Eat healthy food before your cheat meal or drink water so you aren't as hungry. Earn your burn by working out before or after your cheat meal. Stick to a healthy portion size of the food you choose to indulge in. Savor your cheat meal, don't get distracted while you eat it.
Do not stress about any sudden weight gain after a cheat day; it's not fat but just water weight. Just make sure after you've had your fun, you get back on your fitness journey and keep working towards your goals.
Many people scoff at the notion that having just one cheat day per week will ruin their fat-loss efforts, but it absolutely can.
Cheat days: Pizza for breakfast, ice cream for lunch, and a burger and fries for dinner? On a cheat day, you are allowed to eat whatever you want.
On a cheat day, you are allowed to eat whatever you want. It is possible that you may not count the calories as on a normal day. While some choose to go all out, some choose a less extreme version and increase their daily calorie intake with healthy, high-calorie foods.
Cheating once in a week is the healthiest approach. That does not lead to weight gain and is even proven to be good for your metabolism. Studies even suggest that weekly cheat meals wards off feelings of deprivation and improve your ability to stick to your diet.
'There is not an exact number of calories that you can eat on a cheat day but a good guideline to follow is to not consume more than 150 per cent of your regular calorie intake/limit,' according to Bodies by Byrne, run by a nutritionist and fitness instructor.
Since most of us can't eat so much in a day or two that we actually gain a couple of kilos a day, a dramatic increase in weight could be due to water retention. Eating, drinking, urinating, bowel movements, exercise—everything can affect your body's water composition and, therefore, weight.
Cheat meals can help the body get over the “famine” reaction by making it believe that “food” is available and it's okay to burn fat. Summing up, an ideal cheat meal should neither ruin your weight loss efforts, nor leave you with feelings of guilt afterwards.
Crash dieting
Transitioning from a very low calorie and low carbohydrate diet to a low calorie and moderate carbohydrate diet often leads to a weight gain of 1-2 kgs in a matter of one day. This is mainly because of a sudden increase in the carbohydrate content which is stored along with water in the body.
The day after a cheat day is also important. Kaiser recommends working out first thing in the morning, skipping breakfast and only drinking a cup of coffee fifteen minutes before. “It's going to rev up your metabolism and burn off some of those additional calories that you ate the night before.
By definition, on a cheat day, you can break your diet rules and eat anything you like. However, eating anything you like does not break any of the intermittent fasting (IF) rules. This is because the intermittent fasting guidelines do not restrict what you eat—they simply tell you when to eat and when to fast.
Though you can have it any time of the day, eating a cheat meal in the morning would be much better than consuming it any time else. This is because your body is capable of burning twice as many calories in the morning as compared to the evening.
Many people choose a weekend day to indulge in a cheat meal or cheat day because these days tend to be less structured. Dr. Sean Kandel, a board-certified internal medicine doctor, recommends one or two cheat meals per week for healthy individuals.
Eating 3000 calories a day can lead to weight gain. This is because three thousand calories a day are more than an average individual needs in a day. However, some people like athletes actually do need around these many calories or even more. It is advisable to consult a professional before you start this meal plan.
The Benefits of Cheating
Research shows that after a cheat meal, the body increases its metabolism, causing you to burn calories faster. This is caused by increased levels of leptin, a hormone secreted by fat cells and responsible for maintaining energy balance in the body.
If you eat 1500 calories daily and 3000 calories on Saturdays (or another cheat day of choice), your metabolism will experience a small boost and your will burn more calories on “normal” days. Just do your best to lower the glycemic index of the cheat meals so you burn them more slowly and absorb less as fat.
“Low energy, plateaus, the scale being stuck, and sometimes actually if you're feeling bloated or retaining too much water, these can be signs that a relaxed meal or refeed is needed,” Randy says.
If your goal is to lose 15 pounds this year and you're taking a single summer vacation where you plan to indulge some, you likely don't need to stress about these things. A singular week in the context of a year will have little impact on your overall weight loss and health progress.
“Cheat meals” are meals that contain foods that aren't on your current diet plan or are considered indulgent with a calorie count that would throw off your plan. But the idea that a cheat meal includes unhealthy foods (like a fast-food burger or milkshake) isn't always the case. It's about what's on your health plan.