I have been reading and reading on here for weeks and many people keep saying "I had a cheat meal this week" and I had my daily "cheat" this morning, etc...

I ask then, what is a cheat? In my opinion, a cheat is a food that does not fit into your 6 well balanced meals a day. For instance, it is about 8 PM and I have one meal left to eat, so I have some tuna and a cup of veggies.... and then I have some popcorn. The popcorn to me is a cheat.

However, if I a small bowl of popcorn is calcualted into one of my early meals, then it is not a cheat, rather it is not the best food selection but the macronturients are weighed into my daily intake and I move on.

I have been eating clean for almost 3 full weeks now and if you read my journal, I feel great. However, I do keep some of the foods in my diet that work for me that some of you might call a cheat: low sugar oatmeal (brown sugar and cinnamon) and strawberries in my morning shake and more than 3 pretzels per meal somtimes... The closest thing I have had to a cheat is 1 cup of mashed potatoes from my favorite restaurant. Luckily I factored the calories and such into my daily allowances and considered it part of my meal and not a cheat.

I guess I am just curious as to what others think a cheat is and isn't. I think all of us find what works for us and stick with... and not everything we find that works for us will work for everyone else.

Pug

To me it's anything out of scope of the "ideal" or "planned" calories. That popcorn, if it shoots you over your calories for the day, would be cheating. A cheat day is one in which you throw away all inhibitions and you eat whatever for much/most of the day.

The main reason behind a cheat is to help keep the metabolism high while cutting. It takes you over your usuall calorie intake so that your metabolism revs back up.
It also helps people keep their sanity / Motivation up if they feel like their diet is a bit restrictive aswell.

Widers

I guess I am just curious as to what others think a cheat is and isn't.

Pug

Since my main goal is too keep my calories in a certain parameter, a cheat for me would be eating over my calorie limit. Therefore a cheat meal would be a meal that would more than likely do that (Chinese Buffet, for instance)

Though yesterday I stayed within my calorie limits, but had a huge brownie at a party...since brownies tend to be one of those foods that can start me down a slippery slope...I considered that a "cheat" as well.

My goals for my diet include knowing how much calories, fat, carbs and protein I consume (calories being the most important to me ) and avoiding "sweets" and high fat food....anything outside of that would be "cheating"

Crispy Duck (Knusprige Ente) is a cheat...and a yummi one at that ;)

Seriously though, a cheat to me is anything that is not normally within my daily diet...pizza, duck, burger, etc....

Everybody defines "cheat" differently. My definition is as follows...

My wife and I pick a day - usually Saturday - and we have one solid cheat meal and one cheat snack. I have said many times... my weakness is Oreo cookies, so my snack usually involves Oreos (DQ Blizzards rock!!). Our meal? Anything we want on this planet. The rest of the day is spent eating within normal parameters, with the exception of usually skipping our afternoon meal or substituting a small snack (an apple or something) with the intent of enjoying our cheat meal that much more because we're really hungry for it.

Others do a whole day. I don't like that philosophy much as I know my body. I'm pretty sensitive to extreme changes in dietary intake even if it is only one day. My body doesn't process "unclean" foods very well anymore; I pay a terrible price the next day, usually spent in agony on the porcelain throne.

Cheat within reason, don't overly stuff yourself, and remember... it's a necessary part of your program, required to keep the thyroid on its toes and the metabolism kicking.

My definition of a cheat day is to have something like 25%-50% more kcals on the cheat day and not pay too much attention to macronutrient ratios.

For example, I usually aim at 2000kcal per day. If I have my self-arranged cheat day on saturday (meaning that I don't have some friends over on sunday, which would make it a potential cheat day) I would eat a pizza + some ice cream, upping the calories to somewhere between 2500-3000 for that day.

But that's it. That single pizza lunch/dinner + ice cream after sauna (a habit in our family) and nothing else. Snacks etc. are in line with the diet. I do not do cheats in any other day. Period.

Others do a whole day. I don't like that philosophy much as I know my body. I'm pretty sensitive to extreme changes in dietary intake even if it is only one day. My body doesn't process "unclean" foods very well anymore; I pay a terrible price the next day, usually spent in agony on the porcelain throne.

I had noticed my body doing the same thing (although I have been really bad for the last week or so and my body is now handling it), up until this past week if i had a cheat day I could really feel it, and it felt bad. At the same time it is a great feeling knowing my body would no longeer accept that crap.

Just a question here, is really having a cheat day once a week is okay? I mean for me, a cheat day would be eating all the types of foods that I don't usually eat on my daily diet, and I usually binge when on my cheat day... Is that okay?

a cheat for me, is a peice of sushi once a week, i dont need no cheat days where i stuff my face with crap all day and destroy alot of my progress for a few cream filled puffs, im stronger than that
a cheat meal a week is acceptable, but do you really need a whole day of eating crap? i dont think anyone does
i had a cheat day once, after 7months of no cheating :) it was funish, i did feel sick, and was on the toilet alot the next day :p i dont think i need that experiance every week :)

maybe a day where you forget about your diet, and just eat healthy food would be better, i've found since i dont follow a strict diet anymore, dont count calories, dont plan meals as such, just eating very healthy, that i dont crave crap food at all anymore, i'd rather make myself a peanut butter + banana + honey sandwich, which is heaven to me, and is pretty healthy! i also like sushi once or twice a week, but other than that, im 100% healthy no donuts or anything else, its amazingly easy, it was just the strictness of my diet that was making me crave stuff

Just a question here, is really having a cheat day once a week is okay? I mean for me, a cheat day would be eating all the types of foods that I don't usually eat on my daily diet, and I usually binge when on my cheat day... Is that okay?Well, I wouldn't take the "day" part literally in "cheat day". At least for me, one cheat meal (pizza) + one cheat snack (ice-cream) is quite enough to keep me happy. I don't see any reason why would you want to go on a binge for the whole day...

Just a question here, is really having a cheat day once a week is okay? I mean for me, a cheat day would be eating all the types of foods that I don't usually eat on my daily diet, and I usually binge when on my cheat day... Is that okay?


The bigger you cheat, the less you should do it. Since I could easily pack 5000 cal into one day if I really tried, I could put on weight by following my diet strictly for 6 days and 'cheating' for one day. What would be the point in that?

Yeah... you're absolutly right... The only thing that made cheat all day is because of my strict diet and the result wasn't too good, infact it was devastating. Since yesterday, I am no longer on a strict diet, I'm just trying to eat healthy every 3 hours and if I want something naughty, like for example a pudding or a cake, than I would eat half of it with one of my meal and the other half on the other meal. What I realize is that I no longer crave for CHEAT food and I'm actually eating what I like (in moderattion of course)...

Yeah... you're absolutly right... The only thing that made cheat all day is because of my strict diet and the result wasn't too good, infact it was devastating. Since yesterday, I am no longer on a strict diet, I'm just trying to eat healthy every 3 hours and if I want something naughty, like for example a pudding or a cake, than I would eat half of it with one of my meal and the other half on the other meal. What I realize is that I no longer crave for CHEAT food and I'm actually eating what I like (in moderattion of course)...

This is the way to start on a program (or rather a way of life) that you will be able to live with and progress from and build on indefinitely. Eventually you will be able to decide whether you want to gradually give up certain foods altogether or continue eating/drinking them. You can still be very healthy eating cake occasionally.