What does "cheating" mean to you?

I allow cheat days but they aren't scheduled - I thing one day a week is probably ok tfor most people. I tend to go by social occasions and find I am not so hungry anyhow these days with all this healthy eating. This weekend I am off to a sugar shack for a maple leaf breakfast - now that will be a cheat day but probably not that bad - it will be pancakes, maple syrup and bacon. Hopefully it will be followed by lots of walking - I always walk after I cheat!! I think it helps.

Last week I did go to a restaurant. My friend and I each had a soup and split a main dish at a thai restaurant - yummy!! But just drank water and no dessert so probably not too bad. Anyhow, since then lost 2 pounds so maybe it was good for me.

Everyone has different "cheat" patterns. I think if I craved chocolate cake, yes, I'd have it once a week. I am a big chocolate fan but I find my daily 1 square of LIndt Chocate 85% cocoa (50 calories) fills my craving.

Great to hear everyone's cheat ideas - I like the one of not exceeding 2000 calories on a cheat day.

my best friend and roommate and i have what we call Fun Food Fridays. we started it in college because we worked at the same place on campus, and it was a movie rental place, so we basically were stuck in the building from 5pm to midnight on friday nights because no one else wanted to work that night and we'd make it less boring by ordering in from somewhere fun while we worked. (we rewarded ourselves with food a LOT in college, but we're getting better and better every day about not doing that!)

anyways, now we just have our friday dinner meal set aside to have something not so good that we've been craving (chinese, pizza, mexican, etc), and we try to watch our portions (so we don't make ourselves sick overeating like we used to) but don't sweat it if we are over a little bit that night. we also have slightly less healthy options of certain foods or healthier versions of less healthy foods on the weekends (if we are craving them) just to keep our sanity, but we still try to watch our calories/portions and workout on saturday and sunday to balance it out (friday is our day off from working out).

its made all of these lifestyle changes a lot easier, especially because we don't mind taking it slow. especially for me, because i have a bit of a binge eating problem (but my roomie doesn't so much).

We do allow ourselves a dessert each night, also IF WE PLAN ACCORDINGLY and have the calories. we've both had bad days both during the week and on the weekends, and we still will every now and then because we're human, but this is our plan and our goal each day. it gives us that wiggle room to be human and not feel guilty about it

I don't really consider anything "cheating" because that means you are doing some wrong and I don't consider eating extra calories on occasion "wrong". It's not realistic to think that I will always eat within my calories after I get to goal so I don't know why I should expect myself to do so now.

I don't plan or schedule a high calorie day or meal but they happen sometimes and I don't consider that a failure, cheat or mistake! Log it all and move on. It's life and there will be speedbumps. You just have to keep moving forward! :bigsmile:

My husband and I have an off day each week (I hate the word "cheat"!) We do ours opposite - he has an eating frenzy, I watch what I'm eat but not as careful for a meal or two. I tried mine his way and I threw up at the end of the day. My body won't let me binge like that anymore. For me, it's more realistic to have a nice meal or two one day a week. If I ate everything I wanted I'd spend all my time trying to lose the same 2 pounds. I'm trying to change my lifestyle, and my lifestyle won't involve being able to eat whatever I want, but it also doesn't include me only eating salads for the rest of my life. Once in awhile works best for me, but I think it's a personal decision.

I allow myself a cheat item, my shopping day is Saturday and it is also a gym day for me so if I am good all week I will allow myself a dark chocolate mocha at caribou coffee. It is like sweet heaven after a long week.

Cheating to me is somewhat like yours. I may end up over, sometimes a lot over, depending. What I cheat on depends on what I am in the mood for. I try to listen to my body. It may be salty or sweet cravings. If I have been thinking about one particular item (won't say b/c may tempt others) I will plan to eat that for dinner. What I will do, though is PLAN. I'm going to have a big dinner or a large dessert so I will eat a light lunch or even skip it, even though that is considered bad. It makes the difference between 1800 calories to 2500 calories for that day. (I am 5'2", so 2500 calories is a lot for my size)

Cheating is cheating or fooling yourself.

When I "cheat" it means I've eaten something and not tracked it, and that is extremely, extremely rare for me. So I feel like I've cheated myself in not being honest with myself and confronting it. (However, I don't ignore it entirely, I guesstimate and then try to work it off - it's only happened once so far since I joined).

Cheating is also convincing yourself that you are making healthy choices when you aren't. I spent my first week on this site eating low-fat/low-cal ready meals, spending my extra calories on the odd chocolate bar, and yes, I lost weight, because I was in my calorie allowance. But I was not eating healthily, far from it. The same applies to exercise - if you *really* need to track those 10 minutes of vacuuming as exercise to justify that chocolate biscuit then the problem is twofold.

I guess the closest thing to a "cheat day" for me would be to not eat Low-GI, which is rare (although I did have sushi on Saturday and I've heard mixed things about its GI content). Many of the things I eat happily and regularly, on my nutrition plan, are probably considered as "cheat day" foods to others - for example, steak, and (lean) bacon! I am genuinely a believer that if something is unprocessed (is identifiable as food - not cheetos!), and you count it in your calories, then it's fine. If I didn't eat low GI, I'd probably still bake (just different things), and eat the fruits of my labour - because it's natural and I'd be able to do the calorie content happily. I wouldn't need a "cheat day" for that.

All in all, I believe we know when we are cheating ourselves.

I don't consider any day a cheat day, but only because I consider this a lifetime thing, not a diet. So if I want to go out to eat and have a restaurant meal, I do. I just make sure to not go over my maintenance calories for the day, and I don't worry about it. I couldn't let myself have a free-for all, but hitting 1900 calories for a day once in a while doesn't bother me because my maintenance calories are 2000.

I wouldn't do it over and over, but I refuse to never have a cheeseburger or a few drinks. I have to do this for the rest of my life, what would be the point if I couldn't enjoy food once a while?

Everytime I do a cheat day, it sets me up for a food frenzy. It's like I am a foodaholic and once I start, I just cant stop. Like this past weekend, I had mexican food on Friday--complete with the basket of chips and guacamole, etc. I ended up binging all weekend and gaining weight. ugh. I just plan treats into my day to keep me from feeling deprived. When the true cravings start, I have learned that (for me) it is a mistake to give in. I end up going "buck wild" as my Granny used to say. :laugh: :devil:

fridays is my cheat day i eat pizza but only three pieces and im good.so yes a cheat day is worth the wait all week for..