Explain Cheat Days

I get mixed messages on whether it's ok to have them or not. Do you guys have them? How many days? What meals?

I'm trying to lose weight.

I've had maybe two cheat days since I started dieting in December.

If you're weak willed, or not losing weight after a month, avoid them I feel.

there are basically two main reasons to have cheat meals/days. the first is purely psychological. if having a cheat day makes it easier for you to stick to a diet in the long term then that easily outweighs the extra calories.

the second is physiological and the goal here is to try to avoid the fucked up hormone levels you get after long term dieting. lyle mcdonald has written a lot about this, but as I understand it you need more than a single day for this to happen. you have to take several days break where you eat more or less normally.

either way you have to be honest with yourself here. if you eat too much your diet will fail and you have noone to blame but yourself. on the other hand, if you're able to use cheat days to reach your goals then there's nothing wrong with them.

cheatmeals once or twice per week, mostly burger/pizza on weekend when im out with friends. usually have a 500 calories deficit per day, that makes 3500 cals/ a week minus 1000 for the cheatmeals, so i'm still on a 2500 cal deficit/week. without them i would get bored of oats plus it's shitty to go out and not eat anything with friends

They key is to cook yourself and get good at it.

I don't have cheat days because I make the food I eat taste good. I hit all of my macros and have an ice cream or whatever I want at the end of the day because I budget for it. No need to wait a week or month, so I never "cheat."

cheat meal once every week.

and don't pig out : i know people who have "cheat meals" that basically equate to a whole pizza and four beers or whatever and that just negates their whole week of dieting.

usually it's food you can't eat because of their high calorie density. i tend to have a beer with a burger/2-3 slices of pizza for my cheat meals.

share your best recipe.

besides any excuse to eat shit and justify it with leptin fucking excuses there is no need for a cheat day, don't let these cunts say otherwise.

Fuck cheat days, go strict on the weekdays and have cheat weekends. That's what I do. You shouldn't be afraid to live a little- the tricky part is just keeping up with it.

There's a difference between cheat days and refeed days.

Cheat days you just eat whatever the fuck you want

Refeed days you eat about 300 cal over maintenance, mainly with carbs, in order to 'reset' your body out of starvation mode.

I run hard for 1 hour a day. Every day is a cheat day if I want it to be.

you're kidding yourself
running doesn't burn as much calories as you think it does

What type of Pizza do you have?! The largest pizza I've seen had 800kcal, so pretty manageable...

I have cheat meals every now and then, not entire days unless I'm on vacation, at a Trump rally, etc (basically all day events that make it hard to stick to my stricter diet).

I just make sure I lift as hard as I can every single time I go to the gym. I also try to bike/swim/run as often as I can make time for. I try to stay active and have a healthier lifestyle so that cheat meals don't kill me-- they usually just make me retain water for a day or so then it all drops off and I weigh normal again by 2-3 days time.

I think you're underestimating pizza calories.

A pizza from Domino's pizza, 12 inches, has about 1700 calories in total. A slice has about 210 calories in it.

Holy fuck, American pizza is fucked

I sprint hard. It burns a shitload of calories. I maintain the same weight no matter what I eat.

i have one cheat day per month.
i dont cheat too much id say, just normal diet breakfast, lunch and dinner but i will eat a bag of chips and some oreos

Cheat meal 1/2 times a week. Never a day. Just count your calories and make sure you're in a deficit still. It's ok to go over, but people seem to think its ok to be upwards of 1000+ calories over where they should be, and then gain all the weight they lost that week

fking drizzled with oil and sprinkled with fat

I usually just have one a week. Its never once impaired me or held me back. There's a lot of people on this sight who equate it to being "weak willed" though as if any one gives a shit

doesnt it revert all the effort throughout the week?

No. At worst you'll hold some water weight for like two days and might feel bloated for the next morning. How would eating MORE calories reduce the muscles you've built?

I do a cheat meal once a week. Usually lunch on Saturday. I still don't go over maintenance calories for the day, to me the cheat is just totally ignoring macros for the day.

meh, i mean, if youre trying to cut its pretty stupid right?

I believe the idea is to eat what you want and then regret it. It can be a problem if you eat a bunch of calorie bombs though.

It's better just make/bake your own shit. If you're into weighing and portioning your ingredients you should be able to do it without reaching surplus.

Congrats for having a good genetic metabolism.

Running at a rate of a 10 minute mile, you'll only burn like 200 kcal per 10 minutes - which is about 4 apples.

I went from 208 to 204. And people have noticed me get slightly skinnier. I did have cheat days but I always watched my calories and protein intake on those days. I didn't eat sugar covered garbage but I ate some fatty foods like pork and stuff. But I still got my daily workout in that day and I did a small cardio sessions those days as well. This was in a span of 5 weeks as well. It also depends on what your diet is.

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Cheat once a week at the most. It's just a way to keep your sanity and indulge in something you really like. Lowers your stress, enjoy life.

Problem is, for most anons every day is cheat day.

Maybe if you go overboard, but I have a cheat day once a week while cutting and I still always get down to 7-8% bf

What kind of weak-willed fat ass are you if you "have to" have cheat days? Fat logic. "I need this XL pizza, it's my cheat day lol!" "I deserved this cake" "I don't like the taste of water!"

I said to myself that there is no way in hell I'm going to give up on fries so I gotta find a way to eat them. So I save up calories for my "cheat days" by exercising. If I have for instance calculated that I have burned 4000 calories or something by exercise then I have my cheat day because it doesn't affect my planned weight. I lose and maintain what I plan with diet alone, and I exercise to look good and be fit, but in the end I have no idea if I'm going to be able to keep up the exercise I currently do, when I'm older for instance or if a job gets in the way, so I don't want to rely on it to keep my weight down. Despite that the effects of exercising don't disappear by me pigging out once in awhile.
It depends on if I crave something, how many times I do it. If I can live with the craving then I don't eat my fries. if I know I'll eat a shitload of other stuff to get rid of it, then fuck it, it's a "cheat meal".

Or a cheeseburger at McD. 200 calories per 10 minutes x6 1200 calories and you got yourself a birthday cake.

>not doing iifym and having a cheat day every day

don't be stupid, that's not what user said at all faggot

Not him but if you run thay pace for an hour thats around 1000kcal burned which is a lot

what do you eat on cheat days? what is the definition of overboard?

I used to have scheduled cheat days but they fucked me up so now i only cheat on very special occasions or when i am out with friends.