Do you guys do "cheat" meals?
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I don't believe in cheat days in the same sense that, as an adult, I don't believe in Santa Claus. They're a charming myth. My body counts everything.
That said, I do have days where I eat well over my maintenance calories, sometimes even 2 to 3 times my maintenanc calories. It's just a choice about food, not "a cheat". Who or what would I be cheating?
And I do have days where I don't hit all my nutritional goals, because I decided I wanted some delicious, indulgent thing that would not help me reach those goals. (These are rarely the way-over-calories days, BTW, at least with respect to getting reasonable macronutrients. I'd have to work really hard, as a 5'5" 135-pound woman, to avoid hitting my body-size-appropriate protein and fat minimums on a day where I eat 4000-6000 calories! ).
Sometimes I track those days, sometimes the actual things I ate are so confounding to log that I don't bother. (While losing weight, I logged daily without fail, even if I had to estimate; I wanted that data in order to estimate my personal TDEE. Now, in maintenance, I don't always log . . . though I still do, most days.)
Either type of day - over goal, or under nutrition - can lead to a big immediate scale jump that's almost entirely water weight and digestive system contents in transit, so essentially meaningless. My larger over-maintenance-calorie days can potentially add a pound of fat in theory, but in practice (based on long experience) I believe the rare really-high day doesn't have the full caloric impact the numbers would suggest, because - among other things - non-exercise activity (NEAT) goes up afterward, and wipes out some of those excess calories (not all, of course).
This has been working fine for me, in practice, for nearly 5 years now. I eat a little under calorie goal most days ("calorie bank") in order to indulge sometimes. It's even been working in the last 3-4 months, where I'm striving to lose a few more pounds really slowly (< 1 pound/month). My weight trend, as planned, is a gradual down-slope, over a time period that includes the holidays and my birthday.
People who are still in the weight loss process have a bit different calculation: It is indeed possible to wipe out one's whole calorie deficit with a really big cheat day once a week. But if the calories are at or under maintenance on that day, or there's a net under goal for the week, weight loss still happens, just somewhat more slowly. Maintaining is different.
While losing weight back in 2015, down to my current weight, I decided I wasn't going to do anything to lose weight that I wasn't willing to do permanently to maintain a healthy weight (except a sensibly moderate calorie deficit), essentially treating the weight loss process as an experiment in how to happily maintain a healthy weight. That included figuring out how to fit treats, celebrations, indulgences, etc., into an overall way of eating and living, that balanced out long term with calorie and nutritional goals. So far, seems to be working.
As an aside, I'd point out that people who are restricting calories pretty aggressively, or who've been restricting more moderately for a long time, seem sometimes to see a big scale drop, down surprisingly below previous low weight, after the way-over-goal day's initial scale jump drops away. It seems probable that there's an explanation for this in mechanisms of stress, cortisol, and water retention, i.e., it isn't "surprising fat loss from a cheat day", it's "surprising release of retained water weight from a refeed. revealing fat loss on the scale".
Others will have different opinions and experiences. These are just mine.
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My response will probably sound generic but. No I don’t do cheat meals or cheat days. I don’t consider any type of food to be cheating. I eat what I want to eat, every day. Period. To lose weight I control calories. I think my overall diet is pretty healthy, and I also eat things like chips and cookies and chocolate. Sometimes I skip logging if I’m having a particularly complicated day (parties with homemade food, eating out at restaurants that don’t have nutrition info available etc) so maybe to some that could be considered cheating.2
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I know some are going to say they don't cheat, yadada, but seriously, anyone in here do an actual cheat where you just eat whatever you want every now and then? I used to cheat once a week and I would go HARD. I'm talking pastas, chocolate, pizza, burgers, fries, just everything. In my experience, how is it that this one day of cheating and the weight gain ALWAYS falls off within 2-3 days when I'm back to my calorie limit? If I didn't "cheat" beyond that one day, my weight loss stayed at a consistent downward trend too.
I don't do cheat days anymore, but rather, cheat meals and I try to accomodate so that they fit into my goals. I realized after many many years that this is a healthier way of thinking since it's a lifestyle change that I'm going after and not a one time fix. Having 2-3 "bad" meals each week has been more sustainable for me.
Based on your experience, you were either having a pretty aggressive calorie deficit earlier in the week or your definition of HARD contains considerably less calories than mine would2 -
I rarely go out to eat, but when I do go with a group of friends, I order what I want. I guess technically it's a cheat because I pay no attention to my calorie intake for that meal. I could order a nice salad... but I won't, when chicken pot pie or fettuccine Alfredo is calling my name. If we go out locally I'll try and take half home for a second meal, but if we're too far out of town for a doggie bag I'll finish as much of it as I feel like eating. That happened last weekend, but doing my regular tracking through the week still resulted in the loss of a pound.0
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I don't think this is what you had in mind, but I'll sometimes add a little cheese or extra butter/guac to my sandwich. It's still healthy but I get that rewarding feeling of treating myself. I savor that extra deliciousness and don't feel the need to splurge/binge any further. Except when I do, of course, but I'm trying to kick that habit1
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As someone that used to struggle with BED/bulimia, I don't do cheat days/meals. I feel like that's just a recipe for disaster. I think it's much better to incorporate all sorts of foods within my daily calorie budget/going over slightly when I want to indulge some days.
That being said, I've also found substitutions/variations for things which has helped a lot, too. Rather than eating a whole candy bar at once, I'll break it into chunks to enjoy throughout the day. I opt for spring rolls instead of sandwiches. Cucumbers and ranch instead of chips. Banana ice cream (bananas + almond milk + chocolate chips + a little honey) rather than ice cream.1 -
I know some are going to say they don't cheat, yadada, but seriously, anyone in here do an actual cheat where you just eat whatever you want every now and then? I used to cheat once a week and I would go HARD. I'm talking pastas, chocolate, pizza, burgers, fries, just everything. In my experience, how is it that this one day of cheating and the weight gain ALWAYS falls off within 2-3 days when I'm back to my calorie limit? If I didn't "cheat" beyond that one day, my weight loss stayed at a consistent downward trend too.
I don't do cheat days anymore, but rather, cheat meals and I try to accomodate so that they fit into my goals. I realized after many many years that this is a healthier way of thinking since it's a lifestyle change that I'm going after and not a one time fix. Having 2-3 "bad" meals each week has been more sustainable for me.
Because you don't gain actual fat in one day. The weight gain you see on the scale after a day like this is attributable to water retention and more inherent waste in your system. Gaining actual weight (fat) or losing actual weight (fat) requires a consistent surplus or deficit over time, not some one time occurrence...like if you fasted once per week for 24 hours you aren't going to just burn a ton of fat...you're going to lose water weight and have less waste in your system and the weight on the scale is going to bump back up when you eat again.
I tend to look at my nutrition on the whole rather than the minutia of one particular meal or one particular day. I have pizza most Friday nights as that is our family pizza and movie night...I don't consider it cheating or a "bad meal" within the context of the rest of my diet. It doesn't magically undo my nutrition for the week and in the big picture is pretty immaterial to my overall nutrition.2 -
I don’t like framing it as “cheating” for the same reason I don’t view myself as “on a diet.” My goal is to improve my nutrition and my fitness, and I am losing the weight that was caused by poor nutrition. So if I have a week where calorie restriction interferes with my physical or psychological well-being, I’ll eat at maintenance for a week. If there’s a special occasion, like a birthday or holiday, I recognize the sociological function of food and partake in delicacies that are harder to fit into a balanced diet. If I want a specific treat, I’ll adjust what I eat the rest of the day accordingly. In addition to being significantly happier than most dieters, I am also less likely to fall into the trap of, “Well, if I’m already eating ice cream, I might as well eat the whole pint.”0
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I do a cheat meal once a week. To me, that doesn't mean a meal where I am trying to eat everything I can, just a meal where I can eat something that would be hard to log -- i.e., going to a local restaurant where they have a unique dish -- and eat it without worrying about it.1
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I go out for pizza every Friday night. On a normal week it's the only meal I don't make at home. I still track it and estimate the calories.
I don't overdo it though. I usually eat a garden salad, have 2 maybe 3 slices and drink water with it and maybe a small dessert if I wanted it. So this "cheat" is not high in calories, but I look forward to it.2 -
Totally necessary. Personally, I have a list of restaurants and foods I want to visit/cook so once every month or two I splurge. It’s technically a cheat day (since I’m good at eating a day’s worth of calories in one sitting lol). Like 5k-7k calories worth of food 6-10 times a year. I don’t really like fast food but sometimes I feel like getting nasty and I’ll splurged on carry out pizza, wings, Chick-fil-A, or Taco Bell 😂 (probably 3 times a year)0
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I have my version of a "full English breakfast" every Sunday morning. Hey, wait a minute, it is Sunday morning. I better get to it. Still, I make up for it at dinner and never go over my goal. It just means shrimp and french fries for dinner.0
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To be honest once a week i will have a day where my dinner and dessert is definitely not what i would have down normally, such as pizza and ice cream. however on they day that i do this, i will make sure it is not on a rest day and i will push myself harder and longer during my exercise routines. i will always try to make sure that even though i wont be in a calorie deficit, i am at least at a level for weight maintenance.1
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