How far do you go on cheat days?

As for why a cheat day. My mom said a long time ago. You can't eliminate completely the foods you love or you will never fully be ale to enjoy your diet. I.E. wedding cake slice at my friends wedding or hot dog in Fourth of July. I budget those days in. So I can have fun but stay healthy.

Bump x

There is nothing wrong with cheat days. Most people will think that it is just putting unnecessary "bad" calories into your system but this is a MYTH. Having a cheat day will cure your cravings for the week and help boost up your metabolism if you have been low calorie/low carb/ low fat dieting. Personally I have my cheat day on a Saturday after training my legs for 1.5+ hours. That way I know I will have burnt most of those calories off. I have a low calories breakfast before working out, then cheat the rest of the day after the workout. The following Sunday, I fast for 16 hours (from the time i go to bed until 12pm-1pm) and usually have a rest day, or if I have already rested, I will train cardio and either back or chest. Do not worry about those guilty feelings after cheating, it is good for you. Just relax and eat all you like (as long as it is in portions).

The whole point of a cheat day or 'blow out' is to loose weight faster... And to help stop falling of your progress.
If you limit yourself to a constant healthy diet, your cravings will get worse and worse and you will risk going on a binge and giving up on your diet all together, but if you look forward to treating yourself to tempting foods on the same day once a week you're less likely to fall off course.. And with that, your body gets use to the low calorie intake of a healthy diet, once your body realizes that its taking in less calories that you're burning off, it will take a sit back and hold onto the calories that you take in, so by having a blow out/cheat day and just going over your usual daily amount it will kick start your metabolism into burning them off more again.

I used to have cheat days, and they inevitably led to my failure. I would have a bad morning, say “f” it, and go on an absurd binge.

My new plan is to have 90% "moderate" meals instead of days. I have 93 meals this month, 90% of that is 84 “good” meals (my daily goal / 3 = 550-650 calories per “moderate” meal). I am trying to spread the big meals out as evenly as possible over the month while trying to maintain and extra one for that inevitable “oops” moment.

I "cheat" on Saturdays by eating whatever I want and as much as I want. Yesterday I had some pizza, ice cream, and popcorn. I'm still losing weight by doing this because I'm in such a massive calorie deficit all 6 other days of the week. I'm down 24 lbs total (10 of which I lost from switching from regular coke to diet coke; the other 14 I've lost in about a month from cutting calories) I still need to lose 40 more lbs until I'm happy.

I view this whole logging thing as a lifestyle change. I log so I have the data I need to make decisions and hold myself accountable. "Cheating" gives too much power to food. Last night was the last weekend night my in-laws are in town, we went to the casino (didn't win) and had dinner at the buffet. I had no way to properly log this. I ate what I wanted, surprisingly my portions were on the small side and my choices were healthy except the slice of chocolate cake. I came home, logged it as a food, listed what I ate and put about 1000 calories. It may have been over that (most likely not...salmon, veggies, rice), why worry but I am also not going to do that often because I do not like wiping out any of my weeks works if I can help it. I think "cheat meals/days" are excuses to binge, if this is a sustainable change than eat what you want within your calories and if you go over life happens. When I was thin I just ate, sometimes a lot but other times barely anything and I never thought of weight, its how the week/month look not just a day.

I don't do cheat days or cheat meals. I usually eat out on Saturday and Sunday, but I don't think of it as "cheating" because then it would mean I'm dieting, which I'm not. I'm changing my lifestyle, so for me that means I can eat out when I choose, and then fit the food into my allotment for the day. If I allow myself to "diet" and "cheat", I set myself up for failure. That doesn't mean I don't occasionally go over, but I try not to.

Yes! This is very well put and exactly how I have been approaching this process. In the past, I had "red light" foods and cheat meals/days...and it never worked out very well. One piece of wisdom I like to remember is "everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial". Just knowing that I *can* eat whatever I like actually reduces the desire to overeat, at least for me.

I have to agree with this. I call it my treat day. I still workout b/c I don't want to break that habit... but I go over my calorie limit. If it's only for a day.... I don't see the problem with it. Just make sure you hope back on track the next day

Old thread. And the reason to not do it is because you can blow your entire week in one day.

I can easily pound down 3500 calories over maintenance on a "cheat day" thus rendering all my hard work for the week completely useless.

Have a cheat meal, not a day.

I have never understood, the "Cheat" meal/day. For me I am logging to be mindful of my consumption, I have a daily, weekly calorie deficient that I prefer to maintain but if I go over, then I go over. It all evens out and even if I go over I have never went over maintenance a for the day or over my goal deficient for the week. I need to change things that started the last 3 years that caused my weight gain, being mindful of my actions helps keep be accountable. "Cheating" would imply an emotion and mean my diet (not "diet" but diet like intake) has a power over me. If I want a sustainable lifestyle change, I have to accept that there are days I eat more and days I eat less....logging gives me the tools to make informed decisions, like realizing having a milkshake with a meal I could not comprehend being over 1000 calories already would have been insane and not worth it, but that doesn't mean on a different day I don't have the milkshake on its own.

No judgment to those that have cheat days, it seems it is an emotional break for some. Just for me cheating would be guilt and I refuse to have guilt for what I eat.