Cheat day, cheat meal or none
dragengofit
Posts: 21 Member
Curious as to what other people do / prefer.
My own preference is a "cheat meal" a week, although I don't really refer to it as cheating, more like a moment of sweet satisfaction, properly planned and accounted for. (This week I'm having a slice of cake for dessert on Friday)
My own preference is a "cheat meal" a week, although I don't really refer to it as cheating, more like a moment of sweet satisfaction, properly planned and accounted for. (This week I'm having a slice of cake for dessert on Friday)
Cheat day, cheat meal or none 40 votes
Cheat day
5%
2 votes
Cheat meal
32%
13 votes
None
62%
25 votes
0
Replies
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I don't like the word 'cheat', seems to have moral implications which goes very badly with food in my world.
The definition of 'cheat' can vary.
Cheat as in 'over calorie goal':
It happens on a fairly regular basis (by a small amount of calories), but I aim to stay on track when looking at my weekly average. I have the occasional 'way over' day (family dinner for example) but it m evens out in the long term.
Cheat as in 'eat treat foods I don't usually eat':
I don't deprive myself of anything, I eat foods I like all the time, both nutritious and less nutritious. The high calorie ones less frequently than the lower calorie ones, obviously, within my calorie budget.
I have treat foods every day.
Cheat as in 'not log my food':
Never. Perhaps I will find a way to maintain my weight within logging, but I'm not there yet 🙂6 -
Like Litchi, I don't deprive myself of anything. As such I don't do any cheat days or somesuch. I plan my dinner (kind of) and make it fit into my calorie allowance when cooking. The idea of 'today is Saturday. I now may have abc' just doesn't mean anything to me. As I eat everything I like I'm never really in the situation where I think that I really need something special now.4
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I think it's fine if you can stick to one. I can't. I go downhill once I start.4
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I don't like the word 'cheat', seems to have moral implications which goes very badly with food in my world.
The definition of 'cheat' can vary.
Cheat as in 'over calorie goal':
It happens on a fairly regular basis (by a small amount of calories), but I aim to stay on track when looking at my weekly average. I have the occasional 'way over' day (family dinner for example) but it m evens out in the long term.
Cheat as in 'eat treat foods I don't usually eat':
I don't deprive myself of anything, I eat foods I like all the time, both nutritious and less nutritious. The high calorie ones less frequently than the lower calorie ones, obviously, within my calorie budget.
I have treat foods every day.
Cheat as in 'not log my food':
Never. Perhaps I will find a way to maintain my weight within logging, but I'm not there yet 🙂
I agree - that is how I go about it as well
I don't think of it as cheating as long as I properly plan and allow for (whatever) I want to include. Just appears like the phrases "cheat days" or "cheat meals" appear all over, so curious what others think 0 -
No such thing, I have ice cream with chocolate sauce every night, if you account for it then every day is a cheat day!3
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Excuse me as I echo what everyone is saying above. I personally do not like the phrase 'cheat' because it implies that the food that I enjoy eating is somehow 'bad'. Personally I feel the separation of foods into 'good and 'bad' does very bad things in my head. Like, I know that there is nothing wrong with the food I eat. Generally it's quantity is my problem, rather than the actual food itself. So if I have a 'cheat' day, what does that mean? Should I feel bad for 'cheating' on my diet? Heck no! Because my diet is not a fixed thing that I 'fail' at if I stray off it. My diet is fluid. It reacts to my body and what is needed at the time and changes because of changing goals and circumstances. If I ended up eating over my calories on one day because of circumstances I wasn't expecting then so what? It's not going to ruin my weight loss journey because of one day. Maybe it's what my mind or body needed on that day. Maybe I just needed a break from the deficit, or just needed a sugar kick, or to not feel left out by skipping out on coffee and cake that everyone else is eating. My diet is what I eat. Plain and simple. Food doesn't 'not count' because I want it to. If I eat it, it's part of my diet. If I don't, then it's not.
Sorry for the rant, I just really hate the phrase cheat day.7 -
I don’t have cheat days or meals, but most maybe would say I do. I don’t get too wired about the word cheat. I follow my calorie allotment and exercise most days. I don’t track calories at all on vacation or special events, but get right back at it afterwards. It can take a week or two to undo a week’s long vacation’s weight gain, but I’m okay with that. I’m only a couple pounds from maintenance now, but I did this all along.1
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Just incorporate it with your daily or weekly meal plan.1
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I've tried the cheat meal approach and I haven't found it works. When I'm cutting if I have a bag of popcorn, chips, or some breakfast bars in a few boxes, its all going to get eaten within a day or 2. Its too addictive. I'm working on no cheat meals and sticking with health foods 7 days a week. Then, on occasion when you are out with friends, or a business function, or whatever, have a slice of pizza. But, its not something I want to incorporate into my weekly diet. I wind up always binging out and it kills my progress, momentum and mood.4
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A 'cheat' day can wipe out my deficit for the week.
And I find it hard to get back on it afterwards so I tend to just try and fit everything in my calorie goal.
Obviously it doesn't always work out that way and I go way over - but I log it and move on.
Planning to have days off plan gives my stupid brain permission to go all out - and I can consume a lot of food in a day!
Even in a meal!
I had a Five Guys burger and fries the other week and it wiped out all my calories for the entire day 😵
It was delicious though 😋3 -
dragengofit wrote: »I don't like the word 'cheat', seems to have moral implications which goes very badly with food in my world.
The definition of 'cheat' can vary.
Cheat as in 'over calorie goal':
It happens on a fairly regular basis (by a small amount of calories), but I aim to stay on track when looking at my weekly average. I have the occasional 'way over' day (family dinner for example) but it m evens out in the long term.
Cheat as in 'eat treat foods I don't usually eat':
I don't deprive myself of anything, I eat foods I like all the time, both nutritious and less nutritious. The high calorie ones less frequently than the lower calorie ones, obviously, within my calorie budget.
I have treat foods every day.
Cheat as in 'not log my food':
Never. Perhaps I will find a way to maintain my weight within logging, but I'm not there yet 🙂
I agree - that is how I go about it as well I don't think of it as cheating as long as I properly plan and allow for (whatever) I want to include. Just appears like the phrases "cheat days" or "cheat meals" appear all over, so curious what others think
I'll just add that I don't necessarily plan these things. Sure, it's planned when I go to a restaurant for example, but other times it will just depend on my mood (TOM cravings, stronger than normal hunger, too tired...) I'm not really a planner 😆3 -
Yes, no...maybe...kinda. When I'm cutting weight I typically have one meal per week that is "off plan". I don't log and haven't since the spring of 2014 when I went to maintenance. For the most part, up until COVID I more or less maintained my weight. But I would go up around 8-10 Lbs in the winter and in the spring I would just revert to being a bit more strict in my dietary habits and my activity would naturally go up as the weather warmed.
I put on about 25 Lbs in 2020 and 2021 that I'm currently in process of losing. Like I said, I don't log so I have a dietary plan that I follow pretty closely, but I allow one "off plan" meal per week usually (sometimes things come up, but I'm pretty good about sticking with things in general). This is most often our family pizza and movie night or my wife and I going out for dinner or preparing a higher calorie dish than we'd normally have like lasagna or something.
I don't go crazy with it though. Pizza and movie night is 2 slices from the medium pizza my wife and I share...I'll usually have the other 2 for lunch the next day (so maybe 2 off plan days)...but that's not a huge hit calorie wise, it's just not as nutritionally good as we usually eat. Wife and I just went out this past Saturday for dinner. Restaurant portions are huge and really more than I can usually eat in one sitting these days so I almost always eat half and take the other half home. In this case I had my leftovers for breakfast on Sunday morning. Basically my "cheat" is just having a meal that isn't as nutritionally sound as most of what we eat...but I'm still usually pretty close to on target calorie wise or maybe just a bit over.2 -
I don't find the terminology helpful (kind of the reverse, actually). Who or what would I be cheating? It just plays into the extreme melodramatic nonsense implying that eating is some kind of epic battle between good and evil . . . about sin and expiation, guilt, self-recrimination, personal failure, etc.
* It's just food. We need to eat some.
* Eating too much causes excess body weight, which is unhealthy.
* Getting balanced nutrition (from whatever combination of foods adds up that way) is likely to improve health. What matters is the average over small amounts of time, mostly, such as a few days (for nutritional balance) to a few weeks (for semi-reasonable body weight.
It doesn't need to be complicated by value-judgement words and concepts, IMO.
Sometimes I eat fewer than my maintenance calories, sometimes right around them, sometimes over, and occasionally way over. If it averages out around maintenance calories, my weight ambles around in the same range.
The overwhelming majority of days, I eat adequate protein and fats (the "essential nutrients" in a technical sense), and a boatload of varied, colorful veggies and fruits that put me over my fiber and micronutrient goals most days, and definitely so on average over a week or less. Once in a while, I ignore my macro or micro goals for a day or few, because I want to eat in some non-typical way, and nothing terrible happens. (OK, maybe a little water weight on the scale, but who cares? I don't.)
Most days, I can include some less nutrient-dense, more calorie-dense foods (chocolate, wine, other desserts, deep-fried whatever, etc.) mostly for pure enjoyment, and stay within calories while still hitting nutritional goals. I can't see why I should exclude them, or why that would be "cheating".
If cheat meals or cheat days are a concept that works for you, go for it. Me, I don't like drama.4 -
Walkywalkerson wrote: »A 'cheat' day can wipe out my deficit for the week.
And I find it hard to get back on it afterwards so I tend to just try and fit everything in my calorie goal.
Obviously it doesn't always work out that way and I go way over - but I log it and move on.
Planning to have days off plan gives my stupid brain permission to go all out - and I can consume a lot of food in a day!
Even in a meal!
I had a Five Guys burger and fries the other week and it wiped out all my calories for the entire day 😵
It was delicious though 😋
That's the way it works for me as well 1 -
So far it seems (from this very scientific research, counting 18 participants which may or may not include those of you that have commented), we have 50% cheaters and 50% "non-cheaters"
I agree with all of you above that simply states "because I consciously allow it, it's not cheating" or "If I go over my goals, I simply wont spend any energy feeling bad about it". Still appreciate hearing everyone's thoughts though
All of us have our different backgrounds and journey's and it wouldn't be realistic to expect one single approach to weight loss to suit all. If we could, weight loss would have been easy for all, as everyone would know what to do without any trial and error.
In my case, because I have too much going on, I tend to need planning to succeed. For me to succeed with a full (weekly) day of eating whatever I felt like, it would have the consequence that in order not to wipe out my entire weekly deficit (chocolate, just saying), I would need to work harder than I can really manage right now. (I spend ~30 hours a week training dogs for competition, and while it does burn some energy, it's nothing like a proper workout focusing on myself). It's a priority I've set for myself, and it requires me to plan - I'm good with that. Still like the occasional treat, though. And if I stumble, that's OK, just part of the process.
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dragengofit wrote: »
I'm completely rubbish at planning! Sunday I spent an hour in the kitchen mixing, grinding, cooking, and mixing some more a herb blend for a dish I wanted to cook. And then realized I was missing 4 of the 8 actual cooking ingredients next to the spice mix. Ugh. And of course shops are closed here on Sundays. So I had frozen pizza for exactly these emergencies (and because it's quite tasty). Which had more calories, but it still fitted. And honestly, even if it didn't. Then I would have been over by around 100cal.1 -
I'll eat a whole gluten free pizza hut pizza maybe once every 3 months or something and not care if I go over. Otherwise no I just stick to my goals as much as possible and don't see the point in "cheating". Who am I cheating? Why is it necessary? I'm eating how I want to eat on a daily basis anyway.1
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I'm completely rubbish at planning! Sunday I spent an hour in the kitchen mixing, grinding, cooking, and mixing some more a herb blend for a dish I wanted to cook. And then realized I was missing 4 of the 8 actual cooking ingredients next to the spice mix. Ugh. And of course shops are closed here on Sundays. So I had frozen pizza for exactly these emergencies (and because it's quite tasty). Which had more calories, but it still fitted. And honestly, even if it didn't. Then I would have been over by around 100cal.
The bold - hate it when that happens.. Then again, it rarely does as I'm (almost) a compulsive planner. :laugh:1 -
I have days or meals where I eat something that is more unhealthy (like chick fil a or something) or maybe higher calorie but I don't really consider it a cheat. Maybe that's kind of a foo foo answer but it's the truth. I focus on living a healthy lifestyle with mostly balanced and nutrient rich foods, but I also enjoy eating foods that are good for the soul but aren't necessarily that nutritious.2
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I didn't answer the poll as it's not a "cheat" or something I'm "sneaking" in behind my (own?) back.
That said, I frequently have a day where I don't worry as much about my calorie limit - along with that, however, I will try to be sure during the week I'm consistently under my limit so that one day over doesn't undo all my progress (a form of banking calories, or at least creating some buffer room). That day also tends to be my most active day of the week. I still track everything right now as that still helps keep me a bit more mindful of just how much I'm consuming and helps me put the brakes on earlier than I otherwise would.2 -
It isn't cheating if it fits in your calories. Just because you eat something sweet doesn't mean you are cheating.
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HoneyBadger302 wrote: »I didn't answer the poll as it's not a "cheat" or something I'm "sneaking" in behind my (own?) back.
That said, I frequently have a day where I don't worry as much about my calorie limit - (...) .
Yeah - starting to realize the poll is missing an alternative for this exact "option" ...
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dragengofit wrote: »
I'm completely rubbish at planning! Sunday I spent an hour in the kitchen mixing, grinding, cooking, and mixing some more a herb blend for a dish I wanted to cook. And then realized I was missing 4 of the 8 actual cooking ingredients next to the spice mix. Ugh. And of course shops are closed here on Sundays. So I had frozen pizza for exactly these emergencies (and because it's quite tasty). Which had more calories, but it still fitted. And honestly, even if it didn't. Then I would have been over by around 100cal.
The bold - hate it when that happens.. Then again, it rarely does as I'm (almost) a compulsive planner. :laugh:
I'm completely rubbish at planning! Really. I'm currently running a week-long food diary for a sports doctor, and for some reason I feel obliged to cook more unusual food because the food item check list I got only lists typical German things* So I just thought: I could do a simple pasta with tinned tuna. Or cook something Indonesian. Checked: Have everything for the pasta but not for the other dish. 10 minutes later: Hmm.. I really feel like eating the Indonesian dish. 5 minutes later: D'oh. No ingredients. Again 10 minutes later: why don't I cook...
* I did have Ethiopian, Chinese, Thai, and pizza already. So what the heck?!?2 -
CHEAT MEAL/DAY was created by Fitness industry due to many competitors being on strict diets pre competition. And now the Diet industry incorporates the phrase.
Trust me that there are HARDLY any average people out there that diet like competitors who step on stage. Would probably shock some that some pro bodybuilders "diet" on 3,000 calories a day.
There are no NEED for "cheat days" for the average dieter. Since most dieters use a plan that's just for weight loss, once they feel close enough, they go off plan and weight regain happens. That's about 90% of dieters.
Use a plan where you can eat the things you do enjoy, but LEARN how to limit how much you eat on a daily basis. That's what lean people do to stay lean.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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I've only been at this since August. I have had times when I blew away my calories for the day. For instance, Super Bowl Sunday included many, many calories that I didn't even try to log. Handfuls of chips, cheese, veggies, dip, cake, pie..... I kind of knew it was going to happen, and I let it. I find that I do an unplanned (or semi-unplanned) splurge every couple weeks. I was up 1.6 pounds on Monday! Salt and more salt is what I'm thinking. Today, Wednesday, I'm back to Saturday's weight. This has been a common pattern when I've splurged. I'm getting to know my body and how it responds. I'll be on track again for another bunch of days, and I will continue to lose. I'm within 3.2 lbs of my official goal weight. Down 38.4
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Personally a fan of "none". That said, if you go with cheat meals or days - LOG IT. Can't tell you how many people I deal with who have a cheat day. Don't log it. Don't lose weight. And are confused. We will go over their calories and find they had like a 3000 calorie deficit over 6 days. And then when recreating their cheat day, they see they ate almost 3000 over their maintenance. Log it so you know what your working with and can make the necessary adjustments.3
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Last Friday, we went out for happy hour and had appetizers, then picked up ice cream while walking home. On days like that (which happens every week or two), I log with my best estimate (3300 calories for that day!), complete my diary, and put it to rest. I know the calories are not very accurate, but the act of logging keeps me accountable. So is that a cheat day? Some might say so.
I also try to work in a couple of low-calorie days per week so I can balance it all. I have a few go-to meals that are high in nutrition, light on calories.
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Cheat meals. days.. weekends.. It is like talking politics or religion. It is all personal. Work for some.. devastate others.. a consensus can't be met. To each his/her own on this one.0
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