Cheat day/meal?

Some people do well on restricting then letting loose every once in a while, I personally don't. I don't restrict in the first place so I don't have a need for cheat days. I have everything I want in smaller quantities or less often within my calories or take occasional maintenance breaks where I have more freedom with my calories. I sometimes save up calories for about a week if I have something high in calories planned. None of that feels like cheating, it all feels like part of my plan. What would feel easier to you?

Yes, I do.

I recently went through birthday season in my family and personally called those days “cheat days.” I logged everything, though I wasn’t especially careful about every little thing (was that big piece of chocolate cake 1.5 servings? 2 servings? More? Whatever.)

I feel like I learn from these experiences— and one thing I learned was that 3 hours of kayaking and a long run on the beach were an excellent way to make room for an order of restaurant calamari and a beer. Do I know exactly how many calories I burned on the river or exactly how many calories of fried food I ate? No. But I totally let myself enjoy it for my b-day treat. Will I do that regularly? No. I’ll keep it very, very rare.

With the holidays coming up, I’m planning ahead to *not* have cheat days, because that food isn’t personally special to me. I’ll make healthy versions of my favorite dishes — and go for long runs, too — and feel great.

I don't do "cheats", but I do bank calories ahead of time if I know I'm going to eat a higher calorie meal. If it comes up unplanned, then I eat it, log it, and eat a little less over the next several days. In the end, one meal here and there isn't going to hurt anything at all. For me, it works best to look at my weekly average rather than daily. Some days, I'm more hungry than others, so I eat more on those days. In the end, it averages out and my body doesn't keep time.

I follow a weekly calorie goal so some days are higher than others but it balances out in the end. I'm able to enjoy the foods I want while still working them into my calories.

I currently am eating 1,750 cals per day (12,250 per week). I set my MFP calories as 1,650 per day (Sun-Thur) and 2,000 calories on Friday and Saturday - which are normally days we'll eat out for dinner. I don't really consider these "cheat days", but just my normal calories for those particular days.

I do cheat meals once a week. It took a while to find out how much i can handle without overdoing it. For me that calorie count was 2500. If i went past that I'd be in for a 2 week period of fighting to get back on track. Trial and error is what i would suspect everyone goes through.

You should always treat yourself to a satisfying meal. Personally I choose to have a “cheat” dinner so when my endorphins are at their peak from the savory or sultry foods it’s bed time soon enough so I don’t overindulge. Life has to be worth it, enjoy while we can!

I don't believe in cheat days/meals, in pretty much the same sense that (as an adult) I don't believe in Santa Claus. Mythical!

I'm in maintenance now, but when I was losing, I ate very near my calorie goal the overwhelming majority of the time, a couple/few hundred calories under or over occasionally, and way over my goal on very rare occasions (usually special events like my birthday, or restaurant meal with out-of-town friends). I logged it all, every day, even if I had to estimate, and when I had to estimate, I'd try to guess on the high-but-believable side.

Afterward, in the cold light of day, I could do the math and figure out the impact: By how long had I delayed reaching goal weight? Usually, the answer was a few hours; a very few times, the answer was a small number of days.

Then I could consider: Was it worth it? If it was worth it, just get back on goal calories and soldier on. If it wasn't worth it, think about the trigger(s) for doing it, what alternatives might have been better, rehearse that in my head a few times as prep for next time . . . then get back on goal calories and soldier on. Learning from it is good; stressing about it is pointless (burns no extra calories, makes me miserable).

I also recorded my morning weigh-in, every day, even after big-eating days (using a weight trending app).

By the time I was a few months into calorie counting this way, I could predict with great accuracy how much fat-weight I'd gained, how long it would take for any water weight/digestive contents from the excess to disappear on the scale, and how long it would take to re-lose that (small) bit of fat and be back at previous low scale weight. Just facts and data, not any kind of big drama - kind of a fun science fair project for grown-ups.

Weight management is not a morality play, not a measure of self worth; it's just about health, feeling good, enjoying life (ideally for a long time in the future).

The rhetoric around "cheating", "bad foods", "good foods", "being bad/good" casts eating as a cycle of sin and expiation, failure and redemption. It isn't. It's just food. It's about fueling, nutrition, health, enjoyment. They have to balance. Why cheat on that?