What's the point of cheat meals?

for many, a cheat meal, or even a cheat day is a psychological tool they use to justify counting calories the other 90% or the time.

i don't plan my cheat meals or calorie spike days, but it happens, and its ok. i limit my junk food, so if i cheat, its usually with pizza. i always log everything. on a rest day when i'm going to have a big work out the next day, i'll have a big cheat dinner, like 1000 calories of pasta, meat, sauce, salad, etc. i'll work out like a beat the next morning.

just like intermitten fasting, or eating 6 meals a day, its another tool to help you lose weight. you may or may not respond well to them, but the only way to find out is to try. every body is different, and you need to find out what combination of things works for you.

I have a cheat day once a week where I allow myself anything (within reason). It helps mentally, but also can shock my metabolism a bit. My body is used to 1400-1600 cals a day and hitting it with 2000+ is a wake up call.

I have a splurge meal every Friday night. My boyfriend and I traditionally go out for dinner that evening. I behave the rest of the week, but I know that on Friday night, I can have whatever I want. I've changed my eating habits so much though, that I am usually pretty careful even during my splurge meal. My splurge meal may take me 500-700 calories over for the entire day, but I don't worry about it, or try to make up for it with exercise, etc.

For me its about moderation. My splurge meals are fun, guilt free, and help keep me on track the rest of the week.

for me cheat meal is when i eat junk food and go over in cals, i have it like once or twice in a month

Oh okay thanks for the info! I probably won't have cheat days because I'm scared to go over and feel extremely guilty if I eat anything bad. However, is intermittent fasting any good?
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I have been trying to challenge these guilt feelings. I know exactly what you mean - and I believe it has been one of the things that has kept weight on me - I stressed about everything that wasn't a lettuce basically (not quite but you know what I mean). The beauty of MFP is often I 'think' I have gorged - purely because of feeling full or guilty about something - and when I actually put it in the diary - things aren't that bad - so I am just trying to re educate my brain I guess.

I have a "cheat" day (more like a meal, though) every week.

I normally still stay within my calories but eat things I usually wouldn't eat - white potatoes, white rice, sauces (like BBQ), restaurant food, red meat, maybe a margarita, a decadent dessert, fried foods - just more "unhealthy" or high calorie foods in general.

I don't see it as a reward or a break, just a way to have a more relaxed day about what I am eating and a chance to eat something different.

It's worked very well for me.


Edit: Typo Queen

9 years ago, when I lost 91 pounds, and kept it off for 3 years before becoming pregnant with my son, I had a cheat day, which was Saturdays. When I first started out, that day was a free-for-all, but I was still losing weight because Sunday-Friday I was very rigid about what I ate. As time went on, it was still my cheat day, but I physically could not eat a lot of food so it was more things like pizza and soda that I didn't eat the other days of the week. I also was going out dancing every Saturday night which helped burn it off.
This time around, I'm not planning on any cheat meals or days. I'm tired of struggling to lose the weight again and I don't think a cheat meal or cheat day will help me at all. Maybe as time goes on and I start losing, I'll incorporate a meal or two back in that I consider "cheating"

In my opinion:

Cheat Meal is a silly concept. You are either within your daily limits of calories and macronutrients in which case you are not cheating, or you are over your target intake which makes it a cheat day.

EDIT: And additionally, I think cheat days are a viable strategy for some people, for both physiological and psychological reasons.

I do splurges here and there by zig-zagging my calories. I track my calories by the week, not the day, as your body doesn't automatically reset itself every 24 hours anyway. So I might have days where I've eaten under my 1200 net due to extra clean eating and just not being very hungry so those calories are banked to use later in the week if I have a day where my hunger levels are higher or am going to an event where there will be food items I'll want to eat that are more calorie-dense and typically off my eating plan. It all works out. Even with splurges, I rarely go over my weekly calorie target.

I feel bad when I read that someone feels guilty for eating something off-plan. Food is a part of the way we celebrate together and I figure even thin people eat things that aren't "diet food". It's just a matter of balancing times of eating off plan so they don't over-ride the days you've eaten on plan.

Even if you have a day a week or couple days a month where you eat way over and go over your calories for the week, it shouldn't really result in any gain (although you might see a gain on the scale due to water and bloat) but it will go away quickly. There is evidence that this is a good thing for your metabolism as it shakes things up, so to speak.

Anyway, I'm more concerned about the guilt feelings being expressed here than anything. Occasionally eating off plan doesn't make you a bad person so you shouldn't feel guilty. It just means you're human.

If I have a meal or several that puts me under my calorie goal still I don't count it as a cheat meal/day as I'm under my target, and that was the goal I will eat whatever I feel like as long as it fits my macros (junk food all day would NOT fit my macros even if I was under cals so the majority of what I eat is healthy)

For me a "cheat day" is when I would go over my calorie goal. It works well for some people, especially if their usual goal is quite low (1200?) as it helps them not feel too restricted and can sometimes break a plateau.
I don't plan them personally though, I go over occasionally anyway without planning for it so to me it seems silly to plan more.