How many cheat days can i have?

[Andrew77]

how many days can i have where i can relax and don't watch what i eat?

[threenorns]

that's strictly up to you - but the more cheat days you have, the slower your progress will be and a solid binge can go far to undo progress made.

myself, i have cheat "moments" - five of them a week where i allow myself 5 pieces of black licorice (250cals), or something similar.

otherwise, i'd have one cheat meal every two weeks.

certainly not a cheat DAY....

[maverick]

Depends, are you in the bulk/cut camp or are you just trying to stay healthy and progress at a slower rate, not adding ANY unnecessary fat? When I cut, I have 0-1 cheat MEALS a week. When I bulk, I have 1-3 cheat meals a week. When I maintain, I basically just try to make sure my calories for the day don't rise above a preset limit (Currently 3300).

Like 3norns said, its all a matter of how much you want to slow your progress. This will be much less pronounced on a bulk, but when cutting, you can undo a day's worth of cardio really easily.

[D'Antony]

I normally reserve 2 cheat meals a week, preferrably during the weekends. I'll have one cheat meal on Saturday and one on Sunday. That way, I don't feel like I'm depriving myself of anything. But I HAVE to make sure that my nutritional habits are good from Mon-Fri in order to me to reward myself with the cheat meals. And I try not to overdo it during the cheat meals.

[F-4-L]

dont see them as cheats. if you do really good for say a week, have a meal that you really like as a reward. This should help motivate to work on your goals.

[Cort]

I'd drop the cheat days and replace them with cheat meals once or twice a week if you really need them.

A full day of cheating is far more harmful than one meal (unless you gorge a days worth of food into one meal, which is just stupid and wasteful )

[D'Antony]

..lol it sure is.. I used to have cheat days..and they were disasterous. I did a week's worth of damage in one day. So I wised up and had to cut it back to only having cheat meal on Sat and one on Sun.

[Merrida]

I have the hardest time understanding this viewpoint...the whole "cheating" factor in general, whether it's a "day" or a "meal." When I started lifting, I ate what I wanted, plain and simple. But what I learned over time to "want" became incorporated into a nutritional plan that included foods and flavors that pleased me without attaching a lable of "cheat" ...that implies I'm doing something "bad" while all my other days or meals are "good"....

What I "want" to eat, I'll grant you, may not be what you'd "want" to eat. I don't crave beer or chicken alfredo or heavy pasta dishes or gobs of bread dripping in olive oil or a sundae. So by eating what I "want" I never feel the need to "cheat" on my plan,...How I eat IS the plan, all the time. I don't reserve time to do something deliterious to my efforts. If I want what some people might call a "cheat"...I have either fashioned my own versions of it, I situate portion sizes that are small WITHIN my program,.... but I just really don't get the whole "cheating" scenario.

My opinion,...once you start "cheating" you set yourself up.

[Firehawk]

Merrida you're lucky becasue you don't crave the foods that are so heavy in calories that they absolutely can destroy you even cheating in one meal.

People like this, who tell me "I don't crave pastas, pizza, mc donalds, etc" will never ever ever ever understand what someone who does goes through and how difficult it is to completely stop eating it, especially when they have a problem with quantity.

I do however agree with what Merrida said though about the word "cheating". It does imply that you're being naughty on your diet. From what I've been through, I used to basically deprive my body for 6 days by eating only about 1800 calories a day (which for me is nothing) and then scratching and clawing to a cheat day in which i binged and ate 8000 calories of "pastas, pizza, ice cream, mc donalds, etc". Whatever i wanted, basically. This basically made me take 3 steps forward and then 2 back.

So, best advice I can offer is to figure out the calories of your "cheat" meal and calculate them before you eat it. This will help detour you from binging on too much of it. For instance, i had a big weakness with taco bell. I'd get 10 tacos, 2 nacho bell grandes, and sour cream on all the tacos. That's 4450 calories guys. You can't eat like that and expect to lose 3 lbs a week, even if it's 1 stinkin meal. And to top it off, I'd have another 3000 calorie meal later int he day, usually pizza and ice cream.

So my point is, wheni actually sat down and figured out i was eating 4500 calories in one meal, i rethought my cheat meal. I said "ok, i'll get 10 tacos but ill get 10 without sour cream and they'll all be hard shell". That's 1700 calories ( i still remember). Big BIG difference, a whole pound worth of calories gone nearly from the diet. I mean, so what, so you eat 4000 calories one day, big frickin deal. You probably burned 3000-3500 of them!!!!!! It'll all even out anyway.

I guess my point is, in life you gotta hvae your tacos, you gotta have your pizza slices, and you gotta have your brownies. You just need to learn moderation.

[Merrida]

I never said that I didn't crave those foods.....there ARE times, when I might find myself wanting bread with garlic, some pasta drizzled with olive oil and herbs, and on the very, very rare occasion, ice-cream (but that tends to not sit so well with me). But what I'm saying is this,....I don't crave it in terms of encorporating eating those foods on "cheat" days....if I want some pasta, I'll eat some pasta (but I'll eat soba noodles, or sometimes even real pasta, but in very small amounts, complimented by a solid protein source and good fat).

Don't get me wrong, I eat foods that are "not healthy" if I were to follow a 100% totally perfect diet plan. But what I'm saying is that I've either learned, trained, or just by chance developed my "preferences" for foods that aren't that far off the scale.

Example: If I "crave" a big mac, I'll get one. I'll eat 1/3 of it, and those cals get figured into my plan for that day, and I will automatically balance out the remainder of my food intake.

By not allowing myself the separation of indulgences and good days, those separation of terms, I never feel deprived. I want a cookie, one fig newton works (yes, sugar and carbs)....but I'm not deprived or saving up for a time when I can down a sleeve of those critters.

Portion control is one aspect. A greater aspect is that by eating well over time, your body loses it's "desire" to crave those calorie dense foods that cause fall off. Since "the way I eat" overall is pretty balanced (I'm sure it's nothing compared to cursor) but it's what I've found worked for me.....it has helped create that NON-distinction between "cheat" and "okay" days. And THAT is the point I'm trying to get across.