what is the point of cheat meals and/or cheat day?

Lots of pressure dieting. Have to eat this, have to eat that. It wears people out. Sometimes you just want to let your hair down and go crazy. It's like with Christians and sin. They'll be good for 2 weeks and then they hit the bars and get rowdy Saturday night.

Nobody makes you take a cheat day though! It's optional.

emmylootwo wrote: »

I do "free" days (I don't like calling it a cheat) because there are foods that I like that are hard for me to log accurately on a regular basis. I like to go out and eat dinner with my family and go see a movie. There's not really a health reason for doing it. :P I will say, in the past, I have broken through plateaus by having these free days/meals. Not sure if it was a coincidence or whatever, but it works for me.

I agree with this. I am basically a body for life person and that is part of that plan. 6 days a week on plan, one day a week off, and he calls it a free day. I've followed that plan for long periods of time and consistently lost 1.5 pounds of fat a week. I was always right back on the next morning. And it never turned into a long term thing for me. That's not to say it can work for everyone. The reason for me gaining back had nothing to do with the plan and everything to do with me and stuff in my life.

That being said, right now, I try to eat a few hundred extra calories every Sunday. I choose something I want and have it.

Here's a quote from BFL regarding free days...

"A few words about your free day. You should think of the free day as an opportunity to choose "unauthorized" foods. It's not about losing control. It's about making choices and enjoying those choices. The danger of going overboard is that a wild pig-out style free day can blow several days of "caloric deficits" that are essential for fat loss, and can also be detrimental for people who tend to be binge eaters. If you're not a little careful, the idea of "free days" can create an "all or nothing" mindset and sets up binge eating patterns that are hard to eliminate later. That said, kept in perspective, the free day may help counter the risk that your body senses a fasting state. Metabolically, you're trying to convince your body that it doesn't have to lower its metabolism, shed muscle, or defend its fat stores in response to the change in its "environment". You don't need a huge number of extra calories to do that. It's good if your free meals make you feel warm, and it's great if you actually break a light sweat. The free day gives you something to look forward to, keeps your body "confused", and gives you a chance to have that pizza and ice cream you've been eyeing all week, but don't go way overboard. There's some evidence that cycling high and low caloric periods with weight training can help muscle gains, but the effective cycle is evidently about two weeks, not one day. And if your primary concern is fat loss, I wouldn't try to get that fancy."

Typically I don't do cheat days, because I just try to fit the things I like into my calorie goals for the day. However, once in a while, I can't to that so I'll say I'm having a "cheat day" and go over on my calories.

For example, the other day some friends and I went to a Japanese restaurant and got a TON of food to share. Takoyaki, chicken nanban donburi, some miso mussels, and chicken karaage. A lot of it was fried and probably had tons of calories. I was out having fun with friends though, and I wasn't going to try to limit myself really strictly. Since I'm on a 1550/day calorie limit, I would've either had to eat a really small portion at the restaurant, or just made that like my one meal for the day. I didn't want to do either, so I said "screw it" and went over.

I really don't like calling them "cheat days" though, because I don't feel like I'm cheating anything. There are just some days where I don't want to stick to 1550 calories, and that's fine. Going over occasionally is ok. I just remember that I'd have to eat 3500 calories over maintenance in order to gain one pound. That makes me feel good because I know no matter how much I eat that day, it is EXTREMELY unlikely that I would eat that much. And even if I did... I don't mind re-losing a single pound if it meant going out and having some food that I really wanted with some good friends. For me, this is about doing something I can maintain forever and not be unhappy with, and that means I need to be able to occasionally eat very caloric fried food, or stuff my face on Thanksgiving.

Not in 249 days. Normally when I'm losing weight, I have days when just I eat what I feel like eating. Those work for me, as long as they are days I choose, not days that are chosen for me by other people (work or social pressure).

Then, unfortunately, diabetes came along - and the impact of food on my blood glucose is instantaneous (well, 30-90 minutes). So eating what I feel like is no longer something I can do once in a while with immediate consequences. What I can eat isn't appetizing enough to me that I have any burning desire to pig out with extra calories since I don't enjoy fat that much unless it is combined with carbs or sugar. I frequently have trouble making myself finish my calories for the day. I'm kind of dreading moving to maintenance (I'm actually supposed to be there now since I'm recovering from surgery), since it means I have to add more daily calories - primarily from fat.