Do you have a cheat day?
 

If so, how often and how do you decide when?

:)

I'm saving my "cheat days" for Thanksgiving and Superbowl Sunday. It'll still be a bit of a treat, but I'm going to still make sure I stay mostly in plan. Somehow. I got months to plan that lol. Just don't wanna go hog wild and gain a bunch of weight back in one day.

I plan my cheat days around social occasions. Usually once a week... occasionally twice a week. But, I hardly ever go beyond 2,000 calories on these cheat days. I just eat food I don't normally eat... like desert, or bread, pizza, etc.

This week has been particularly hard as I have (will have) a total of 3 social occasions.

i dont have cheat days, so that when something unexpected comes up it doesnt cause so much damage (well at least in my mind it doesnt)

Scrumptious Sundays! Its the only thing that keeps me in check for the entire week. It usually consists of not-too-bad-for-you pancakes and maybe something for dinner that I usually wouldn't have. Its the only day I don't count calories, but I know not to go overboard!

I look forward to Sundays, so the whole week I'm working out and eating good so I can really enjoy it and know I deserve it. Its a good boost for your metabolism too!

I don't have cheat days but I have cheat MOMENTS haha every now and then I'll let myself eat something that normally I wouldn't.. I think you have to do that every now and then. But I make sure to get right back on track for the next meal

This is pretty much what I do. It's difficult to go for more than a week without "cheating," since SO much of my social life involves going out to dinner. I aim for one "cheat meal" a week, but I'll often have two or three. Even on those days, though, I rarely go over 1800 calories.

Nope! I don't need one. Me and my boyfriend just decided that we were sick of being overweight, so we started preparing food at home, when we eat out we only eat half or we split it, we eat what we want but in moderation. Since I'm a vegetarian, I cook vegetarian, and my favorite thing to make are veggie tacos. We buy Taco Bell taco shells, the sauce, and the seasoning and use non-meat ground beef, and they taste amazing.

I can't have cheat days - I would go crazy and gain everything back I'd worked hard to lose during the other days!

I think that's why WW works for me... I know I have a set number of points and it's up to me to stay within them. I need that control and plan.

I think so people can cheat and do well, for me I just go overboard.

I think my only "planned" cheat days would go along the Christmas, Birthday, Thanksgiving line...but occasionally I'll just have a day that's too insane (i.e. 15 hours of shooting for a movie with only one - two breaks....so I'll pretty much HAVE to eat what's been catered in the food tent) and I'll allow myself to forget about the cals but still try to eat sensibly. I think if I had a "cheat day" every week I would go CRAZY on it and just end up binging.

So it's really a self-preservation thing for me!

i have one meal a week that is whatever i want but i try to make sure i dont sabotage the rest of the week's progress

Saturdays are my "treat day."

They aren't "cheat days" because I'm not cheating! It's most definitely a treat, not a cheat! :D

It is working beautifully for me, and has been for several months now. I get those food urges and cravings out of my system one day a week. The following day or so I make sure to eat at the low end of my calorie range to compensate for it, though.

I like how aplecheeks says treat day instead of cheat day. Every Wednesday my boyfriend and I have pizza and movie night. I usually stay within my calorie range. We get breadsticks and a pizza with cheese and mushroom. Usually i have enough calories to eat 2 pieces of pizza and 2 bread sticks. Sometimes i go a little overboard, but i look forward to this meal all week and its my little treat. Still losing so i dont think im harning anthing

uhm, I eat chips/cookies/cakes everyday, more specific is once a day. They are 100-150 calories/piece (a bag of chips, cookies, cakes, watever, as long as they are ~100-150 calories in total).
But once in a while, I eat 2-3 times that amount (which around 400 calories). Then I'll eat less in the whole day. So i dont know if it's counted as a "treat day", uhm... as long as I stay in my calories limit, I don't think too much about it :)

I don't have a "cheat" day, but I do try to let myself just relax once a week and have a dinner where I can remind myself that it's ok if it's a little more than normal. An example would be a meal out a restaurant or a bbq, etc. If I plan ahead, I'll be extra extra careful of my calorie intake that day, so I save up even extra for the evening if I know I'm going to be eating a bit more than I would normally. I am also a regular at the gym, so it helps to know that I'll be active in order to work it off.

This Friday I have a wedding at a place that has absolutely the BEST wedding food (well, party food in general) I've ever eaten and I couldn't be more excited! It's making me even more disciplined than normal this week because I don't want to have to worry/feel too guilty when I'm there and I want just enjoy myself. It's worth it because it IS a special occasion and I know that I've worked hard to enjoy it.

Funny you should mention this! This thread seems to have arrived right on time for me. Today (the 5th) is my birthday, and ever since I started trying to lose weight about 2 weeks ago, it's sort of been hanging over my head because I don't know whether I should "cheat" or not... It IS my birthday, and I can't imagine celebrating without a little cake or something, but then I think about how much progress I've made - and that so far I've had such iron-clad willpower - and it doesn't seem worth it to stop (even just once!) when I've only been going for such a short time... I want to keep the momentum going, you know? :shrug:

I think the best solution for me will be that I will allow myself to go a little over my usual calories, since it's a special occasion, but I'm not going to waste them on something that I'm not 150% craving. In other words, if I do "cheat," I'll make sure it's with something that I reeeally really want. For example, I'd usually get an ice cream cake to celebrate my birthday, but what I'm really craving right now is a slice of peanut butter cup pie from Baker's Square (my all-time FAVORITE dessert!), so why shouldn't I get that instead? And I'll probably allow myself to have a little chips and salsa, since that is my all-time favorite snack, hehe. But those will probably be my only splurges for the day; other than that I'm planning to stay OP (including getting in some exercise!).

I think "cheat" days can be a good thing for some people, but for myself I really want to limit it to major holidays, i.e. my birthday and Christmas... Maybe Thanksgiving/Easter. For me, it feels good not to have treats like that because I feel really empowered by turning down all of the things that I would have thought nothing of scarfing down before. Since I haven't really told anyone that I'm trying to lose weight, it's like a little mini-victory for me each time I see someone else eating something unhealthy that I'm not eating. I like to think about all the things I resisted on any given day--not in an obsessive way, but in a "d***, I have amazing willpower!" kind of way. :D

I'm too scared to have a "cheat" day, I think that with my dieting history something like this would lead to me restricting through the week and feeling deprived and then binging like crazy. however, I hadn't thought really about having a calorie-controlled "treat" day, say 400 cals more than normal.. that could be good and would be easy to compensate for.. mayeb it would do my metabolism good too! but honestly, at the moment I don't feel that I'm too deprived from anything I want.

:bday2you: enjoy your day, and i agree that you should be able to have your cake without feeling too guilty. Maybe it can be a part of celebrating your progress thus far too ^_^