How Cheat Days Affect Your Body
So you just started a new diet, and so far you've managed to stay committed for a full
week without falling back into your usual eating habits. You've proven to yourself that
you can put in the work; that means that you deserve a reward for all your hard effort,
right? For many people, cheat days are seen as a great motivator to stay on track when
it comes to dieting. It's a way to have your cake and eat it too, sometimes even literally!
But from a weight loss perspective, are cheat days really that effective? After all, when
you really think about i, eating unhealthy junk foods in any capacity feels like it would
be counterintuitive to any sort of weight loss strategy. Let's see what some fitness
experts have to say about the concept of the cheat day.
Before we start, be sure to subscribe to Bestie and ring the notification bell to stay up
to date on all of our daily videos and content.
Quitting anything cold turkey can be hard, and our favourite unhealthy foods are no exception.
Cheat days and cheat meals are a strategy that many people attempt in order to make
diets more manageable. By rewarding yourself for good dieting habits with controlled and
calculated breaks from an otherwise strict meal plan, you can hypothetically still treat
yourself while mostly committing to your diet goals. But how effective is this strategy,
really?
When coming to the defense of cheat meals and cheat days, many people make the claim
that these indulgences are actually beneficial to your diet in that they can give a boost
to your metabolism. The general reasoning behind this line of thinking is that when
you eat less, your body's metabolism slows down in order to conserve energy, and by the
same token eating more causes it to speed up; hypothetically, a cheat meal consisting
of high-calorie or fattening foods could potentially give your metabolism a beneficial jumpstart
and help your weight loss plans in the long run. However, according to nutritional experts
such as Chris Mohr, things aren't quite as cut and dry as this justification would lead
you to believe. In actuality, Mohr suggests that cheat days don't actually do anything
for your metabolism and occasional binge eating can potentially do more harm than good.
Another theory people have made in support of the cheat day strategy is that it can help
regulate the levels of a hormone within your body known as leptin. Leptin is produced by
your body's fat cells and is responsible for telling your brain that your stomach is full.
The hormone suppresses feelings of hunger and helps to prevent you from potentially
overeating. According to this particular cheat day theory, an occasional high-calorie meal
will trick your hormone cycle into producing more leptin than it would normally, which
will keep you from overeating during your diet in the long run. Unfortunately, it looks
like the jury's still out on this one; according to dietician Ansley Hill, there is very little
scientific research and evidence to back this theory, and it's more likely that any weight
loss results you see from this strategy are a result of the diet itself as opposed to
the cheating part.
It's not all bad news, though: according to a study published in the Journal Of Consumer
Psychology an occasional cheat day indulgence can possible help you stay committed to your
diet instead of completely falling off the rails. The experiments of this study were
found to be effective due to one distinct catch: instead of turning their cheat day
into a complete binge-fest, participants still exercised portion control for their cheat
meals, meaning that they cheated on their diet while still avoiding a surplus of empty
calories. Of course, using a cheat day as a potential motivator for your diet may not
be an effective strategy for everyone. While some people may be able to use the reward
of a cheat day or cheat meal to prevent themselves from falling off the diet wagon, not everyone
has the willpower to regulate their eating behaviours using this strategy. To put it
simply: people are different, and no two people are guaranteed to benefit from the exact same
strategies in the exact same way.
So what are some ways in which you can put this information to use and integrate cheat
days and cheat meals into your diet in a a way that's safe, healthy and effective? Well,
as the study indicates, smaller and more controlled indulgences might be a more effective way
of cheating on your diet as opposed to a massive binge. Mohr suggests that enjoying small potions
of your favourite junk foods on occasion is a more sustainable way to treat yourself without
losing sight of your weight loss goals. To put it in his own words:
"To stay on track, only 10 to 20 percent of your calories should come from those treats.
So if you're an average active guy who needs roughly 2,800 calories a day, 280 to 560 of
those can be reserved for your "cheats" two to three times per week."
The way we think of the cheat day itself might also affect the impact that it has on us.
According to Hill, the word "cheat" traditionally carries negative connotations and is usually
associated with feelings of guilt and shame; by describing an indulgent meal using these
terms, those negative connotations and emotions might cloud your judgement and lead you to
spiral into poorer self-control in regulating your eating habits. Instead of conditioning
yourself this way and viewing your cheat day as something that makes you feel guilty or
ashamed, try reframing your breaks from your diet as a reward for a job well done so far.
According to a three-month study, people who associated chocolate cake with feelings of
celebration were more effective in their weight loss regime than those who associated the
dessert with guilt, meaning that putting a positive spin on dietary deviations can give
you a new perspective on your diet as a whole.
Finally, another thing to consider is the simple fact that a conventional cheat meal
or cheat day strategy might not be universally effective for everyone. Other ways in which
you can try to reign in your diet include exercising mindfulness in regards to what
you eat, or simple focusing on one specific type of unhealthy food to indulge on instead
of a whole cheat meal. As Hill puts it:
"For example, if you're planning a cheat meal, instead of eating the cheeseburger, sugary
cocktail and dessert, pick only one or two of these indulgent options. By focusing your
attention on just one treat, you'll be less likely to tip the scales in an unhealthy direction
by over consuming during your cheat period."
While many diets consist of strict and rigid regimes to help you on the path to weight
loss, many people have a hard time giving up on a certain diet-unfriendly foods and
look for ways in which they can game the system; sticking to their diet while still leaving
room for the occasional unhealthy reward. While cheat days in themselves aren't necessarily
a bad concept, the way in which people approach them is often highly misguided. As with any
other attempt to change certain behaviours, dieting involves discipline and commitment,
and even the ways in which you deviate from your diet should reflect this.
Did you find this video helpful or informative?What are some dieting strategies that you've used
in the past that worked for you? Maybe you even think we're way off base with what we've
said on this video, and you have a completely different opinion entirely when it comes to
dieting. Whatever the case, we'd love to hear your feedback, so let us know in the comment
section below and help us keep the conversation going.