How many cheat days are "ok"

i cheat once a month or so.

like, my birthday is july 8.

i plan on eating. a lot.

I usually have 2-3 a month.

OP- congratulations on graduating!! Maybe you could invite friends over to share in eating the left overs so it doesn't go to waste but you don't have to eat it all

I do a cheat meal about twice a month. I dont go over too much, maybe about 400 cals.

I would love to have 1 a week but that isn't really a good thing for me because I take them extremely overboard. For myself, 1 or 2 a mnth if I prepare myself for it first.

As few as possible, IMO. Yeah, I have them... but only on days when I'm starving anyway and staying in my calories is just really hard... and I make sure to make them count, and spend the calories on things I REALLY want. And I still try to limit the damage (typically fail though). They are usually not planned (except special occasions), and happen when I feel that I need them.

Bottom line is that they will slow down your weight loss. For people who eat too little all week, they are probably beneficial, but for people who use MFP as they should (not a huge deficit, eating back exercise calories), they will slow down your progress. It's better to just eat what you like within your calories, but yeah, overall, I believe one day of eating 3500 calories is better than eating 250 calories over your TDEE for a week.

ETA: ******* zombie threads.

I don't consider my one day per week when I eat 2000-2500 calories a 'cheat' day but I do enjoy having those extra calories
I think using the word cheat isn't a good word to use, especially if it made us feel guilty. I refuse to feel guilty about enjoying my food :-D

I try to only do it on special occasions, or if I plan to go out to eat with a friend, which is rare. Like tonight, I'm going for sushi with my sister, which we only do every few weeks, and I have a friend's birthday gathering at a bar, so I will probably go over, but I'm not going to starve myself all day in preparation. I will make sure that I work out, though.

And Jesus wept.

Last weekend I relaxed and went massively over for the first time (still within maintenance, though). My body's still paying for it. But it was for a special occasion...otherwise, I work whatever I want to eat into my calories.

I'm similar to RunRutheeRun, in that about once a week I'll go over my weight loss calorie limit, to about 2000, but that's similar to my TDEE, which means I'm not actually gaining with the day. I don't consider it a cheat day either, just a non-strict day. And I usually have them on days when I'm out with friends or a special occasion, where I don't want to have to eat a healthy meal prior to going out, and then just sip water while every one else enjoys the food and drinks.


Like this Saturday, I'm having a house warming party, so I know what food I'll be serving, and I already planned out how much of it I can have, which takes me 500 calories above my current calorie goal, but still under 2000 for the day. But then again, we're trying to keep our snacks relatively nutritious.

Depends on what a "cheat day" is to you.

I don't currently do it (and don't use the term "cheat day"), but I used to do something similar and thought of it as keeping a weekly deficit and having a few lower days and one higher day (although no reason it couldn't just be a couple of slightly higher days, although then I'd really stop thinking of them as "cheat" days). My rule was that I wouldn't go over enough to screw up my weekly deficit.

I'm currently finding it easier to eat consistent calories every day (changed to TDEE method for that reason), so would only do a "cheat" day for a special occasion. Even then I'd try to build the calories into my week, although I won't get upset if I don't manage for something relatively rare.

Edit: oops, zombie thread.

last "off plan" meal was July and took about a week to recover scale wise. Before that was Dinner on New Years Eve.

I personally don't have cheat days. But that's because I have a treat almost every day LOL. Just fit it into my cals. On the days I know I'll be feasting (birthdays, holiday etc) I just save the majority of my calories for that. That's just what works for me though. I tried doing the cheat day thing in the beginning but my cheat days became cheat weeks, so I found what works best for me.