When can i have my cheat day

Not the best way to start out. As noted throughout this forum, this is calorie counting, not Atkins, Keto, Grapefruit, diet, etc. You count the calories of everything you eat all of which is entirely up to you. Concentrating on the "forbidden foods" and the "healthy foods" is what gets people here.

To me, as an adult, "cheat days" or "cheat meals" are kind of like Santa Claus: An engaging myth, or a metaphor.

Some days I eat below goal calories (usually not by much), most days I eat close to goal, some days I eat over goal (on fairly rare occasions, waaayyy over calorie goal). Those are "choices", and over time they need to balance out to a sensible average level.

Nutrition, same deal: Very nearly every day, I meet my personal nutrition minimums (protein grams, fat grams, veggie/fruit servings). Once in a while, I'm under on one or another or multiples of them, but not all that often. (Over goal on nutrition is fine with me.)

I'm a firm believer that there aren't "bad foods" at an individual food level (other than poisons or allergens), but rather only bad overall ways of eating. A good overall way of eating can include some treats, processed foods, so-called "junk foods" or fast foods . . . and some of those even have meaningful amounts of useful nutrients. In reasonable portions and frequencies, they can be part of an overall healthy way of eating.

It doesn't help me to frame my thinking about eating is if it were a melodramatic battle between good and evil, "healthy" and "cheating". It's just food, gotta combine it over time in ways that hit a reasonable average calorie level, reasonable average nutrition intake; are tasty, practical, etc. . . . it's more like a fun game. (Are you old enough to remember Tetris? Probably not.)

I'm concerned that you may not be setting yourself up for long-term success, frankly. IMO, it's not a good plan to treat weight loss as a project with an end date, involving self-denial of desired foods, restrictive eating rules, possibly sessions of unpleasant/punitive exercise, etc. . . . which will all end at goal weight, when things "go back to normal". That's been the formula for life-long yo-yo weight, for quite a few people.

Better, IMO: Experiment, figure out some eating & activity/exercise habits we can maintain long-term, ideally permanently, that are relatively easy, relatively enjoyable, very practical and sustainable, and practice those habits until they're grooved in as normal behavior, ideally durable through easy and tough life phases alike.

Me, I'm in year 5+ at a healthy weight, after around 3 previous *decades* of overweight/obesity. My routine these days involves eating a small bit under maintenance calories (like 100-150) most days ("calorie banking"), in order to have a more indulgent meal or day less frequently. Treats get fit in on a lot of routine days, in reasonable portions at reasonable frequencies. Works for me, generally.

I'm not saying this is The Only Way, because we all need to figure out what works for us individually, what fits best with our individual preferences, strengths, limitations. But, after watching people here for the 6+ years I've been using MFP, I'm skeptical about the success odds for the "healthy/cheat" duality approach. YMMV.

I'm usually not as good on a weekend, I still calorie count but don't stress too much if I go over slightly. But being good through the week I feel allows me that little treat on a weekend.

When I'm trying to lose weight I don't do "cheat" meals. Instead, I eat at maintenance for a day. So if I'm usually eating around 1,200 calories a day, but my TDEE is 2,000 calories, I'll try to stick with that. It's great because 1), eating at your maintenance won't mess up your weight loss. All you'll do is MAINTAIN. 2) It teaches you how you should be eating when you are ready to quit losing weight and just maintain it for awhile.

Echoing many of the posts above - don't do a "cheat"

Things that work for me:

• Plan the things you enjoy (and are not willing or able to give up) into your diet. Eat accordingly.
• Plan your meals in advance and how much you can have that day so by the end of the day you know what you have coming.
• Track every lick, nibble, and bite - especially for calorie dense foods - for example, I am not as concerned about a few extra grams of a fresh vegetable as much as I am for a few extra grams of pasta or butter. Regardless, track every single thing to the gram for awhile to get a truly honest picture of your intake.
• If there is something special coming up, I can either try to bank calories to help, or I just plan on it being a zero loss week. Sometimes that is worth it, but I think it's very important to still track these days until you realize just how quickly you can consume a ridiculous number of calories - restaurant foods are harder as they load them with butter, sauces, etc that can be hard to just estimate...but chances are, it's worse than you think or they advertise.

I enjoy a glass or two of wine or a beer with my dinners - so I plan accordingly. If I chose to have a bigger lunch or an extra snack during the day, then I know I need to cut that out for the night to make my goal (hence the planning ahead).

It's also very, VERY easy to mindlessly eat more than you "planned" - so for anything that comes in a bulk format (like chips for example) weigh out the portion you plan to eat into a separate dish, and leave the bag behind.

I will PLAN a day to not track, but if I'm consistently tracking, I try to reserve that for very special occasions (such as Thanksgiving or Christmas). And to be fair, last year all through the Christmas holiday I was doing a challenge (75 Hard) and had to track everything AND stay in my calories, and it really wasn't bad at all - I still got to enjoy all the things, just not in the quantities I normally would have - but I didn't miss out!