The infamous "cheat day"

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135

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  • SomeWhatTwisted
    SomeWhatTwisted Posts: 12
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    My husband and I do a cheat meal, instead of a cheat day, once a week.

    I do the same except not with your husband because that would be weird. :noway:
  • pinkraynedropjacki
    pinkraynedropjacki Posts: 3,027 Member
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    I cheat every day basically.. Even though i try to eat healthy as much as i can, I need 3000 calories just to maintain my weight and it's almost impossible for me to eat healthy all the way.. Since i do intermittent fasting most of the time (16 hours fasting, 8 hours eating window) i just can't eat clean cause it's just so much food that i feel sick... That's why i throw in some "sin" food and drinks every day to hit my numbers.. Works perfect for me
    How about increasing your eating window....


    That beats the whole reasoning behind 16:8 by increasing the eating window :noway:
  • Snow3y
    Snow3y Posts: 1,412 Member
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    i've eaten 3 pizzas in the past 3 days, i say to em, umad?
  • Myhaloslipped
    Myhaloslipped Posts: 4,317 Member
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    I don't really need them. today AND yesterday I ate 600 calories worth of brownies for breakfast and managed to hit all my macros and come in under. boom.

    That's my girl!
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    It's not cheating as long as it fits your calories. Heck even if you go a bit over but you're still under your TDEE, it's really not a huge deal, although you will lose slower. If you're going to go way over your calories though, I'd keep that a once a month thing tops.
  • highervibes
    highervibes Posts: 2,219 Member
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    Sometimes I go over on calories, it's usually to the tune of 500 but I have gone over by 1000-1500. It only takes a few days to "undo" that kind of damage (I feel funny even calling it that lol) Hardly life changing to reverse the concequenses of letting loose every now and then. I don't see the big deal.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    I don't quite get the idea of cheating on a lifestyle. If it's a lifestyle and those foods belong in it, then you're not cheating.

    Binging is another thing, and what I suspect several posters here do under the guise of a cheat day/meal.

    That said, if you're small, a woman, and/or older, your "discretionary calories" as some on here call them, may be quite limited. You may find it hard to eat a half a pizza, or a pizza or what not (while eating normally through out the day) and fit within your goals. I guess some folks choose to "save up" for that pizza. I'd question whether or not that approach is sustainable.
  • WhiteRabbit1313
    WhiteRabbit1313 Posts: 1,091 Member
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    I decided to not make it a cheat day. If I want something, gosh darn it, I will have it.
    I just have to make sure to put it into my calorie intake for the day, but I WILL have it. :)

    ^^This

    I can't afford to have a cheat day. I will go nuts, and I don't have enough calories in my budget to average it out into still achieving a calorie deficit. A cheat MEAL, maybe...but no cheat DAYS!
  • ichibanmom
    ichibanmom Posts: 10 Member
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    When I started on this path, I committed to eat clean Monday through Friday by eating vegetables, lean protein and to drink my weight in water. I also gave up alcohol. I had planned to reward myself on Saturday or Sunday with a glass or two of wine or a steak; but I have been so happy with my weight loss I decided that it wasn't worth it to "cheat", For me, it's a slippery slope that I would rather not tempt.
  • Jewlz280
    Jewlz280 Posts: 547 Member
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    I see you had a lot of responses already, but thought I would add my thoughts also. I don't do cheat days. Ever. I don't see the point. I have what I want every day in moderation. Are there days I'm out and go over? But of course! But I don't consider it a 'cheat' day. Cheating to me implies it's wrong, but I don't live like that anymore. If I have an off day and I go over, then I make up for it the days after by eating a bit less. No guilt, no gorging.. nada. Just makes more sense to me than a 'cheat' day. Seems like if you were planning a cheat day you would gorge and gorge and go WAY over instead of having just an extra slice of pizza or a couple of beers like a normal person on a normal diet. An example is that I had family drop in one day last week and they wanted to go out to dinner at Cheesecake Factory. It wasn't planned, so I had not saved cals or anything. But I went, made decent food choices (wine and some chicken plus a bit of the app) and then shared cheesecake. I had what I wanted, I logged all of the cals, and I went way over. But for the following days I just cut back a bit and in the end it was balanced. I didn't consider it a cheat, I didn't gorge or go nuts. Just enjoyed myself and then cut back a bit the following days for balance. It's what works for me. :smile:
  • BenjaminMFP88
    BenjaminMFP88 Posts: 660 Member
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    Once a week I have a cheat meal where I'll eat a few hundred calories over my goal. One day every three months I have a CHEAT MEAL!!!!!!!!!!! Those are usually about 10-15k meals. Not too long ago I ate a full large Dominos pizza, the full order of cheesy bread, a full 2 liter of barqs root beer, a tub of graters icecream.....for lunch......Dinner.... well lets just say dinner was legondary...
  • MooseWizard
    MooseWizard Posts: 295 Member
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    All my days have become cheat days. Doing it wrong. :(
  • ImaginingJackie
    ImaginingJackie Posts: 4
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    I kind of do a cheat day, but I still work out that day no matter what I eat.
  • waxon81
    waxon81 Posts: 198 Member
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    I dont do cheat days, but i Once a week I have a takeaway, every other day I'm extremely careful with everything that passes my lips but on Fridays it's dilligaf night. I probably eat around 2000+ cals over. I'm still losing each week so as long as that continues so will my cheats/treats. If I didn't have one night where I could cut loose a little, frankly I wouldn't be able to do this for very long...
  • rduhlir
    rduhlir Posts: 3,550 Member
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    If you allow yourself to have the stuff in moderation, you don't need to view it as cheating. If you use all forms of study material to pass a test, do you call that cheating?

    The definition of cheat is to deceive by trickery. Can't really deceive or trick your way through weight loss, so how can you truly cheat?
  • GymTennis
    GymTennis Posts: 133 Member
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    I cheat every day basically.. Even though i try to eat healthy as much as i can, I need 3000 calories just to maintain my weight and it's almost impossible for me to eat healthy all the way.. Since i do intermittent fasting most of the time (16 hours fasting, 8 hours eating window) i just can't eat clean cause it's just so much food that i feel sick... That's why i throw in some "sin" food and drinks every day to hit my numbers.. Works perfect for me
    How about increasing your eating window....


    That beats the whole reasoning behind 16:8 by increasing the eating window :noway:

    Exactly... If I increase my eating window to lets say 10 hours, the whole thing pretty much becomes a regular eating pattern where I can't benefit from IF... Since I have an evening job, I work out in the morning and I work out fasted, always.. Then I eat from 12pm to 8pm most of the time.. The thing works for me, I have great results, however I can't eat 3000 calories clean cause it's too much food..

    The only thing I could change would be to eat something before my workout and then post workout to take the majority of my food, but that means i would have to move my eating window, not necessarily increase..

    Another thing, by cheating, I don't mean going over my planned calories, I mean taking some food that is not as clean, but still stay within my everyday caloric intake... 70%-80% of my food is clean and healthy but I always throw in something like doughnuts, coke, snickers bar. all dressed large coffees and stuff like that.. IF or no, if you go over your TDEE for prolonged time, you'll gain weight which will mostly be fat
  • happydreamy
    happydreamy Posts: 44 Member
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    I don't have a cheat day... If I feel like I'm going to die if I don't have ice cream, I have some... in moderation. If I want every junk food on the planet, I'll limit it down to one or two treats and stuff myself with greens and nuts. For me, the key is moderation, always. You can have ice cream...just not the whole tub.
  • Oh_Allie
    Oh_Allie Posts: 258 Member
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    I don't have cheat days anymore. It works better for me to eat what I want in moderation so I don't feel like I'm cutting things out. If I wanted a cheeseburger or potato chips today and waited until next Sunday to have it, I'd go overboard eating a huge cheeseburger or an entire bag of chips. If I have it today, I'd me more likely to have a regular-sized cheeseburger or a single serving of chips.
  • butler8991
    butler8991 Posts: 3 Member
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    Don't do a cheat day do a cheat meal! I log the "cheat" meal in advance, when possible. Then I work out harder
    and eat a little less the day prior, the day of the cheat meal and the day after so I will have a calorie deficit the day
    before and the day after to balance the situation out.
  • anonymousgirl143
    anonymousgirl143 Posts: 4
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    I have found that for myself, if I really want something it's better to just give in and eat more calories that day. If, I keep holding off on not eating things I really want then eventually I end up eating more unhealthy things in the long run to satisfy my craving. You just keep eating good though, even though you have a few unhealthy things doesn't mean u give up!

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