What is a cheat day??????
Get_Back_To_Feeling_Good
Posts: 497 Member
I look at it as a day I still stay at or under my net calories but eat the wrong kinds of food.
I wanted to see what everyone else thinks it is within the plan they follow?
I wanted to see what everyone else thinks it is within the plan they follow?
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Replies
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To me a “cheat day” implies that I’m on a diet, which I’m not. Yes, I’m reducing my calorie intake temporarily but it’s framed in my head as a lifestyle change. I don’t want to start something that requires cheat days since this is long term. There will always be special occasions and random days where I may eat food that’s not as good for me, or I may go over my calories for the day, and that’s completely okay! Those days aren’t cheat days, they’re just part of life.20
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What is wrong what is right, and if it is wrong why would you do wrong?
Is it wrong to eat mercury laden fish on occasion? And if you decide it is wrong, did I have a cheat day when I ate a 145g yellowfin tuna steak yesterday?5 -
PAV888
Not asking what is right or wrong I think everyone has to decide that on their own. It just seems like a lot of posts talk about cheat days and was trying to understand from the mass why someone uses the term.2 -
"Cheat day" can mean whatever someone decides it means. It's a phrase without a rigorous definition.
It can cover a wide range of behavior from "casual day when I'm not counting calories but generally trying to be sane about it" to all-out binging which can easily undo a week or more of dieting.
It's really not helpful at all, at least in my experience, to take cheat days. An occasional cheat meal, aka a meal off from calorie counting, should do the job as far as occasionally releasing the pressure of pressing forward with a diet. If you need a cheat DAY, then your diet is too restrictive or otherwise not meeting your needs. I've noticed people who rely on cheat days to "get through" a diet are those who are making it too punishing as far as not having treats, satisfying meal sizes or types of foods they really crave, etc. Improving the diet itself is usually better in the long term than trying to diet in a way that makes you look forward all week to getting away from it.
I've found 100-150 calories a day of a treat can accomplish most of what a cheat day can do, while being part of a plan you can just stick to.9 -
Cheat day for me is Sunday, I eat my regular calories + one fancy coffee at church, comes out to be maintenance calories for me. Basically, it means eating at maintenance 1 day a week, at a deficit all the others.5
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Get_Back_To_Feeling_Good wrote: »I look at it as a day I still stay at or under my net calories but eat the wrong kinds of food.
I wanted to see what everyone else thinks it is within the plan they follow?
It isn't anything within the plan I follow.
The plan I follow is just eat appropriate amount of calories, on average, per day and eat a reasonably nutrtitously balanced diet
There are no wrong kinds of food for me - anything that fits above plan is right kind of food. Which is any food really but Of course within portion amounts and not to the detriment of overall diet.
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"Cheat day"? Pleasant myth, kinda like Santa Claus. Bodies count everything, calories and nutrition.
Calories? Eat below goal, eat at goal, eat above goal, even eat waaaay above goal: All legitimate choices, in different circumstances. I need to average out *at* goal calories, over time, if I want to achieve my weight management objectives.
I don't believe in "good foods"/"bad foods" (or "right/wrong" foods) either, as long as I avoid allergens and actual poisons, though I do believe in getting overall good nutrition. I mix and match whatever foods I enjoy eating, to get overall good nutrition, on average, the overwhelming majority of days. Close is good enough, and over on one nutrient one day, under on that one the next, averages out. A rare truly weird day isn't a problem, because the majority of our days determine the majority of our outcomes. One day is a drop in the ocean.
In that context, I don't see how a "cheat day" is a helpful idea, personally. Mythical, melodramatic. (I don't enjoy drama. YMMV.)
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ExistingFish wrote: »Cheat day for me is Sunday, I eat my regular calories + one fancy coffee at church, comes out to be maintenance calories for me. Basically, it means eating at maintenance 1 day a week, at a deficit all the others.
H...h...how is that even cheating?
It's one coffee one day a week and you're not even going over calories (whether logging it on here or in your head or else you wouldn't know that)...AT CHURCH!
Cheating to me is lying to myself about how much I'm eating by not logging everything when I know I should so I don't gain the weight back.8 -
I don't really use the term personally because I don't believe in moralizing food or eating and cheating implies I'm doing something wrong.
But sometimes? I make the conscious decision to eat above maintenance for a day. Could be a holiday, could be a family gathering, could be that I am on vacation, could just be that I saw this REALLY killer burger place I want to try so I start planning for it.
I average my calories over time, though - usually a week - not every day.
So the days when I'm less hungry and way under my goal even with a decficit typically balance very well against days I decide I'm eating a brownie sundae.3 -
"What is a cheat day??????"
Booking into a nice hotel to have hours of wild sex with someone who is not your wife.
To me it's a fashionable but dumb phrase with such a wide range of interpretation it has no benefit in communicating what the person using it actually means.
The main thing I get from it is that the person assigns moral judgements to individual foods or their short term calorie balance, neither of which I think is very helpful.12 -
I don’t use the term myself, but I frequently find that social situations aren’t compatible with my eating plans.
A couple of recent examples.
We had a virtual cheese tasting night last night. With all the cheese and wine, I was 300 calories over my target and my macros were way off.
I went for beers at a friend’s backyard. Had four beers and a pork pie.
I ate an Easter Egg on Easter Day.
No biggie. I don’t go nuts and don’t do it that often. But I’m not going to stop doing things I enjoy.
Those are cheat days in my mind.2 -
I’m an accountant. It’s all about the exact numbers. A cheat meal allows me to forget numbers for one meal, then start again next meal.
Pretty much the same attitude as Davew other than numbers.
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It's a meaningless term, because some people use it to mean eating the "wrong" foods (whatever those are), some people use it for a high calorie (yet logged and controlled) day, and others use it to mean "anything goes."
I don't use it within my plan, as it isn't helpful for me. I do have days when I choose to go over my calorie goals, but that's just life . . . it's not a "cheat." I still have to deal with the consequences (temporary water weight gain in most cases, actual weight gain if I have many days where I don't meet my plan).
You can't designate a time period where calories don't count. Your body will always "count" them. You can decide to have periods where you mentally disregard them. If someone finds that helpful and it works for them, that's their business.5 -
For me, it's when I take a break from my usual eating routine without caring too much about whether it fits into my daily/weekly goal. If I can still stay within my goals, great! But I won't beat myself up for going over.5
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I'm with the majority here. I'm counting my calorie intake and macros and not taking it to any extreme. As long as I'm under my maintenance calories most days I'm happy and it's working for me in terms of weight loss, although it's a long term thing rather than a quick fix for me. If I have a takeaway one day, I'll make sure to balance it out with a healthy breakfast and lunch either the day of, if I know it's the plan for later, or the following day if I get the takeaway on a whim. I very rarely go over my maintenance anyway, even when I do treat myself to some chocolate or a piece of cake. And if I do it's usually because I've done some hard work in the garden or around the house and I'm just hungrier, so in balance I probably maintain a deficit anyway. It's about balance for me and I don't see eating a takeaway or a piece of cake as a "cheat", just something to balance out in my other meals.4
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I use the weekly average calculator on mfp. As long as my week averages out to my desired calories, I'm happy. No cheat days required. Just "getting on with life" days.2
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Cheat days use to mean eating whatever I want and not logging it. That's why I kept having to 'start over'. Now I don't have cheat days because I'm not cheating myself. I will have maintenance days though. These days are when I need a break from the lower calories or if I have a special thing going on like going out to dinner. I eat at maintenance those days and don't go over that.3
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I don't use the term because to me it would mean I'm trying to cheat myself, which is the opposite of what I want. I have off plan meals, and even had one entire day off plan with no way to track everything so I did a quick calorie entry instead and probably overestimated how many kcals I ate.3
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I personally don't accept the notion of a cheat day or meal. One cheats when they do something unknown to someone else. I can't cheat myself. I make decisions regarding what to eat and how much. There is no wrong food - unless perhaps it leaves you feeling lousy? Some days I even choose to eat more than I need, knowing this is a lifetime approach.2
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ExistingFish wrote: »Cheat day for me is Sunday, I eat my regular calories + one fancy coffee at church, comes out to be maintenance calories for me. Basically, it means eating at maintenance 1 day a week, at a deficit all the others.
H...h...how is that even cheating?
It's one coffee one day a week and you're not even going over calories (whether logging it on here or in your head or else you wouldn't know that)...AT CHURCH!
Cheating to me is lying to myself about how much I'm eating by not logging everything when I know I should so I don't gain the weight back.
Okay, we'll call it an "off diet" day.
Unfortunately, I tried to convince my body that calories consumed on holy ground should not contribute to weight gain, but alas, it was not moved by my arguement.8 -
ridiculous59 wrote: »I use the weekly average calculator on mfp. As long as my week averages out to my desired calories, I'm happy. No cheat days required. Just "getting on with life" days.
Thanks I did not know about the week average page just took a look and love it. I'm new to this whole thing and trying to figure stuff out. I find it very interesting the post about this subject and look forward to reading more. I just never understood what people are referring to when they say cheat day. I have used it a couple of times but should not have and I will phase it a better way. I just wanted to refer to wasted calories to me on foods that I'm trying to stay away from. Had nothing to do with intake for the day or week I have been doing good with that.
Thanks again for everyone's input!!!!7 -
ExistingFish wrote: »ExistingFish wrote: »Cheat day for me is Sunday, I eat my regular calories + one fancy coffee at church, comes out to be maintenance calories for me. Basically, it means eating at maintenance 1 day a week, at a deficit all the others.
H...h...how is that even cheating?
It's one coffee one day a week and you're not even going over calories (whether logging it on here or in your head or else you wouldn't know that)...AT CHURCH!
Cheating to me is lying to myself about how much I'm eating by not logging everything when I know I should so I don't gain the weight back.
Okay, we'll call it an "off diet" day.
Unfortunately, I tried to convince my body that calories consumed on holy ground should not contribute to weight gain, but alas, it was not moved by my arguement.
To funny
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I don't have any particular plan that I follow. For the most part, my nutrition is very good...but I also enjoy pizza most Friday nights with my kids for movie night...pub grub now and then...took my kids to the skate park for about 3 hours last Sunday and decided that some Popeye's fried chicken sounded good afterwards...nights out with the wife, etc...but those kind of things are largely irrelevant in the context of my diet as a whole. I tend to look at my diet and nutrition as a whole and don't get into the weeds of this meal or that or this particular food or that very much. Treats are treats and sometimes foods are sometimes foods and so long as treats and sometimes foods don't become regular eats and always foods, I'm pretty good.
As calories go, I don't log...I kind of keep a lazy tally in my head, but that's about it. Sometimes I'm over and sometimes I'm under. If my weight isn't doing what I want it to I might have to make some adjustments, but for the most part things work out when I'm doing what I need to be doing most of the time...basically eating a nutritionally sound diet overall and getting regular exercise and moving.5 -
To me, 'cheat day' sounds too much like 'binge day.' Instead, I take diet/deficit breaks when deficit eating is beginning to wear on me or when circumstances are such that my days include higher calorie meal choices - e.g. Meals provided on a job site or restaurant/take-away meals. In those instances, I guestimate many of the calories and don't worry if I drift into 'generous maintenance.'
I think of it as generous maintenance since maintenance is a single number and the goal is to hit that target as an average. Exceed that number and you are overeating, fall below and you are eating in deficit. When I take a deficit break, I hover at or more often - slightly above maintenance and don't mind a small weight gain since it helps me re-commit to deficit eating.3 -
Get_Back_To_Feeling_Good wrote: »PAV888
Not asking what is right or wrong I think everyone has to decide that on their own. It just seems like a lot of posts talk about cheat days and was trying to understand from the mass why someone uses the term.
It's an unfortunate term that can have wildly divergent meanings to different people and vastly divergent effects on the psyche and thought process of each individual using it.
Which makes it a really unfortunate term (squared).
Now if you combine clean food with cheat days and have a cheat day eating only clean food you can call it a day and weight yourself on a scale using old batteries and placed upon plush carpet! Might as well wear a heavy coat while doing that.... but only if you drink some salted water!
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ExistingFish wrote: »ExistingFish wrote: »Cheat day for me is Sunday, I eat my regular calories + one fancy coffee at church, comes out to be maintenance calories for me. Basically, it means eating at maintenance 1 day a week, at a deficit all the others.
H...h...how is that even cheating?
It's one coffee one day a week and you're not even going over calories (whether logging it on here or in your head or else you wouldn't know that)...AT CHURCH!
Cheating to me is lying to myself about how much I'm eating by not logging everything when I know I should so I don't gain the weight back.
Okay, we'll call it an "off diet" day.
Unfortunately, I tried to convince my body that calories consumed on holy ground should not contribute to weight gain, but alas, it was not moved by my arguement.
The church part made me laugh. I have the same argument with all those broken pieces of cookies and uneven cake slices and m&ms with parts of the shell already broken off I eat.
I feel bad for them! I seriously once bought a sugar cookie from Subway, when I normally get chocolate chip, because it was misshapened.4 -
ExistingFish wrote: »ExistingFish wrote: »Cheat day for me is Sunday, I eat my regular calories + one fancy coffee at church, comes out to be maintenance calories for me. Basically, it means eating at maintenance 1 day a week, at a deficit all the others.
H...h...how is that even cheating?
It's one coffee one day a week and you're not even going over calories (whether logging it on here or in your head or else you wouldn't know that)...AT CHURCH!
Cheating to me is lying to myself about how much I'm eating by not logging everything when I know I should so I don't gain the weight back.
Okay, we'll call it an "off diet" day.
Unfortunately, I tried to convince my body that calories consumed on holy ground should not contribute to weight gain, but alas, it was not moved by my arguement.
The church part made me laugh. I have the same argument with all those broken pieces of cookies and uneven cake slices and m&ms with parts of the shell already broken off I eat.
I feel bad for them! I seriously once bought a sugar cookie from Subway, when I normally get chocolate chip, because it was misshapened.
You need professional help.
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SuzySunshine99 wrote: »ExistingFish wrote: »ExistingFish wrote: »Cheat day for me is Sunday, I eat my regular calories + one fancy coffee at church, comes out to be maintenance calories for me. Basically, it means eating at maintenance 1 day a week, at a deficit all the others.
H...h...how is that even cheating?
It's one coffee one day a week and you're not even going over calories (whether logging it on here or in your head or else you wouldn't know that)...AT CHURCH!
Cheating to me is lying to myself about how much I'm eating by not logging everything when I know I should so I don't gain the weight back.
Okay, we'll call it an "off diet" day.
Unfortunately, I tried to convince my body that calories consumed on holy ground should not contribute to weight gain, but alas, it was not moved by my arguement.
The church part made me laugh. I have the same argument with all those broken pieces of cookies and uneven cake slices and m&ms with parts of the shell already broken off I eat.
I feel bad for them! I seriously once bought a sugar cookie from Subway, when I normally get chocolate chip, because it was misshapened.
You need professional help.
I like to think of it as realizing I'm not totally dead inside. 5 -
A "cheat day" implies that I'm on some kind of "diet" to lose weight, which I"m not. Right now, I'm technically 1 pound away from my 3rd weight loss goal (wanted to see if I could lose 5 more), but have adapted to healthier eating and eating a bit less quite some time ago.
Right now I'm on an elimination diet for food sensitivities so that changes things as there's a lot I actually can't eat right now (introducing one old "new" food back in a day). However, when that wasn't the case and actively trying to lose weight I told myself absolutely nothing is off limits to me. I CAN eat whatever I want, but thinking about what my goals are, do I really WANT to. In no way does that I mean I deprive myself or have days where I go over not only weight loss cals but maintenance cals, Some of those are kind of planned in advance ( holidays and birthdays), some days are not.
I'm sure most of us have heard phrases like "It's all about balance" and "It's a lifestyle, not a diet." I truly believe, though, for most to be successful one truly has to believe that. To me, using terms like "cheat day" makes it sound like what one is doing to lose weight is temporary, but that's just me. It makes it sound like I don't really like what I"m eating on those other days....but that's the thing: I actually DO enjoy eating healthy most of the time, with occasional treats. I don't feel deprived, or feel like I need to have a "cheat day" to make up for that.5 -
I will eat at maintenance over holidays. It's not cheating, it's maintaining instead of gaining 🤷5
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