When you say "cheat day" what do you mean?

SLLRunner wrote: »

When I say "cheat day," I mean it is not for me. What is for me is working those little treats into my calorie goals.

My perception is that people use cheat days to eat whatever food they prohibit themselves from eating the rest of the time, and it will often include eating over calorie goals. For me, it's easier just to work those treats in daily instead of saving up for them. To me, it's a complete waste of time and implies that I'm doing something wrong when, indeed, I am not.

This description of a 'cheat day' is not what I do. I eat more, but not different. More of the same foods I always eat.

I don't do cheat days. I do cheat meals. Eating without accountability for a whole day puts too much of a dent on my progress. Besides, I don't starve myself so much that I feel the need to eat a mindblowing amount of food one day. The day of my weigh in each week, I allow myself one meal in which I don't think too much(I do save up calories through the week to use in that meal).

retailwizard1 wrote: »

Lol... ok I read a few answers and omg please... cheat day means you eat whatever you want and don't think about calories. .. lol to the guy who said an extra dessert... depending how bad you eat... what it will do to diet. .. I used to do cheat day once a week and it did not through off diet... but obviously I woukd have lost a lil more if I didn't do

If your cheat days didn't throw off your diet, it's because you didn't eat enough to cancel out your deficit. This may not be the case for others who attempt cheat days. Calories consumed are going to be the ultimate deciding factor in whether or not one loses weight, which is why many of us are wary of the idea of an entire day where you don't count calories.

Cheat days for me are a thing of the past. They would sabotage me everytime, I would go hog wild, I would gain 3 pounds water weight which would then take me 3-5 days to get off and then it would be about time for a cheat day again. It wasn't worth it. I finally made it to goal and eat at maintenance and everyday feels like a "cheat" day

I eat what I want every day, no cheat days. The thing is, I no longer want anything that wouldn't fit into my calorie/macro goals...On the weekends, I like to have a couple of vodkas, those are my "treats", but I log them, and try to fit them into my calories. If they fit, bonus. If not, I don't even give it a second thought once logged. There was a time that I thought weekends were for eating whatever, and for going hogwild, but once I really turned my new way of eating into a lifestyle, those cravings pretty much disappeared anyways.

I never use the word cheat when it comes to food, it can be so demotivating. If I really want it, I eat it.

There is no friggin way that I will go six months counting and logging every day with out a Cheat Day, Break day, or have anything I want day. After words , I feel like I'm ready to get back to it.
There is nothing wrong with it. It's mostly about learning to at a reasonable amount. It's not a big deal to me.

I got into this mess (overweight) because I "rewarded" myself with food. So I am really conscious of not doing that again with cheat days. Because to me that's all it is. A reward for eating to plan all weak, "I deserve this". Instead, I do like many others and build it into my calorie allotment.

I think there is a difference between the perception of a person who is just starting out and a person who has been at it a while. Once you start seeing results from healthy eating and exercise, the cheat day begins to lose its appeal. Not only do you realize it sets you back in terms of weight loss, but after the cheat day is over there is a guilt that makes the entire day seem like a mistake.

When you first start dieting the cheat day seems like an island in the middle of the sea. You spend all week swimming to your island, and once you get there you are free from the evil thing we call a diet. This isn't a healthy way of going through the week, and I venture to say it may be counterproductive to "look forward" to eating unhealthy food. The entire point is that you can train your body to like healthy food and to stop craving the unhealthy stuff.

I don't believe there is anything "evil" about a cheat day. From my own experience though it is rarely worth the setback, and if you are still in the mind-set that you need a cheat day, in my humble opinion, you should be trying to train yourself out of that mind-set.

That being said, at times I have days when I eat what I want, but these aren't planned cheat days and it doesn't happen very often. I don't think your diet is going to be perfect. I don't think you're going to log 365 days of straight diet perfection. So you may have cheat days, but I don't believe they should be part of the plan.

These have just been my opinions, it's not the same for every person.