What do YOU consider a cheat day?

Honestly, and this is probably going to sound really boring, but I don't call anything "cheat days", "cheat meals" or "cheat food". If I want something, I'll have it, and just work it into my daily calorie goal. If I want a meal that's going to take me well over my goal, I work it into my weekly goal instead, and compensate on other days (within reason). If I go way over and can't make it up on other days, I just move on. I'm really trying to make this a complete, permanent lifestyle change. It messes with my head if I think of it as "cheating", or if I see food as "bad" or "naughty", or if I say I've "broken my diet". Yes, I definitely have days where I could have eaten better, but it's just part of life. Sorry if that sounds preachy, but just how it works for me.

^^this!^^

Your self control at DD is admirable! The smell alone would drive me crazy!!

A large meat lovers pizza, a box of Twinkies and a bag of Cheetos.

When you're OCD as I am, cheat days just cannot be allowed. :bigsmile: I also do not usually eat a bite after dinner. The other night I was hungry about 8 p.m. so I ate a brown rice cake and 4 radishes. Maybe 60 calories total. I beat myself up over that for days.

I think you should get some help.

For me its holidays, birthdays and visiting days (which all in all is 2 or 3 days a month)...With the holidays and birthdays I try to stay within my calories and get an extra workout in...Visiting days they are just all to pieces and only happen once a month so I don't worry to much about 1 day out of 30.

I'm not on a 'diet' so I don't have cheat days. If I want something that's not healthy, I make sure I have room for it in my diary, either by eating lower calorie meals beforehand, or even better, I make sure I exercise enough to cover the extra calories. If you feel you need a 'cheat day', you may not to be able to maintain your weight after you reach goal, especially if it's a full blown binge day. Also feeling the need for a cheat day may be a signal that you aren't havng your fav foods often enough. Yes, you can have some of your fav. foods and still lose weight.

Before I started MFP I was having a 'treat' day. Every Friday my husband and I would have ice cream or some other junk on Fridays. It worked fairly well for us but now we are so busy and have so many family/friend's functions, we need to save our 'treats' for when there aren't so many healthy choices to choose from. Like last weekend we had pulled pork sandwiches with bbq sauce, potato salad and cake, cookies, etc. We didn't have a full blown binge, we ate smaller portions! Like instead of having a biggg spoonful of potato salad, we guesstimated 1/2 cup. Because of that and the fact that we exercised plenty that day, we both stayed under our calories. I would NOT eat that way everyday because I know I wouldn't lose weight and My stomach felt yucky afterwards anyway.

So I guess if I had a cheat day it would be eating garbage food but staying under or near my calories. For one day and not often.

A cheat day is one where I eat wherever you want but not go overboard eating everything in sight. Usually a food that I don't eat all the time, some candy, maybe a few cocktails. Just letting the hair down a bit but not using it as an excuse to get nutty and lose sight of my goals

I dont have cheat days. I have a treat once a week but i don't cheat. I don't see this as a diet because i eat plenty of food, but the right food. So what's the point in cheating.

i eat and log my calories.. any "treats" i give myself are logged. i try to keep within my cal limits.. i don't want to label anything i do "cheat". just implyes that i am fooling myself.. if i eat it, i log it, if i log it... i need to burn it!

i work in a bakery and we have samples everyday of pastries, i usually end up eating one and i very seldom add it into my cals because its such a small portion...i know it counts too but i feel like its really a cheat if i dont

seriously though...no food is off limits for me, i guess a cheat would be when i allow myself to have a little bit more than usual. and i always end up workin it into my cals. i have had a few days since i started that i knew i went over and i didnt add it in to my count.

With that great attitude, you will have success. Enjoy...

I don't intentionally have a cheat day, but I do religiously track what I eat.If I know I'm going somewhere and want to indulge, I try to do it sensibly and I also I try to do some sort of extra exercise to try to balance it out. If I happen to go over, then I may adjust a little over the next day or two, but I don't make myself crazy over it. I don't do any diet that restricts an entire food group because that just doesn't work for me, though it does for others. Otherwise, I tend to beat myself up, which never works out well....

I have "cheat weekends" rather than cheat days. I try to stay focused on eating under 1900 calories and exercising during the week, but I'll "let my hair down" on Friday night into Sunday; that's when I do things like drink beer and eat junky foods. It's a system that seems to work fine for me. I still get to have the fun I used to, but in moderation, and I stay motivated during the week by the results of the diet and exercise.

When the kids want to go to cici's pizza... Pizza is my downfall so I try and make sure I work out extra hard for those calories but it still puts me over in my macros.. so I totally cheat with the Bavaria dessert pizza and cinnamon rolls..

yesterday