I'm just wondering what people consider a cheat meal to be.

I'm in my 6th week of dieting and everything, had my first cheat meal on 3/24 (steak+mash potatoes). I prepared for it by drinking 2 gallons of water on that same day and then the next. That same night I gained 2lbs, the next day I lost those 2 lbs and and additional 2.

Two weeks later, yesterday, I had just finished doing my cardio, come up stairs only to see my aunt had made chicken Lasagna. Yum yum. I figured it had been two weeks so I took a solid plate sized serving. Same as last time, the meal was relieving and very good, but also left me feeling very stuffed although it wasn't a ridiculously large serving. But anyway, I did not want to weigh myself only because I felt I'd be discouraged since I had not planned for this. I drank about 36-40 oz of water after that, resulting in 3 stops to the bathroom in the span of 4 hours between then and bed time! Had a couple small spoons of cottage cheese as my final meal just before sleeping. This morning I decided to weigh myself, I was a pound lighter then what I was on Sunday, so really this cheat meal did nothing to harm me which leads to my question, what constitutes a cheat meal? I was under the impression, even meals like this you gain weight, and I don't think I drank a gallon of water yesterday. Just a little confused because if this is the case, I don't understand why I would be so concerned to cheat every week or so.

And with that brings me to my next questions. How do people plan for cheat meals? How do they have it per week? How often? Is it because they know it won't hurt their diet? So far in both instances I've had very good recovery/experiences with my cheat meals, and it seems my body reacts very well to them.

Sunday will be the end of week 6 for me, to this point I've lost 17 lbs. Dieting, 30 min of cardio everyday, just last week began weight lifting 3 days per week.

That's not a cheat meal by my standards!

Basically your body is now running very efficiently. Your metabolism is fast because you are feeding yourself good nutrition at regular intervals. Personally I think the whole concept of calories contained in food and energy used can be very misleading. As you found, your body ditched most of your "cheat" food very quickly. It takes more energy to process the excess and by no means is all extra energy stored as fat.

I think having the things you like is important, and for me at least weight is not gained unless I consistenly overeat poor quality food for a sustained period of time.

there is nothing wrong with steak, and as long as there isn't a crazy amount of butter and cream in the potato's I think they are fine too. The lasagna probably was a bit carb heavy. My cheats usually contain rediculous amounts of refined carbs and fat, ie pizza, cheese steaks, fries and soda.

I usually only cheat when something special comes up. Friend's bday, anniversary, celebration dinners, etc. It averages about once a month or so.

I consider a cheat anything that I do not normally eat throughout a regular week. Could be something simple like an ice cream or something as big as pizza, beer, nachos, wings, donuts (Superbowl Sunday ;) ).

I eat lean meat about once a week, the rest of the meals are fish and chicken breast.

Sometimes a cheat meal for me is crap like pizza and candy. Other times it's still clean foods, just more than my calorie requirements. I don't like using the term "cheat meal" honestly. For me, eating clean is a permanent thing and "cheat meal" makes it sound temporary. But I digress...:p

Jason

When I'm feeling crappy due to low glycogen. Usually this occur within a week of low calorie diet. I use the term "refeed", rather than cheat meal because cheat meal is synonymous with pizza, chocolate, cakes, candy bar, donuts etc... That's not what I usually eat, in fact I don't like them that much... :o

The term refeed for me means eating double the amount I would normally eat. On my refeed day, I start it like a normal day, but at the end of the day, usually afternoon, I'd eat a lot until I'm satisfied, sometimes binge occur. The result, usually I skip dinner because I'm still feeling stuffed. And I still count calories on my refeed day. :eek:

So refeed usually happens once a week where I'd eat double my normal amount. Usually breads (overprocessed, but I love it :drool: ) That's suppose to replenish the carb in my body for a week. But cheat meal happens to me every now and then, especially if my mom cooks or I'm craving something so badly :eat: But I never binge on cheat meal.I just treat them as normal meal, but with less-nutrition.
In fact, for lunch today I just ate 1 cup spaghetti, the sauce was considerably healthy, made with real tomatoes, and some cheese. Approximately 350-400 calories :d_smile:

You know, when I hear people worry about an immediate weight gain of 2-3 pounds from one meal, I scratch my head a little. Sure, your body weight may go up a little, but it's not because the food you ate was a 'cheat meal'. It's because of the weight of the food. No amount of preparation can make that food weigh any less than it does. Drinking 2 gallons of water, as good as that may be for you, doesn't change what your 'cheat meal' food weighs.

You may retain a little water for a day or so. But most of the weight increase you see is because you have extra amounts of food in your system. Often, when we have these 'free meals', the food we eat is more dense and heavy than our regular diet. In 24-36 hours, you will probably see a sudden drop in weight after a visit to the toidy.

True fat gain happens from consistent overeating. A couple larger meals per week won't hurt you a bit as long as you keep them reasonable.

You temporarily gain weight when you drink water, too. But I wouldn't recommend cutting back on the H2O.

Manny, congrats on the weight loss. It's good to see that you have started lifting. You should have done that from the beginning--but just keep working those muscles. In my opinion (and others agree), a good lifting program is far more important for fat loss than the cardio. :gl:

very interesting view Leftnut, I never actually noticed the obviousness of that. Its seems very logical...dense food=more weight. And all this time I have been wondering what exactly causes the weight gain from 'cheat meals'. :confused:

"I know now, and knowing is half the battle...GI JOE!!"

Supa

You know, when I hear people worry about an immediate weight gain of 2-3 pounds from one meal, I scratch my head a little. Sure, your body weight may go up a little, but it's not because the food you ate was a 'cheat meal'. It's because of the weight of the food. No amount of preparation can make that food weigh any less than it does. Drinking 2 gallons of water, as good as that may be for you, doesn't change what your 'cheat meal' food weighs.

You may retain a little water for a day or so. But most of the weight increase you see is because you have extra amounts of food in your system. Often, when we have these 'free meals', the food we eat is a more dense and heavy than our regular diet. In 24-36 hours, you will probably see a sudden drop in weight after a visit to the toidy.

True fat gain happens from consistant overeating. A couple larger meals per week won't hurt you a bit as long as you keep them reasonable.

You temporarily gain weight when you drink water, too. But I wouldn't recommend cutting back on the H2O.

Manny, congrats on the weight loss. It's good to see that you have started lifting. You should have done that from the beginning--but just keep working those muscles. In my opinion (and others agree), a good lifting program is far more important for fat loss than the cardio. :gl: