"Cheat" Days

I agree with you. Moderation is key and if you allow yourself to not be in that mode of thinking - even for a day - it doesn't help the progress. I've questioned that too - whether I should allow myself a "cheat day"... I tend to binge eat on those days - which offset the hard work that I've done the rest of the week. No more excuses.

i agree with you... i don't do cheat days. I have bad days (oh trust me do i ever)... but if i eat more I generally make myself go for a walk or do an exercise to make up for it. I don't think that allowing myself one day where I can eat whatever I want is going to benefit me at all...

I'm curious whether or not people's "cheat" days have a limit on them or is it just a whole day of eating without counting or caring? because if i had a day where i allowed myself to do that i would probably eat enough bad food to gain a whole pound.

my philosophy is everything is okay in moderation. i refuse to cut out stuff from my diet. if i want chocolate then i can have it. if i want bread, i eat it. calories in, calories out. it works for me.

I do have them hehe and they do work for me

I do understand what you mean though about continueing the cheat days for longer than it should be. But I really got to have a cheat day, makes dieting so much more easier

I don't consider my "cheat days" as cheating, I just think of them as days off. I don't go to the gym and if I happen to go over my calories, it's not a big deal. And if I want to eat some pizza or something I wouldn't during the rest of the week, I do. I'm making healthy lifestyle changes that I'll have for the rest of my life and in order to do that I have to be able to relax every now and then, I have to be able to indulge without worrying about calories.

That said, I don't go crazy all day long. Since I know I'll probably go over on my calories, usually at only one meal, I try to make my other meals smaller and have fewer calories.

I used to believe in cheat days - but I don't anymore. For me, all they did is remind me of all the things that put me where I am today.....and make me continue to miss them the rest of the week. I've recently decided that I'm probably a sugar/fat-aholic. I am sooo much happier now that I just don't allow myself to indulge in those items.....because like an alcoholic...once I start I can't stop. So - no more cheat days for me. If I want to be healthy and be at a healthy weight I need to put the right foods in my body. It's obviously not the same for everyone - but this is where I am.

Depends on what you think a cheat day is. I have them every Saturday, but it's not really a cheat DAY. I will have something I normally wouldn't. Maybe go out to eat or have some candy. That's it. It keeps a lot of people same from cravings in fact and keeps them from binging.

I can understand what everyone is stating.
I have as we call it "cheat" days and that is usually only on Sundays.
On that day I just eat what I feel like eating.
Once the day ends, I go right back to my diet and workouts.
I usually work a little extra hard on Monday and I don't eat as much on Monday, because I am still full from Sunday.
So far this method has worked for me, but everyone's body is difference and for some people they may get off the wagon when they have a cheat day.
Like one posting stated, I look at it as a day off.
I also relax when I am on vacations and holidays, but I still make sure that I workout during my relax times.

I have a cheat day about once a week, but as others have said, I never limit myself to a certian set of foods or deny myself anything. I am fairly compulsive about logging all my food and very rarely if ever go over.

The way I see it , if you are deny yourself and absolutely avoid something (be it chocolate, french fries, potato chips or whatever) it still has control over you and you are still under its influance. Temptations in life are never going to go away, but you have to learn to deal with them in a healthy way. Only then have you really to a lifestyle change.

I don't have cheat days, but I do have cheat meals.

I eat 35 meals a week, and 34 of those meals are healthy as can be...so once a week I eat one meal that would be considered not so healthy. I still log those calories, though. Last week I ordered pepperoni pizza with extra cheese from Domino's. (Weird thing is, it actually fit into my diary since I burned off over 800 calories exercising that day before dinner).

I believe you can have things in moderation, and that works for a lot of people. For me, it doesn't. This is simply because when I have things like cheesecake, I will never ever eat a little sliver of a slice and be satisfied. That's just me. So I cut it out of my normal daily foods, and I have it as a cheat every now and then.

I have dropped from 191 to 143 before MFP, and now down to 139, by eating 35 healthy meals a week and 1 horrible cheat meal. I have never starved myself, I have never deprived myself...and I have no regrets whatsoever.

And weird thing is, I have honestly noticed that my weight drops the day after my cheat meal.

I've read in books written by Tom Venuto (bodybuilder, health and fitness trainer) that he and many other bodybuilders actually advocate the use of cheat meals as way to boost the metabolism. The reasons for this include the fact that it shocks the system and reminds it that it is never going to go without food. Some people experience plateaus because they eat so little for extended periods of time, other people eat so few calories that they go into starvation mode...but having a higher calorie meal once a week prevents all that. It's like doing interval training in the gym. He also says that carb and calorie cycling works the same way with the same principles as having a cheat meal once a week.

But a whole cheat DAY? Never! :noway:

This is an old thread, but a topic of interest to me. Today is, in fact, my cheat day and I am enjoying it. I give myself 1000 extra calories every Saturday which is the same day as my weigh-in. I feel like the 1/3 of a pound is well worth the enjoyment I get, especially since I won't be hitting the scale again for a week.

I've had a full blown "spike day" at least once a week for the past several years. It's not "cheating" when it's planned and helps you lose weight.
My rules are; eat whatever you want, no food restrictions.
Calorie limit is 2X(BMR)

After spiking; you feel great, have strong workouts, lack cravings, and avoid plateau's

Check my food logs if you're curious, yesterday I had awesome cheesecake.

Ah, those good ole cheat days.......When I started this life change, I told myself that I would have one cheat meal a week, that way I could enjoy the old fat foods that I so love. But, now that I am almost 4 weeks into my lifestyle change, I have only cheated once.......Everytime I think of having that "fat" meal, I get feelings of guilt and know that I will have to work extra hard to take off the weight the cheat meal would put on. So, for those that believe in it, do it! If it will keep you on track of being healty, do it! I know for me, I will have a cheat meal in celebration when I reach my GW and fit into size 6-7 again!