat day. It will vary depending on what's going on in my life that day.

    For me, I need that. I love all the bad foods in life lol...ice cream, cookies, cheesecake.... BRING IT ON! If I were to deny myself these things for weeks, months at a time... I would fail.

    Tons of respect to those that can go without the food vices... I'm just not one of them.

    With that said I don't spend my cheat day sitting in front of the tv eating a carton of ice cream lol. I will have a normal serving and that's it. Oh, and if I need a sweet tooth fix on my days where I have to be good.... I keep fun sized m&ms and Trader Joe's crispy chocolate chip cookies (super low in calories) around for a quick fix. Each is under 100 calories.
  • lizziebeth1028
    lizziebeth1028 Posts: 3,602 Member
    On Sunday's anything goes - keeps me in line the other 6 days a week and it gives me something to look forward to.
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    I don't have a "planned" cheat day. And I try to confine it to just one meal, not the whole day. It is too easy to erase the progress of a week of hard work by letting myself go wild for a whole day. So, if i know we are going out to dinner on a Saturday night, I make sure I eat sensibly earlier in the day. Excess sodium makes the scale go up sometimes 5 pounds for me, so if the number on the scale is important to you, you might want to consider that in your cheat meals.
  • RhonndaJ
    RhonndaJ Posts: 1,615 Member
    Since I'm working under the premise of everything within moderation and my calorie goal, I don't do cheat days or cheat meals.
  • lmkaks
    lmkaks Posts: 119 Member
    Give yourself one.

    In the beginning you may go a little overboard, but once you start adapting your life to your new way of eating, you will find you won't crave the bad stuff as much or at least will be more mindful of what you are eating and not want those bad things.

    I do draw the lines with alcohol though. I give myself one night a week to knock a few drinks back...
  • cyberiarob
    cyberiarob Posts: 229 Member
    I don't have cheat days, and I actually eat fewer calories on the weekend than I do during the week because I don't workout on the weekends. It's honestly my lifestyle now and I never feel like eating junk anymore.
  • sbrooks0387
    sbrooks0387 Posts: 167 Member
    depends on what is going on. for birthdays i will eat pizza, cake and icecream and not feel guilty since it's not an every day thing.

    i tend to eat healthy for breakfast and lunch but then come dinner i eat what ever the rest of my family is eating (3 kids under 3 they are not really into the healhty eating). i still serve veggies and fruit but a pasta is usually included or a boxed thing is incorporated. i feel that by doing more portion controll and not a "diet" i don't feel deprived.
  • Ervie317
    Ervie317 Posts: 179 Member
    I don't do cheat days, I do cheat meals. When my fiancee and I have our cheat meals we limit ourselves to just one sitting. Once you are full and stop eating you cheat is done.
  • j75j75
    j75j75 Posts: 854 Member
    I don't have a specific cheat day. I eat healthy whenever I can, and then when I eat out or have a craving I splurge
  • trogalicious
    trogalicious Posts: 4,584 Member
    I don't plan "cheat meals/days" but if I want something out of the ordinary, I make room for it in my calories. No, one day of eating whatever you want will not destroy anyone, but it's a slippery slope.
  • GenieBB
    GenieBB Posts: 52 Member
    Saturday nights usually, not complete sabotage but I will eat something bad.
    and Sunday a.m. I like to have a real breakfast instead of a shake or bar type thing.
    I love pancakes n eggs n such :)
  • teneh
    teneh Posts: 39
    Once a month
  • majica8
    majica8 Posts: 210 Member
    Not really. I mean I never eat super healthily really, but I'm almost always below my goals and am losing weight so I'm not going to change that while it's working.
    I've been tempted to have cheat days, and used to call Friday my cheat day but it all still fits in my goals. Very occasionally go out for a family meal, I try to stay within goals but don't make a major fuss over it, I eat what I want. I guess that's the closest thing to a cheat day I have. It really is maybe 4-5 times a year though.
  • NJSunshine13
    NJSunshine13 Posts: 116
    I only do it when I am on maintenance. I can easily undo all my efforts during the week with one cheat day. So not until I am back at my goal weight. In the meantime, I don't deprive myself, I just learned tight portion controls like one or two cookies and not the entire sleeve.
  • Scarlett_Belle
    Scarlett_Belle Posts: 145 Member
    I have a cheat meal one time a week where I can eat anything I want- I am just careful to make sure it is not on my day off from working out- works out for me better then whole day since I am just starting and of the mindset that if I just take one day then why not two ect. . .
  • Confuzzled4ever
    Confuzzled4ever Posts: 2,860 Member
    No.. I don't have a cheat day.. I eat what I want and try to make it healthy.. but if I want something unhealthy I have it, like if I want a slice of pizza or some buffalo wings.. i mean want it enough to go out and get it.. then i will indulge myself and just go to the gym and work a little harder.

    If you need a cheat day then it's a diet not a lifestyle change. The goal is to change yourself for life, not until you lose weight.

    if you train youself to choose healthy foods those cravings will be few and far between anyway and when you do get them a little goes a long way. A pint of Chinese food lasts me through 3 meals. So it looks like I'm eating a lot of it.. but really i'm not.
  • notreallytrillian
    notreallytrillian Posts: 77 Member
    Nope! Every now and again I'll have some booze, but I still try to stay under my calorie goal. Any day that I go over my calorie goal isn't a cheat day - it's a day I made a bad decision. I do know several people who use them and it works for them, but I fall off the bandwagon pretty easily and it's not unreasonable to think that a cheat day would lead to a cheat week or a cheat month in my case!
  • alpine1994
    alpine1994 Posts: 1,915 Member
    Uh, yeah. If I didnt I would fail miserably. In fact, I dont deprive myself really. On the weekends I ease up on my eating. During the week its healthy eating. But lets say I want a few m&m's, I dont deprive myself of a few.

    This is me too. It took me about 6 months so far to lose 26 lbs so maybe I would've lost weight faster if I stayed under my calories every single day, but that's not what it's about for me. It's about how to learn to live a healthy lifestyle forever. If there's a life without M&Ms, I don't want to live it!
  • The_Outlaw_Torn
    The_Outlaw_Torn Posts: 67 Member
    Everyday.
  • FitBeto
    FitBeto Posts: 2,121 Member
    Like on my SO?
  • Mtfd02
    Mtfd02 Posts: 239 Member
    If you don't have a cheat day, you fail! just one meal does not hurt as long as you are getting a workout in that day as well
  • cjsacto
    cjsacto Posts: 1,421 Member
    I don't do a cheat day, but I have been going out to eat about once a week. I try very carefully to still count all the calories to my best estimate and stay in my daily goal, but those are days when I guess I "cheat" on the macros and don't worry about servings of veggies, etc. In my normal eating though, I still have pasta, dessert, pizza (homemade), etc. I just have only one serving.
  • bmeek530
    bmeek530 Posts: 28
    I wish I could. I've tried planned cheats and it ends with me throwing in the towel. It's like my body says "Oh yeah! THAT's how I want to eat...please continue!" So I gave up on cheats. It leads me down a nasty path. For those of you that can, that is awesome and I am jealous! ha!
  • lilmzritz
    lilmzritz Posts: 176
    No set days but I do once a week. Depends on my mood also if I'm cheating with 1 meal or entire day. Im such a sucker for Filipino, Korean & Japanese food so you can count on me having rice that day. I still keep the portions small though because my stomach cant take all that much anymore :-)

    Happy cheat day!
  • bensmom912
    bensmom912 Posts: 12
    Sundays are my cheat day :) I still go to the gym and work out but I don't beat myself up if I have a little extra gravy on my potatoes!! And it's key to not deprive yourself or you will derail. Moderation has always worked the best for me :)
  • Espressocycle
    Espressocycle Posts: 2,245 Member
    Lately every day is a cheat day for me. :sad:
  • aliciagetshealthy
    aliciagetshealthy Posts: 946 Member
    I don't "cheat". I'm not on a diet. I just live. I try to find balance, but I refuse to give that kind of negative connotation to something I want to eat. Nor do I have any desire to feel a sense of guilt over enjoying a really good *whatever*.
  • sed1217
    sed1217 Posts: 228 Member
    I don't because I find cheating to be the wrong mentality for me - I will eat everything I can at my cheat meal and then sulk about not getting to cheat again the next day (and soon it becomes a daily cheat...). It just doesn't work for me. I prefer to eat just a very little bit of a non-diet food occasionally (like this week I had one french fry from my husband's plate and that was enough for me) and then plan a special meal out where I can have a diet-friendly portion of a more indulgent food. I'm trying to make it to Valentine's Day before I have one of those meals. I haven't felt deprived so far, so I guess it's working.

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