I’m confused if the cheat applies to the calories or the nutrients. The other day I ate a whole bag of Doritos, and I felt terrible.
So, what does your cheat day look like?
Eat and fit in foods you like and you won’t have to ‘cheat’. I don’t have cheat days because I don’t restrict anything.
Personally, I wouldn’t worry stuff like that. You had a bag of doritos, so what? When you hit your goal weight, are you going to think “boy, I wish I didn’t have those doritos that one day.” No. So, don’t worry about small stuff or stress out over food so much. It’s fine to eat and sometimes indulge in things you like.
Of course changing your eating habits is key to weight loss, but you’re looking for consistency, not perfection.
A cheat day should just be a day that you’re less strict with your diet. Don’t make it a point to go crazy. It’s primarily used to keep you sane, on track, and treat yourself with eating what you want.
My cheat day looks like everyday, because I don’t ‘cheat’ I just have things I want in moderation or delay as needed. I’m certainly not perfect, and I have days I slip up that might as well be cheat days. But as you mentioned, cheating gives a free pass to overindulgence and eating like that was how I ended up where I was. I’d rather work on my relationship with food, which include things I enjoy.
What I’ve had advised, is not to have cheat days, but to have days when eat at maintenance, or maybe a slight surplus. This helps ensure than your metabolism remains at a healthy level, and doesn’t drop excessively as a result of regular time-restriction. This becomes more of an issue as you age & metabolism responds to diet differently.
I wake up to grab a pint of ice cream and go bananas from there. I often end the day with a pint of ice cream, over 4K cal easy. I should probably tone it down, but I dropped 45 lbs and have been maintaining for close to a year.
Don’t really consider them cheat days. I just normally try to do omad at about 1300 Cals per day so if I decide I want a pizza or to indulge in something it rarely blows the calories out of a deficit because I’m not normally eating for the rest of the day.
Reflecting on it, a cheat day for me is probably going out for some day drinks every once in a while. Way easier to drink more calories than eat!!