My plan is flexible - I just aim for a 1,000 calorie deficit per day, while avoiding processed/fast food, limiting high glycemic-index carbs and exercising a minimum of one hour 5-6 days per week.

I do not have any "cheat" days . . . there are no vacations from a healthy lifestyle, and given my history of obesity, that means I need to journal everything I eat, every day. I didn't get to 311 pounds by being good at "intuitive eating" :ink:

That said, there really aren't any "cheat foods" for me . . . if I feel like eating a particular thing, I eat it, but I make sure to journal it and fit it into my plan. I don't like most processed/fast food so I rarely even consider eating it. I do eat some high glycemic-index carbs, but I don't consider that to be cheating as long as I budget for them appropriately (since they tend to be calorie-dense, by definition I have to limit the quantity).

I like to mix up my daily calorie levels a little bit (but never going below BMR or going over the amount I actually burn) . . . so each week, I'll try to have a bigger deficit on some days and a smaller deficit on others, averaging out to a deficit of 1,000 calories per day.

This makes it relatively easy for me to eat out or attend a celebration - if I make that one of my higher calorie days, I have plenty of room to enjoy the meal within reason (split a bottle of wine, split an app, order a reasonable entree, split a dessert).

I have a bit of a different perspective.

I have been a calorie counter and I've lost 30 pounds. I am currently working with a personal trainer and she has me on a nutrition plan. It is very specific and meets lots of nutrition goals, and I am following it to a T as close as I can.

She is also a big believer in a "cheat day". Her philosophy is that if I run my body like a machine 6 days a week, I need a day of high calories to shake things up a bit.

I've been calling it a "free day." I asked her for calorie guidance and she says it is wide open but that I need to eat a lot on that day.

A few things to consider. I am working with her to build muscle and strength. Fat loss will be a side effect of that. She herself is an athlete and she trains a lot of athletes. Am I an athlete? I think the jury is out on that.

I have found some surprising advantages to my free day, though. If I want something that is not on my nutrition plan, I can have it. I just have to wait until my free day. Sometimes I still want it, but sometimes I don't. Knowing that I have a free day helps me stick to my nutrition plan those 6 days.

I have had 3 free days since I have started. I have lost 6 pounds in 3 weeks and that is a world record for me. My clothes are falling off and everyone is commenting on how "buff" I look.

So in my situation, a free day is actually very important to my weight training program and to my adherence to the nutrition plan.

I am also still losing and premenopausal, so I am not sure how this extrapolates to maintainers, people who aren't lifting, and people who are dealing with menopausal hormones.

It's working for me though. :-)

I don't use the word "cheat" or "treat" but I do have meals or days where I am "off-plan." Sometimes, it's situation where what I eat is just completely out of my control (for example, a plated business luncheon where there are no choices in entrees). In other cases, it's just that I want to enjoy myself without having to feel guilty about every food choice I make (a vacation or dinner at a favorite restaurant, for example). I definitely don't have off-plan days every week, but I do occasionally have them.

And, like Midwife, I have found that having these days planned sometimes is very helpful. For example, I just got back from a trip to Mexico. Knowing this trip was coming up kept me POP from January 2 (first day back on plan after all the unavoidable off-plan holiday eating) until March 1, the day before I left for the trip. Every time I was tempted by something off plan, I would remind myself that I didn't need to eat that food, because I was going to get to eat some great food in Mexico. Every time I thought about having a glass of wine, I convinced myself that I didn't it because I could have lots of margaritas in Mexico. In situations where I would have normally really struggled to stay on plan, it was much easier to make smart choices knowing that I was going to have a few days of indulgence in Mexico.

But, having said that, lately I've been finding that when I have an off-plan day, I can end up eating more than I would have otherwise because I've gotten it into my head that this day is my one opportunity to eat this food. It's a real trap and it's something that I really have to work on. So having these off-plan days is definitely dangerous for me and I'm not sure it is the healthiest approach to weight loss/maintenance.

I have discovered that if I cheat in the slightest way I completly fall off track...if I miss one workout I don't work out for weeks...its just my own lack of will power I guess.

Originally Posted by BlueToBlue:
I don't use the word "cheat" or "treat" but I do have meals or days where I am "off-plan." ... So having these off-plan days is definitely dangerous for me and I'm not sure it is the healthiest approach to weight loss/maintenance.

I plan to be offplan - so I guess it's technically still on plan? I'm just really careful to keep it to a meal. If I have a lovely dinner out on Saturday night - the rest of Saturday looks just like every other day (in fact, I might go with my 250 calorie oatmeal/apple butter breakfast instead of my 400 calorie Kashi waffle with peanut butter breakfast in preparation).