Is 1 cheat meal per week whilst cutting bad?

[jase_is_ace]

assuming you stay under your calorie intake

[BIGandSTRONG]

Its fine. I have 2 cheat meals a week with my girlfriend (or else she will kill me) and I am still losing weight fine. For some reason women get really angry when going out with guys that dont eat more than them haha

[ThousandEyes]

For some reason women get really angry when going out with guys that dont eat more than them haha

It shows weakness :P

[MrMarr]

assuming you stay under your calorie intake

Dude I have a entire cheat day every week, sometimes 1.5 cheat days, and still lose 2-3 pounds a week easily.

imo It's not only ok but it's important. Just like how in the NROL for fat loss program they talk about taking 1 week off after a program run, the cheat day kind of works the metabolism the same way. If your eating at a calorie deficit, or really low carb like me, than your metabolism will downgrade and adjust to that very easily. The best way to offset that is to give it a good caloric (or carb in my case) spike every week. That way you can keep your leptin responsive and keep your metabolism high while losing fat.

If you do go for full blown cheat days, don't be alarmed if you gain a few pounds the first few days. Typically when you cheat and eat sugar / processed food, refined carbs etc, you'll gain a lot of water weight.. but if you go right back on your plan the day after, than you'll lose the excess water within a few days. I go through this process every week, and still manage to lose 2-3 pounds of primary fat at the end of my week.

[AlwaysTryin]

the cheat day kind of works the metabolism the same way. If your eating at a calorie deficit, or really low carb like me, than your metabolism will downgrade and adjust to that very easily.

Downgrade?? Ughhhh

[Cruz2030]

Iifym dude you'd be surprised as hell what you can make fit. Either just say f it cause its only one meal or one day or if your really worried then find out what's in it and then just fill your macros around it.

[XIJoshIX]

NO, one cheat meal is fine man,
it will stop you from craving and you deserve some pleasure of food once in a while, even if its just a little bit.
That one day where you accidently go over your maintenance when cutting, just do some cardio, remember
Calories in vs. Calories out :P

[Tubbymcgill]

I think the key is "controlled" cheat.
Yesterday I knew I was eating dinner at my mom's and ate super light up until then and ended up consuming way more calories than I usually do in a day (with lotsa carbs too, baked potato, garlic bread, apple pie, ice cream), and still
managed to stay barely under maintenance.
I woke up this morning 1 pound lighter.

[AlwaysTryin]

I think the key is "controlled" cheat.
Yesterday I knew I was eating dinner at my mom's and ate super light up until then and ended up consuming way more calories than I usually do in a day (with lotsa carbs too, baked potato, garlic bread, apple pie, ice cream), and still managed to stay barely under maintenance.
I woke up this morning 1 pound lighter.

You must eat at a huge deficit usually...

[GoUSAguy]

I drank two days in a row, but didn't go over maintenance. Was this good? No, because I had to suffer a bit during the middle of the day to take in less food. I did this as a reward to myself because I have improved so much over the last 3 months and lost 25 pounds. I don't plan on doing this very often because food is better for you than alcohol. Once every three weeks is about my average right now in terms of alcohol consumption. Even then I don't do what I used to, which was eat cheese and chips after drinking. Not to mention a big Chinese food meal before drinking.

Calories in, calories out. So yes, you can cheat but it all depends on how many calories you restricted before the cheat meal. I don't know why people make this so complicated.