A whole day? No. An occasional off-plan planned treat? Yes, but I have to be feeling very much on top of my game at the time.....if that makes any sense.

I also don't have a cheat day...unless of course every day is a cheat day for me, lol. I eat what I want...the key for me is moderation. With me I have found that if I don't allow myself to eat what I want I will end up on a BIG binge. It's like when you tell someone to not look at something...if I think there is something I can't ever have it would not work for me. Mind over matter I guess.

I do have a free day though. Not a day to pig out but a free day from exercise, scheduled exercise. There have been days I did get in a little workout but for the most part Sunday is a day of rest.

I don't have a cheat day, but if most people looked at the stuff I ate everyday, it'd probably make me look like I cheat everyday. I can't say that I follow diet restrictions, but my calorie intake is around 1600-1800 each day. I eat til my stomach tells me "THAT'S GOOD ENOUGH. STOP EATING!" which for most meals is around 400 calories. I have 150 calorie snacks, which could be anything from pieces of cheese to crackers to fruit and so on. I can have things like fast food fries and cheeseburgers (typicall cheat foods to most people), but there's not much to eat until my stomach tells me to stop. I can have 1/2 a McDonald's cheeseburger and 5 fries, and I'm full. Practically stuffed, sometimes... I limit my "bad" foods because I generally have gotten used to craving good healthy foods, but I can only eat so much at a time, so I guess portion watching and intuitive eating never makes me feel like I'm cheating!

I'm not a fan of the idea of a cheat day. To me that implies there are off limit foods, and if foods are off limits... I binge.

But I have to admit I haven't been eating super healthy the past little while, so I'm trying to actually figure out a plan for myself to follow... but it will probably not include "cheat days".

For me, it doesnt matter if I'm full....my overeating is an emotional thing. Eat 5 fries and leave the rest.....uh, no! Not gonna happen. Fries are a major trigger food for me. That is why its best that I avoid them like the plague.

I'm afraid if I had a whole cheat day, it would completely stall my weight loss, because I have a tendency to go overboard when I eat off plan. When I was in a steady mode I was like Robin and really didn't WANT to cheat because I wanted to be rewarded when I got on the scale each week. Now that I'm maintaining, actually I'm trying to get down a few more pounds, I tend to not to follow my plan as perfectly on the weekends because my husband and I love to go out to eat. So once a week I'll have a couple of meals that include foods that I wouldn't normall eat and are slightly higher calorie than I normall eat, but I try not to give up and eat everything and anything I want. I'm actually beginning to think that this is what maintenance is going to look like for me for the rest of my life. Pretty following a careful diet most of the time with a few indulgences thrown in here and there.

Pam

I used to have cheat days once a week, then I cut it down to once a month, now I'm down to one cheat meal a month. And I only allow myself that if I was really good the rest of the day, since the cheat meal is usually dinner.

Yep, I have them. Free days, cheat days, whatever you want to call them. They're just days when I don't carefully track my points or calories. I know the connotation of "cheat" is bad, so I see why people don't want to call it that. I can't really say it's cheating anyway since I don't forbid any particular foods. The only sense that it's "cheating" is that I'm not staying within my allotted point range. So yeah, I've had huge meals of whatever I wanted here and there. Should I have? Probably not. My weight loss may have been faster if I didn't. Would I have stuck to my plan if I hadn't had those "cheat" days here and there? Absolutely not. I just know that about myself. If I feel deprived, I rebel.

However...I don't have a particular day that I set aside for going off plan. It's a special occasion kind of thing, or sometimes it's just an "it's the weekend and I feel like going out to a restaurant and ordering whatever I want" kind of thing. I'm quite sure I'll do it this way the rest of my life: most of the time I stay within my point (calorie) range, but sometimes I don't. Pair that with a good running schedule and I think I'll be able to keep the weight off and still feel like I'm not deprived.

Here are my thoughts on the "cheat day". I have been a compulsive binge eater for several years and food is a very serious addiction for me. I don't agree with cheats for people in my situation because it doesn't make any sense. It would be like an alcoholic or a drug addict taking a cheat day once a week or twice a month. I've really had to train myself to stop obsessing over food and if there was a day that I allowed myself to eat what I want it would break that habit. There are some times that I might make a very small allowance for an extra piece of fruit or an extra healthy treat. Well, that's just my take on it...

I'm kind of like you, Heather. I'm retraining myself NOT to overeat, so why practice it once a week. :shrug:

Jay

yeah, I guess cheating isn't necessarily about the types of foods in particular, it might as well be the portion. But you see, I thoughr most people would limit their foods just as a habit when coming to a proper diet and probably do that with their "cheat" foods. I can understand when people who binge eat cannot stop (used to be a closet binge eater myself) and I had to get rid of ithe habit, strangely, by limiting certain foods on the "cheat" list. I kind of lost the thrill of eating junk like french fries after a long while of NOT having them. Now when I have them, I'm not very impressed with them- which could either be a good or bad thing?

I don't "cheat", really, but I'm generally on a 1200-1300 cals/day plan, and every once in awhile I allow myself to go up to 1500-1600. After a couple weeks at 1250/day, a 1500 day seems amazingly decadant. Sometimes I'll plan for a meal that I'm craving, like deep fried chicken, but not very often.

So far, almost 90 days now, in my journey of better choices, I have never had what I would call a cheat day. I have gone out for dinner several times and had food that isn't good for me, like bread and chips, I just have tried to limit my consumption of them. A peice of bread instead of "keeping the waiter busy bringing me MORE-MORE!" and some chips with a lot of salsa instead of bowl after bowl of them. Plus I have learned that it is NOT against the law to bring some home for lunch the next day! I suddenly realized most restaraunt meals that I ordered were actually (although it didn't say it on the menu) for 2!

Cheat days - are you punishing yourself for being "good" on the other days because you are undoing what you worked so hard to accomplish. Treats for me are berries, an out of season veggie, a smoothie or FF SF Latte.

treat day
 

I don't have a cheat day; I tend to have a "treat day" which is every Saturday.

The reason for this is I am now doing regular exercise through out the week as well as sticking with the calorie counting and Saturday is my weigh in day so If I’ve been good and lost weight I take a walk to the local market which is about 2 1/2 miles away and treat myself to a chicken mayo with bacon baguette.

Even though its a treat I don't ever feel guilty for eating it when I’m calorie counting as I've already walked most of it off before its eaten :)