Cheat Meals - Your Experience

What is a cheat meal? I'm always baffled by this term. Eat food...meet your calorie goals. I personally like my diet to consist of 80-90% nutrient dense whole foods, but nothing is off limits. Your diet (noun) should be lifestyle sustainable.

I'm not a fan of the term, but there's nothing wrong with people having a meal that's more about enjoyment than nutrients. If they want to see it as a 'cheat', then let them. Eating well most of the time and having one 'bad' meal every so often is actually very sustainable, and that's the whole point of it. Eating healthy 100% of the time isn't sustainable for most, hence why 'cheat meals' exist.

That's my point. I'm a foodie...all of my food is about enjoyment. I think people get into the mind set of this is bad and that is good, etc...when in fact, even something as "junky" as pizza has essential fats, protein, and carbs. I think the mindset of this is good and that is bad is what leads people to binge and "cheat" or whatever.

If I've gotten all of my nutrients in for the day and hit my protein goals and viatamins and minerals in check, then how would a slice of pie or ice cream for desert be "cheating" so long as I'm hitting all of my goals? If I'm going to have a big, high calorie meal on a given day, I make it fit...I made it fit when I was losing and I make it fit at maintenance, nothing has really changed in terms of my overall diet (noun)...except the amount of calories. I'm eating the same stuff either way.

Ah, ok I gotcha. I think I misunderstood your first post. My bad! I also make things fit into my daily allowances. If I know I'm going out to eat with friends for example, I work my butt off at the gym so I can have that high calorie meal and enjoy it. I don't see the point of not letting yourself have a slice of pizza or some ice cream every now and then because like you said, it's a lifestyle change. There's no way I could never eat pizza again, so why stop myself from having it now? That's why I don't like the term 'cheating'. I'm not cheating, I'm being human and enjoying some yummy foods in moderation

I do Leangains but I almost never keep to the 'calorie-cycling-based-on-activity' part of it because I'm rubbish at maths. So a "cheat day" for me is a weekly carb refeed (macros be damned) to eat back at least some of my exercise calories but predominantly to boost Leptin.

In practice, I only really eat a third to half as many calories than usual but the following day, even though the scale has gone up, I ALWAYS look thinner in my face, neck and belly.

My case is probably atypical because I "cheat" solely to regulate metabolism, not because I crave junk.

My case is not because I crave junk. It's because I crave scones. Also, if I've done a day of heavy cardio, I would kill for carbs. And we don't want any killing.

I don't even like junk food. Sometimes my "cheat" is having a big bowl of oatmeal, and not worrying about falling short on protein for a day.

Right now I do one "cheat day" a month. It helps me mentally (I think?). It takes away the "taboo" of really bad-for-you food. Maybe it's because I'm still getting started, and I am still learning how to do things, but I feel a lot better knowing that there are still greasy bacon cheeseburgers with fries to be enjoyed every once in a while. It works as a backwards sort of inspiration when I feel like I might just have to throw the next plate of broccoli and quinoa that I see, LOL! I'd rather have a day where I eat what I feel like and just not worry about it, than spend all of my time stressing about how I'm going to "work something in", only to potentially be left still somewhat unsatisfied (I'm looking at you, lean turkey burger on a whole wheat bun with broccoli on the side!) I'm not doing a great job of explaining how I justify it, I know, I'm sorry. But I feel that it's something that does work for me. I'd prolly recommend keeping things under your TDEE at least though, just so you're not completely setting yourself back.

"My case is not because I crave junk. It's because I crave scones. Also, if I've done a day of heavy cardio, I would kill for carbs. And we don't want any killing."


*holds out scone, hides knives*

Right now I do one "cheat day" a month. It helps me mentally (I think?). It takes away the "taboo" of really bad-for-you food. Maybe it's because I'm still getting started, and I am still learning how to do things, but I feel a lot better knowing that there are still greasy bacon cheeseburgers with fries to be enjoyed every once in a while. It works as a backwards sort of inspiration when I feel like I might just have to throw the next plate of broccoli and quinoa that I see, LOL! I'd rather have a day where I eat what I feel like and just not worry about it, than spend all of my time stressing about how I'm going to "work something in", only to potentially be left still somewhat unsatisfied (I'm looking at you, lean turkey burger on a whole wheat bun with broccoli on the side!) I'm not doing a great job of explaining how I justify it, I know, I'm sorry. But I feel that it's something that does work for me. I'd prolly recommend keeping things under your TDEE at least though, just so you're not completely setting yourself back.

If you don't like broccoli and quinoa, my suggestion would be to keep trying healthy foods until you find things that you love....which doesn't mean that you'd never eat another cheeseburger. Cheeseburgers are a great protein food.

P.S. I know this post is not about having or not having a cheat day. It's important to me to enjoy my food ALL the time, not only when I'm having a treat.

I do like broccoli and quinoa, I just burn out on things quickly, I need to rotate foods frequently. They were just an example

"It's important to me to enjoy my food ALL the time, not only when I'm having a treat." THIS. I like this! :happy:

When/if I do them I feel pretty crummy for the 2 days following, and sometimes it is struggle to get back in the game.

I'm looking for your own actual experience with cheat meals and whether or not they helped out out and if so...how (mentally, metabolically, etc.)?

I'm not looking for links to studies here, just people's actual experience.

I find them critical to my own long-term diet sustainability. It gives me something to look forward to, it's a very small window one time per week, and I can go about my week with far fewer severe cravings of what I feel deprived of during the week due to my own choices in how I eat. I tend to have one cheat meal per week, but it depends on how I'm feeling. I've gone as extreme as only have one per month instead of one per week. Optimal for me would be once every two weeks. At present it's one meal per week, and my weight loss and active lifestyle has not been hindered by it.

I do a cheat meal once every week or two, I try to make it just a meal and not a day (that can get out of hand quick lol). It allows me to have something that I normally can't fit it into my calorie target unless I spend 8hrs exercising. For example every now and again I crave a Wendy's double burger combo (1170 calories)... it's too much to fit into a normal day without blowing my target to hell. I've just started trying to force myself to exercise so its unrealistic for me to 'work' off those extra calories. I've been doing this for nearly a year now and its worked well for me. I fell off the wagon a few weeks back and by the time I got back on track I put back on nearly 4 of the 36lbs I've lost... Happens. The key is to not get discouraged, just stay the course and remember the end goal. As of this post I've managed to claw back nearly 3 of those lbs so it won't be long before that little boo boo is a memory and nothing else

Its just not an option for me to sit at my parent's dinning table on a Sunday lunchtime and refuse my mother's homemade dessert. Eating is a social experience too and I cannot deny myself nice things occassionally.

So every Sunday its a full Sunday lunch. I log it, but its a guess becuase I don't weigh or measure what I am giving. Today I had roast ham (very lean), broccoli, cheese sauce, leek and potato gratin followed by lemon meringue pie with whipped cream. I guess all that comes to about 1000 to 1300 cals. I eat light for the rest of the day becuase these kind of meals keep me going till maybe 8pm when I just need some toast and eggs or something.

Sunday also happens to be my rest day from excercise, though I may go for a walk. Today I played with my daughter in the indoor soft play.

This doesn't seem to affect my weight loss at all, though I appreciate I may lose more if I didn't go to my parents house for Sunday lunch, but I need balance in my life!

Well this turned into a thread about peoples opinions on if they're good or not rather than peoples actual experience pretty quickly.

If you live a 'fit' lifestyle, you can't eat crappy food all the time because it doesn't support your lifestyle. Make a decision about what's more important in your life - performance or food - and it will become really easy to make good decisions.

I disagree with the above statement. A person can life a fit lifestyle: no drugs, smoking, drinking, and watching what they eat 99.9% of their lives. If they have one day a month where they eat whatever they want and go over the calorie count, is that no longer a "fit" lifestyle? Hardly.

I had a lot of fun last night at a party and enjoyed every minute of what I ate and drank. I went over my calorie count by over 100 cals, and I think it might have been more because I forgot about the quesadillas. Does this make me "unfit", even though I've been working out pretty much every other day, watching what I eat 98% of the time, and just worked off 900 calories from exercise? No, it makes me human and willing to not obsess over every moment of my life when it comes to fitness and health.

A meal of abundance doesn't erase a month of diligence.

This. Exactly. A meal a week does not make you an unhealthy person anymore than one good meal a week makes you a healthy person. Likewise with exercise. It's about consistency above all.

I have a cheat meal atleast once a week. I cannot expect my partner to be on a diet just because I am. So we made a deal: once a week we will eat pizza or other bad foods, he loves it and it helps keep him sane. And ofcourse I love it to! Though I do portion those meals, for example I will only eat half of what he eats. And I still log it all into my diary here and make sure I do an extra workout that day.