Cheat meals??

how do you define cheating? food shouldn't make you feel guilty...it's just food.

I just eat food...i hit my calorie targets and I eat food. I rock my nutrition and get in about 6 servings of veg per day...a couple servings of fruit...some whole grains, legumes, healthy fats, and lean sourced protein...and sometimes I eat pizza...not sure how having a couple slices of pizza would undo all of my awesomeness...oh wait...it doesn't.

sineadt84 wrote: »

A cheat meal is a weekly/monthly meal where you eat whatever you want without feeling guilty. The idea is to help with motivation, so psychologically you don't resent being so strict all the time. A personal trainer friend of mine recommended this. Malibu, I do do well with my meals so they are varied and tasty but at 1200 calories a day it's very difficult to fit in the foods I really enjoy!

Your ticker says you only have 11 pounds to lose. If that's the case, adjust your goal to half a pound a week so you'll get more calories to work with.

Don't think of it as a cheat day or meal.

Throughout the week, I try to get in as much nutrition as I can while expending the fewest calories overall. I work in treats (chocolates, gelato, starbucks lattes, etc) on a daily basis.

1-2 times each week, I'll go out to eat. Restaurant and/or fast food nearly always has far more calories than a comparable home-cooked meal, plus it can be a sodium bomb. I know I'm going to do this so I keep an eye on my weekly average for calories and work it in so I stay around my goal, maybe a little above or below. I run 1-2 times a week and don't eat back all those calories the same day, usually, so I've got some bonus calories hanging around most weeks.

It's not a cheat. Cheating implies you shouldn't have whatever it is at all and that's a silly thing. Are you going to never eat those foods again? You may not be able to eat out for every meal of the day AND stay within your calories but that doesn't mean you can't ever eat out.

~Lyssa

Log it and go back to your plan. Make as best of an estimate as you can if you have no data to work from. It's deficit over time that is what you're working towards, and if your daily deficit is large enough you probably haven't blown away a whole week's deficit in one sitting. You might have simply only hit your maintenance that day.

I've had a couple days over my target, but stayed on target the rest of the week. I've noticed that I might see a jump on the scales for a few days, but by a week later I've returned to the original trendline if I've stayed on plan the rest of the time.

the way you think. I have cheat days every week too.

ForeverSunshine09 wrote: »

I have a cheat day once a week for a little over 100 days and I have lost 33 lbs so far. I use the word but, it doesn't mean I feel like I am cheating anything. I hate how everyone seems to get a hissy fit over the word cheat. It is just a word. I don't let food define my mood.

sineadt84 wrote: »

What are peoples' general thoughts on cheat meals? I went for a big meal last night after a week of being really strict and stringently weighing and logging every morsel that went into my mouth, but I feel really guilty today! I had been looking forward to it but now I'm wondering if it's worth the guilt I feel the next day!

I would also strongly suggest looking at your diet (noun) as a whole...big picture. On there own, nothing is really inherently "unhealthy"...certain things may have more or less nutritional value than something else, but in and of themselves, they aren't inherently unhealthy.

For example, having a soda now and then in the context of a well balanced and otherwise nutrient dense diet (noun) isn't a big deal (context)...drinking multiple 40 ounce Big Gulps daily while washing down the cake you had for lunch is a different story. Taking my boys out for pizza night every couple of weeks isn't a big deal...having pizza for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day would be a different story (context).

Try to see the bigger picture and look at your diet as a whole.

There are unhealthy diets depending on what makes up the bulk or your diet...but individual food items in and of themselves aren't inherently the devil and certainly nothing one should feel guilty about.

jaqcan wrote: »

Yesterday I had a small breakfast, a yogurt cup for lunch and had 1100 calories left for dinner. I didn't have a cheat meal, I had the most amazing local dive bar food and shared a snickers brownie with my family. No guilt, and even lost another pound this morning.
Cheat meals set you up for failure. Logging and accounting for what you eat means you are making focused decisions and eating with intention, even if and when you go over. They can be the same foods but the difference is eating with intention versus trying to get away with something. It all registers in our bodies whether we log it or not, so we only end up cheating ourselves.

That isn't the case for everyone. I log and measure/weigh everything on my cheat day. I just never worry if I go over that one day. I don't cheat myself. I obviously am not failing myself since I have lost 33 lbs in 112 days. Not everyone is the same physically or mentally some ppl have control even when they are a little out of control. There is no one way to do CICO different ways work for different ppl.

I have never really drank alcohol due to kidney disease. I still eat a lot of what I want most days. I have donuts sometimes, I have ice cream, I have pizza like once every 2 weeks usually homemade though. We were doing that before "dieting" due to money constraints. I still pay attention to what I eat and learn what keeps me full and gives me energy but, sometimes I want 8 oz of cheesy butter pasta and no amount of working it out on my 1300 cals is going to let that fit unless it is the only thing I eat. Cheating is not a free for all nor do I ever see it that way. I see it as oh ok well if I go 3-400 over big deal I can fix that by the end of the week. I still call it a cheat day becausEit usually consist of higher sodium and junk food. I am on a lower sodium diet the other 6 days of the week from drs orders.