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.
Research shows just three cheat days a week is as bad for your gut health as a consistently unhealthy diet. Gaining a small amount of weight, like a pound or two, is not a big deal.
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.
How Often Should Be Your Cheat Day? Since every weight loss program is unique, there is no conclusive response to this issue. However, most people recommend having a cheat day once a week. This will allow you to indulge without jeopardizing your diet or weight reduction objectives.
Do cheat days ruin your progress? A cheat day every once in a while will not erase weeks and months of consistent workouts and healthy eating. Cheat days can help keep you stay motivated long-term if you practice mindful eating. But remember, this doesn't mean you can get carried away on cheat days.
Many people scoff at the notion that having just one cheat day per week will ruin their fat-loss efforts, but it absolutely can.
Bottom line: it's OK to indulge once in a while! Eating your favorite meal can help keep you motivated. (But contrary to popular belief, cheat days don't boost your metabolism). Any sudden weight gain is not fat.
A cheat day is when you allow yourself an entire day of eating anything you want without counting calories or watching what you eat. It's something to look forward to, like a reward for being healthy and staying on track with your diet. Also, it helps to keep you from constantly feeling deprived.
"Cheat meals" gives dieters the opportunity to take a break from strict eating. The gist of these cheats is to eat clean for the better part of your week, stay active and reward yourself by indulging in something you really want to eat.
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.
“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.
Some people can have cheat days once a week, others can do so once a month, while others should limit them even further. Lowe suggests once a year is good, because each day, people don't realize how many calories they are consuming.
What Are Cheat Meals? Cheat meals are any meals made up of foods that will not lead you towards your health or weight-loss goals. The meals are considered a cheat since you are not staying true to your desired eating plan. A cheat meal may not necessarily be made up of what we consider to be unhealthy foods.
However, going overboard on your cheat day can, of course, also set you back a bit with your fitness goals. If you are indulging in cheat day treats too often, you're body will not have the deficit in calories it needs to lose fat stores.
The bottom line is that a 1000-1500 surplus of calories for a day means you'll only gain about 0.70-112 grams of fat. The scales might say you've gained more, but that's because of the water weight excess sodium and carbohydrates bring along with it.
It's ok to bump up a calorie burn with a workout the day after a cheat day. However, most people get the urge to do an intense long cardio session to feel like you've balanced out the bad eating. Wrong! Endurance cardio sessions in combination with an improper diet will stress your body maximum.
How many calories should I eat on a cheat day? '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.
You may gain weight
If you're indulging in most of your meals over a week long period, that's a LOT more calories you're tallying up each day. So, unless you're quadrupling your usual exercise routine, chances are you'll see the scales head upwards.
Studies have found that the repeated cycle of eating healthily in the week and bingeing on junk food every weekend can be very damaging to your gut health – specifically your gut microbiota.
For many people following low calorie diets, “cheat meals” are a must. A cheat meal is essentially one planned meal (or meal deviation) a week where you can eat anything you want that you wouldn't normally eat as part of your diet — pizza, burger and fries, tacos, whatever you have a hankering for.
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.
Cheat meals that are higher in carbohydrates versus fats are preferable. Uncontrolled cheat meals or cheat days, especially after a long period of calorie restriction, could wipe out a calorie deficit, increase cravings, and make sticking to the diet more difficult.