A Cheat Meal IS a Cheat Meal

I've been maintaining my 66 pound weight loss for two years now.

I've never done cheat meals/cheat days or anything like that. While I was losing weight, I ate whatever I liked and just focused on portion size and total calories. I was careful about logging - all food was weighed and measured. Maintenance has been pretty much the same - eat what I like while focusing on moderation.

I'm sure different things work for different people - for me, labeling foods as good/bad or calling certain meals 'cheats' is not a healthy mindset.

I correlate "cheat days" with "clean" eating.

Both poor practices.

These "clean" eaters WILL go crazy without a "cheat day" because they havent learned jack **** about moderation. They learned two extremes.

I've seen the two intertwined many times. Im not saying all clean eaters have cheat days or all people who have cheat days are "clean" eaters, but, they commonly sync.

ETA:
I balance my week,period... youd probably say I have more than two "cheat meals" a week.. i wouldnt cuz thats not how I approach things.. I enjoy life, period..

That is not my understanding of clean eating. Clean eating (for me) has to do with having high food quality standards and an absence of food additives that exist solely to prolong the shelf life of the product. It has nothing to do with volume nor does it trigger "binging".

This has been a very enlightening topic for me. When I was doing WW I would allow myself a "cheat" meal once a week. Since I have been doing MFP and counting calories I realized I don't NEED the "cheat" meals. I eat whatever I want and work it into my goals for the day. Yes, there are some days where I don't bother counting, is that considered a "cheat"? I think, like a lot of others have said, it is all about finding what works for you.

I don't have "cheat" days/meals whatever. I eat whatever I want. Being on MFP is more about teaching me it's OK to eat pizza or whatever else - as long as I pay attention to how many calories I'm consuming and work out more to try to offset it. I've lost 22 pounds so far without "dieting" or "cheating" so I have to believe this system is working. No stress, no weird foods to try to eat (cauliflower pizza and such) to try to get my cravings without eating the actual food. No shakes or "meal replacements". None of the stuff my friends are doing to try to lose weight. Just eating fewer calories and working out more. And not stressing when I go over goal - because 90% of the time it's still a deficit even if not as big a one as planned. Yesterday I hit maintenance calories. Not gonna cry about it. For me this is life, not a "diet"

This is me to a T, down to my reaction when I end up at a maintenance cal day.

TBH, it is kind of weird how I don't crave certain foods doing MFP since I just work them in (pizza, chocolate, pita chips, etc.). Unlike the other times I tried to lose weight on more restrictive plans. On Atkins I actually had vivid dreams about gorging myself on bread, bagels and pita chips. That's when I knew low carb was not the plan for me.

I agree but also disagree, I am now at a place where I can eat some "unhealthy" foods in moderation throughout the week and stay within my calorie goal, used to I couldn't do that if I ate those foods at all, I would go and end up eating way too much and would go way over my calorie goal, but now that I'm able to I do so if I want ice cream or something I'm going to eat it but I'm going to measure/ weigh it out and eat a correct portion and stay within my calories it just depends on how it works for you, it took a while for me to get to the place where I could do that

Totally agree. I know that this is all about life. Things happen. Birthday parties, dinner at someone's house where I can't control the choices, but I can control the portions. I feel if I call it cheating, I will somehow get a mindset that it's wrong. It's food. Control it, eat it. When maintenance happens , I should have learned this for the rest of my life

if you sometimes want more calories to eat, then offset those calories with extra exercise. if you still come in over your calorie goal some days, then offset it by coming in a little bit under on other days.

this isn't rocket surgery. some people make it much too hard by holding themselves to unrealistic expectations.

This is poor advice and dangerous territory as most people: 1. Overestimate the calories burned in exercise and 2. Don't compensate for the calories later.

So if the execution is often flawed, that means that the theory is somehow flawed?

[/quote]How does having a binge once a week teach self control.[/quote]

Binging once every ten - fourteen days works for me, but I found myself asking the same question lol.

I do it because I want to and I think it wakes up my metabolism. I don't do it because I have to.

Something that works for you may not work for me because of your own unique history with foods, emotions, and weight loss, and because of my own unique history with foods, emotions and weight loss. Or, to simplify - YMMV.

I don't use the cheat terminology for the reasons already stated - I'm not cheating. I'm not doing anything dishonest. I log what I eat, even if it makes me wince to see the total. I make deliberate choices and hold myself accountable for them. I recognize that if I choose to eat the pop-tarts in my desk, that I am choosing to have a lower deficit today or that I am choosing to work out tonight without knowing how I will feel later. Those are my three options - 1) don't eat what I want when I want it 2) Eat what I want and accept a smaller deficit or choose not to eat something else later in the day 3) Eat what I want and work out to compensate for the additional calories.

Oddly, seeing what kind of workout is needed to burn off the 400 calories of pop-tarts makes me want them much less. . .

Cheating or setting up free days/treats/whatever works really well for some people because they need set rewards, but can't handle the daily grind or would often feel unsatisfied with their caloric intake because they used calories on less nutritionally dense foods - in that case, the reward works well. Others cannot open the door to that kind of abstinence/reward scheme because they lack the ability to stop at satiety levels and would continue to eat poorly. Some people need to plan out everything so they aren't thrown off by surprises. Some people need the flexibility of a weekly goal and the option for a glass of whisky at the end of a hard day. YMMV.

Figure out your own best path. Walk it, run it, bike it, whatever.

As for maintenance - well, again, that goes back to the above. If you are the sort of person who needs to plan in advance, then you will be more successful with maintenance if you plan as much as possible in advance. If you are the sort of person who needs a day off from planning, then you need to do that. But ultimately it all comes back to the central point of a lifestyle change to shed excess weight and keep it off - you have to take responsibility for your actions. If a day off every couple of weeks does that for you - take a day off. If planning a cookie and a mocha into your Saturday morning makes you feel secure with the rest of your choices, plan away. Just continue to take responsibility for your choices and maintain a balance. The end.

For me a cheat meal doesn't have to be bad. I don't have them very often. Maybe once every couple weeks and I do it in moderation. I'm doing a whole foods diet so bad carbs and fat aren't in my daily meal plan. But once in while it is okay, For example a couple of weeks ago, my eldest son celebrated his birthday. I decided to have some cake and ice cream, but I took modest amounts. My calories for that day were up, but not by very much. I still lost weight that week. I also have type II diabetes. When I checked my blood glucose levels, they had gone up, but like the calories not very much and still well within the safe range.

I don't think it's accurate to say I had cheat meals. I had cheat DAYS!

Still lost 90lbs. Following MFP. So :yawn: is how I feel about all the advice about how wrong I've done things.

This Friday will be two years at maintenance. There's a thread telling me how terrible the Diet Cokes I drink almost daily are for my weight loss. There's this thread saying my cheat meals won't help me reach my goal.

Again :yawn:

The funniest part is both the threads I mentioned come from people who still have weight to lose.

Try telling everyone else what they're doing wrong AFTER you've actually hit your own goals. At least then you might have a shred of credibility.

I think the only people that have issues with cheat meals are just doing it for the short term, we both did it for the long term, we ate what we wanted and had "cheat days" hell I had a "cheat 2 weeks" and still lost 91lbs in 12 months.

The people who complain are more often the ones who fail....

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I don't use the term cheat day/meal. I eat what I like day to day within my calorie range. I try to reach my protein goal, as that is the one I most struggle with. I also will have ice cream or dessert if I want it. Once or twice a week I tend to eat above my deficit calorie goal. There are times when I need to due to social occassions or scheduling. There are also times when my body just says eat more. So I do. I am still losing, still reaching my goals. Also, I think it helps with my weight loss. Not a scientific study but my observations were that when I was always at a deficit I lost at a slower rate or stalled. When I had a day or two of higher calories I consistently lost. Could be all in my head though.

And then there are the days I run half marathons that I eat like 4,000 calories, which is not that often.

These "clean" eaters WILL go crazy without a "cheat day" because they havent learned jack **** about moderation. They learned two extremes.

Yup.

These two quotes are total trash.
I'm a "clean" eater and I rarely "cheat" and I NEVER feel like I'm going crazy. I'm sorry if most people have the will power of a 3 year old with their cookies and ice cream, but I have just taught myself to love healthy, nutrient dense foods.
Sure some days I allow myself pizza, or ice cream, or whatever but its rare and never because I'm craving it to the extent that I would go crazy.

In the end it's about what works best for you, and its about what you want to get out of this.
I am personally training my body to love and crave healthy food, because I'm not just trying to drop a few pounds, I'm trying to make a positive change that I will have for the REST OF MY LIFE.

I eat whatever I want once in a while but the idea that someone can't be a "clean" eater without eating junk once in a while is one of the dumbest things I've seen on this website.

What works isn't universal.

I'm very much 'if it fits your calories over the course of the week'...I've never had a problem with binging, just wilful ignorance of how many calories are in certain foods coupled with an inactive lifestyle.