re: PuttaDaForkDown

I have a good friend who is a personal trainer. He has a cheat day every Sunday. And every Sunday I argue with him about his methods. He eats almost anything and everything. A ton of processed foods, sugars, calories, fats, just anything and everything. It's a gorge cheat. And I've never agreed with this kind of cheating. You will find articles and arguments on both.
My feeling, and understanding, based on hundreds of other accounts and my own personal trial and error over several years, is that if you are looking to lose weight and must cheat, then keep it as clean as possible.
There was a discussion in here about everyone's psychological relationship with food. I'm not hooked on food. Some are. If you NEED ice cream then my feeling is that there are much healthier options out there for you that will remind you of, or trick your mind into thinking it's ice cream. Rather than getting a pint of Ben and Jerry's.

Anyway. Went off on a tangent. My typical cheat day consists of me eating some bread. More carbs than usual. Maybe some rice if I go eat out and it's served with my meal. I don't drink, usually, during the week. So a few beers maybe. Cheese can be in there. All stuff I don't usually eat. But if I feel a need for a cheat day. Once every other week or so. Then that's what I'll do.
A "clean" cheat if you must. Don't worry so much if it's fitting in you caloric limit or macro levels. But don't go extremely overboard. Now sure, after over 2 months of clean eating and 3 times of clean cheating during that time, I had one weekend of basically not thinking about anything. Although I didn't let go all control, I enjoyed myself in New Orleans. But this is because I know my goals and what I need to do to reach them. Everyone is different. My mental strength is fairly strong so it's easy for me to not have cheat days.

Sorry. I know tl;dr. But basically I don't go nuts but don't keep it strict when I cheat. I eat a few things I don't typically and that's about it. Just be smart. Learn your body.