How often is it okay to have a cheat day and what should it consist of?

blondielou1992
blondielou1992 Posts: 37 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Trying to lose 8 pounds!

Eat pretty much clean during the week and exercise moderately when I can - v difficult working in a bloody office job!

How often is it okay to have a cheat day? is it once a week? once every 2 weeks? without putting on any weight?

also should It just be one cheat meal ? what calories should you not go over on your cheat day?

I am not a massive eater but at the weekend I tend to drink at least Friday or Saturday but aim to stick to vodka lime and lemonade!

Replies

  • cocobongo
    cocobongo Posts: 186 Member
    I now have a cheat meal once a week rather than a cheat day as I would completely binge for a full day in the past and un do my good work!

    If you want to see weight loss with a cheat meal/day then switch your nutrition view to week whilst logging your treats and make sure you are still under or on target of your weekly calorie goals.
  • kindrabbit
    kindrabbit Posts: 837 Member
    I have a cheat evening (8pm - bedtime on a Friday). I add up all the calories that I have 'saved up' over the week and try not to go over them so I break even over the 7 day week.

    It's going to be tough with only 8lbs to loose but you are so close!! good luck.

  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    i dont have cheat meals. i eat what i want as long as its within my calories for the day.
  • Leana088
    Leana088 Posts: 581 Member
    Well, when talking about health (and that means something different for everyone) a lot of people I know seem to eat healthy 90% of the time and eat a treat 10% of the time.

    However, when talking about weight loss, you can eat whatever you want, whenever you want, as long as you remain in a caloric deficit.
  • Leana088
    Leana088 Posts: 581 Member
    I personally eat a small treat everyday. Makes me feel like I'm not on a diet. Which is kind of the beauty of counting calories. You can eat all your favourite foods, just less of them.

    I couldn't stick to diets. Too boring.
  • cocobongo
    cocobongo Posts: 186 Member
    Should add, I also have things whenever I like so long as it's within my calories, I have desert every night (usually frozen yoghurt with various toppings), sea salt dark choc at least once a week and sour cream and chive pretzels once a week.

    However my cheat meal tends to be something that I wouldn't otherwise eat within my diet like a Five Guys, KFC or one of the crazy huge towered burgers we have here in the UK - not the sort of thing that you could fit in within your normal daily allowance.
  • bb4886
    bb4886 Posts: 118 Member
    I count and stick to mt kcals mon-friday and on weekends i eat healthily but i dont log so i dont feel like it rules my life - i dont over eat or any thing but it makes me feel like im cheating as im not logging and if i want that costa lattee after a good walk round the town shopping ill have it with no guilt :)
  • SR_86
    SR_86 Posts: 58 Member
    I do more exercise during the week to give me extra calories to 'spend' on a cheat meal. (So actually it's not a CHEAT meal at all!) :)
  • emilyesq
    emilyesq Posts: 47 Member
    If you look at your net calories on a weekly basis rather than a daily basis, as long as you're not eating back your exercise calories every day, you will generally have a weekly net deficit under your calorie goal. I had about 1000 calories to eat as a treat this past weekend (technically it was 2000 calories, but I always assume that MFP has overestimated my calories burned), as a result of not eating back any of my exercise calories during the week.

    I don't have a treat meal every week (I had a few drinks on Saturday but ended up not eating the meal I had planned), but I don't bank last week's calories for this week, so I'll have to do some more cardio this week if I want to earn myself some eggs benedict with brie for brunch Saturday morning. (That is the plan.)

    The thinking behind this approach is that you can go a little over your calories on one day, and as long as you were in a larger deficit over the past week, your body is still in a deficit in the long run. For me, this method stops me from having "cheat days" which always basically turned into "binge days", where I just surrounded myself with pizza and candy and chocolate and ate myself sick and blew all my efforts for the week.

    I will point out that this works better if your calorie goal is set to more than 1200/day. Mine is 1520, so I find it easy on most days to resist eating back any of my exercise calories. Back when I was trying to eat 1200 calories a day, that was a lot more difficult, because I was so hungry all the time.
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