Cheat Days?

I don't so much have a cheat day as a 'work my *kitten* off at the gym and really enjoy eating those calories back' day (yeah Lizzy, like last nights takeaway wasn't a 'cheat' lol) but I would say if you have found something that works for you then stick with it, alter it if it stops working.
My trainer has a cheat day.
Congratulations on reaching maintenance btw :drinker:

I find that you have to be careful about having 'cheat days' when you're in maintenance, because energy you don't use is now going to be stored as fat as you have no calorie deficit in the bank.

What I do if there is something coming up where I will really need extra calories would be to:
a) Save up a few hundred uneaten calories through the week to use for that occassion, or (my favourite..)
b) Work my butt off burning the calories to have that evening, it's a real motivator and a just reward for the effort.

Generally though, and as someone mentioned - I generally just work with what I've got. I'm so used to maintenance now that binging on food/drink just doesn't appeal so much any more. :flowerforyou:

My recommendation is that in maintenance, you continue the habits that made you successful during weight loss. For me, I incorporate the foods I love into my budget on a daily basis, or eat at a deficit during the week to help "pay" for a splurge on the weekend, so on a weekly basis, I stay within my calorie budget. Because I never really deprived myself of the things I really wanted, but instead figured out a way to manage them in, I haven't felt the need for a "cheat day," but it you've been successful with your 6/1 plan during weightloss, you're likely to be successful continuing it.

Am at maintenance, I, also had cheat days throughout my weight loss, I sort of wondered the same thing at your stage. I sort of still have them, but just differently, if I eat too much one day, I will cut back the next few days to compensate, or will exercise more or will just wait till have banked some extra calories. I love my swim days cause I get to eat what I want, so yes you can still have them just factor them in .

I do not really do cheat days..

I make room for whatever it is that I want in my day and then have it and either maintain my deficit or eat at maintenance for that day ….

Me too, although I am flexible about 'days' but not about weeks.

One of the best features of the app is that under Nutrition, if you choose 'weekly', it gives you a bar chart of your net calories for every day AND a weekly average AND a line saying what your goal is. So you can glance at it and see which days you were under/over and whether you are under your net for the week. When I go over one day (I did last Thursday), I keep watching to make sure my average for the week is under my goal. Easy check.

I WISH MFP had this nice graph with the weekly average online and that it also had those great pie charts with the macro breakdown online. I find them more useful than anything other than the logging features.

And why aren't the forums on the app?

anyTHING fits at maintenance. Just not everything at the same time lol

Lies. You can't fit those 1600 calories desserts from restaurants unless you don't mind starving the rest of the day

Too true! I almost died the first time I entered Cheesecake Factory carrot cake and saw it was a whole day's worth of calories.

Hence fitting it into the week, not the day. Hence splitting deserts with a friend (or three). I can't even eat them any more.

http://fitfemlove.wordpress.com

I look at my overall week and balance calories that way. There is no "cheat" day because it's not cheating on anything...it IS my plan.

M-F I log my food just as precisely as I did while losing weight. I keep a deficit running.

Weekends I eat what I please. I don't log, but I don't binge either. I eat above maintenance. This lets me go out to eat without having to try to calculate calories (something I HATE since we very seldom go to restaurants with printed nutrition info), enjoy a couple beers, have some girl scout cookies, and break my tie to my phone logging it all. This also lets me feel like a normal person. Not that there's anything abnormal about logging, but it just gets to me after awhile - I've been on MFP every single day since June of 2011 and that's a LOT of logging. Sometimes I'll log my breakfast and lunch but nothing thereafter.

Note: I still exercise on weekends. They're usually my most active time of the week - last weekend I went snowshoeing, on a long walk, and cross country skied 4 separate times. I burned about 3300 calories each day and probably ate 3500-4000.

I've been proceeding through 18 months of weight maintenance this way and have stayed, nearly without exception, within a 5 pound range around my goal weight. While losing weight, I took 2-3 days off a month from logging. Worked for me then, works now.

I am curious if you guys log what you eat during the cheat days? because I'm unsure so I don't really have cheat days.

@ OP: I like cheat days (and use them) but so far the more weight I lose, the less I want to cheat. I just don't have as much desire for my cheat foods anymore. I've recognized that on those few cheat days, my hunger seems to increase when I've eaten cheat food and I'm not really sated until I eat something nutritious. Knowing that the gourmet cupcake from down the street isn't going to satisfy me makes it less appealing to me, regardless of how good it tastes. lol Your mileage may vary, of course, but I feel like once I get to my target weight, I may not need/want those foods, and thus the cheat days, at all.

That being said, I keep track of what I eat on those days just for an idea of how much I ate and to not slack on the recordkeeping, but the point is to relax. So I don't sweat the total. I can see how you could cheat with weekly calories, but the idea seems like adding too much paperwork onto what I already do. I'd rather try to make it organic (not in the dietary sense) and have a little sweet when the crave hits and just work it into my daily intake. Again, your mileage may vary. Hope this helps you in some way!

I'm another one almost to maintenance and have done a cheat day once a month. I hadn't really thought about whether I would once I'm in maintenance. I do think I will eat less calories during the week, so I can eat a little more on the weekends though.

I so agree with this. No food is off limits. Sometimes a big bowl of ice cream is just what I want to eat. Not going to do it every day but some days I am.