Cheat meals

I log it in my food diary

I save up calories during the week to eat more on weekends. Now that doesn't mean go all out and not pay attention to calories, but it does allow more flexibility if I want 3 bowls of pasta or something. And if you are depriving yourself all week that you feel like you need a cheat on weekends, it might be time to reevaluate if your daily calorie goal is too low, or if you are cutting out too many foods you enjoy.

Who or what would you be cheating here, anyway? I don't believe in "cheat meals", in pretty much the same way I don't believe in Santa Claus.

While losing weight, I stuck to my calorie goal the majority of the time. Once in a while, I would make a choice to eat more than my calorie goal, occasionally even more than my maintenance calories. Usually, this was some kind of special occasion (birthday, holiday, out of town friends visiting) but not always.

No matter what it was, I logged it, even if I had to eyeball the portions and roughly estimate the calories. I wanted to have some idea of the calorie impact so I wouldn't be one of those people who comes back and posts "Help! Not Losing and Don't Know Why!!" then you discover they've been doing unlogged regular cheat meals and don't really have any idea whether they should be losing or not, other than a vague sense of deprivation and sacrifice, plus some wishful thinking. Don't be that person: Log what you eat.

If you log accurately, you can make informed choices, and learn from them. "Hmm, I ate 500 calories over maintenance today. Since I've been losing a pound a week - average 500 calorie daily deficit - that means I wiped out today's deficit and tomorrow's, so I'll reach goal weight 2 days later. Was this worth it?" (Sometimes it was worth it, sometimes it wasn't. But I learned from it.)

I did bank calories in advance sometimes while losing, in order to fit in a special-occasion splurge. I still do that now, in maintenance. For planned events, you can also eat extra lightly for other meals on that day, or fit in some extra workout time. I think it's usually a bad idea to cut back calories after a splurge to make up for it, as that can set up a restrict/binge cycle. When you cut back in advance, the splurge stands in for the binge, and gets things back even up.

These ideas may not work for you, but they worked for me.

Easy. Cheat every day, but keep it within your calorie goal. I eat what others would consider cheat foods almost every day whether it be wine, sweets, quick meals, etc., but fit it in my calorie goals. When you allow yourself to eat what you enjoy every day and don’t limit yourself being able to enjoy those things one day a week you’re much much much less likely to go overboard and wipe out your progress.

I don't have cheat meals. If I have a special occasion where I know I'll be eating more, I'll save calories for it or eat at maintenance for the day. Either way, I plan for it and log it.

I try to keep my caloric intake to about 1400-1500 for the day. I really don't know how people can eat pizza, steak, and potatoes...etc and not go over, unless they are eating in excess of 2000 calories a day. If I'm extremely vigilant, I can splurge on something, but it really doesn't take much to push it over the allotted amount. For example, if I were to have a cheeseburger, I'm probably looking at 700-1000 calories. That would pretty much be my intake for the entire day! My 'cheat day' seems to be either Saturday or Sunday, and it's worse during the nice weather. On weekends we are invited to parties, barbeques, and other celebrations. I was weighing myself on Sundays until I realized that was the worst day to weigh. I'm just trying to keep well under my limit during the weekdays and that allows me to eat a little more on the weekends. Also, try adding just enough extra exercise during the weekdays to give you some leeway for the weekend.