I have lost almost 20 lbs eating already-prepared meals that I buy at the grocery store deli for dinner. I started with a meal delivery service, but I quickly realized that dinner is the meal where I tend to overeat and that it was much easier (and cheaper!) for me to prepare my own breakfast and lunch, and eat the fresh pre-prepared dinners. I'm in the Southeast, so I get my meals at Harris Teeter - they are all great (~400-500 calories) and very filling. They run about $5-$7 each, which compared to meal delivery prices, is very affordable.

Regarding "cheat" days/meals - I don't have specific days or times that I go off-plan, but if I want a burger or pizza, I will do it. That said, I don't do it that often (maybe once every 2 weeks), and if I do, like others have said - I "make up" for it elsewhere. I will say though that because of this (and my lack of exercise), my weight loss been slow and I have hit several plateaus - but it has been relatively steady overall. I think this is because I have made a big (for me) lifestyle change - mostly fresh food, very rarely frozen (which was the bulk of my diet before). I also very rarely feel deprived, it's just the restaurant cravings that get me every once in awhile.

This is something that has been on my mind quite a bit, as I have a few occasions coming up where I feel it's going to be difficult to eat well. One is Valentines day, when my husband and I are going out to dinner. That should be manageable, but I have no idea how to track the calories for that meal since the restaurant has a menu that regularly changes and no nutritional info. The second is my first travel since beginning calorie counting, and I'm really not sure yet how to handle 5 days of eating out.

Anyway, thanks to the OP for asking the question, and thanks to all those who have responded. Reading this thread has been very helpful for me.

I typically try to match it to something already in the food database I have or if I can easily identify ingredients, give it approximate numbers.

I've been wondering about this too.

At the moment I'm promising to allow myself something once per week if I'm particularly craving it. I'm not thinking of it as a 'cheat food' because it seems incredibly negative. I'm not really considering myself as 'dieting' either because the changes I'm implementing to my diet and lifestyle are changes I want to make permanent, and I know its entirely unrealistic to expect myself never to eat unhealthy food which I really love ever again.

Except, so far I've not really indulged any of my cravings. For instance last week I really wanted some chocolate, except when it actually came to buying/eating some it suddenly lost its appeal. So far I've only really spent my allowance on some alcohol at the weekend on social outings, and have made a concious effort to restrain from drinking my own body weight/getting post drinking munchies.

I'm currently aiming for 1250-1350 calories a day (I've dropped from 1400 a day in the last month or so as I near goal). I have a "high calorie day" every couple of weeks where I allow myself around 1500-1600 (sometimes up to 1800), and every once in a while since I started in March of last year, I've had a "super high calorie day" where I've tracked my calories but not limited them. Those days have been special occasion days: my birthday, Christmas, Thanksgiving, 4th of July are the ones that pop into my head.

Every one is different, but these are my reasons why I'm OK with high calorie days:
- diet fatigue leading to binging/overeating
- as a principle of calorie cycling, to keep my body guessing
- gives me something to look forward to, and keeps me from rationalizing that I can a have a cookie any day I want. Nope, I can't, I can have it on my HCD when I planned for it.
- As far as special occasions go, how do I want to eat on those for the rest of my life? That's how I should eat now. For me, that means eat what I want within reason.

Now, I don't want to sound like I have it all figured out, because I SOOOOO don't. Those guidelines above have come from some hard fought lessons, and my personal struggle recently is the risk of making my food plan too strict, leaving me no room for spontenaity or even life. So, in that sense, my HCD are psychological for as me as well, because they force me to see that it isn't all or nothing - I can eat over 1400 calories and not gain 75 pounds back overnight.

That seems like a good way to go, and is kind of what I was thinking - specifically, picking out something where I can easily identify the ingredients from the description. Thank you

I eat anywhere from 1650-1850 calories per day, and one day of the week I let myself go up to 2000-2100 calories. I tend to burn out quickly if I do the same thing over and over and over and over, so the break really helps me out. Granted, I am not gorging myself with food ~ yesterday was my "high" day and I allowed myself to have a white russian (yum!) and air-popped popcorn with butter. It actually keeps me sane, and it hasn't stalled my weight loss. It's never the same day of the week every week, but there are just days when I know that it is the day for some extra calories!

JenMusic, your post sounds so very much like what I've done as well. You've had tremendous success with it while I still have a lot of pounds to shed, so it's really encouraging to me to see your successes.

I think it's important to get used to "real world" eating. You're right, it isn't an all-or-nothing proposition, and eating the occasional unrestricted meal or even unrestricted day is part of understanding that. I've already tried extremes and it's obvious that they don't work for me, so this time I'm really taking the time to understand moderation.

Note that I said "unrestricted," but not "unrecorded" or "unaccounted for." The only two days I've gone significantly above my calorie count were Christmas and Thanksgiving; for both days, I didn't deny myself anything I truly wanted, but recorded everything just as I always do. I didn't restrict, but I didn't fail to count because whether I count a food or not, my body always counts it.

There was a fair bit of heated discussion a while back about whether calling it a "cheat day" or "cheat meal" is good, bad, or indifferent. I've come to believe that what you call it doesn't matter as much as what you mean by it. If you mean a meal/day during which you eat what you like and record it all without aiming for a particular calorie count, then yeah, that's probably a fine or even good thing to do sometimes. If you mean "today's the day that I get to gorge on junk until I feel sick, then not record anything and pretend like it never happened," that's not healthy.

That's why I don't use the word "cheating" for it, because for me it's all part of a greater plan. The only behavior I consider a "cheat" is eating stuff you pretend you didn't eat, and the only one you cheat by doing that is yourself. I prefer to think of it as a planned higher-calorie meal because I do take all those calories into account even though I don't restrict them.

Joyfulloser and I don't agree on the "cheat" terminology, but we are in 100% agreement on the behavior. And who could argue with her success when what she's doing is so clearly working well? Whether it's a "cheat meal" or a "planned overage" or a "free meal" or whatever, it's fine occasionally as long as it doesn't trigger a binge or make you lie to yourself.

I keep a calorie journal where I normally write down every calorie and I don't allow myself a cheat meal. However, when I have a special occasion I allow myself a day off from counting. I don't plan on it, but when it happens I just write down what happened that day and give myself a day off from counting calories.

This works for me. I don't consider it cheating so much as allowing myself a little bit of grace now and then.

You know, one of the thoughts that has popped into my head as I get closer to goal is this - if I can do it, anyone can. And I don't mean for that to sound arrogant or condescending. I really mean that, if someone like me who can't even remember NOT being obese/overweight (maybe as a toddler?) can do this, is IS possible. Losing weight isn't pie in the sky, or only for women who weren't "naturally fat" (which is how I always thought of myself).

The difference for me this time is I determined I would keep picking myself up and not throw in the towel over the slightest setback. SUCH a tidal change from my previous all-or-nothing thinking. It's made all the difference, and the freedom of an occasional, planned, high calorie day is essential to that.

My husband thinks the same way. Food is way too important to him to not have his cheats. In the same amount of time, I have lost 86 pounds, he has lost 40. I don't cheat. That's not to say I don't have foods that are usually not on my plan, but I faithfully count every calorie and deal with any consequences. My husband turns a blind eye to his cheats, thinking he is starting fresh every morning. Too many higher calorie days and I begin to gain wait. I can't stand having to re-lose the same pounds over and over again! I just do not want food to be something I look forward to, beyond a normal meal. There is just more things out there that I want to be more important to me than eating!

First, I have issues with with the word "cheat" but we've been over that .

An off-plan meal? Sure.

An off-plan DAY? No way. I have ready way too many blog posts from people who went nuts on a "cheat day". You can just do too much damage on an entire day off plan.

I plan meals with extra calories once in a while. It doesn't bother me, and I am losing weight just fine. I go out to eat 1-2 times a week and usually I order what I want, and not some limp green salad...and it works for me. An entire day would be just enough rope for me to hang myself with

I think Surfnmom was doing the Up Day Down Day thing...

For me, it has been important for me to learn how to not let food be a major pleasure in my life. It isn't that I don't eat foods that I like. I do. But I know that in the past eating out was difficult for me because I saw it as a special occasion and felt entitled to eat what I wanted. Even when I dieted and didn't do that, underneath it all I felt deprived not to be able to have what I really wanted. I would feel that way even if I ate at the restaurant and was "good" with what I ate. I wanted the enjoyment I received from having my favorite meal.

In the past several months I've really worked to change my attitude on this. Losing weight and being healthier is more important to me than any single meal. I do still eat out but have different levels of eating out.

Rarely, I will eat exactly what I want, paying little to no attention to calories/points (I count calories and follow WW). I actually did that last Sunday for the first time in 4 months and went about 500 calories over my usual non-active daily allotment. It did result in a weight gain for a couple of days but now that is all gone and I should show a small loss this week. There is no way I can do this every week. I did try it for awhile but ended up with weight loss of less than 1/2 pound a week. I just decided that losing weight is more important.

Eating out but staying within my calories/points. There are two variations of this.

One is when I go somewhere I enjoy. I don't eat everything I want but I do have smaller portions of enjoyable food. So I go to Taco Bell and have a single bean burrito for example or even add a soft chicken taco. But I can't really do this more than once a week or so. In the old days I would have had that food plus more.

Sometimes I unexpectedly need to eat out and really wasn't planning it. For those meals I just focus on eating within calories/points at lowest cost and don't really care if I love it. This happened this week when I went to Denny's one day. Sometimes I go there for breakfast but this was unplanned. I ate the chicken sausage, turkey bacon, etc. and got out for about 400 calories.

I've turned 4-6K calorie days into 2K calorie days just by ALLOWING myself a CHEAT meal (any food I want) once a week. This has prevented me from BINGING, or eating to excess...I no longer have the mindset that "oh well...since I've eaten this pizza, I'd might as well, finish this bag of cookies, and eat the last few slices of pie, and well, since I've gone off this far, might as well....(and so on and so on).

I've learned that it really doesn't take 4K calories to satisfy me...that 2K does the job just fine!