One Cheat MEAL/Day per week?

If your weekly net is still good even with a cheat - you're fine! I just don't suggest stepping on the scale the day after you've eaten a meal like this, because it might demotivate you!

I cheat once in a while, but it's very rare. It's difficult to go back to eating clean again after a night at a buffet or ordering Chinese or pizza in!

If you need to lose weight but want to cheat, try to find a healthier version of what you are eating that will give you great benefits!

I love chocolate, but instead of gulfing down milk chocolate I now eat dark. It's great for you and it gives me my fix!

Im not sure how I feel about cheat days really. Because who knows what life will throw at you. I mean of course don't have doughnuts everyday, but don't feel guilty to have a GREAT doughnut that you know will be worth it once in a while! I think having set days that are pre determined aren't realistic, but what is realistic is planning ahead as much as you can for the most part, and making good choice during those random life moments that happen to us all. And yes a good choice can even be having that red velvet cupcake that place around the corner is famous for

I think it really depends on your goals and how you eat. I think it's nice to have a day where I'm eating above my typical goal for the day but still decently below maintenance level. Normally I don't plan it, but if there is a potluck I'll try to eat well for my other meals, but I'm not going to freak out because I had a 1000 calorie plate of food. Or I have a dance class once a week on a Saturday and since that burns a lot of calories I let myself eat a less healthy meal on that day that I've been craving all week.

Most sources that I consider reliable encourage a "cheat meal", and I think the reasoning for it is pretty good. Some diet plans (like The Abs Diet) recommend one a week. Others say you should have one every 5-6 days. There are two main reasons for the "cheat meal":

1.) It kicks up your metabolism. It is a well known fact that in order to lose weight, you have to eat. :-) If you consistently consume less calories than your body needs, you will lose weight, of course, but your body will also pretty quickly go into "starvation mode", i.e. burn calories much more slowly than it used to do. And that slows down your weight loss as well. One way to counteract that is the "cheat meal" - every 5-7 days one larger meal of whatever you want (within reason; everyone has to find out for themselves what that means - for me, it means a three-course dinner with a salad for a starter, a tasty, but somewhat healthy entree, and a glass of wine or two).
2.) It really helps you stick to your diet in the long run. Most of us are looking at months, sometimes years of dieting before we reach our goal weight. That is very hard to do if you have to say to yourself that you can never again have a particular food you really love, or never again have a really great festive dinner with those things that make a meal special for you, like wine or beer or dessert or something deep-fried.

I do gain weight the day after that meal, of course, but as g33kmommy said: as long as your weekly net is within your goal, you'll still lose weight week after week. And that's been my experience as well. But I think that the "cheat meals" needs to be spaced out into fairly regular intervals. Sunday and then Wednesday may still be O.K., but closer together than that would probably lead to a weight gain that'll take longer to undo.