Cheat days..?
StephG1130
Posts: 99 Member
I would like to hear everyone’s opinion on cheat days. I asked in a different post but nobody responded! Thank you in advance!
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Replies
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Cheat meals are good every now and then but need to be managed so is doesn't snowball and happen on a regular basis. Never done a full day of cheat meals tho... Yet0
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I don't exactly schedule cheat days. Some people pick a specific day each week, or each month (or whatever they decide). I stick to the exact calories I need, log everything, and excercize. My cheat days come up at random;
1. A holiday, birthday, or night out with hubby (which is rare)
2. 2. A new food I am dying to try but I already ate my calories for the day so then I'll eat it...but consider that my cheat day and stay on track for the rest of the week.
I never let myself have more then a cheat day a week. Now this is just what I do, do what works for you.
Also, on regular days I always have a small dessert so I don't go crazy. Every single day for me requires chocolate! I keep the amount small and controlled, but it keeps me from big cravings2 -
There are actually dozens of threads on this topic, new ones seem to be posted every week. If you type "cheat" into the search box you'll find lots of information.6
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Depends on what you mean by cheat day. If you mean a day where you don't log anything then I dont think that's a wise choice as many could potentially wipe out a deficit doing that. I never did them, I just fit what I wanted into my calories and wasn't overly restrictive, so I never had the urges or cravings that result in cheat days. If having cheat days is something that is sustainable, helps you lose weight, and you're being honest with your logging then I don't see an issue. To each their own.1
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Who are you cheating?11
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If you exceed your weekly calorie goal, you will lose weight more slowly, maintain, or gain depending on how many calories you went over your goal. If you want a larger meal but aren’t okay with the consequences of going over your calorie goal, then you need to allocate calories for the larger meal(s).2
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I used to have cheat days when my wife was working out of town. Now I'm paying big time alimony.
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Eating is a choice.
Some days you choose to eat less than what you need (weight loss)
Some days you choose to eat just what you need (maintain weight)
Some days you choose to eat more than you need (weight gain)
For you to "see" a weight loss, you need to do more of eating less than you need than the other two.
I don't see where "cheating" fits in.3 -
Copied and pasted from the last cheat day thread I commented on because, let’s face it, I’m lazy:
To me, “cheat” has a negative connotation. In the past I would have days where I’d be “afraid” to log what I ate because I felt like I fell off the wagon. Really trying to change that this time around. I track everything I put in my mouth. Some days I go over my calories, some days I’m under. I also don’t restrict what I eat (just the quantities) so I haven’t really felt the need to “cheat.”2 -
E.V.E.R.Y.D.A.Y. is a cheat day. Oh yeah. I just stay within my allotted calories.
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theres a million threads like this on here. look in this forum, look in the food/diet forum, do a search. youll find months worth of reading material with the majority of us (especially those of us who have done this for a long time, successfully) saying that no, we do not have cheat days. we make what we want fit on a regular basis, or are slightly over, even if that means over maintenance. you can make up for it in an extra workout of reducing elsewhere or not at all.
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It all comes down to the numbers. If you eat fewer calories than you burn, you'll lose weight. If not, you won't .3
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I've asked a similar question before and received a lot of these same responses which were a little holier than thou in my opinion. To answer your question honestly and directly and not in textbook jargon, in the last 26 days since I have started my journey, I have had what I would call "cheat days/meals"... one was to treat myself after reaching my first milestone. I had been dying to go to the local Indian buffet for months and decided I would after I reached 140 pounds. I still logged my calories best I could and skipped breakfast and lunch after. The scale was up a pound the next morning to 141 but about three days later, I was back to below where I was before the buffet trip. The second time I had a baby shower and ate the cake and other munchies. I was about 500 calories over my 1300 goal. I was up about .75 pounds the next morning. So to honestly answer your question- yes- I have had two cheat meals where I didn't totally worry about what I was eating but understood that it put me about two days behind my normal stats. But as I see it, it's better than me not "cheating" at all and ending the process altogether because I can NEVER eat what I want. Most on this site won't call it a cheat day but I know what you are talking about.10
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I've asked a similar question before and received a lot of these same responses which were a little holier than thou in my opinion. To answer your question honestly and directly and not in textbook jargon, in the last 26 days since I have started my journey, I have had what I would call "cheat days/meals"... one was to treat myself after reaching my first milestone. I had been dying to go to the local Indian buffet for months and decided I would after I reached 140 pounds. I still logged my calories best I could and skipped breakfast and lunch after. The scale was up a pound the next morning to 141 but about three days later, I was back to below where I was before the buffet trip. The second time I had a baby shower and ate the cake and other munchies. I was about 500 calories over my 1300 goal. I was up about .75 pounds the next morning. So to honestly answer your question- yes- I have had two cheat meals where I didn't totally worry about what I was eating but understood that it put me about two days behind my normal stats. But as I see it, it's better than me not "cheating" at all and ending the process altogether because I can NEVER eat what I want. Most on this site won't call it a cheat day but I know what you are talking about.
The problem is, not everyone does actually know what she is talking about, because "cheat day" is used to mean a lot of different things - eating a meal one normally wouldn't or eating foods in one day one normally wouldn't while staying at their deficit goal, while eating over their usual calorie goal to some unspecified amount, eating at maintenance, eating over maintenance, banking calories so the one day is well over the usual daily goal but the weekly goal still averages out to the daily average.
See? There's no one standard meaning, and there are probably some I haven't included. And when I mention foods one "normally" doesn't eat, it seems that oftentimes when people talk about "cheat" meals/days, they mention eating what they might consider "bad" foods, such as pizza, pasta, fast food, or even just a restaurant meal, or as you mentioned, a buffet.
Also, an important part of "cheat" meals/days is likely to be water weight gain - from higher sodium than usual and/or more food waste in the system. It's not a "real" gain, as in fat gain, it's just water weight and of course will go away once a person starts eating "normally" again.
It can be helpful to point out to those just starting out that there's no need to cut out foods if one doesn't want to. You just have to control portions and sometimes frequency, which might mean having a little of something every day, or having one "good" serving of something once a week, or whatever. I'm not discounting those who are more abstainers than moderators, as that debate has been done to death. (I am one or the other, depending on food - and also of my definition of abstention.) I am simply stating that it can be very helpful to those new to the process to understand that it's not what you eat, but how much that determines weight loss/maintenance/gain. There wouldn't be so many posts about "cheating" if everyone understood that.
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I've asked a similar question before and received a lot of these same responses which were a little holier than thou in my opinion. To answer your question honestly and directly and not in textbook jargon, in the last 26 days since I have started my journey, I have had what I would call "cheat days/meals"... one was to treat myself after reaching my first milestone. I had been dying to go to the local Indian buffet for months and decided I would after I reached 140 pounds. I still logged my calories best I could and skipped breakfast and lunch after. The scale was up a pound the next morning to 141 but about three days later, I was back to below where I was before the buffet trip. The second time I had a baby shower and ate the cake and other munchies. I was about 500 calories over my 1300 goal. I was up about .75 pounds the next morning. So to honestly answer your question- yes- I have had two cheat meals where I didn't totally worry about what I was eating but understood that it put me about two days behind my normal stats. But as I see it, it's better than me not "cheating" at all and ending the process altogether because I can NEVER eat what I want. Most on this site won't call it a cheat day but I know what you are talking about.
It can be helpful to point out to those just starting out that there's no need to cut out foods if one doesn't want to. You just have to control portions and sometimes frequency, which might mean having a little of something every day, or having one "good" serving of something once a week, or whatever. I'm not discounting those who are more abstainers than moderators, as that debate has been done to death. (I am one or the other, depending on food - and also of my definition of abstention.) I am simply stating that it can be very helpful to those new to the process to understand that it's not what you eat, but how much that determines weight loss/maintenance/gain. There wouldn't be so many posts about "cheating" if everyone understood that.
This all day long. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
At least once or twice a week there seems to be a post asking about “cheat days” but they tend to be vague as to what they mean. Based on all the misinformation out there about what it actually takes to lose weight, I could assume that the person asking is engaging in an unnecessarily restrictive diet which makes them feel like they need to cheat, but I don’t know if that’s where they’re coming from without getting more information.
The forums contain a wealth of helpful info if people know where to look, including the stickies at the top and also searching for keywords they’re curious about.
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I've asked a similar question before and received a lot of these same responses which were a little holier than thou in my opinion. To answer your question honestly and directly and not in textbook jargon, in the last 26 days since I have started my journey, I have had what I would call "cheat days/meals"... one was to treat myself after reaching my first milestone. I had been dying to go to the local Indian buffet for months and decided I would after I reached 140 pounds. I still logged my calories best I could and skipped breakfast and lunch after. The scale was up a pound the next morning to 141 but about three days later, I was back to below where I was before the buffet trip. The second time I had a baby shower and ate the cake and other munchies. I was about 500 calories over my 1300 goal. I was up about .75 pounds the next morning. So to honestly answer your question- yes- I have had two cheat meals where I didn't totally worry about what I was eating but understood that it put me about two days behind my normal stats. But as I see it, it's better than me not "cheating" at all and ending the process altogether because I can NEVER eat what I want. Most on this site won't call it a cheat day but I know what you are talking about.
No. You really do not know what the OP is talking about. Depending on the PERSONAL definition, a "cheat" day can easily mean undoing an entire week's deficit and then some leaving the "cheater" in a surplus and thus gaining weight instead of losing.
It is good that you know you can relax and eat more calories without it affecting your overall efforts. It is an important thing to learn for most people. Once you learn this you will know that it is not really cheating it is treating. There is no guilt associated with it because it is perfectly allowable for anyone who spends most of their time in a calorie deficit and doesn't go too far overboard. So... good job.
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I say all in moderation tbh. I’d never remove a specific item from my diet as I love food.2
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A cheat day is ok, or even a weekend... as long as I get back on track ASAP before it turns into a week and then a month and before you know it a year.
A cheat day for me consists of eating junk food, like I’ll skip a whole nutritious meal for deep fried Oreos. And I won’t eat in moderation.1 -
I've asked a similar question before and received a lot of these same responses which were a little holier than thou in my opinion. To answer your question honestly and directly and not in textbook jargon, in the last 26 days since I have started my journey, I have had what I would call "cheat days/meals"... one was to treat myself after reaching my first milestone. I had been dying to go to the local Indian buffet for months and decided I would after I reached 140 pounds. I still logged my calories best I could and skipped breakfast and lunch after. The scale was up a pound the next morning to 141 but about three days later, I was back to below where I was before the buffet trip. The second time I had a baby shower and ate the cake and other munchies. I was about 500 calories over my 1300 goal. I was up about .75 pounds the next morning. So to honestly answer your question- yes- I have had two cheat meals where I didn't totally worry about what I was eating but understood that it put me about two days behind my normal stats. But as I see it, it's better than me not "cheating" at all and ending the process altogether because I can NEVER eat what I want. Most on this site won't call it a cheat day but I know what you are talking about.
No. You really do not know what the OP is talking about. Depending on the PERSONAL definition, a "cheat" day can easily mean undoing an entire week's deficit and then some leaving the "cheater" in a surplus and thus gaining weight instead of losing.
It is good that you know you can relax and eat more calories without it affecting your overall efforts. It is an important thing to learn for most people. Once you learn this you will know that it is not really cheating it is treating. There is no guilt associated with it because it is perfectly allowable for anyone who spends most of their time in a calorie deficit and doesn't go too far overboard. So... good job.
This should have said:
It is good that you know you can relax occasionally and eat more calories without it affecting your overall efforts.
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Meals not days...
And not a days worth in one meal either 😂1 -
But as I see it, it's better than me not "cheating" at all and ending the process altogether because I can NEVER eat what I want.
It doesn't have to be so black and white. It's not either have a cheat day/meal once in a while or never eat the things you want. The issue I find with most of the people who come on here asking about cheat days is that it stems from the idea that weight loss has more to do with what you put in your body rather than how much. That's why we end up with people complaining about not losing weight even though they "eat healthy most days" and "only have one cheat day a month." That's why it's important to know what someone's idea of a cheat day is prior to telling them it won't impact their efforts.4 -
I have Sunday supper at my brother's house. It's always something amazing and I'm too embarrassed to measure my portions there so I overeat. I consider that my cheat meal.0
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StephG1130 wrote: »I would like to hear everyone’s opinion on cheat days. I asked in a different post but nobody responded! Thank you in advance!
I generally log everyday. Even if I eat half a bag of Doritos (which happens) I'll log it. Rarely (once every three or four months maybe) I won't log; but yesterday I didn't. I ate out, huge milkshake included. So, to me, a cheat day = I didn't log the food.1 -
I treat myself.......not cheat myself 2
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Let me preface my response with this: I would like to lose 10-15 pounds but I’m currently on MFP because I’m working on building healthier eating habits that I can sustain long term. Specifically right now I am working on hitting a protein goal and trying to keep sugar and fat in check.
In the last 4 weeks I have been tracking, there have been moments where I say “screw it” and have the glass of wine that will put me 100 cal over my day’s limit or eat the frozen pizza because I’m hungry and it sounds good and I’ll make up for it the next day. But overall I am trying to follow the plan and know that this journey is a marathon, not a sprint.1 -
Let me preface my response with this: I would like to lose 10-15 pounds but I’m currently on MFP because I’m working on building healthier eating habits that I can sustain long term. Specifically right now I am working on hitting a protein goal and trying to keep sugar and fat in check.
In the last 4 weeks I have been tracking, there have been moments where I say “screw it” and have the glass of wine that will put me 100 cal over my day’s limit or eat the frozen pizza because I’m hungry and it sounds good and I’ll make up for it the next day. But overall I am trying to follow the plan and know that this journey is a marathon, not a sprint.
I think you are treating yourself, not cheating. You'll get your 10-15 pounds off, no probs.1
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