This cheat meal... Who are you cheating with it? See? So what you really want here is that someone tells you... Sure, go ahead, i do the same? So, you're weakness will be perfectly justified by someone else weakness...

My point is you are not cheating anyone but yourself, on purpose. How smart is that?

Tell you want.... Tonight i'm gonna steal my car... I'll play a prank on myself, so tomorrow, when i'm gonna walk in the lot, i wont see it and will freak out. Ooooo this will be so much fun....

I don't think it makes a lot of sense to do it "once a week". If you feel the need to follow one specific protocol someone else has set up -no matter if it is called PaNu oder Paleo or EatWhatMakesYouHappy- then DO it. If you want to eat somehting else then do that.

Personally I don't know why anybody else should have the right to call me a cheater based upon what I decide to eat.

And I think that's what this community is about: Getting and sharing information and drawing YOUR OWN conclusions based upon what you know (or think you know). It does not matter what I think about your cheat day. If you want to eat that rice-laden oh-so-delicious Tekka Nigiri then go for it! You know what it does to you, to your taste buds, your well-being, your eyes, your nose and your gut.

You have the privilege, the right and the obligation to decide for yourself.

It depends on the cheat. Rice, no issues. Cheating that often with wheat makes gluten elimination irrelevant. My understanding is that gluten can affect the system for about 2 weeks after consumption. So cheating that often means your body is constantly challenged by gluten. The amounts will be much smaller than in a normal diet, but your body never really gets to heal in a gluten-free manner.

The phrasing of this question suggests that one might "plan" to cheat. I can't get my head wrapped around this. If one's diet is hard to stick to, laborious, or otherwise unsatisfying, then one needs to change the diet. Planned cheating is like planned adultery. It just seems worse than accidental adultery.

Shouldn't a balanced diet leave one satisfied? If it doesn't, this is almost a working definition of "fad diet."

Cheat Day ? No way I'd do it ...and I live in Australia where most , if not all eat CRAP as a staple ..and I aint gonna eat that crap as well .....you will only cheat yourself !

Personally, I don't consider eating Neolithic foods 'cheating'. I basically follow Panu.

I'm pretty sensitive to what I eat especially my digestion, but don't get health consequences when I consume small/moderate amounts of many 'off plan' foods, and I highly doubt I'm unhealthier from eating them. I can't have small amounts of wheat and feel fine, so I don't. White rice, I eat all the time - it's totally harmless starch for me. If I eat too much total starch, I'm not going to feel well cause my blood sugar will crash, so I don't.

Now, a 'cheat day' involving binging on everything you usually don't have - I'm sure you'd feel like crap, and it would be very bad for you. But a few beers and a bite to eat here and there are probably not going to hurt you at all. If I were you of course I'd eat rice products but avoid wheat more stringently, even if you don't get symptoms from consuming it. A lot of the most prominent Paleo/health bloggers would agree - wheat is the worst grain even if you don't have celiac or gluten sensitivity.

I don't think you should plan a "cheat" at all. If you happen to be somewhere like a social gathering and there is something there that is not paleo then go for it, in my opinion you should stay away from gluten however. I think focussing to much on a "cheat" creates unhealthy thought patterns towards food, I mean it's not as if we're deprived of gorgeous foods eating paleo, we're just not bombarding our systems with toxic foods everyday. Paleo foods are amazing and tasty.

Well I cheat 1 or 2 meals a week. So far they are not hindering my progress but if they do I'll eliminate them.

Since going paleo, there are some items that I can't tolerate now. E.g. I was addicted to coca cola but now it gives ke headaches and I don't crave for it anymore.

If you need to 'cheat', go for it! Cheating one day a week of means you're Paleo approx 85% of the time which is great. Cheat with caution however; monitor your body's responses to the food and drink you consume on your cheat day and it's advisable to lower the glycemic load of foods like white rice by consuming them with fresh veg. Ultimately, life's for living and your diet has to work for you personally. Enjoy it!

Cheat days really messed me up. I tried one month of strict paleo 6 days a week with one cheat day and it was a miserable failure. That was 2 months ago and I am still trying to get over the MENTAL damage it did, mostly through the re-introduction of sugar into my diet. We all have different personalities, so think about yours and how you best handle things like what you plan to cheat with. I do better if I stay away from it as much as possible, so going to a cheat day really wasn't the right thing for me. It's better if I save sugar for my birthday or Christmas or something.I never, ever cheat with gluten-containing items. For ME, it's easy enough to not eat those things but that is partly because I love sugar WAY more than bread. Long story short, think long and hard about your food personality. And then monitor yourself very closely if you attempt a cheat day.

I do not think that you should plan out your "cheat" meals. Things like that should happen organically or you can become dependant on them. If every saturday night you eat a pizza but the rest of the week you don't, you might spend your whole week dreaming about saturday night.

"Cheating" is fine but creates setbacks in your health. If you are okay with the setbacks or negative consequences (sugar crashes/gi issues) of cheating then don't worry about it.

Life is meant to be lived. Paleo is there to help us live better, but if it gets in the way it's up to you to decide. Use the research and make educated decisions.

my cheat day is usually chicken wings and sweet potato fries, or Chinese/Japanese food. So, I'll consume some Generals chicken, or some kind of stir fried chicken. I haven't had pizza/pasta or anything of that sort in months. The breading on the chicken and the sauces are the cheat for me, and if I do cheat, it's 1 meal, once a week/every other week, and I don't typically feel like crap because of it.

I agree with some earlier comments that a "cheat day" might be setting yourself up for disaster. If you schedule a cheat, even when you don't want it you might eat it anyway b/c it's your cheat day. You might consider having a healthy meal before you go to the party so you are less tempted to eat the wheat-based food.

I allow myself a piece of dark chocolate or a few spoonfuls of ice cream after dinner, but I don't consider this cheating because I don't think there is anything wrong with dark chocolate or ice cream (the right type of ice cream) as long as only a small amount is consumed at one time. Things like this are best eaten after a satisfying and healthy meal, which usually eliminates my desire for something sweet anyway.

I think having a cheat day per week will do 4.35 times as much damage as having a cheat day per month. If you want to make it better, drop all wheat products and stick to rice if you think you need empty carbs.

I save slack days for emergencies and when I am out on the road, needing to make do.

It depends on the individual. Over the last year and a half i was around 80/20. This didn't work out so well. My "cheats" would be going completely off the paleo wagon! More like cheat weekends. I personally don't like the word "Cheat" meal. I wasn't cheating anyone or myself when i would eat a giant shrimp burrito washed down with a few delicious beers. I wasn't trying to fool myself. I wasn't trying to "get around the system" I was enjoying the moment well aware of my behavior and its impact on my health. HOWEVER... I have an addictive, impulsive, ADHD personality which can lead me to some destructive behavior. I am currently doing my own 60 day challenge. 2 weeks in and i feel great! I don't want to "cheat" and hopefully things will stay that way. So its something you will have to figure out for yourself. Good luck.

It depends. I generally follow a low-carb paleo/primal diet (basically just meats, vegetables, and good fats) 6 days a weeks and 1 day a week I go all out with the higher carb stuff - as much fruit, potatoes as I want plus some dairy and honey - all of which I would not really consider strictly paleo/primal. Weirdly this has helped me lose weight. I would not really consider eating grains at any point since I think they can mess with you for longer than the course of 1 day. However, if you aren't sensitive to grains, I think rice would not be too much of a problem as it is a pretty inoffensive grain relative to say, wheat.

I've never liked the word 'cheat'. In the real world there are times when you may have to eat foods that you wouldn't normally have. Rather than have a "cheat day", factor in no more than 3 or 4 meals/snacks a week, perhaps mostly at the weekend, which are...what's a good phrase, naughty but nice.