Cheat day! What’s your approach?

ee2368
ee2368 Posts: 85 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Do you allow yourself a cheat day? If so, when is it and what does it entail?

Replies

  • MichelleSilverleaf
    MichelleSilverleaf Posts: 2,027 Member
    Let me ask, do you plan on doing cheat days the rest of your life?
  • kami3006
    kami3006 Posts: 4,979 Member
    No, I eat the foods I enjoy within my calories and I follow a weekly calorie goal. Some days are higher, some lower but I'm able to fit in foods I like, including more calorie dense ones, and the calories balance out over the week. So, I haven't felt the need for a cheat day. Plus, I enjoy logging so don't feel I need a break from it. I realize, of course, that many people do like a break from time to time. And that's okay.
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    I don't call what I do a cheat, but I eat more on weekends by banking calories from the week. In the end I am still within my overall goal.
  • missiontofitness
    missiontofitness Posts: 4,059 Member
    I don't call them cheat days; I do plan days where I relax my calorie goal, like celebrations, birthdays, holidays, or "it's Tuesday and I feel like it". I don't like labeling it as "cheating". Rather, it's me being a normal human being and not having perfect days sometimes. :)
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    ee2368 wrote: »
    Do you allow yourself a cheat day? If so, when is it and what does it entail?

    I don't have cheat days. I find that planning to overeat is self destructive. I DO have days when I know I will be eating more than usual like holiday dinners or vacation. I do the best I can while still enjoying myself and don't sweat it. Same thing if I end up binging some evening. I don't call it a cheat, I say I overate and just go past it.
  • SuzySunshine99
    SuzySunshine99 Posts: 2,989 Member
    My approach is to “allow” myself to eat the foods I like in the proper proportions all the time. On holidays, vacations, and special occasions I sometimes eat more than my calorie goal and I’m fine with that. It’s not a regular occurrence.

    I think this “cheat” day, meal, whatever...is a really bad mindset to have. It presumes that eating certain foods is “bad” and you’re cheating at some game. Weight management isn’t a game with gold stars when you are “good” and frowney face stickers when you “cheat”. It’s about being an adult and balancing a healthy lifestyle that will work for the rest of your life.
  • PiscesMan123
    PiscesMan123 Posts: 23 Member
    I pay it forward. If I know that I am going to consume more calories on any given day, I work out to offset what the difference is. A good rule for me is to do 700 calorie burn at the gym. That usually gives me the latitude I need.
  • dwayneb2020
    dwayneb2020 Posts: 18 Member
    edited January 2019
    Not sure what you mean by "cheat day" exactly. Are there occasional meal that exceeds my target caloric intake? Sure, this happens once every week or two to me, usually some work event I have to attend, or a special meal like Christmas or Thanksgiving or New Years.

    What it comes down to is that you have to learn to pay attention to what your body is telling you. The day after a larger than normal caloric intake, I've noticed that I'm not usually hungry until the evening of the next day, so naturally breakfast and lunch on that next day are lighter than usual. So the excess calories are offset in a natural way. Then the next day, back on the normal track.

    Obviously if you did this constantly you'd be in negative territory and gain weight. I am with the other poster though, this is about a dietary strategy for life, the idea of "cheating" really doesn't apply.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,225 Member
    I don't believe in cheat days, in pretty much the same sense I don't believe in Santa Claus as an adult: It's a happy myth. Your body records everything, whether you log it or not.

    Personally, while losing, I ate at goal most of the time, a little over sometimes, and a lot over on the rare special occasion (my birthday, major holidays), and logged it all as accurately as practical, even if I had to estimate . . . just as I expected to do to maintain in the long run.

    By logging it, you have the data to know why you're losing (or not) at the rate you're losing, and make informed choices about the impact of going over goal (because you'll know your actual weight loss rate at that accurately-as-possible-estimated calorie intake).

    If you log what you eat, whether over/under/spot-on goal, you'll know (after you've collected a few weeks of data) whether you're wiping out or severely impairing weight loss by eating over goal, or how long you're delaying reaching goal weight by choosing to eat a bit extra. You can make informed choices, not just "do stuff". Knowledge is power.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,282 Member
    My approach is to look at weekly calories - this allows me to plan for larger meals, drinking at events etc by shaving calories off other days - banking them ahead, as some people put it.

    I also have short breaks from logging - eg Christmas week or when on vacation - when I still try to eat sensibly but not bother logging.

    No doubt i do go over calories in them, but not by much and I get back on track after.

    Perhaps not good thing to do yet if you are just starting out though.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,616 Member
    ee2368 wrote: »
    Do you allow yourself a cheat day?

    Nope. No need when I'm on a mission to lose weight.

    I do, however, take diet breaks now and then. For example, I was on a mission to lose weight for 16 weeks in 2015 ... then I went on a 1-month diet break.

  • IsETHome
    IsETHome Posts: 386 Member
    Haven’t done so in 60 days, don’t plan on it. Apparently I’ve been cheating myself and my health for awihle.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    Every day is a potential "cheat day" for me, in the sense that if I really want something and it feels worth it, I have it. I don't have foods that are off limits or draw any lines that group foods into diet foods and cheat foods. I just eat. Sometimes I eat a little bit more, sometimes a little bit less, and sometimes I make plans to fit in an especially high calorie food that I wouldn't otherwise be able to fit in. It's all just a continuous stream of days for me, and I'm flexible enough with my approach to allow for any kind of craving or surprise event if it happens.

    Official cheat days don't work for me because they make it feel as if I'm the diet jail for a while before I'm finally allowed out to breathe and have the things I like. That's no way to live around food, it would get old for me too soon and would make dieting feel harder than it really is.
  • pierinifitness
    pierinifitness Posts: 2,226 Member
    To the OP, what is your definition of a cheat day?

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