Is it good to have a cheat day??

I have a takeaway every Saturday night, or a nice meal out! Something like that gives me what I need to get through the week...sometimes on a run I will be like "the last leg, think of that cheat meal in a couple days time...!"

I think they're important, because we can't all be tight *kitten* angels.

I wouldn't really know if i consider it a 'cheat' day as such to myself but sometimes i'll have days usually at the weekends when i'm home from college at family when i'd be less strict on myself, say we might get a takeaway or id enjoy a roast with my parents and whatever, i'd still be mindful of my calories but i'd indulge a little more...i always feel it is easy to get back on track the next day though as i feel so much better with the way i eat now compared to how it used to be which was mindless eating really, do whatever works for you...eventually as this becomes a lifestyle change more to a diet you wont even regard them as cheat day as such anymore!

I think so, but it has worked out for me so far. Other people might have a different experience.

Ya know, I honestly can't understand why so many people are against indulging yourself for one single meal every now and then. As if one meal will make you blow up like a blow fish and all progress you're entire journey is lost. Maybe some people are bad at resisting temptation and a cheat meal isn't good for them. I don't know. But I know making a blanket statement like "all cheat days are a bad idea" is off the mark.

The term "cheat" in my eyes doesn't have any negative connotation like it does with some other people. It's a simple word to describe what you're doing. Any word would do. And in my instance, it means not worrying if you go over your budget of calories. This "you only cheat yourself" crap doesn't apply if you're taking the rest of your dieting/lifestyle changes seriously. I don't think white knuckling it and trying to have some kind of willpower to resist everything you want is healthy long term. Maybe you want to eat something and its more calories than you can work in on your day. Do you deprive yourself because you think one cheat meal will ruin all your progress? There's dieting...and there's living in a constant state of fear.

Your entire life doesn't need to revolve around calorie counting and trying to get full off of salad and beans. It's important to have something to look forward to. There was a post on the reddit r/loseit from a guy that lost more than a hundred lbs and still wasn't happy. He was sick of eating such small portions ALL the time and not being able to enjoy things he really wanted. Apparently, he didn't have a "cheat meal" either. There are those times when you want to eat something that'll just be too many calories to work in or work out. I'm not going to calorie count on thanksgiving. Just...no. That's my day and ill stuff my face with all the greasy crap I can fit because really. Calorie counting I'd eat a small piece of turkey and a mashed potato. No. That turkey wants me to eat it. Wouldn't wanna offend our dinner guest now would we?

I'll tell you what I do. You can do whatever you want, but this is just me and what I do with my pie hole. I have a "cheat meal" that is purely performance based. When I lose 5 lbs, I let myself eat whatever the hell I want. I try to make it so the calories wouldn't put me over my maintenance number, but if it goes over a little bit oh well. Simple as that. Been doing this for awhile and it works perfectly. You eat all the crap you want and your weight will fluctuate over the next couple days but even out again and you're back to eating healthy. You don't need to deprive yourself to lose weight. Sometimes, we need a break

I don't have cheat days because I look at this as living the rest of my life, it is not something that has a beginning and/or an end. If I want to eat something that is not "healthy" I do, I log it, and I deal with the consequences.

^^^^THIS

I'm not going to give up all the foods I love...I just try to have them less often. If you have a smart phone and the smart phone app, you can track your weekly calorie intake in graph form...I use this..I figure if I'm at or below my net for the week, I'm okay. I binged hard on Tuesday, but I've been at or below every other day and could still binge today (the last day of my week as it is Sunday in Japan) and be below...not going to, but I could.

To me, there are a couple of different problems with "cheat" days. And these do not even address the problem for me, which is that I'm a very habit-based person. I'm almost Rain Man like in my routines, and when I'm on a routine of good habits, it's important for me to capitalize on that.

But the bigger problem with cheat days is that they implicate an ideal about food that contributes to poor health in the first place. Why do people eat poorly? There are many reasons. Most of them are emotional. They eat pizza not because pizza tastes better than a piece of salmon, but because pizza has emotional attachment. They remember pizza parties, and they associate pizza with youth or some other positive experience. In some cases, the emotion is grief. People use food to fill voids, however those voids are caused.

When you engage in a "cheat" day, you are going back to using food in the way it's not supposed to be used. Food is fuel for your body. In our society, eating is a social activity, but that does not change the fact that food has one primary purpose. If you need to feel better, get a hug from your family members or friends. If you want to remember your youth, look at pictures or go to a ballgame. Those things don't wreck and ruin your health. Cheat days take food out of the fuel category and put it somewhere else, and a person who engages in cheat days is viewing food in the wrong way.

Likewise, cheat days say something to me about identity. The idea being that the person taking the cheat day in some ways sees the diet as something that is taking him away from his true self - that self being a big eater. It's like saying, "Man, I've done so well, so I'm going to reward myself by being that bad eater again. In my estimation, the best way to get fit is to change your mind about what you are. You don't have to be fat or out of shape. You are a human being with incredible potential, and living up to that potential is just the product of many small, good decisions. That is the identity that people should cling to. A cheat day treats overindulgence as a positive, and though it may not wreck a diet long-term, it says some powerful things about the resolve of the person taking that sort of day.

Me? I get off on non-cheat days. It feels much better to go to bed knowing I worked my body hard and fed it the right fuel...even if it's the 100th consecutive day I've been able to say that. In fact, ESPECIALLY if it's the 100th day.

I have days where my calories are quite high, but they're usually planned, so I don't really think of them as "cheat" days. I also plan days where my calories are very low, so that it balances out over the course of the week.