Cheat day: Yay or nay?

One meal a week, I eat what I want, within reason. If I don't, I'll crave junk food more so.

Not really. I make choices not really cheat. I'm a high carb kinda gal so if I want fries I'll eat em. Shoo.
I don't do greasy crappy foods though

One cheat day can easily turn into a binge, two cheat days (etc.), or giving up completely for me. The last time it was a three day binge in which I ate over 5,000 calories each day, according to my estimate.

I think each person has to find what works for them. Some can do a cheat day and be totally fine. I have found that I allow myself these little "cheats" when I go out with friends for dinner or it's a special occasion, such as a birthday. I don't eat out often, so this works for me. I don't eat with reckless abandon but will allow myself that little extra I maybe wouldn't have otherwise. The meal is usually already higher in calories and fat because it was prepared in a restaurant so it's already over what I'd normally eat.

I'll each a normal sized slice of birthday cake instead of a super-large size. These are my "cheats."

Nicks10x wrote: »

I would go for a cheat meal - not a cheat day! one meal per week is not going to harm your progress.

i had success taking this route

I can easily knock out a week of progress in a day. Like others have said, eat till you're content but keep it to a meal not a whole day.

I'm gonna have to say no. I used to be all for them but after a recent lung infection and a prescription of Prednisone one cheat day turned into 9. Never again. Though the meds certainly didn't help. They make me ravenous.

There is a new Alan Aragon interview in which he gives his opnions

http://www.iifym.com/iifym-com-interviews-alan-aragon/



What are your thoughts on refeeds vs. cheat meals?

Refeeds can be helpful in situations of prolonged dieting, especially in carb-restricted conditions. Refeeds are typically more extensive than simple, non-linear carbohydrate intake through the week. I don’t subscribe to any significant or lasting hormonal normalization occurring from refeeds. Their ability to sustain dietary adherence and prevent major drops in training performance are the most concrete merits they have. They’re not necessary or beneficial for all dieting scenarios though, especially ones where carb reduction is not severe. As for cheat meals, these haphazard “*##* it all” meals (or entire days) are a common crutch for people spending most of the week enduring a diet that tastes like cardboard and #*#. If you eat the foods you really like every day, and you allow regular consumption of indulgences (fit them in!) if that’s your thing, this eliminates the need for “cheat” meals in order to balance out your brutally tasteless diet.



What about diet breaks? It seems that every so often a new buzz word pops up and throws everyone for a loop. Diet breaks seem to be something that more people are talking about lately. What are your thoughts?

I first heard the concept of diet breaks discussed by Dan Duchaine in the mid-90’s. The guy who really effectively brought the concept to the public was Lyle McDonald, who has a nice, detailed chapter on diet breaks in his highly underrated book, A Guide to Flexible Dieting. My take on the diet break (1-2 weeks off of the formal plan) should occur every 1-2 months. Yes, there’s a good bit of variation built into that guideline, as it should be. Diet breaks ideally should be done on an autoregulated basis. In my view, a diet break’s main purpose is to give the dieter a psychological break, if needed. Spending some time in a period where prior maintenance calories are resumed while significantly loosening up on, or completely abandoning the structure of the formal diet can actually help long-term long-term weight loss progress. In contest prep scenarios, a more careful & conservative approach to diet breaks should be employed.

I eat 1500 calories a day, am actively training for a 25K and eat back about 65 calories back for every mile I run. If there was a "diet" i aligned to it would be the mediterranean diet as my food choices follow that pyramid pretty closely. I've lost 30lbs. I also eat anything and everything I want on Sundays. I know it has probably slowed my weightloss, but I'm not really in a rush. For me it's easier to meal prep and only eat that stuff because I don't keep junk food around. Whatever I and my boyfriend (he also eats extremely well during the week) don't finish on the weekend gets either tossed or usually given to our friends/family.

My daily meals include 2-3 fruit servings, sometimes yogurt or cheese and sometimes I make a smoothie with bananas and walnuts. I don't crave the relatively unhealthy foods I used to, so I don't feel deprived enough to ruin my gains. I hope that everyone trying to lose weight can adopt a long-term solution where you don't think of certain foods as "cheating," but rather as "a bad idea." Just my preference, take from it what you will, I hope it helps someone.

Include the foods you consider on your cheat days into your diet now and there will be no need. Whenever I have a spare 200-300 calories for the day I always treat myself if my macros allow it. You just have to get into the moderation of it all.

I wouldn't do cheat days period. More often than not people fall off the wagon by doing this.

DanialBadron wrote: »

I'm doing intermittent fasting coupled with regular workout just so I can have cheat meals everyday. It's quite difficult for me to prepare a proper meal due to the nature of my job. Given a choice though, I'd pick a well cooked nutritious meal over a cheat meal any day cos it helps to sustain the mind and body way longer.

Hi, I am very new to IF so got to swap my training times from 5am to 5pm so I could feed myself straight after training. And I find it very anoying simply because gym is packed with people who comes to socialize instead of training and I end up having my main meal very late ...almost before the bed.
So my question would be...how do you find it?