Cheat meals!
MachineGun72
Posts: 3 Member
Ok so yesterday was my weigh in day and dependent upon how the week goes I allow myself 1 cheat meal per week usually after my weigh in. So we go to a local steakhouse and grill and I got the prime rib, tater, and salad. Well needless to say when I put everything in the tracker I almost croaked at the amount of calories in that 1 meal. I was so freaked out by it that I worked extra hard at the gym last night. Here is my question: when doing a cheat meal is there certain guidelines that should be followed? Cause honestly that 1 meal made me feel like I undone a whole weeks worth of progress.
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Replies
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One cheat meal can wipe out a weeks deficit depending on what you eat and what your weekly deficit was.
Mike Matthews has a few articles on this issue in his site, www.muscleforlife.com
You can try doing refeeds, which is higher carb days to boost leptin levels.1 -
You've discovered the unfortunately truth about "cheat" meals - you aren't really getting away with anything. Your body still counts it.
There's nothing wrong with having a somewhat larger than usual meal from time to time, just log it and figure it into your daily or weekly deficit, or realize maybe you won't lose any weight that week.8 -
Do a cheat meal after you have lost weight for the week. Then restart the next day. I wait till u see a loss before I cheat and it’s only one meal4
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It's important to realize that calories are calories, it doesn't matter what type of meal they come from. So calories from a "cheat" meal aren't free, they have to be done in consideration with everything else in your diet.
I think rather than having a "cheat" meal, you instead having something of a "reach" meal, where you have more calories in a meal than normal but it is still accounted for. There are a couple of strategies you could do to achieve this. One is banking calories, where you eat 100 or 200 under your goal every day that week and then you can have an additional 500-1000 calories for your cheat meal that you accounted for. Another strategy is to eat at maintenance for your cheat meal day rather than a deficit. That will give you some additional calories. But you should still be making informed choices, rather than just eating whatever.9 -
You all had great info. I'm just going to have to be a little more sensible in my selections.1
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MachineGun72 wrote: »Ok so yesterday was my weigh in day and dependent upon how the week goes I allow myself 1 cheat meal per week usually after my weigh in. So we go to a local steakhouse and grill and I got the prime rib, tater, and salad. Well needless to say when I put everything in the tracker I almost croaked at the amount of calories in that 1 meal. I was so freaked out by it that I worked extra hard at the gym last night. Here is my question: when doing a cheat meal is there certain guidelines that should be followed? Cause honestly that 1 meal made me feel like I undone a whole weeks worth of progress.
Better off sticking to your diet and having a refeed twice a month. A refeed is just consuming more carbs. Protein and fats stay the same, you could go a tad higher in fat, but try and keep fats and protein the same. For example: Protein 200g Fats 85g Carbs 250g 2565 calories. Caloric deficit, on refeed days add 400 calories, which would be 100g of carbs. So you’d sit at 2965 calories for your refeed. Like I said this is just an example; I don’t know your numbers, but with refeeds you want to consume more carbs and eat at about maintenance, little over won’t kill ya. Good luck!4 -
I'm a big fan of eating what I want - within reason. I personally don't do "cheat" meals because I don't deprive myself of what I want in the first place, I just eat small enough portions of whatever "it" is so that it fits within my goals, and if it's a little over, I just try to do better next time. MikePTY has good suggestions though.1
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Most restaurant entrees are somewhere around 1200-2000 calories. Then you have appetizers, desert, drinks, salad dressing etc. If you want to go out and eat whatever you want at a restaurant once a week you will probably need to cut out about an additional 250 calories a day from the other days of the week (giving you 1500 extra calories to burn plus whatever you would normally use for dinner.)
I find this a pretty achievable strategy as I am in maintenance (I am male 6'2 180lbs) and I get decent calories from exercise. When I was losing weight I tried to avoid eating out too frequently, and if I wanted a restaurant burger or steak I'd skip the fries/potatoes/desert etc.0 -
NaturalGainsRecned wrote: »MachineGun72 wrote: »Ok so yesterday was my weigh in day and dependent upon how the week goes I allow myself 1 cheat meal per week usually after my weigh in. So we go to a local steakhouse and grill and I got the prime rib, tater, and salad. Well needless to say when I put everything in the tracker I almost croaked at the amount of calories in that 1 meal. I was so freaked out by it that I worked extra hard at the gym last night. Here is my question: when doing a cheat meal is there certain guidelines that should be followed? Cause honestly that 1 meal made me feel like I undone a whole weeks worth of progress.
Better off sticking to your diet and having a refeed twice a month. A refeed is just consuming more carbs. Protein and fats stay the same, you could go a tad higher in fat, but try and keep fats and protein the same. For example: Protein 200g Fats 85g Carbs 250g 2565 calories. Caloric deficit, on refeed days add 400 calories, which would be 100g of carbs. So you’d sit at 2965 calories for your refeed. Like I said this is just an example; I don’t know your numbers, but with refeeds you want to consume more carbs and eat at about maintenance, little over won’t kill ya. Good luck!
Thanks for the great info!!! I've been wondering how refeeds worked. I'm going to try to implement them into my diet.1 -
NaturalGainsRecned wrote: »MachineGun72 wrote: »Ok so yesterday was my weigh in day and dependent upon how the week goes I allow myself 1 cheat meal per week usually after my weigh in. So we go to a local steakhouse and grill and I got the prime rib, tater, and salad. Well needless to say when I put everything in the tracker I almost croaked at the amount of calories in that 1 meal. I was so freaked out by it that I worked extra hard at the gym last night. Here is my question: when doing a cheat meal is there certain guidelines that should be followed? Cause honestly that 1 meal made me feel like I undone a whole weeks worth of progress.
Better off sticking to your diet and having a refeed twice a month. A refeed is just consuming more carbs. Protein and fats stay the same, you could go a tad higher in fat, but try and keep fats and protein the same. For example: Protein 200g Fats 85g Carbs 250g 2565 calories. Caloric deficit, on refeed days add 400 calories, which would be 100g of carbs. So you’d sit at 2965 calories for your refeed. Like I said this is just an example; I don’t know your numbers, but with refeeds you want to consume more carbs and eat at about maintenance, little over won’t kill ya. Good luck!
Thanks for the great info!!! I've been wondering how refeeds worked. I'm going to try to implement them into my diet.
Yes, they work great for people who need a bit of a diet break. You could do one a week if you’d like, whatever you choose. Just don’t go over your maintenance calories and you’ll be fine. Good luck!1 -
I hate the term “cheat meal.” What is it anyway? A meal you go over normal calories? Lets call it what it is, a feast. Food for pleasure, celebration, enjoyment for whatever reason. Words matter and when you call something special “cheating,” it implies negativity. Enjoy your feast but know that too many, too often will not lead to weight loss. Not allowing that pleasure now and then probably won’t either as deprivation leads to rebellion. Balance and grace, my friend. We all deserve that.2
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I don't have cheat meals but once in a while I will have a maintenance day, where I eat what would be my maintenance calories for that day. I tend to save these for special occasions where I know there will be foods I would like to indulge in. This way I don't wipe out my deficit but I also feel like I can let loose a tiny bit.one day at maintenance or slightly above is not going to stop my progress just slow it down a tiny bit.
People tend to treat cheat meals or days as free-for-alls and destroy their progress, calories don't care if this is your day/meal off from your diet, they still do their thing.1
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