How often do you have cheat meals?
Options
Replies
-
Villypierr wrote: »I don't cheat with fat food. If you have to lose weight you have to have food with quality. Try to stay focused. Cheat only with healthy snacks. Its only you my friend on this journey, and all the hard work you do, goes backwards if you do that. Loose the weight first and then do that on the maintenance.
It really depends on the person and how long they are remaining in a deficit. If that works for you, great, but it doesn't work for everyone.
Personally I find if I cut everything out I am less successful and more likely to blow out when I am faced with those foods.7 -
I don't know what you mean by cheat meal. I don't call anything I eat cheating.
If you want to have a higher calorie day it won't damage you but you might be better off fitting things you want into your daily or weekly calorie goal.
I try to log every day as best I can and stick to my goal. I did not drastically change my diet and eat food I like every day.
Sometimes I have a maintenance calorie day.
I eat out for lunch on Sunday usually. I plan what I am going to get in advance.3 -
bradman1231992 wrote: »I’m actually quite surprised at how many people do have cheat meals. I’ve yet to have a cheat meal, let alone a cheat day, since I began 4 months ago. I personally never advocate for one, but I think so long as you’re not absolutely destroying your day, you should be fine.
Depending on what you mean by a cheat meal (in fact, no matter what you mean by a cheat meal), having them is entirely normal, although I wouldn't call it cheating. It's what most normal weight people do. They eat less sometimes, more sometimes. They have feasts sometimes. They eat higher calorie foods sometimes. Sometimes they're hungry, other times they're overfull. Striving for sustainability and normalcy is at the core of any successful diet.5 -
Villypierr wrote: »I don't cheat with fat food. If you have to lose weight you have to have food with quality. Try to stay focused. Cheat only with healthy snacks. Its only you my friend on this journey, and all the hard work you do, goes backwards if you do that. Loose the weight first and then do that on the maintenance.
To the bolded, the only thing required to lose weight is a calorie deficit. You can achieve that eating any sorts of foods you enjoy. Eating a variety of nutrient dense, satiating foods is important for a lot of reasons but the weight loss comes from a calorie deficit, and “fat foods” (whatever those are) can definitely be incorporated while losing weight.
To your last point, people who cut out all the foods they love during weight loss then go back to eating them in maintenance are usually the ones unsuccessful at keeping the weight off. Finding a way to eat during weight loss that you can sustain for the long run is what leads to lasting success.
11 -
Villypierr wrote: »I don't cheat with fat food. If you have to lose weight you have to have food with quality. Try to stay focused. Cheat only with healthy snacks. Its only you my friend on this journey, and all the hard work you do, goes backwards if you do that. Loose the weight first and then do that on the maintenance.
I grow vegetables organically and am all for "quality" foods, which for me means no artificial flavors or colors, and a very long additional list that I won't go into as it is not germane.
Quality foods are needed for optimal nutrition. But all you need to lose weight is a calorie deficit.
Now, for me it would be hard to maintain a calorie deficit on low quality foods, as they tend to not satiate me. But if I were locked in a lab and could only eat 1200 calories of low quality food per day, there is no question that I'd lose weight.
You've already gotten some pushback on your claim, and you may get more. I want to point out that nobody is advocating a diet of all, mainly, or mostly low quality foods. We are just disagreeing that "bad" foods make you fat. It's excess calories that make you fat.6 -
bradman1231992 wrote: »I’m actually quite surprised at how many people do have cheat meals. I’ve yet to have a cheat meal, let alone a cheat day, since I began 4 months ago. I personally never advocate for one, but I think so long as you’re not absolutely destroying your day, you should be fine.
Whether people have cheat meals or not is more related to their mindset around food and less about the type of foods they enjoy.3 -
lewiswinston22 wrote: »I have one cheat meal Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Meaning if I use my cheat meal on Friday for lunch I’ll eat right for breakfast and dinner.lewiswinston22 wrote: »Is that to many cheat meals?
Well, if over a month you haven't lost weight as expected, then yes, it is too many cheat meals.
I could easily blow a weekly calorie deficit with three cheat meals. Heck, if I put some effort into it, I could probably blow a weekly deficit with one cheat meal.
People define cheat meals differentlys - are you logging the calories of these meals?3 -
Villypierr wrote: »I don't cheat with fat food. If you have to lose weight you have to have food with quality. Try to stay focused. Cheat only with healthy snacks. Its only you my friend on this journey, and all the hard work you do, goes backwards if you do that. Loose the weight first and then do that on the maintenance.
Bit confused as to how anyone would consider a healthy snack a cheat meal under any definition of the word.
I think sustainable maitenance happens when people basically continue eating the way they did to lose - but obviously bit more of it.
Loosing wright first and then changing your diet when you reach maitenance seems recipe for disaster to me - so easy to regain that way.
I didn't regard treats, higher calorie days,take away meals or anything else as cheating and I ate plenty of ' fat foods' - by which I assume you mean higher calorie less nutritious foods like chocolate cake.
I did not go backwards doing that within my weekly calorie allowance.
7 -
I typically fit what I want to eat within my weekly calories. This includes weekly pizza (atleast 3 slices) and eating out 2-3 times a week. With eating out I try and estimate my calories the best I can and log it. I exercise often and plan out my calories for the week and this hasn't hindered me steadily losing 1lb/wk. If you aren't reaching your weight loss goals then that is a time to reevaluate what you're doing and make adjustments.2
-
I try to get it right about 75-80% of the time - so over the course of 30+ meals & snacks per week, that is roughly 6-7 meals/snacks where I end up eating more calories and/or an unfavorable mix of macros.1
-
Villypierr wrote: »I don't cheat with fat food. If you have to lose weight you have to have food with quality. Try to stay focused. Cheat only with healthy snacks. Its only you my friend on this journey, and all the hard work you do, goes backwards if you do that. Loose the weight first and then do that on the maintenance.
That is not true. I've lost 60lbs while still enjoying Burger King, chicken fingers and mudslides.
and i lost 100 eating whatever the heck i wanted, too. No, i dont have much fast food (i simply dont like it), but i do eat out with some regularity (and order what i WANT, not whatever has fewest calories), and do love me some alcohol, and baked goods and all kinds of yummies and have chocolate near every day.
4 -
First all thanks to everyone who left a comment. Starting off I will eliminate the word (cheat) because I don’t eat over my daily calories which is 1800 cal at the moment and it goes down every week as I lose weight. I honestly didn’t know another word. I have been seeing the gains and progress I wanted to, Every week since I started. Some weeks are better than other but and all I have consistently lost a few pounds every week. I’m really on this journey by myself I goto the gym 4-5 times out the week. But learning that long as you eat a calorie deficit you can lose weight I want feel bad no more about it. I thought it was eating all the right food at a calorie deficit. One again thanks for all the knowledge and Btw if you don’t mind I need friends on this app of ppl who are active on the app and can help motivate and vise versa so if don’t mind adding me or sending me a request that would be great.9
-
By cheat meal, I assume that you are far exceeding your calorie intake for the day? Because that's what a cheat meal is defined by. If you're staying within your macros and deficit, then it really isn't a cheat at all. I do If It Fits Your Macros and basically eat what I'm craving...just gauge the amounts as per what fits in my allowed range for the day.1
-
I guess "cheat meal" is kind of a subjective term, but last night I went a bit off my normal meal pattern and ate out at BWW. Had a snack size wings (5), a side salad and a lite beer and it was over 900 calories, which for me is a lot for dinner. Went for a quick walk when I got home to burn an extra few calories and ended up right on my goal for the day so it all worked out. I mean, at the end of the day, even a few 100 calories over one day isn't going to totally derail someone, am-I-right?2
-
I would say, like, once a month. Like this Sunday when I'm going to take myself and only myself to the movies and have an enormous bucket of buttery popcorn. Calories be damned!
Happy Mothers Day to me!5 -
I don't necessarily have cheat day, but there are days that I just eat at maintenance instead of a deficit. Like tonight, for example. I'm going out to dinner with a friend to TGIFridays. I already know that I'm going to tear up some Sesame Jack chicken tenders. So instead of starving myself all day to fit the meal into my deficit, I've altered my normal eating habits slightly so that I can fit that meal into my day and still eat at my maintenance level.1
-
Villypierr wrote: »I don't cheat with fat food. If you have to lose weight you have to have food with quality.
I attribute my 220lb loss to eating only quality chocolate and cake.8 -
I usually have one per week. When I was heavier I'd have a cheat DAY, and eat whatever and log it, but now it's more like one day when I have an excess of maximum 500 calories, which is essentially eating at maintenance now. It didn't affect me at all when I first started since I had a 1000 calorie deficit per day. I may change it to 2x per month, and really eat something I wouldn't normally. It kind of keeps me on track when I do it properly. When was normal weight I would always have one day per week when I could eat candy and cake (essentially a cheat day, and I only ate one small piece of cake from a bakery and a few chocolates, but that's all I wanted) and the other 6 days I did not eat treats. It worked very well--I was not counting calories then.0
-
lewiswinston22 wrote: »First all thanks to everyone who left a comment. Starting off I will eliminate the word (cheat) because I don’t eat over my daily calories which is 1800 cal at the moment and it goes down every week as I lose weight. I honestly didn’t know another word. I have been seeing the gains and progress I wanted to, Every week since I started. Some weeks are better than other but and all I have consistently lost a few pounds every week. I’m really on this journey by myself I goto the gym 4-5 times out the week. But learning that long as you eat a calorie deficit you can lose weight I want feel bad no more about it. I thought it was eating all the right food at a calorie deficit. One again thanks for all the knowledge and Btw if you don’t mind I need friends on this app of ppl who are active on the app and can help motivate and vise versa so if don’t mind adding me or sending me a request that would be great.
You might want to call them 'fun' meals. I don't think many people would have a problem with that.2 -
I never have cheat meals.
When I was actively losing weight, I never ever, not even once went over my calorie limit.
Then when I hit a certain goal, 16 weeks later, I took a 1-month diet break. Then I returned to actively losing weight where I never ever, not even once went over my calorie limit for another 16 weeks. And reached my end goal.
Now I stick to my calorie limit for a while when I figure I need to drop a bit ... and take diet breaks when dropping weight isn't particularly important or necessary.1
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.7K Introduce Yourself
- 43.5K Getting Started
- 259.8K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 395 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.3K MyFitnessPal Information
- 23 News and Announcements
- 960 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions