Opinions on cheat days

No. Its counterproductive to what I want to do, which is lose weight, correct some unhealthy eating habits, and generally eat to improve my health. If I want something, I have it within my calorie budget, or I even it out with a weekly average. Its not a cheat - its life.

I love them. I call them weekends and have them every week. I'll gladly eat low calories throughout the work week if I can overeat on the weekends on still control my weight. I eat a deficit during the week even in maintenance just so I can 'cheat' (overeat) on the weekends. This method makes me happy and consistent.

I've always had an insatiable appetite, so a "cheat day" sets me back quite a bit. I MUST have a cheat day every once in awhile in order to be able to withstand feeling like I'm starving every other day.

There are scheduled / planned cheat days and unplanned "over-eating days". I find that, if I schedule a cheat day, I go much further over calories but it is more satisfying to do so. If I started out the day just fine and then lost the hunger battle around dinner time, I might not have as many calories but it will happen more and more often until I actually have a scheduled cheat day.

When I first started, I made cheat days based on weight milestones. For example, when I got to 190 lbs., I was going to schedule a cheat day. I knew that I would likely gain several lbs., but then I wouldn't do another until I got to the next milestone (otherwise I would be stuck in a loop going to 190 lbs., then over again, then back down to 190, and so on...). At first, my daily deficits were just lower quantities of the same foods as many would suggest here. Cheat days would just be larger quantities to where I would eat as much as 20K+ calories (highest cheat day was just over 27K IIRC). I would still track food, but not restrict. I also did them on a weekend when I could just stay home, eat, cook, and order pizzas and such... I did them when I had nothing else I needed to do and nowhere else to go.

Now that I've been low carb since last Mar., my cheat days are less frequent and include foods that I don't normally eat. It's difficult to make it to a scheduled cheat day, so I have ended up with more "over-eating days" as an unfortunate result. When I have a scheduled cheat day with high carb foods and no restrictions on quantity, they result in very challenging BG's (I have type 1 diabetes) and significant electrolyte imbalances. This is because I'm now fat adapted and very carb sensitive; and the electrolyte imbalance lasts for 1-2 weeks. Then I have to become fat adapted again. This is why a scheduled cheat day happens so much less often now (about 2 times per year at this point). Because I do them so much less frequently, I have started to do "cheat weekends" rather than a single day. This helps improve satisfaction by prolonging the amount of eating time.

My next "cheat weekend" will be at the end of April... I'm really looking forward to it! In the meantime, I've had a lot more unplanned "over-eating days" where I just didn't have the willpower to stay within calories. For example, Sat. I was a 6K calorie day. It was still low-er carb (about 7% carbs for the day, but the actual quantity of carbs was obviously higher with higher calories), and I was still hungry for most of the day. But during part of the day, I lost willpower and ate a jar of peanut butter and 1 lb. of hamburger with cheese slices (i.e. large bun-less cheeseburger). I could have eaten more, but got enough willpower to distract myself. So that was an unplanned "over-eating day" that is different than a "cheat day" where I would have planned ahead and made no attempt to restrict calories.

I prefer the "rare and appropriate" way of thinking.
Birthday party? Eat that pizza.
Thanksgiving? Mmm all the carbs
Work event? Have a ball with whatever they're having.
Go on a date? Get what you want from the menu.
Going out as a family and all the kids want to go somewhere that it's difficult to log or eat within your means? Just do what you can and enjoy yourself. Don't stress over it.

Otherwise, stick to healthy habits.

I guess I've had cheat days where I've been at a party or something and haven't tracked all my food. In such cases I just add 2000 cal to the food I do record and have done with it.

Otherwise, since I only limit how much I eat and not what I eat, I generally don't feel the need.

I have had a day that I didn't track, had a couple drinks and boy did I hate myself Monday morning for it I have decided to look 2 weeks ahead in my calendar to see if there are any important events coming up and I'll cut calories the day before or eat before I go out - I also track each drink as I order them. So I see that I'm having too many and my calories are decreasing rapidly. Also helps me stay 'sober'. Lol

Cheat is so negative. Turn it around... make it a treat. And treats don't have to be about food either.

I guess it depends on what you mean by the term...for a lot of people, they are regular go off the rails day and they can easily blunt progress which, particularly in the beginning can really bring you down and also result in a mistrust in the process.

Maintenance days here and there can actually be beneficial down the line in regards to adaptive thermogenesis and re-balancing hormones, etc.

As far as particular foods go, I eat pretty well most of the time...but we have pizza night once per week on average...desert night a couple nights per week, etc. I tend to look at my diet on the whole rather than this particular item is "bad" so having pizza night once per week really isn't particularly material to my overall diet.

I think - to each their own. My personal experience... it makes having salads and lean cuisines during the week more tolerable. I make sure I burn a significant amount of calories and still log everything I eat. If it's a cheat meal, I offset it with a lighter meal before or after. When I get closer to my goal weight... I won't be so strict. I need the structure to stay on track. And I usually have some candy without logging. Keeps me sane. haha

I just eat what I want when I want and make it fit my calories. For me, it's about portion control (moderation) over deprivation .

And if I have a day where life happens and I go over, I just log it honestly and move on. No biggie over the long haul.