How do you feel about a once a week "cheat day" ?

I have a cheat day.

I eat low for the week and on Saturday I eat anywhere from 3500-4500 calories.

I use this day to go out for dinner with my boyfriend, eat fast food for lunch and eat some chips while i'm watching a movie.
And during the week I eat what I want as well, I eat mostly healthy but if I want a cookie, I will have a cookie.

Example, my TDEE- 20% is 1600 calories, I eat about 1000 NET Monday-Thursday and Sunday and about 4500 calories on Saturday.

This works for me.

I dont believe in cheat days. If you need a cheat day to feel "sane", then you dont deserve to be in shape.

Even the name of it ("cheat" day) implies that its wrong to do. You know the foods you usually eat on your cheat day are bad for you and your body, yet you still choose to eat it.

Like I said, with that mindset, you dont deserve to be in shape.

Someone ring the buttface alarm .-.
She can eat a cupcake if she wants to eat a cupcake.

HA HA HA! Buttface alarm! I cannot wait to say that to my husband. : )

ToraChan - you're jumping to conclusions without knowing the person you're talking to. The person who started this post is my sis, we're on a journey to loose a few lbs together. (Yay!)

When she's talking about a "cheat day" or "treat day" or whatever you want to call it, it's not about gorging herself with soda, cake, processed cheese, cheetos etc. We grew up in a culinary family (and still are!) and perhaps we still want to enjoy rich delicious cheese, yummy red wine, dark chocolate panna cotta, prosciutto and figs, neapolitan pizza, local restaurants and wineries etc. Having a meal that would be a "treat" one day a week and going over our calorie goal, does NOT mean we're stuffing ourselves to the brim with cake and chemicals.
So please don't jump to conclusions - but rather, jump DOWN from your high-and-mighty horse!

Thank you to all the positive responses from everyone. I've gotten some great ideas!

I missed this post the first time I went through the thread, and YES!

My boyfriend loves to cook. Part of the reason I needed to lose weight in the first place was because he was (and still is) constantly cooking up something amazing. Now he is very mindful of how many calories go into our dinners. Every dinner I have is cooked from whole ingredients and usually under 700 calories.

When I have a "cheat day" I don't go hog wild like people probably assume. To me, cheating means I am just not restricting myself to a low calorie goal. I have not binged once (since around Christmas time) and have BED (diagnosed). I find that loosening the reins a couple days a week has made me LESS likely to use food in a negative way.

I do once a week cheat meal. I do not do a full cheat day as much as I can try. If I don't allow myself the little bit of a cheat, I will go crazy!

Well, this is only my second week this round on MFP, but I've used it before and have successfully lost weight. I tend to have a "cheat day" once a week where I don't track, and just eat whatever. So far I've lost about 1 lb a week (same as in the past) with staying under 1500 cals 6 days of the week and not tracking the 7th. Does anyone else do this? I know I'd lose faster without that cheat day, but it keeps me sane and able to stay on track the rest of the time.

I don't have a cheat day, that seems a little too much. I have a cheat meal. Something I wouldn't put in my regular diet, but I also don't go overboard on the portion size. I make it a single serving and then I'm good. It satisfies my craving and it doesn't throw me off track.

That's the only way I can survive! I've lost 10 lbs that way. As long as you eat at your maintenence on the cheat day, then start back at a deficit!:drinker:

I don't have a cheat day. I just have a cheat meal or ice cream!

I've not been on this journey very long so far, but personally I intend to 'treat' myself on Fridays, as that's when my mum bakes something, and I don't think I'm ruining anything by enjoying a small slice of cake, or a couple of cookies... I don't see the point in a healthy lifestyle if your not enjoying what you're doing, and giving yourself a treat once a week can for some people (a.k.a. me, for one, haha) motivate you. If I said 'never' with regards to when the next time I was going to eat something chocolatey would be...

I'd give up and eat a chocolate bar.

Different things work for different people... personally, I treat myself, but make sure it fits into my calories for the day, (although it may not fit into my macros...).

Me and my friends aren't big drinkers, but every few months there'll be a special occasion and for me, they'll be 'cheat' days, as I know I'll go over my calorie goal... but I'll stick to my 'maintenance' calories, make sure I still log everything, and accept the fact that I'm 20 years old, and every so often I'm going to get drunk with my friends, I just make sure it's not happening on a weekly basis...

Anybody who thinks I don't 'deserve' anything because I'm okay with treating myself...

Well, I've already worked harder than you can imagine whilst recovering from depression and anxiety, so if they think they have the right to decide I don't 'deserve' anything, because I let myself live in a way that makes me happy, can quite happily be ignored.

Do what works for you hun, everyone's journey is entirely different. As long as you feel good about yourself, you are doing nothing wrong... if your cheat day's make you happy and help you stay motivated, then keep at it... if they leave you feeling bad and sluggish, then try a cheat meal, or a couple of treats spread out throughout the week, and find what works for you.

IIFYM

or just...Do what feels right for you!

I don't like calling it a cheat day or meal. After reading through all this I'm realizing that a "cheat" anything doesn't sound so great. I would like to say that when I am enjoying a meal/drink/snack that I normally don't get to have it should be called a "vacation" meal. You don't get to take it everyday but when you do its enjoyable I think that having a "cheat" anything bring a negative connotation to it which can make you feel regretful after the fact.

Dieting doesn't HAVE to be about eating foods you hate--even if you just cut back on portion sizes and eat the same foods you like, you can still lose weight. As long as you have room in your daily calorie goals to eat that slice of pizza or quesadilla or some Ben & Jerry's, you'll still drop the pounds at about the same speed.

In the last week, I've had spinach/portabella pizza, flavored oatmeal, veggies with cheese sauce, steak, mashed potatoes, and a particularly "inner-fat-kid"-satisfying penne pasta with homemade white clam sauce that my roommate wanted. It tasted SO unhealthy, but I got quite a surprise when I plugged the pasta and clam sauce into the recipe bank here--a reasonable serving size came out around 500 cal! I'll be trying to add in more recipes that have a ton of flavor without being horrible at nutrition.

I've still got a pint of Ben & Jerry's Karamel Sutra in the freezer. Rather than eating the whole thing in 1-2 sittings, I'm planning on 4-6--a dozen or so delicious teaspoonfuls for a day when I'm craving chocolate or ice cream or caramel, then put the rest back. I've also got a couple of frozen Greek yogurt bars in there, and a bag of frozen blueberries.

This is my first week back after a year-plus break due to health issues where I wasn't able to cook much for myself. In that time, I'd only gained back 4 lbs. It's as much in how much you eat as what you eat, and changing either of them long-term will affect your weight.

I normally do a cheat meal. It's typically dinner on Friday night. If not, one day would turn into two for me. It's so easy to slip back into old habits.

Agreed. This is one reason I plan to do MFP or something similar for the rest of my life. I like going out to eat way too much. If I wasn't logging/counting calories, I'd eventually be dining out 2-3 times per day again and while you CAN do that and stay within calories, I know that over time the mochas and cheese fries would slip in under the radar and my weight would increase...no thanks.

When she's talking about a "cheat day" or "treat day" or whatever you want to call it, it's not about gorging herself with soda, cake, processed cheese, cheetos etc. We grew up in a culinary family (and still are!) and perhaps we still want to enjoy rich delicious cheese, yummy red wine, dark chocolate panna cotta, prosciutto and figs, neapolitan pizza, local restaurants and wineries etc. Having a meal that would be a "treat" one day a week and going over our calorie goal, does NOT mean we're stuffing ourselves to the brim with cake and chemicals.

I so want to come to your house when you are having a cheat day. Sounds delicious!

Tora Chan - There are no "good" or "bad" foods. . . . .there is just food.

You wouldnt consider pork rinds "bad food"? There are good and bad foods; which is the whole point behind having a "cheat" day to allow yourself to eat those "bad foods".

Ask Dr. Oz whether he thinks there are no bad foods that humans shouldnt eat and see what he says.

no. i tend towards working the things i want in my diet daily. i have ice cream almost every day (although yesterday i found i cant add in my head and went over on accident)

this reminds me, i'm out of chocolate. i should pick some up while i'm out later.

I'm not cheating on anything, so no to the idea of cheat days or meals. However, I do sometimes consciously choose to indulge in higher calorie or foods with lower nutritional values, a meal out at a restaurant (or takeout/delivery), or to eat above my normal calories. Often, over the course of a week, it balances with my exercise to maintain the deficit I am trying to achieve, but I do not believe in complete food restriction over the long-term.

I pre-plan as much as possible, especially when I know we're going out. We don't spontaneously go out frequently anymore (saves food wastage, money and my calories). I budget in exercise. I try to plan healthy meals with good variety of foods and hit macros, even with treats. I log everything, even when it's painful to do so and see my deficit shrink - but it does help me when I'm not hungry but want to emotionally eat to think - do I want to go for an extra run in order to eat this? Usually not, because I'm lazy.

But I dislike the term cheating, because it implies something shady, something morally wrong, something that should be hidden. When really, you're just changing your priorities for a day - life happens. If someone were to tell me that I could never indulge in foods I like again because they are 'junk' or 'unhealthy' or 'bad' I would quit. I'd honestly rather be fat than never eat blue cheese again. Everyone's got different priorities. Eat well most of the time, limit your treats and splurges and be honest about your motivations and realities, look at your aggregate weekly intake vs burn and be honest about whether or not your approach is working. That is what is sustainable and reasonable.

I'm all about reasonable and sustainable, because I've tried the other ways without success.