Free meal/cheat meal once a week
Bioluminescentbeachh
Posts: 25 Member
I was wondering if anyone else does this with success? I have a personal trainer/dietician and he suggested I do this. How it would work in my case is one meal a week I would eat a normal sized portion of anything I want and not track it. 20/21 meals during the week I weigh and track everything. My trainer suggested this to help me with the mental stress of logging, not so much to help with macros. I hit my macros everyday and don’t have a hard time sticking to them at all. This would just be for the mental break one time a week, and he thinks it would also be highly motivational and keep me going and keep me from overdoing it later on.
Also, I already include everything I want to eat in my macros. I can make almost anything fit them
Also, I already include everything I want to eat in my macros. I can make almost anything fit them
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I don't believe in cheat days or meals. I eat the foods I love, stay in a calorie defecit, and actually like logging everything. It keeps me accountable and on track.
Eat it. Enjoy it. Log it.
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You can try having a non-logging day and see if it works for you. Many people bank calories for a special day or weekend to eat a little extra. It really depends on you and if you can keep it under control and get back to it after that day/days are over. In a deficit, I calorie cycle and have two refeed days on the weekends where I increase calories, mostly carbs and eat foods and portions I don't eat during the week. I find it has helped me with adherence, energy levels and workout performance.
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You can try having a non-logging day and see if it works for you. Many people bank calories for a special day or weekend to eat a little extra. It really depends on you and if you can keep it under control and get back to it after that day/days are over. In a deficit, I calorie cycle and have two refeed days on the weekends where I increase calories, mostly carbs and eat foods and portions I don't eat during the week. I find it has helped me with adherence, energy levels and workout performance.
Hi! Yeah I’ve had zero issue with control. I am so on point with my macros that my trainer said this wouldn’t be bad for someone like me to do once a week. I don’t plan on logging the rest of my life anyway. I am using logging right now to inform myself of portion sizes and calories. Logging EVERY meal is slightly annoying but I still do it. Taking one meal off from logging would feel good. I think if I go slightly over my calories one day a week due to this meal it will rev up my workouts the next day if anything
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I'm not doing an all-out cheat, but I'm eating closer to maintenance one day a week to help combat the feelings of deprivation I was struggling with.7
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I'm not doing an all-out cheat, but I'm eating closer to maintenance one day a week to help combat the feelings of deprivation I was struggling with.
Exactly! This is much closer to what I want to do. I would never do a cheat day. A full day is too much. I’d like to have one meal a week of something “bad”. I fit some unhealthy food into my macros but I largely eat clean. Lean meat and veggies for almost every meal, and egg whites for breakfast. I only fit in small things like a piece of chocolate, some fruit, or some chips. I don’t really have unhealthy or processed food for meals. The idea of having some pizza and beer once a week, or having pasta once a week or cake sounds so tempting
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Bioluminescentbeachh wrote: »How it would work in my case is one meal a week I would eat a normal sized portion
Aren’t you eating normal sized portions? Logging becomes habit. It not tedious or stressful for me. Everyone has to do what works best for each of us.6 -
missysippy930 wrote: »Bioluminescentbeachh wrote: »How it would work in my case is one meal a week I would eat a normal sized portion
Aren’t you eating normal sized portions? Logging becomes habit. It not tedious or stressful for me. Everyone has to do what works best for each of us.
Yes of course I am. Example, instead of chicken and vegetables like usual I could have a couple slices of pizza for dinner. That kind of switch up. And I personally hate logging but I still do it because right now it’s necessary.
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It's way too easy for that to end in disaster for me. The closest I come is on my long run days. I tend to do those on Saturday mornings, giving me an extra 1000+ calories for the day, which I can then save for the evening so that I can be a little freer when going out with friends or having a few beers or whatever indulgence I'm in the mood for, but even then, I try to track everything to make sure I don't blow passed my goal.3
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I think you can try it and see how it goes. Your body still counts and logs the calories, even if you don't, so it's never really "free". That being said, if having a meal where you don't worry so much about exactly how many calories it is and can keep it within reason is beneficial to you, then you can certainly go for it and see if it works for you.5
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I went into this intending to have a cheat day/meal or a non-tracking day, but I found after a couple of weeks that I was eating more than enough to satisfy my appetite at a 500 cal deficit, so didn't bother. Maybe you could have a day where you eat at maintenance instead? That way it doesn't impact too much on your deficit. OR, you could do some exercise then bank those calories for your cheat day?2
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ketsuban25 wrote: »I went into this intending to have a cheat day/meal or a non-tracking day, but I found after a couple of weeks that I was eating more than enough to satisfy my appetite at a 500 cal deficit, so didn't bother. Maybe you could have a day where you eat at maintenance instead? That way it doesn't impact too much on your deficit. OR, you could do some exercise then bank those calories for your cheat day?
That’s unfortunate it didn’t work for you. I have no issue with overeating. I just need the break from tracking. I think one meal per week should be a minimal effect on my loss.
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I don't believe in cheat days or meals. I eat the foods I love, stay in a calorie defecit, and actually like logging everything. It keeps me accountable and on track.
Eat it. Enjoy it. Log it.
Yes I do this if eating something higher calorie etc just eat less of it...we went to McDonald's last week just had the junior mcchicken and small fries. To me way easier to eat what I want just less of it.
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I eat my cake... and log it. But I find logging permissive (in allowing to consume the most I can while meeting my goals) vs limiting for me6
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Logging for me prevents me from ever getting completely sucked into scale weight fluctuation drama. I don't love increases on the scale but I have peace of mind knowing that no part of it is fat because I have my logs to verify it.
There is not one right way and if you think this is yours you should just try it and see what happens.
I do this:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10735146/the-six-day-calorie-deficit-aka-banking-calories/p1
I gives me a mental break once a week but I log mine. I am less rigid about it because it most often involves restaurant food that I am guessing at anyway. I almost always use my extra calories at one meal but sometimes I will go with a smaller meal because I want a specific snack in the afternoon. Since mine is contained within a weekly system I never have to worry about it affecting my rate of loss.6 -
Bioluminescentbeachh wrote: »I was wondering if anyone else does this with success? I have a personal trainer/dietician and he suggested I do this. How it would work in my case is one meal a week I would eat a normal sized portion of anything I want and not track it. 20/21 meals during the week I weigh and track everything. My trainer suggested this to help me with the mental stress of logging, not so much to help with macros. I hit my macros everyday and don’t have a hard time sticking to them at all. This would just be for the mental break one time a week, and he thinks it would also be highly motivational and keep me going and keep me from overdoing it later on.
Also, I already include everything I want to eat in my macros. I can make almost anything fit them
I think you should try it for 3-4 weeks and see if it affects your weight loss and logging fatigue. If you are still losing and feeling some relief from the tedium of constant logging, why not? At the worst you won’t lose or maybe go up a pound or two, in which case you can go back to logging everything.
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It depends on your personality type. I just eat clean and every five months have a chocolate bar and packet of chips. Works for me. You may do better with a cheat day approach. Some people never cheat. It’s very personal12
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A chocolate bar once every 5 months????
Nah, that woe is not for me.
OP, you can eat pizza slices instead of chicken and veggies without it being a cheat.
As always in these threads. I suggest looking at calories weekly rather than daily - that way you can log and see that 3 slices of pizza ( or whatever) can fit into your weekly allowance.
That is option I use
Or log for most meals and estimate or don't log at all for one a week. You will see by your progress whether this is fitting into your weekly calories whether you log them or not.14 -
I don't do cheat days. I log everything and factor in chocolate, biscuits, cake, ice cream and other yummies into my calorie budget. Weekends I can do more exercise so I let myself eat more, but even during the week if I want a brownie/blondie/tim tam/chocolate - I just walk the dogs for longer or do a session of Just Dance on the PS4. For me, a cheat day wouldn't work because whether I log it or not, it and the calories are going to end up in my system and affect my body. I'd rather factor it in so at least I have a vague idea what's going on.2
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What not everybody understands is that depending on how many calories you get per day, you can’t always just work chocolate, cake, cookies, pizza and ice cream into your daily or even weekly calorie budget. I challenge you to eat at 1300 calories a day and see how that works out for you. Hence the desire for a “cheat” meal or day for some people.10
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Yep, I am much more relaxed on my diet on Saturdays. I don't go crazy, but I give myself the mental break from counting calories. I've had success so far, I am down 26 lbs in 20 weeks.5
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Yes, exactly. I had one meal a week. Had to set my week (example Monday thru Sunday) and one meal during that week I could have anything I wanted. Of course my first thought was a whole chocolate cake. But then I thought about what that would do to my careful eating and careful logging all week long. I could easily wipe out my deficit and then some with that one meal. I soon found I was using that one meal for eating at a friend or relatives house, trying to eat reasonably, not asking questions about ingredients in everything, and just enjoying myself. When I got home, I tried to log what I could and just used quick add=estimated calories for the rest, never gave it a second thought, cause I had my dieticians blessings doing it that way. Probably didn’t change what I ate much, but certainly changed how much worrying I did over one meal.
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I track everything except one meal a week. As long as that cheat meal doesn't turn into a cheat day and so on then it's not going to hurt your long term goals.4
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What not everybody understands is that depending on how many calories you get per day, you can’t always just work chocolate, cake, cookies, pizza and ice cream into your daily or even weekly calorie budget. I challenge you to eat at 1300 calories a day and see how that works out for you. Hence the desire for a “cheat” meal or day for some people.
If I were very very short AND sedentary so truly needed to eat 1300 calories in order to lose weight, I would increase exercise and get more calories.10 -
Bioluminescentbeachh wrote: »missysippy930 wrote: »Bioluminescentbeachh wrote: »How it would work in my case is one meal a week I would eat a normal sized portion
Aren’t you eating normal sized portions? Logging becomes habit. It not tedious or stressful for me. Everyone has to do what works best for each of us.
Yes of course I am. Example, instead of chicken and vegetables like usual I could have a couple slices of pizza for dinner. That kind of switch up. And I personally hate logging but I still do it because right now it’s necessary.
Well, I eat pizza, but I log it.
I also have less pizza than before, add a large salad, and eat more slowly.
I also tend to save it for days where I have more exercise calories.1 -
Cheat meals/days work for some people and not others. Didn't work for me and my wife. What started out as a pretty good idea for us - one meal a week of not going crazy but just taking a time out from logging and having a "treat" - turned into a cheat day, which started out sane and eventually evolved into a complete free for all of Chinese buffets, chocolate and chips, etc. Once those free for alls got too out of hand, we were giving back half our weight loss for the week and then threw in the towel and never got back to dieting and logging. That's a cycle we repeated several times. Other people might have better success with it, of course.
We're using a new approach that's working far better for us. We simply log everything. No cheat meals, no cheat days. We focus on making sure the food is what we enjoy and that we're getting enough of it, so that we're not constantly on a low-boil of feeling deprived and punished. If you enjoy what you're eating and are getting enough of it to feel satisfied, it's much less likely that you'll feel a burning need for an off meal/day or that you'll suddenly lose self-control and end up face down in an extra cheese and pepperoni pizza. Even if this means increasing the cals a bit (and losing a little less weight), it's just an easier way to go about it, and hopefully will set us up better for long-term maintenance when we get to weights we want to maintain.
When we hit the occasional day where we just want some more food or are out dining with friends, we just eat some more and log it as best we can. The very act of logging an off-diet meal helps keep it sane; no one wants to input 4,000 calories for a dinner and desert.6 -
I think if you mean cheat is having a slice or two of pizza for dinner vs chicken and vegetables (as you stated above) I would say yes, do so. Because if you like pizza and you 100% eliminate if from the food you eat you will end up not being successful because you will always be craving what you "can't have." You can have/eat anything either just in moderation or adjust other means to allot for that. If you mean cheat by eating something and then not logging it, I would say not to that. I try to be accountable and track everything including overages. To have the app say I meet my calories for the day when in fact I went over them, would only be a fib to myself.4
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I do a "cheat" meal once a week. I like it. I can have whatever I want for that one meal and not have to worry or feel guilty or deprived. I usually go to my favorite breakfast restaurant. My favorite meal is about 1000ish calories or so, based on my best estimate.
I have mixed feelings about a cheat day. I have control issues and a whole day of freedom makes it hard for me to get back on track the next day. Also, I can easily consume enough food in one day that I would gain weight for the week.
Years ago, I did a weight loss/exercise plan that had a cheat day each week. I was insanely strict and pure all week long (no sugar or chemicals or processed food, etc). On Saturdays, I ate whatever I wanted. The first week, I felt a little sick. The second week, I felt just awful. By the third week, my cheat day had turned into either nothing or else eating one small treat because the misery the next day wasn't worth it. These days, my regular diet isn't nearly as pure and my cheat meals are pretty healthy food, too, just more of it.4 -
The problem with the cheat meal is that there is NO cheating. Your body doesn't differentiate between calories based on how you view them. If a cheat meal is of sufficient calories it will completely disrupt your weight loss for the week.
The other problem is that learning to live within your calorie budget most of the time is how you need to live your life. If it is just a matter of slowing down your weight loss a little it is no big deal but eventually you will get to maintenance and you may not have many more calories to work with than you do now. A "cheat" meal then will likely be a surplus and you will begin gaining weight. You can't just assume you will adopt better habits when you are at goal. Too many people go through too much to get to goal and then end up regaining their weight.
This all assumes the worst case scenario which will obviously not be the case for each individual with varying ideas for how a "cheat" anything is implemented.5 -
I started a new job and don't have time to exercise on Friday any longer, so I save up 200-300 calories per day on Monday through Thursday, couple that with about 250-300 I usually have left over on Friday after lunch, and go out to dinner on Friday night without exceeding my weekly calories. So far this is working for me. I end up with usually 1300-1500 calories available for Friday night dinner by counting weekly instead of just daily, and I would be hard-pressed to eat that many calories in one sitting, so I am probably at a very slight deficit for the week overall.1
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