Does anyone have a cheat day? If so what are the circumstances and how often do you cheat?

I saw on biggest loser that they are allowed one cheat meal a week.

... what do you think?

I think of it more as a "relaxed" day, or a treat day. I don't like the word cheat. 'Cause I'm not cheating, I'm certainly not doing anything bad. Just living life.

But more to your question, I do. But it's not formal. I know for many people it is, but for me it's more about fitting in social events, enjoying myself, and not inconveniencing others or drawing too much attention to myself. I really like having a relaxed approach to it, but I know that doesn't work for many others.

Some people have said they eat anything they want on a "cheat" day. I don't, I just still stay within reason. I still only have a small portion of dessert. But normally I don't eat dessert every day. A lot of times I have figured out after the fact that I was low on calories on a relaxed day because I didn't calorie count it ahead of time, so I was conservative on eyeballing my portions. My relaxed days come down more to "what" I eat than how much I eat. I really don't want to keep my body expecting binges ever, or even to expect to get overstuffed ever.

Nice, I like the thought of "relaxed day" it has a nice ring to it.

Yes I do the cheat meal a week. I am doing the ABS plan from Men's health and it calls for that.

It definitely helps and I figure as long as I eat right the rest of the time I should be ok and it helps me stay on the plan the rest of the time.

I do not use a cheat meal, or cheat day while I am in weight loss mode. However, during maintenance-I do.

For maintenance, some people up their daily calorie intake some, to get them into maintenance level. Instead of doing that, I ate at weight loss calories for 6 days out of the week, and had a "free day" one day a week for maintenance. Usually the free day was Saturday, unless there was a holiday or something-and I would do it that day instead. (Like Thanksgiving)

It worked out for me, because if I went up a pound or two from the free day, the scale went back down over the next 6 days. It was "my" way to maintain. However, I did not stuff myself, or binge. I tried to eat normal portions-but if I wanted pizza for dinner I could have it.

However, a free day would have caused me to stop losing weight, especially near goal. In my opinion, especially for WOMEN, a cheat MEAL would be better for weight loss.

On the Snack-All-Day diet, one can combine two snacks for a larger meal on the weekends -- I would also do this on special occasions.

If you do a search for "cheat", the subject comes up a lot and there are a lot of good posts on it.

I personally don't like the word "cheat" because ... well ... what would I cheat on? My life?

I try to eat within a range of calories and I track those calories on line. I try to exercise at least 5 days a week.

On the weekends I relax my tracking - instead of writing down every single thing I eat, I just estimate in my head. I allow myself a few extra calories on the weekends as part of the not tracking.

But I don't consider that a "cheat" ... I just consider it part of my life. I can't forbid myself food or I know I'll crave it. But I can limit the number of times I indulge myself to once a week (or less).

.