Cheat days - ruined an entire week

Personal preference, I guess. I have tried both ways. Yeah, it sucks to lose a week of progress (probably a little TOO much cheating) but you gotta find a way to go for the long haul. Remember, you never stop dieting. Once you meet your goal, you have to find a way to live life and maintain your goal. I am hoping that being careful during the week, and eating sensibly on the weekends I will be able to maintain the fluctuations in weight to a 5 lb variation. We will see! Good luck.

I think the term "cheat" is not necessarily helpful. It's unnecessarily negative, like saying foods are "bad" or "good" - foods have no morality.

Do I think a day here and there where you eat outside of your prescribed zone could be helpful? Yes, but it depends. For people who low-carb AND train a re-feed day every few weeks can improve athletic performance. For someone who is counting and netting 1200, the added fats especially can prevent hormonal imbalances. For most people who eat moderately I don't know if I see the physiological point, but if it helps you feel like you can continue, do it. Healthy habits for the rest of your life require leniency. Are you never going to eat cake at a friend's wedding or have a pint on St. Pats? Of course you are going to participate! You love life! Learning how to have meals that may be slightly outside your new norm without completely letting it derail you is an important skill to develop.

But that's just how I see it.

I have cheat meals, not a whole cheat day. On my cheat meal, it's usually because I skipped breakfast (happens sometimes on the weekend) so I have to make up the calorie goal. Cheat meals are better than a whole day of cheating. I absolutely HATE the red numbers from eating over my limits.

I don't think you should schedule cheat days, as in one a week or every sunday. It's true that one cheat day for me can ruin an entire week. I try to stay within my goals, but if I absolutely have to have something special/extra I just do it. Next day I get right back to it. Now this doen't hold true if I eat Pizza. For me that it will send me on a week or longer binge. I don't know why, but it's a major trigger food for me.

So I cheated on Valentines day and Sunday slightly (ate maybe 1500 over my dieting calories on each day) and it hindered my weightloss a lot to where I didn't lose anything until today (0.6lbs).... do you guys really think they're helpful? Psychologically, if someone is able to stick with their diet without a cheat day why cheat?

I guess it depends on what you mean by cheat day. Different people have different definitions. To some, a cheat day or meal is just eating foods they feel are less clean, while for others they are untracked days. Eating 1500 calories over your target on two days during the course of a week is a lot, and the fact that you said "maybe" makes me think you didn't log what you ate.

Personally, I refuse to use the word "cheat" when it comes to my eating plan. What's the point? I don't think that eating at one of my favorite restaurants for Valentine's Day was "cheating." It was real life. Sometimes, life includes restaurants. I don't have any completely off-limits foods, so my normal days include foods that other people consider "cheats," just in smaller portions than I used to eat so they fit within my calorie target.

What I will do every two or three weeks, especially on a day when I might go to a good restaurant or hang out with friends, is to allow myself to eat up to my TDEE. I have my target set at a 1.5 pound loss per week, so this would give me up to 750 extra calories. Keeping track of those high-calorie days and logging them means that I'm still below my maintenance level and it doesn't really hurt anything. On Valentine's Day, I was over by 500, but that still left me at a deficit for the day. Since this isn't something that happens every week, it really doesn't hamper my weight loss. I feel that it helps because I never feel deprived. I know I can enjoy the foods I love, within reason.

cheat days probably ruin more diets than help. probably best to stay away from them.

I fit everything I want into my calorie goals on typical days.
If a day like valentine's day, a concert, birthday etc comes and I want to eat more that day, then I will.

I don't schedule 'cheat days', I just don't eat ridiculous amounts every single day.

From what I understand, you can have a "cheat" meal every so often, but not a whole day of splurging.

Was about to say the same. And you should postpone the cheat meal until you have made major progress. I have found that my desire for cheat meals has diminished substantially as I have progressed. It helps that I do not deprive myself and eat healthy food that tastes good and yet keeps me below my calorie goal.

I dont' have cheat days. My "cheat" meals are usually saved for when I go out to eat, becuase sometimes it is hard to stay in calorie goal at restaurants.

But, I do have sweets all the time. Like ice cream, chocolate, etc... I just make sure to moderate it. But...that is me....if you find that having the stuff around is too much of a temptation then get rid of the stuff so that you can stay on track.

Also, btw...you having an uncontollable few days hasn't ruined you unless you let it ruin you. There are plenty of success stories in the forums of people having binge days, but have still successfully lost weight and kept it off.

Stick to one Cheat Meal..not cheat DAY, per week if you feel like you must...dont if you dont want it..its that simple