How often do YOU “cheat”?

xSanoura
xSanoura Posts: 40 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Before someone goes on about their side piece(s), I’m talking about cheat MEALS.
😝
Personally I go out and enjoy a cheat day/meals once every two weeks.
How about y’all? Or do you not believe in “cheating”? :) just curious
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Replies

  • corinasue1143
    corinasue1143 Posts: 7,464 Member
    When I started to lose weight, one meal a week, very strict rules, even about my cheat meal, per dietician.
    Now, when I need one, no rules, just common sense.
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,739 Member
    edited October 2019
    To tie the two in, a character on General Hospital once called the guy she was sleeping with a side of fries. :)

    I don't do cheat meals but anything I don't log is considered cheating to me. I do a lot of handfuls of cereal from the box until I can portion it out. Or eating broken pieces of cookies or crackers don't count. I'm actually trying to gain a little weight so if I lose one week, I'll buy a slice of cake from the market (usually around 800 calories) and fight myself on logging it.

    Oh! And other than the cake, it's usually every day.
  • puffbrat
    puffbrat Posts: 2,806 Member
    I'm working to make changes to sustain me for life. Having a cheat day or meal doesn't buy me anything. Instead, I have expected and unexpected meals or days of eating higher calorie. My husband and I go out to dinner on Fridays, so I always plan for Fridays to be at or above maintenance.
  • Luke_rabbit
    Luke_rabbit Posts: 1,031 Member
    I go a little over my goal about once or twice a month almost always on Saturday when we eat lunch out. I didn't track during vacation. I probably will also skip tracking on major holidays and our bbanniversary (one day: 2 birthdays + anniversary). I don't consider any of that cheating, just normal life.
  • elitesportsdude
    elitesportsdude Posts: 17 Member
    I try to keep it just on the weekends or if there is a good football game on
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    xSanoura wrote: »
    Before someone goes on about their side piece(s), I’m talking about cheat MEALS.
    😝
    Personally I go out and enjoy a cheat day/meals once every two weeks.
    How about y’all? Or do you not believe in “cheating”? :) just curious

    It kind of depends what you mean by a "cheat meal" :smile:

    I didn't have any foods off limit when I was losing weight, as long as it fit my calories, I ate it if I wanted to. But as I went, I learned that even though some foods fit my calories, they didn't fill me up much and made it harder for me to stay in my calories the rest of the day. So every once and awhile (maybe once or twice a month) I would have a maintenance day where I would plan to have a meal or foods (or drinks :astonished: ) that I could really only enjoy if I had those extra calories to use. I still logged, I just had a higher calorie target.

    Being a data geek, I don't find logging stressful, it's actually quite comforting to me. But if all the logging and numbers stress you out, having a meal every once in awhile where you don't log but you still try to make smart choices that would still probably fit your calories could be a good idea. However if you do have unlogged cheat meals and you find you aren't losing weight as fast as you expected, that probably means you are eating more during your "cheat" than you think you are and should look there first to fix the problem.
  • happyauntie2015
    happyauntie2015 Posts: 282 Member
    edited October 2019
    I just make room in my calorie budget for the day what it is I want that I don't normally have. I weigh that portion if I'm home and log it. I had 1 scoop of ice cream and shared a piece of birthday cake just last weekend for my mom's birthday. I don't want to be like the old me and deny myself food because then I was associating feelings of guilt with eating things like cake and candy when I'd then cheat. I'd then say I screwed up why bother and ruin months of progress! Sorry for rambling on. It's just how I handle things I don't "cheat" anymore because I shouldn't feel guilt over food.
  • missysippy930
    missysippy930 Posts: 2,577 Member
    We go out for breakfast about twice a month. I have more calories than my normal breakfast, but make up for it the rest of my day, so no cheating, just my new way of eating. Not much point in cheating yourself.
  • cupcakesandproteinshakes
    cupcakesandproteinshakes Posts: 1,134 Member
    I have a day a week at maintenance when I’m dieting. For sanity.
  • RealWorldStrengthLLC
    RealWorldStrengthLLC Posts: 552 Member

    I'm on the most half *kitten* cut attempt you've ever seen and it's working exactly according to plan so far. Started about 2 months ago at 243, I was 229 this morning.

    I eat a 1000 cal deficit during the workweek and eat what I want (within reason), drink beer etc on the weekends. My maintenance is around 4000 cals/day so I can easily hit my protien minimum of 190g and do what I want with the rest.

    The cut is averaging to about 1-1.5lbs a week depending on how the weekend goes.
  • FireyChimera
    FireyChimera Posts: 155 Member
    I am working on eating whatever I want when it pleases me. Most of my food is healthy choices, but if I want to reach out for a candy bar I do it and enjoy it. I am working on getting rid of thoughts of foods as cheat foods. They are all foods and some are better to enjoy more often than others :)
  • Cat_A_89
    Cat_A_89 Posts: 93 Member
    Like once a week because my parents like togo out for dinner alot fml, but most yhe time I still try to stay within a reasonable calorie number as much as I can lol. All you can eat gets me every time 😭
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    edited October 2019
    I have larger meals from time to time. Sometimes it's more often, like during the holiday season, sometimes less often, like when the foods I feel like eating are not particularly high in calories. I don't call higher calorie meals cheating, they're an integral part of how I eat. My calories fluctuate day to day but average to my desired number. This was how I lost the weight, and it hasn't changed for maintenance.

    I just eat the things I feel like eating after I consider how they fit into my monthly calorie allowance, then consider how much I'm willing/not willing to make calorie accommodations for a certain food/meal. Sometimes I can't be arsed to accommodate a certain meal, so I don't have it until it feels worth it. This makes me happy because I get to eat all the foods I love whenever I want them enough but without stressing my calorie budget.
  • BelleRequin
    BelleRequin Posts: 15 Member
    I don’t do ‘cheat meals’ or cheat days, because then I’m more likely to go overboard trying to make the cheating worth it. Most days I eat on plan. Once in a while, for specific social get togethers, I say to hell with the plan and eat wheatever I feel like eating, and then try to enter what I think I ate without caring about the accuracy
  • imabeevampire
    imabeevampire Posts: 166 Member
    Obviously like it's dependant on what people consider cheat meals. Cause ill eat pizza but fit it into my daily calories and don't consider that cheat.

    To me a cheat meal is usually going out for dinner with the boyfriend and not counting the calories and just enjoying life ❤️
  • koalathebear
    koalathebear Posts: 236 Member
    edited October 2019
    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.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    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.
  • rainbow198
    rainbow198 Posts: 2,245 Member
    I go out for yummy pizza every Friday night and I usually make a small, but high calorie dessert over the weekend.

    I don't consider it a cheat, but I make it fit into my weekly calorie budget and I don't overdo it.
  • ku140
    ku140 Posts: 65 Member
    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.
  • Diatonic12
    Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
    xSanoura wrote: »
    Before someone goes on about their side piece(s), I’m talking about cheat MEALS.
    😝
    Personally I go out and enjoy a cheat day/meals once every two weeks.
    How about y’all? Or do you not believe in “cheating”? :) just curious

    I'm not married to my diet so I need to cheat. Words are important. If someone has an emotional relationship with food and that affair has been going on for years or decades...Cheat Meals can lead to what I call more thrill eating. Dieting and Cheat Meals or this is really not a diet but just a way of eating or this is not a diet but a food cleanse or a food reset are all disconnects for the brain. The brain tries to make sense out of all that chaos. Cheat Meals won't fix an emotional relationship with food one year or five years down the road. It's really just the same old emotionally charged affair with food that never ended.

    Simply eat foods you want that fit within your food budget or calorie bank account on a daily basis. Taking the emotions out of it and thinking rationally not emotionally about food will give you a much better chance of actually getting there and staying there for the rest of your life.
  • OldHobo
    OldHobo Posts: 647 Member
    Like others have said it depends on what the definition of "cheat" is.

    Exceeding a kcal or macro target isn't cheating in my book. Lying to my food diary is cheating.
  • kristen8000
    kristen8000 Posts: 747 Member
    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.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    I work at least one (often 2) higher cal meals per week into my overall calorie budget. I am not sure why I would consider that cheating. Thus, I am not sure I understand what is meant by "cheating" in the OP.

    I do occasionally eat meals that are less nutrient dense as the ones I normally eat, but in the context of an overall day and week, I don't think that's a "cheat" either -- every meal doesn't have to be the same.
  • teresa19622015
    teresa19622015 Posts: 34 Member
    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!

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