Cheat Day?

It seems to me cheat days are pointless.
If you restrict your calories by say...500 calories every day for 6 days=3000 cal.
Then you have a cheat day where you eat whatever you want...you can easily eat 3000 extra.

I believe a cheat meal where you allow yourself an extra 500 calories or so makes more sense.
Alternatively allow yourself a treat of a few hundred calories every few days.

If your diet is so restrictive you feel the need to cheat you might want to alter the diet.

I can only speak for myself and how I do things. I have set up my caloric intake so that I on average eat about 250 calories below my TDEE a day.

But my calories are distributed so that I eat well below my TDEE on the 5 work-days and in weekends I eat pretty much whatever I want in what quantities I want. I don't log anything and I don't feel bad about anything.

Some would say that I am having two "cheat-days" every week - some would call it "calorie cycling". I call it having designed a programme that lets me keep sane and sustain me at a reasonable caloric deficit on average.

In general I don't think you can call it cheating if you plan for it - no matter how seldom/often you do it, and if you don't plan for it then it's not cheating, then it's slipping up, and you just have to get back into the groove afterwards.

(And planning can even be just allowing yourself to do whatever you want on a special weekend when you're going away and saying: after I get back I get into my ordinary schedule)

ive heard of it too, do i do it, no.. i log everything i eat, and im not going to say im perfect, not by no means, but i dont do "cheat" days. yea, i go out for supper with my hub and son. i always make sure that everything fits into my calorie chart. i dont go eating mcdonalds for lunch, and pizza for supper either, although what i eat from them two places would fit into my chart. i look at it like this, we are on a journey to loose weight and to keep it off, so we are training our bodies and our mind to make the transition. not just our stomaches/hips/thighs/ flabby arms!! lol.. although, i have heard that if you hit a plateau, you go go on a binger and just destroy a buffet .. then wait 24 hours before exercising, and you would break the wall.

There is nothing to cheat on. I am making healthier choices. I have days where I may go over my calorie limit, but I just chose to do so - maybe as a break and maybe because real life made it too inconvenient. And in the long run I am eating less on those days than I was almost all days before I started being healthy, so it's all good.

I'm maintaining my weight now as I have reached my goal so for me a cheat day is when we go somewhere that makes it hard to stay under my calorie goal so instead of getting uptight I just enjoy myself that day. I will sometimes gain a pound for doing it but it is so easy to get it right back off when I get right back on track. Life is too short to not enjoy the things we love from time to time. You have to experiment and see what works for you.

I did have cheat days while I was trying to lose also and yet I still reach my goal :}

For me....I am weary of cheat days because I sabatoge myself every week! This week, I've been at 1200 claories of clean eating with moderate to heavy exercise and today my co-worker brings in lemon cake and they want to go to 5 Guys for lunch and then I'll want wine because its Friday night and before I know it.....I have a 3000 calorie binge. I definitely need to rethink my definition of cheat.

Here are my thoughts on the cheat day...

Pros:

Sanity as in you know if you get through the week, you get something that can't fit regularly in your lifestyle anymore. You are not setting yourself up to fail by trying to tell yourself you are never going to have your favorite things anymore.

Fluctuating calories can help keep your metabolism in check. Your body is going to naturally adapt to whatever you do to it (like with weight training). It is an actual strategy that is used by some, but still within a plan.

Cons:

If you are not mentally ready for it, you could be sabotaging yourself. Are you going to be able to bounce back from it? Or are you going to have the mindset that you might as well do it again and start over Monday? Consider this.

To sum it up: Don't let it be a free for all. Still plan for it. You will feel less guilty about it, and have a better chance of returning to your good choices the following day, if you are not mindless about it. Know what you are going to do going in to it. If you are certain that you can handle it, maybe start off with a meal rather than day. Whatever you do, make sure that you have a plan set in stone for the next day!

I think if you get used to eating the right stuff, you stop wanting to cheat. Lately, I don't find myself wanting wheat and sugar anymore, because I've broken my addiction.

That said, I will allow myself to eat more fat and red meat and stuff, but as ONE MEAL at a time, not a whole day. I usually have either pizza (without wheat) or burgers (again - no wheat) on Saturday night. I do take the calories into account, but I don't sweat it if I go over my daily allowance a bit. I do, however, make sure not to go overboard, so that I'm at least maintaining and not gaining on those days.

I've heard it's good for resetting your metabolism and such, but for me, it's really a mental thing. I don't go overboard by any stretch, but two meals during the weekend that I don't have to worry about logging and I don't have to worry about counting, where I make good choices, but not obsessive choices; I need it for my mental health. For example I have a pot luck to go to this weekend, how on earth would you count and log what you eat at a pot luck? Just eat from the veggie tray? How would that be enjoyable? Instead, I'll make that one of my "splurge" meals. I'll make good choices, but I'm not going to worry about weighing and measuring, or asking what the ingredients are. I won't overeat, but I'll relax a bit. So far, it's working fine for me.

I dont usually have a cheat day persay but I do sometimes have a cheat meal....like sometimes when Ive worked out hard and been really good Ill have a little treat or I will have an extra portion of dinner.....I think cheat days are a bad mind set, we are doing this for a lifestyle change not a diet! and in life once and a while you go over your calories for the day but a cheat day implys you are going back to your old habits for a day this could cause a gain as well could cause it to carry over a for a few days. so track everyting even if you go over and be accountable but allow yourself a small treat once and a while it wont hurt you. like if you were really good all week and you ahve a birthday to go to or a dinner out, Id try and get a work out in or try and make a healthy choice while out for dinner but have a glass or two of wine have a peice of cake if you dont do it conisitantly then I think thats just life but dont go to the birthday party or dinner thinking its my cheat day and go crazy and eat whatever you want and how much of it you want.

As you can see everyone is different. I personally don't think a "cheat" day makes any sense. I have changed my eating lifestyle. I'm not on a "diet" I don't restrict myself or have foods that are banned from my life. If I want chocolate, cheese bread, or some other type of indulgence I eat it because A) I will have a weekly surplus of calories to allow for it or I will make other adjustments so I'm not too way out of line with the added calories.

Why do you have to cheat? If you think that you need to cheat to enjoy a meal or a day then you aren't thinking of what you are doing as permanent. If I want something...I eat it! I do what I need to in order to make it fit into my calories and macros for the day, but nothing is off limits to me. It is the one of the two keys to my success this time around.

The other key is patience.

I can't turn my sense of what I should be doing on and off that way. I let myself eat more sweets temporarily when I have a one day stress sort of thing, specifically something like a big test, but I know it's only one day, and in reality I don't eat more than usual, just more chocolate than usual. It's as much because I don't take time to cook when I'm stressed as it is because I want the sugar.

My diet wouldn't be appetizing to everyone, but I enjoy the food that I eat. I never force myself to eat anything that I don't like. So I don't need to "cheat."