Cheat days.

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fitplundy
fitplundy Posts: 47 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I know 90% if you probably have some cheat meals, and I’ve heard that there’s some pros to it as long as it doesn’t get out of hand. But how often should you have them?
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  • FL_Hiker
    FL_Hiker Posts: 919 Member
    edited July 2018
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    My cheat meal is once per week, every Wednesday at our local seafood shack it's all you can eat fried basa (catfish)!!! I love it and eat to my hearts content! Only problem is I can only eat two fillets. So I end up in my calorie range anyways for the day. Some cheat day... HMM..
  • Kim_S_G
    Kim_S_G Posts: 120 Member
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    I am not sure what you mean by "cheat meals". Are there some meals that put me over my calorie goal for the day? Yes. Tomorrow will be one - I am planning on going out to eat with my husband at an all you can eat catfish buffet. But I have planned for that and banked some calories from earlier in the week, so I will still be under my calorie goal for the week. I have these types of weeks about once a month.
  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
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    How often you go off-plan is entirely up to you. There is no should amount.

    What do you consider cheating? Is it cheating to eat certain foods while staying within your calorie goal or is it only cheating if you exceed your calorie goal?

    Do you plan to cheat for a meal or an entire day? You might negate your built-up deficit for the week if you overeat for the whole day. You might even manage to do so with just one meal.
  • Panini911
    Panini911 Posts: 2,325 Member
    edited July 2018
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    every 2 months? where I have a meal and don't care (too much) about how bad it is and don't log. but i keep it to one meal or one thing. like if i'm gonna two two super crazy fancy drinks i won't also do decadant dessert and a crazy dinner. I'll pick one or balance more. At 1300 calories I cannot go lower to bank over the week. it's the minimum i can do without being hungry. if I were to cut even 50-100 calories over 2-3 days I'd get into issues where i'd forever need to catch up and be miserable.

    i do have treats weekly. weekends i don't really snack and if I cut a wee bit then I can fit in something yummy in a reasonable portion. or i won't stress if I am 50 or 100 over one day every two weeks or so (though I haven't done this that often yet).
  • deepwoodslady
    deepwoodslady Posts: 10,879 Member
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    I don't call them cheat days. I call them "earn" days. If I want to eat something that I normally would not eat within my diet then I must "earn" the right to do so. Also, try hard to keep it at an "earn" MEAL, not an "earn" day. It is much easier to bounce back from, even if you've went way over carbs and/or calories for the day.
  • MagnumOpus1
    MagnumOpus1 Posts: 161 Member
    edited July 2018
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    For me I view "cheat" days as days where I indulge in particular foods purely for mouth feel if I desire them. I try to designate these foods to a single day because I generally prefer to eat foods that nourish my body.

    It's not about eating any and everything, that's an eating disorder.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
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    MagnumOpus1 wrote: »
    For me I view "cheat" days as days where I indulge in particular foods purely for mouth feel if I desire them. I try to designate these foods to a single day because I generally prefer to eat foods that nourish my body.

    It's not about eating any and everything, that's an eating disorder.

    Can you clarify your last sentence please?
  • MagnumOpus1
    MagnumOpus1 Posts: 161 Member
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    WinoGelato wrote: »
    MagnumOpus1 wrote: »
    For me I view "cheat" days as days where I indulge in particular foods purely for mouth feel if I desire them. I try to designate these foods to a single day because I generally prefer to eat foods that nourish my body.

    It's not about eating any and everything, that's an eating disorder.

    Can you clarify your last sentence please?

    Regularly eating 1000s of calories above ones maintenance calories without it being a special occasion is disordered eating.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
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    MagnumOpus1 wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    MagnumOpus1 wrote: »
    For me I view "cheat" days as days where I indulge in particular foods purely for mouth feel if I desire them. I try to designate these foods to a single day because I generally prefer to eat foods that nourish my body.

    It's not about eating any and everything, that's an eating disorder.

    Can you clarify your last sentence please?

    Regularly eating 1000s of calories above ones maintenance calories without it being a special occasion is disordered eating.

    Binge eating disorder? Yes.
    Overeating to the point of obesity? Nope.
  • MagnumOpus1
    MagnumOpus1 Posts: 161 Member
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    WinoGelato wrote: »
    MagnumOpus1 wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    MagnumOpus1 wrote: »
    For me I view "cheat" days as days where I indulge in particular foods purely for mouth feel if I desire them. I try to designate these foods to a single day because I generally prefer to eat foods that nourish my body.

    It's not about eating any and everything, that's an eating disorder.

    Can you clarify your last sentence please?

    Regularly eating 1000s of calories above ones maintenance calories without it being a special occasion is disordered eating.

    Binge eating disorder? Yes.
    Overeating to the point of obesity? Nope.

    Yeah. We're saying the same thing.
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
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    malibu927 wrote: »
    I wouldn't say 90% of people here. I've been here 4.5 years and never had a "cheat" meal/day/whatever. If I want it, I fit it into my weekly calories.

    Same. I've been here--*checks app*--1279 days. I've lost 100 pounds, been maintaining for almost a year, and don't "cheat." I eat what I want as long as my average calories for the week are within my calorie goal.
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
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    fitplundy wrote: »
    seska422 wrote: »
    How often you go off-plan is entirely up to you. There is no should amount.

    What do you consider cheating? Is it cheating to eat certain foods while staying within your calorie goal or is it only cheating if you exceed your calorie goal?

    Do you plan to cheat for a meal or an entire day? You might negate your built-up deficit for the week if you overeat for the whole day. You might even manage to do so with just one meal.
    Cheat or “treat” as in it goes over your calories. Not necessarily thinking of calorie amount such as if I want to go out to eat with family or my significant other once a week and don’t want to have to order a boring salad to save it in my calories
    It would just be one meal.

    Whether or not you choose to think about your calorie goal for that one meal, you're still consuming those calories. Your one meal per week is fine if it doesn't put you over your calorie goal for the week. If you go over your calorie goal, then what will happen depends a lot on how much of a deficit you have.

    If you are trying to lose a lot of weight, you probably have a pretty big deficit and going moderately over your calorie goal once a week may cut into but not wipe out your deficit. In this case, your rate of loss will probably just be a little slower. You may be okay with that.

    But as you get closer to your goal, your deficit will become smaller and exceeding your calorie goal can easily wipe out a small deficit. Yes, you can easily do this with only one large meal per week if you have a small deficit. If this happens, your weight loss will stop and you may even gain weight if you exceed your maintenance calories.

    If you want to stay on track with your weight loss, then budget calories for your weekly large meal.

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