How often do YOU “cheat”?

koalathebear wrote: »

As I'v mentioned before, the whole cheat meal thing seems to be an endless loop of semantic arguments about nomenclature.

I have no problems with calling it a cheat meal because 'cheat' is just a word.

Cheat seems to mean different things to different people though. I think for it to be genuinely be cheating, it would need to be:

• food that you do not log; and
• food that exceeds your calorie budget for the day ...

If it's logged / if it's within calorie budget, I can't see how it's cheating.

If it's not logged / outside calorie budget, then it depends on how good one's self control is because for me I personally can't see the benefit (even psychological) of potentially blowing a week of good work with one day of unregulated/potentially out of control eating. I definitely don't think that one day can undo all good work, but I can see how e.g. one uncontrolled day a week could potentially reverse or inhibit progress.

My preference is to just factor it all in. If I want to eat more, I exercise more that day. Or I skip breakfast and lunch and have a very large brunch etc. For me it's all about managing the calorie budget ... I might elect not to eat x because I want more calories to eat y ... or if I really want to eat both x and y in a day, then I'll just exercise more.

Yep, that's what I mean by "make accommodations" for larger meals. If I'm not willing to "not eat x", skip a meal, or exercise more, then I don't want that larger meal enough to eat it and I'm content not having it. If I want it enough, I'll do one or a combination of the above and I'm happy to have it. All out no logging days are very very rare for me. My budget is monthly, so food that exceeds my budget for the day happens more often, which is balanced out by days where I'm under budget, but none of it is on a schedule to answer the "how often" question accurately. Huge meals could happen as often as several times a week or as infrequently as once every few months, depending on what I feel like eating or what's happening around me in that timespan.

I don't log on the weekends. I try to be mindful, but I do snack a bit more than normal. I feel mixed about this. By letting myself do this, I am getting a break from the constant challenges during the week to change my bad habits. This seems to let me reset each Monday. But, I am also continuing with some bad habits, reinforcing them little by little. It feels like a cheat

I am hitting my goals so far, which is great. But I would like to ultimately get out of this type of behavior. I need to plan how to do that.

No cheating. But I will "bank" calories during the week to use for events (birthdays, dinners out, social things, etc). My calories to lose .5lbs a week are 1590. During the week I try and hit no more than 1390, giving me an extra 1000 calories if I need them on "event" nights. And if I don't need them, I lose a bit faster.

I started with about 15lbs to lose (regain from a loss in 2011 of 50lbs) Sept. 3rd. Currently down 9.6lbs. Don't feel like I need to cheat. And honestly cheating won't get me to my goals any faster.

Cutting for a vacation in Mexico in December.

Not really as then I struggle to get back on track. If eating out I order what will stay in my calorie allowance. However I’m going away at Christmas and plan to eat what I like without guilt and get right back on it as soon as return plane touches down!

I have a cheat meal once a week. However, I track it and I usually can manage to stay within my calorie goal or only over it by a little bit.

[quote="amusedmonkey;c-44270001"Yep, that's what I mean by "make accommodations" for larger meals. If I'm not willing to "not eat x", skip a meal, or exercise more, then I don't want that larger meal enough to eat it and I'm content not having it. If I want it enough, I'll do one or a combination of the above and I'm happy to have it. All out no logging days are very very rare for me. My budget is monthly, so food that exceeds my budget for the day happens more often, which is balanced out by days where I'm under budget, but none of it is on a schedule to answer the "how often" question accurately. Huge meals could happen as often as several times a week or as infrequently as once every few months, depending on what I feel like eating or what's happening around me in that timespan.[/quote]


Agreed - although I see that someone disagrees with me, although it's always hard to know which part of the post has triggered the disagreement (formerly woo

Given that I always try to eat within budget (boosted by exercise), I guess I don't really 'cheat'. It's probably not even cheating if you eat over the budget one day but compensate on the following day by exercising more / eating less. As I've mentioned, a genuine cheat is probably knowingly exceeding budget and not logging ...

I eat whatever I want and crave as long as it fits into my daily cals. 😋 All in moderation. 😁