To cheat or not to cheat?

If I didn't "Cheat" when I have PMS...people would get hurt.
Gimme chocolate!

There is no cheat. It's ridiculous and unrealistic to cut anything out that you are not willing to cut for life. I indulge daily. I had a wagon wheel yesterday, but just one instead of half the box. I am concentrating on cutting body fat more so than losing pounds. I cut 5% in just over a month, and I gave up nothing.

When my husband and I dieted together in the past, we would have a cheat day, but soon he couldn't deal with going back to portion control and that killed the diet for both of us. I'm not on any sort of strict diet. I thought the only rule here was eating in moderation. As I log my food, which I never did before, I can see where I could've made better choices and did make some changes to my diet but I don't miss anything that I decided not to eat or drink any longer.

Today, however, we're going to have our corned beef dinner and I'm not going to practice moderation. Call it a cheat day if you want, but everything I consume will be healthy even the Irish Soda Bread, I'm just not putting on the brakes and will probably eat leftovers for a few days. I will be logging my eats at all times oinking all the way. BUT, I won't have any beer. Not drinking any alcohol is one of my changes and I don't miss it or yearn for it.

I would never look down on anyone if they needed a cheat day. They are only hurting themselves as I will be if I overdo it too much. If they are practicing moderation, then they are already eating everything there isbut in smaller quantities so what is the need for a cheat day?

I personally think that having a cheat day is important and necessary to curb your cravings. I give myself two days a month to have 'cheat days' so if there is a special occasion, I can enjoy the food around me rather than feeling required to stick to the same old same ol'.

I don't call them cheat days tho, I think of them as reward days instead. I don't stray off my new lifestyle diet hardly EVER so when I decide to have a reward day, it really is something I treasure. I eat whatever I want and I eat the things I crave most. It allows me to enjoy it and feel satisfied. Then the next day I get right back on and stick to the normal diet.

I don't know if this will be helpful or detrimental to weight loss, but I do know that it will boost your metabolism if it has slowed down from eating fewer calories and it will keep you sane lol. Diets shouldn't be about torture, they should be about goals and compromise.

I have a cheat day once every 2 weeks on grocery day. I buy all healthy/good foods to last me 2 weeks and 1 days worth of cheat food for that day. But I still try not to go over by more than 500 calories. (To keep me under 2,000 for the day.)

what you call "cheating" I just call eating. It's just food

Yep.

tbh, I've found that now that I don't eat "cheat" foods, I don't even crave them! I'll enjoy homemade baked goods on holidays or nice desserts if some special occasion happens and such foods are available, but otherwise I'll have a small Girl Scout cookie or square of dark chocolate every morning and I'm good! I guess that's how I do it- I have a tiny treat almost daily

first thing first! everyone is different. What works for you may not work for others. All i can speak on is my progess which in a nut shell is started Gym in August 2012 and started MFP around october. Been following the calorie goal MFP set up for me, And I used a self imposed metric goal of 50% protien/ 30% carbs/ 20%fat. Since october i been working out 7 days a week and 5 of the 7 days i work out twice a day. I weigh in on sunday evening and sunday night i eat whatever the hell i want. Not really a junk day more like a "junk dinner". During the week i eat good but if someone orders pizza i just try to keep it to no more then two pieces. I've heard that the "junk" kick starts your metabolisum but have nothing to back it up so who knows. All i know is that i'm down 85 pounds and not starving myself to do it. Eating about 1800 calories a day but i eat small meals often so 1800 is alot some days i feel like i'm stuffing myself.

I will say that if your having a problem with "binge" eating i wouldn't advise it as it might lead to continued bad food choices but if you think you can handle eating what ever u want sometimes and are willing to work your *kitten* off to make up for it then do you!

Hi, Amanda.

In my view, it depends.

When I was morbidly obese and only dieting for a short period of time, cheat days made little sense. After becoming more lean and dieting for a long time, they became necessary, for resetting various hormones.

On cheat days, I eat whatever I want and however much I want. Yesterday, for instance, I ate nearly 6,000 calories, including 600 grams of carbohydrates. I spent most of my so-called journey following a very low carbohydrate, ketogenic diet.

Body recomposition is a dynamic process, so the strategies used need to be dynamic as well.

This. I too, follow a ketogenic diet and have refeed days every 1-2 weeks depending on my performance/how I've done that week/any upcoming events. I eat whatever and however much, occasionally drink some delicious beer, and *GASP* don't log anything. I find that doing this keeps me sane, makes me happy, and keeps me motivated to continue on my journey.

I don't have a "cheat" per say...but I do have 2 days a week that I have a much smaller deficit than the other days. I call them controlled high calorie days, even though I am still not over in calories. (My TDEE is about 2150, and my "high" days are around 2000 calories while the "low days" are about TDEE -25%).

I still lose weight because I am in a deficit all the time, but I am never depriving myself of anything. If there is something that does not fit into my calories or macros on a "low" day that I really want to eat, I can rest assured that it will fit in one of my "high" days and I will be just fine.

I had a hard time with "cheat days" or "cheat meals" when I used to do them. When I did that, I tended to go so far over on calories that particular day or that particular meal that it honestly did hurt me. I mean, I would do something like go out to the Cheesecake Factory, have dinner, appetizer, cheesecake, and wine...and easily zap 4000 or more calories in ONE MEAL that way. That pretty much took away my whole week's deficit since I don't have much of a deficit being a small female.