How many calories do you go over your base on cheat days?

I don't doc heat days. why do all that hard work just to blow it in one day? There is 0 point in them. I include what i want to eat in my daily calories every day.

I have days where I eat at maintenance on purpose, just because I wanted something that couldn't keep me within a deficit. Maybe that's a better guideline to aim for...rather than a "cheat" day that could easily become a binge, have a maintenance day, especially if your calorie goal is 1200. I personally couldn't do 1200 calories without wanting to "cheat" everyday. I don't like being hungry.

Try googling carb and calorie cycling, there is some evidence that altering calorie intake throughout the week can be beneficial to prevent the body going into starvation mode and keeping the metabolism revving. You would essentially distribute calorie allocation unevenly across the week - with two days per week at maintenance level calories (this is when you would indulge in treats that you wouldn't have on the lower calorie days) usually 48-72 hours apart as this is how long it takes for low calorie intake to slow metabolism. An example would be 1200, 1500, 2200. 1200, 1500,1200, 2200 - More intense exercise days are generally scheduled for high cal days and rest days on low cal days. Anyone have experience with this zig zag method?

I don't know if this is going to be enlightening or discouraging, but here goes ...

When you put your stats into MFP, it calculates your net calorie target in order to achieve the rate of weight loss that you entered. Something to keep in mind is that as you lose weight, and you get more fit (assuming you are exercising as well), your caloric needs will go down coincident with your weight. Here is an example ...

Ignoring exercise for the moment, assuming I had a sedentary/desk job, using this calculator, then

• at my starting weight (279 lbs), my maintenance intake was ~2500 cals, and my deficit intake ~2000 cals, to lose 1 lb per week
• at my target weight (174 lbs), my maintenance intake is ~2000 cals

Again, those are my sedentary numbers. I make further allowances for my activity levels and consume further calories to offset the workouts as needed.

So, that means the intake that I had while on deficit at my starting weight was pretty much the same as my maintenance intake when I am at my target weight. Your own calculations may be different, but keep this in mind if you are doing a drastic deficit and a massive cheat. If you hit your goal, and then go back to your old intake levels, you'll more than likely head right back to your old weight.

I don't disagree with cheat days. Different strokes for different folks and all that. But I don't do them myself. I find it hard to refocus if I do them. I set my calories for 1000 per day, and then I almost always hit about 1150 or 1200. Not sure why this works for me....but it does.

Rather than "cheat days", I do weekly averages on my calories. I generally eat a bit below my daily goal each day so that, on days I want a higher calorie meal, I can enjoy it without disrupting my weight loss. The phone app makes it easy to watch weekly averages.

Call it whatever you want to. I eat at a deficit Monday through Friday and closer to maintenance on the weekends. It works for me. I don't feel deprived, and it is something that I can continue for into the future (I also don't drink alcohol or eat added sugar or many packaged "snack" type foods during the week, but do on the weekend if I want).