Cheat Days

Cheat days or meals are not magical or special. If you create a deficit of 3000 calories Monday -Saturday, and on Sunday your cheat meal puts you at 1500 calorie surplus, you just undid half of your weeks progress. If your cheat day put you in a 500 calorie surplus, you undid 1 days work. It's all about how bad you "cheat" and how much of a deficit you had to begin with. If you can do one and continuing losing weight, that's fine, but if you stall, it's the first thing I'd drop.

Make sure you log it.

Better yet, save 100-200 a day during the week, and use them on the weekend for a treat meal that fits in your calories.

amyfjones611 wrote: »

Cheat Day? Cheat Meal? Good idea or terrible idea?

I employ a weekly cheat day.
I eat whatever and rest from all exercise. This I need.

Over 2 years, I lost 100 pounds, and for the last 3 years, I have maintained this result. It worked for me, and I can recall people here telling me I'd never reach my goals.

How do you define a cheat day/meal? If you mean don't log it, and totally ignore the numbers...No, I don't do that. Do I sometimes overeat? You betcha. But I log it and create a bigger deficit on other days to make up for it.

Francl27 wrote: »

Doesn't matter to me. I just aim to stay under my weekly calories. So I might have a 400 deficit every day and eat 1200 over one day, and still end up with a 1200 calorie deficit for the week (I'm pretty much at maintenance though so it's easier).

This is exactly how i've been doing it

I'm against cheat days for a purely emotional/psychological reason: if you feel the need to "cheat" then you don't really buy into what you're doing the other days.

I think it's better to come to terms with the need to eat well and live a healthy lifestyle, and shape your eating and other habits around that.

Once you're generally making healthy decisions naturally, you can have the occasional indulgence without feeling bad. Until that point, the very concept of "cheat days" might prevent you from buying into developing healthy habits, and probably adds to your experience of frustration.

There's pros and cons to it and like others have said, only you can really decide if you can manage to achieve what you want to by doing it.

I've recently started doing 5-2 days of intermittent fasting and I have found it's reduced my need for a cheat day. With daily calorie counting I usually have enough for three healthy meals and snacks, but don't really have enough to fit in higher calorie things like chocolate or crisps. I end up feeling deprived and then binge. Doing 5-2 I eat at a maintenance level for the five days, which means I can have higher calorie meals and chocolate every day. The two low calorie days can be tough initially but are made easier knowing I can have a large satisfying meal for tea and have what I want within reason the next day.

It's not for everyone, but I've found it a huge mental help for me.

atypicalsmith wrote: »

rsclause wrote: »

I saw this and wondered how many topics have been titled "Cheat Days"

Probably a few thousand.

Give or take

It's not cheating if I incorporate the foods I love into my daily calorie limits.

A cheat day only cheats yourself.

Deficit. Deficit. Deficit. Deficit. Deficit. Deficit.

A cheat day for me includes staying under my calorie goal but not worrying about macros.

Planned cheat days I think are just a sign your being too strict, say every 2nd Saturday you plan to pig out a bit. Just seems like your overall plan is too strict if that's required.

Having days where your not caring about your deficit seem fine if there is a good reason behind it, like weddings etc

Depends on your goals. If you're coming from a place of obesity, I don't think cheat meals or days are a good idea. Your main focus at that point is portion control and reteaching yourself to love healthier foods. Eating unhealthy (high salt, high fat, high sugar, processed) just messed with your taste buds and doesn't allow for appreciation of the taste of "real foods."

If you've lost a substantial amount of weight and need to lose the last 5-15lbs, but already have a generally good muscular base (higher metabolism), then your diet may be slightly stricter, but you have already implemented healthy eating as a lifestyle change. In this circumstance, having one chest MEAL not day, every so often, can keep your body guessing and psychologically help you - so you don't get bored wth foods and don't feel socially deprived. The occasional bump in calories, sodium, and sugars can replenish glycogen stores and boost your performance at the gym.

However, you still need to think of cheat meals from a nutritional standpoint. You don't have to go for your usual "diet", but aim for something with some protein and fiber. Try to balance the cheat meal by also having a low-calorie side dish that will help fill you up (like a salad,soup, or fresh veggies alongside your cheat.) In my opinion, a successful cheat meal would start with the filling, healthy portion, and then you can go for the steak/pizza/ice cream/cheeseburger/fries/sushi.... you get the idea. You're still cheating, but it will have less of an impact on your deficit for the week. And make sure that you take the opportunity to have a killer workout to take advantage of your fueled up body

My cheat MEAL is Saturday for lunch and I eat half of what I previously would. And I log that sucker!