do you have a cheat meal?

I just incorporate all the stuff I want in my daily goals. This way I'm less likely to binge and go 1000 over my goal or something.

Imo the whole "cheat meal" thing is a crock of ****. When I first started dieting I use to do the "cheat meal", then I started calling it an "earned meal" (earned from not missing any workout days that week.) Then that progressed to a cheat day. It didn't seem to matter what I ate, if I still maintained my macros and wasn't over on sodium, sugar, saturated or poly fats, then my weight wasn't negatively affected. There was no "recovery day" that some people have (which is really an alias for a starvation day) to get things back in "balance."

Since that time I focus on eating nutrient dense foods as much as possible, but a "cheat" or an "earned" meal doesn't exist in my mind anymore.

I feel the same as the others....I dont need to cheat, bc I incorporate foods i love into my calorie intake every day.

I just ate a box of fiber one brownies. I cheated.

I have a cheat weekend. I just don't count calories and I still eat great even if I go out to eat.

I do, but it might not necessarily be a cheat day since I always happen to have it be the same day I do a long run which is on Saturday. I am currently at 8 miles and working up to a half marathon. That creates a lot of exercise calories burned that need to be eaten up. Last Saturday I cheated and I still only ended up with a net calorie intake of about 700. I had a couple beers, fried shrimp and yummy french fries. Wishing now I would have had some dark beers. Then I might have been a little closer to my daily goal for net calories.

If you're cheating and ending up with net calories of 700, you're doing it wrong. That's not "cheating," it's "undereating."

I have a healthy relationship with food, so for me, there is no such thing as a "cheat meal" because I don't classify my food as necessarily good or bad. I I eat a lot of nutrient dense foods and get my proper nutrition...so a pizza or whatever here and there is no biggie.

I like salad and vegetables, so if I need to have a big pepperoni slice, I can easily finish the day off with a huge bucket of leafy greens. It's not cheating, because all the numbers still go into MFP. If I feel the need to have pizza and ice cream, that's fine too, but those are the sorts of days where I'm planning on going out or something, and I'll do a 5km walk to help offset any upward swing.

I think about what it'll be like on maintenance... I worry that treating food as a treat or a cheat sets up bad habits for the future.

Your cheat meal does not sound out of control they sound consistent which is a good thing. I am saving up my calories today for buffalo wild wings boneless honey BBQ wings. I am seriously starving right now but so looking forward. I don't plan on getting any sides but if I snitch a few fries I should still be ok calorie wise. I did a Kickboxing class today, so got plenty of extra calories to enjoy.