Do you have a "cheat day"?

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Replies

  • leasugar45
    leasugar45 Posts: 1
    Its today :) but i feel guilty as hell.
  • airangel59
    airangel59 Posts: 1,887 Member
    No, no cheat days or cheat meals.
    I work what I want to eat, within reason, to my daily diary and arrange food around that meal.
  • dsb188
    dsb188 Posts: 121 Member
    I used to have one every Sunday. I stopped not because I was gaining weight because I was losing weight but it would take me all week to get back down to my weight and lose. It was just frustrating looking at the scale and seeing my weight go up knowing full well that it was water weight.
  • WallyH4EverVersion
    WallyH4EverVersion Posts: 172 Member
    I don't consider it a cheat meal or cheat day. I consider it a high calorie meal that may put me at maintenance or a few hundred calories over.

    I eat what I want. I enjoy a few high calorie meals a few times a week and sometimes, even manage to have them fit into my daily calories. I may not eat nothing else but I make it happen. Life is way too short and this is a lifestyle change to think of things as a cheat meal or cheat day. That sounds hectic! LMAO!!!

    Eat things you like that are reasonable calories most days and you will be able to have that high calorie meal more often then you think without thinking of it as cheating..... I never feel guilt. lol

    Makes life a lot easier IMHO.

    THIS
    Yes, I never call it cheating as it is a life style change .
  • Ang108
    Ang108 Posts: 1,711 Member
    I'm new to this site and new to fitness and healthy dieting in general. One constant I see among a lot of people's habits is that there is a cheat day where you either don't work out, or eat whatever you want, or both.

    I would be worried that this would make me fall back into old habits. I want to push through and try to keep on track as much as possible 7 days a week, but I also don't want to deprive myself of my favorite things, like staying in my PJs all day Saturday, and pizza. I know "everything in moderation"...but I would love to hear your stories, experiences, tips, advice, etc. on taking a day off every week. Have you found that it helps or hurts your progress?


    I don't even think of cheat meals or cheat days, because there is nothing to cheat with. I eat a fairly natural diet and eat whatever I want within my deficit.
    Today I had a two cup shrimp cocktail with avocado and saltines, a large fish filet with rice , salsa and slaw, a large cannelloni for dessert and a mango-chile popsicles after that.I ate my daily 1200 calories plus 26 calories from my exercise. All that also included breakfast and several cups of coffee and espressos. I feel I ate extremely well for my taste and do not need more calories just to eat delicious food. But I realize that everyone's mileage varies.
  • Yagisama
    Yagisama Posts: 595 Member
    Cheat day? I had a cheat year! ;)
  • wriri7_x
    wriri7_x Posts: 94 Member
    I don't have a cheat day but I do have a cheat MEAL. I used to have a cheat day but the guilt after was too much so now I have a cheat meal once a week.
  • lawwang
    lawwang Posts: 24
    I don't anymore.

    I used to have a cheat day because I was under the impression that you had to have one to keep your metabolism up and prevent your body from going into "starvation mode", which I'm pretty sure is just broscience and unlikely to be true.

    BUT a cheat day would work well for someone who has (unhealthy) cravings to satisfy to keep a diet on track.
  • KaleeCat
    KaleeCat Posts: 152 Member
    Only when we have company or if I'm feeling particularly "weak", which isn't all that often. Maybe once a month or so?
  • rayofsunshine2368
    rayofsunshine2368 Posts: 108 Member
    as I said here before you have a hormone called Leptin its what help burns your fat. you have low calories and maintance calories. you should eat your low calories and excercise to help burn fat then your body needs to reset. its called an eat up day. eat only to your maintance calories for one day to rest it. watch you loose weight. I lost 4lbs my first week.
  • rayofsunshine2368
    rayofsunshine2368 Posts: 108 Member
    you have the right idea....
    :wink:
  • march1987
    march1987 Posts: 1
    I went out of town this weekend and all my meals were cheats. I feel bad but I'm going to get back on the wagon tomorrow.
  • tealgrove
    tealgrove Posts: 36 Member
    I don't have a cheat day but I will allow myself to have something special if I feel like it and NOT feel guilty about it. I just didn't think I would be able to handle a "cheat" on my schedule. It felt weird to me. It works for many people I just couldn't trust myself with it.
  • WisheeNY
    WisheeNY Posts: 72 Member


    BUT a cheat day would work well for someone who has (unhealthy) cravings to satisfy to keep a diet on track.

    This is me. I ate like a pig for 15 years and have only been on my journey to a healthier lifestyle for a month so I get strong cravings for greasy, sugary or salty high calorie foods. I figure giving in to that for one meal once a week or every couple weeks and then going right back to eating within my macros and working out is better than letting those cravings build up, feeling frustrated and then just ending up binging and never going back to healthier eating which is what has always happened in the past every time I've tried to lose weight. One day soon I hope to be able to eat my cheat meal AND have it fit into my macros lol.
  • chloematilds
    chloematilds Posts: 111 Member
    I dont have a cheat day since I dont really restrict.foods. I just mind the portions.
  • cassie4animals
    cassie4animals Posts: 23 Member
    I have an "eat up" day where I can eat 1600 calories. It's more calories than I usually eat and it supposedly helps to reset my metabolism (we'll see - just going off what the doctor is saying at this point). I find that it helps me to control myself and not overeat, but I do get to feel like I'm cheating. The program I'm on allows me to do this on Wednesday and Saturday.
  • velvet_violence
    velvet_violence Posts: 51
    I'm heavy enough to still be allowed a lot of calories per day but lately when I have tried to cheat I find what I actually get through fits into my daily calories (though the macro is usually pretty off).
  • GreenIceFloes
    GreenIceFloes Posts: 1,491 Member
    I don't have a planned cheat day. However, I do end up going overboard with calories every now and then because of going out drinking with friends, parties, family dinners etc. So I find it easier to just call that particular day my cheat day, instead of planning to eat over my limit on one particular day a week or whatever.
  • alexuh
    alexuh Posts: 108 Member
    I always looked at a day during the weekend as being my 'cheat' day but I am trying to look at it differently - being less strict throughout the week so I don't go crazy on this specified cheat day I used to have. Still working on it.. :-)
  • NerdySamoan
    NerdySamoan Posts: 78
    I plan my cheat days or meals around either events or goals.
    eg. If i know im going to a wedding, birthday or a family get together.then i want to enjoy it. (i want to have a beer, or eat chinese, or mexican or a BBQ)
    so i would take extra dilligance in my nutrition and workouts that week and afterwards

    Otherwise if I have nothing on in the month, then i would usually have a cheat meal if i reached a certain goal, like a drop in BF or certain amount of Kgs

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