What are cheat days? 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.
A cheat day is a scheduled break in a diet. The concept emerged around the same time as 'clean eating', and is based on the idea that a dieter can 'cheat' for one day a week as long as they eat to their diet plan for the remaining six days.
A cheat day causes some large weight increases, but weight because of water, not fat. Depending on what kind of diet you were on, loading up on carbs on a cheat day can increase your weight noticeably. If you were trying to lose fat, you likely were trying to cut carbohydrates out of 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Many people scoff at the notion that having just one cheat day per week will ruin their fat-loss efforts, but it absolutely can.
Many people complain that they gain weight around the holidays, but you'll be happy to know that you can't really gain weight from a single meal or day of overeating.
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.
For example, if your goal is to lose weight, you can have one cheat meal every 10 days to avoid boredom or a weight loss plateau, but if you believe your weight has plateaued, having a cheat day, in that case, is necessary to shock your metabolism.
And, according to the study, the day most Americans choose to eat their cheat meals is on Sunday, followed closely by Saturday.
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.
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. Cheat days should be done in moderation, and noting what foods you are intaking those days can help you avoid losing your fitness progress.
However, other studies show that while consuming 1,000 calories a day may result in significant weight loss, most people cannot sustain it and often experience significant weight regain . The reasons include regaining lost muscle mass and increased appetite. Also worth noting is that the human body can adapt.
How much weight will I gain if I eat 3000 calories a day? If your daily maintenance calories are 2500, then 3000 calories per day might help you gain 1 lb per week. On average, you will gain approximately 1 lb of mass for every additional 3000 calories you consume over your maintenance.
Cheat Meal is not an Opportunity to Binge Eat: Cheat meal is a chance to indulge in your favorite meal, not an opportunity to binge eat, overindulge, overeat, and fall off the weight loss wagon. Ideally, eat just 300 calories extra in your cheat meal, and do not eat till you are sick during the cheat meal.
With The 90/10 Weight-Loss Plan, dieters learn to balance their food intake by eating 90% healthy, nutritious food, with 10% "Fun Food"--whatever they want, whenever they want. Nutritionist Joy Bauer has created a phenomenon that has taken the nation by storm: a diet that is healthy and easy to follow.
A tip you can try is the 90-10 rule. "Eat a healthy diet 90% of the time and splurge 10% of the time," McManus says. "Eating three meals a day for a week means 21 total meals: avoid splurging for more than two of those meals."