Cheat day?

ONE day won't ruin all the work you've done, as long as it doesn't have a domino effect & keep going for days, and days, etc.
If it's one day, or one meal etc, it won't hinder your weight loss. So long as you can take that for what it was and get back on track!

Maybe not a cheat DAY but a cheat MEAL once a week. From personal experience, I have had a cheat meal and I have actually lost weight. It shocks the body, I think. So what if I am over 400-600 calories of my daily goal. The mission is to make this a lifestyle and not a diet. Eat your favorite foods in moderation. Good luck!

I don't have a CHEAT day per se, but I have a relaxed day, where I don't worry about logging things, but sometimes I still weigh out what I'm eating but mostly I try to eyeball a serving. I might have more food choices that day for not counting calories. Again, it's a life change, not a diet you will do short term. It's a good test to see how those daily efforts are paying off. Are you still choosing chocolate bars over protein bars or shakes, a sugary doughnut with your coffee or have you learned to evaluate everything you consider picking up to eat first and can you stop at one serving? The point is to still make healthy choices. I don't think anyone is expected to count calories for the rest of their life, just learn to make healthy choices. If you measure everything out, take one day and do it by eye and see how close you are (weigh it, but still eat what you thought was a serving, unless it's crazy off)

Only you can determine what works for you. If you don't think you have the will power to not raid the candy aisle of every store you go into, it's probably not a good idea. Some people thrive on restrictions and rules, others not so much. Try is for a week or two and if you're gaining, don't do it or reconsider what you're choosing.

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I don't schedule a cheat day, because I already have my profile set up to lose the maximum amount of weight. That way if I'm ever off by 100-200 calories or so, it's not a big deal because I'm still under the basal metabolic rate. Sometimes your body needs that extra bit of calories. Just be careful not to eat 2200 calories 2-3 days in a row, for instance.

I like that thinking but how do you keep from telling yourself, it's set 500 calories lower than it needs to be and eating yourself out of that mindset? It's like setting your clock 15 minutes ahead then hitting the snooze button because you know the clock is fast?

I've actually been *really* good at staying around 1200 calories every day, surprisingly. I generally make sure that I have a light breakfast and lunch every day, and then a moderate sized dinner. If I have any calories left I can eat, then I have a little something extra a couple hours after supper. Occasionally, I will go out to eat for supper, usually Fridays with my family. As long as I make sure that I start off small for the day, even a big supper won't offset the calorie count by too much. But I've been doing my best to cut a restaurant meal in half and take the rest home for the next day. This technique works great for subs because half a sub from Quizno's runs about 400 calories.

To know if I'm trending in a safe direction, I just look at the net calories chart and see if there's too many days that go above a certain threshold (in my case, 1400). In the past 30 days, there have been only about 3 days in which my net calories went above 1400, and most of my days were closer to 1250.

I think if you want to go out for a nice dinner or just have a relaxed day from time to time, it's not going to do any harm. Acutally, when I have a day of unhealthy cravings and I give into it, maybe it acutally does me some good, because I usually end up feeling like crap because of it and remember next time to put down the Oreos! :-)

Maybe not a cheat DAY but a cheat MEAL once a week. From personal experience, I have had a cheat meal and I have actually lost weight. It shocks the body, I think. So what if I am over 400-600 calories of my daily goal. The mission is to make this a lifestyle and not a diet. Eat your favorite foods in moderation. Good luck!

Agree with this. I have a cheat meal every Friday night with my wife and we eat whatever the heck we want. We all need to reward ourselves for our hard work and the cheat meal helps me keep from feeling deprived. And, for the record, I've lost 18 pounds (5 pre-MFP) in about 2 1/2 months so it's worked out ok for me.

I allow myself a cheat day about once a week. I still make sure not to go over 1800, so I'm not gaining weight that day, I'm just not losing any either. Normally its a day where I go out for drinks with a friend. That way I can still drink and have a social life without gaining weight. (:

I dont have to "cheat" because I allow myself everything Ive always eaten and enjoyed, I just enjoy it in moderation now. Its a lifetsyle change, not a diet. If I feel like I "cant" have something, I want it more. If I plan ahead and workout, then I earn more of those "bad" foods I used to eat, and I dont have to feel guilty or like Im "cheating".
I do have days where I dont log everything if Im out and about, but I dont go crazy and Ive also found that my mindset has changed so much that I tend to stick with healthy choices and actually come close to my daily goal without even trying.
If I think of this as a diet, I am doomed to fail since I will eventually stop "dieting" and gain the weight back. In order to get slim and stay that way, I have to allow myself freedom to eat what I want.

I don't schedule a cheat day, because I already have my profile set up to lose the maximum amount of weight. That way if I'm ever off by 100-200 calories or so, it's not a big deal because I'm still under the basal metabolic rate. Sometimes your body needs that extra bit of calories. Just be careful not to eat 2200 calories 2-3 days in a row, for instance.

I like that thinking but how do you keep from telling yourself, it's set 500 calories lower than it needs to be and eating yourself out of that mindset? It's like setting your clock 15 minutes ahead then hitting the snooze button because you know the clock is fast?

I've actually been *really* good at staying around 1200 calories every day, surprisingly. I generally make sure that I have a light breakfast and lunch every day, and then a moderate sized dinner. If I have any calories left I can eat, then I have a little something extra a couple hours after supper. Occasionally, I will go out to eat for supper, usually Fridays with my family. As long as I make sure that I start off small for the day, even a big supper won't offset the calorie count by too much. But I've been doing my best to cut a restaurant meal in half and take the rest home for the next day. This technique works great for subs because half a sub from Quizno's runs about 400 calories.

To know if I'm trending in a safe direction, I just look at the net calories chart and see if there's too many days that go above a certain threshold (in my case, 1400). In the past 30 days, there have been only about 3 days in which my net calories went above 1400, and most of my days were closer to 1250.

That's great! You are really putting into practice what you have learned so that it's truly a lifestyle change that you can manage for maintenance. I only hope to have such stamina once I reach my goal weight. I'm an emotional eater and I really want to avoid falling back into that trap, even if I'm making healthy choices, I tend to get off of portion control. I think having these days where we get to put into practice what we learn by weighing and measuring can help us once we get to our goals.

So we've all decided that have a day off is a good thing, BUT do you think they should be logged as a means to judge how well we're doing "off the diet mode" or should it just be a day without worrying about the numbers? I see someone said they took the day to eat but still logged the food. Is that helpful or counter productive? If you know you're going to judge what you eat afterward, will we still have the freedom to trust our skills?

Does this make sense? I haven't been logging my day's off, but I've only had a couple since I started in January. I know exactly what I've eaten so I could log it for today's day off, but it wasn't part of my plan.

No cheat days here, just learning to average out when I can afford to have that meal and drink that is extra calories. So tomorrow I am going to have to tighten the foods I eat and add in some EXTRA cardio!!! I am heading out for my night of mexican food. Good luck figuring out what works for you!

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I don't think it's a bad thing to have a "cheat day." Sat or Sunday is a cheat day for me.

I have found that having a net calories of X and I lose steadily but last week ( and this is not the first time) I had X+300 on 2 days, I was still logging an overall deficit though. However the scales went up bu 1-5 pounds. It has taken a week to get back to where I was. It is as if any calorie I eat over X is really 10 calories!

I am guessing funny things are going on with water retention.

Maybe it's not so much the caloric increase but the types of foods you are choosing? Could be more salt than you realized or were used to eating, could be that maybe your elimination cycle is off that week if say you ate more rice, bread and less fiberful items so you're not as empty as you'd normally be. I'm finding that the case this week although I eat yogurt everyday at least once a day but I have noticed my overall fiber intake is down a little over what it was.