Cheat days, yes or no

I don't do cheat days but I do do cheat meals. But I make sure I exercise hard that day to minimize the damage.

I guess that is up to you. I know for myself that a cheat day will send me right back to where I came from. It's been 13 months since I started my journey and any of those "cheat" items are worked into my daily food allotment. If I want it bad enough and it will put me over, then I know I will have to hop on the treadmill for as long as it takes to burn off the excess. I must be doing something right since I am wearing a size 4 for the first time in my life... don't know exact number of pounds I lost since I choose not to weigh on the scale (will some day... just not today)... but I can tell you that I started this venture at a size 18/20 (down from a one time high of size 24)

I say rather than setting aside a day to "cheat" ... work those treats into your daily diary and enjoy every day while learning a little bit about nutrition and behavior modification..

Sometimes i cheat by accident (last second bar or restaurant plans, spur of the moment days out etc) but i just try to eat lighter ans work out harder the following few days!

no be because sometime they turn to weeks...for me at least..

I have a cheat snack about every two or three days..like banana bread or a small (I mean small) scoop of ice cream. Thing is, I log it in first thing and then work the rest of my meals around it. Keeps me sain.

If I did a whole day, I'm pretty sure I'd gain atleast 4 lbs...really. I have a LOT of pent up cheats in me.

Bottomline: if this keeps you on track the rest of the month...then do it. And enjoy it while it last..then get back on the wagon.

no, didn't work for me. Turned into too many cheat days.

I would stick with 1 cheat meal maybe twice a month. I wouldn't do days, I still don't do cheat days because I know I can eat over 3000 calories in a single day. That is bad because I'm on a 2500 calorie diet.

I have banished the word "cheat" from my vocabulary, because it represents a mindset that I am trying to change. "Cheat" implies that there is some set of rules being imposed on you and you are sneaking around and breaking them. Or like you are being impulsive and doing something naughty. Or like there is this un-fun "dieting" phase of your life that you follow and then occasionally bust loose and do what you really want to do.

But here's the thing: I'm trying really hard to change what I WANT to do. To change my tastes so the good and healthy stuff sounds good. To enjoy the fruits and veggies that I used to pass over for a mountain of fatty and nutritionally empty food. To get past this dysfunctional "starve, then binge, then starve to make up for it" mindset that got me in this predicament. To develop a balanced and healthy relationship with food where I am in control of my eating and to able eat healthy most of the time yet enjoy an occasional unhealthy treat as a part of my normal life. Where "an occasional unhealthy treat" is just that, a treat. Not a whole bunch of treats. Because eating a whole pile of cookies is not the sort of moderation that I'm training myself to practice.

I'm in the drivers' seat here, making the rules about how I eat and making choices and accepting consequences. Theres nothing to "cheat" on. If I want to eat a cookie, I eat a cookie. If I want to eat a nice meal for some reason of my choosing, then I do that. If I want to have a break from calorie-counting for a day, then I can do that. However, I usually don't WANT to do these things because my weight and fitness goals are more important to me than the temporary pleasure of food. And I'm quite glad of that--it's an accomplishment for me to want long-term health over short-term pleasure, a real change in mindset that I don't want to derail. But sometimes I am willing to eat more calories or less nutritious food and accept the consequences (such as losing less weight, or not feeling as energetic as usual, or potentially triggering cravings that I'll have to fight for a few days). I do this because of a specific food I want to eat, or an occasion I want to celebrate, or because I'm genuinely hungry and want to not be, or because I'm just sick of tracking everything and want a break from it. When I do those things I'm not "cheating". I'm just choosing to deviate from the usual plan for a specific reason that I, as the person in charge of me, decided was acceptable.

If I do decide to do the closest thing to "cheat day"... what I would call "take a break from weight loss to eat at maintenance for a day", I still keep track of what I'm eating and make sure I'm not just impulsively eating whatever my hand can grab. I'm trying to un-learn that unhealthy behavior so choosing to dabble in it on regular intervals sounds counterproductive. I plan my meals, but just plan a maintenance day. I don't do this often or at regular intervals, but just when I'm feeling like it would be a good idea for some reason that is worth the potential slowdown in my weight gain. Like my birthday, or a holiday, or a vacation, or if I'm not feeling well.

I also sometimes take a break from tracking but stay in weight loss mode. I just allot a certain number of calories per meal and then mentally add up that meal. For example, I have 300 calories for breakfast. I eat whatever I want within that limit but try to make it reasonably nutritionally balanced. I'm not writing anything down so I don't know my daily calorie totals, macros, nutrients, etc. Just that I met my budget for that meal (and if I do that all day, I'll be on budget for the day). I might choose this if my usual routine is disrupted (vacation, busy work day), and I don't want to spend the extra time to do the detailed tracking. Or, like this week, because I fear I've become a bit obsessed about meeting all those macros and nutrients and getting it right to the last calorie and it's making me crazy. So I'm winging it a bit this week, just counting meal calories and forgetting the rest.