Cheat Day: Yay or Nay?
A cheat day does not really need an introduction but is simply a day where you allow yourself to eat whatever you want, not taking into consideration the number of calories and it's implications on your diet plan. Don’t we all love to go out and stuff our face with food as a reward for all the effort we have put in throughout the week? On the surface, thinking about it, it makes perfect sense to allow ourselves this day, once in a while, so that we can stick to our program. But is this actually benefiting us or is the cheat day just doing more harm than good to our progress? Let's dive in.
The main benefit of cheat days? It gives you a break mentally if you’re on a very strict diet plan. Now, though this reason alone is convincing enough to incorporate cheat days into your plan, does it really make the diet more sustainable for you? Firstly, for a lot of people, it is harder to get back on the diet after a cheat day. How many times have you seen someone's cheat day turn into a cheat weekend, and this cheat weekend turn into a cheat week? Secondly, keeping cheat days usually builds up a bad relationship with food over time. It's like you try to control yourself six days of the week just because you know you can binge on the seventh day. This is just the mental side of things. Let’s say you don’t deal with any of these issues and you just see cheat days as a tool for reaching your goals in an efficient manner.
The Unexpected Outcome
Here's an example. Let's take two individuals who burn 2500 calories a day. Both of them diet at 2000 calories a day creating a 500 calorie deficit daily. Being consistent for six days, they plan a cheat day on the seventh day of the week. On day seven, the first person, stuffs his face eating whatever he likes throughout the day. Knowing that he hasn’t eaten these ‘restricted’ foods for the past 6 days, and knowing that he won’t get to eat like this for another week, this person make sure that he indulges in all of his cravings. This is nothing different from what I explained in the paragraph above. Besides hurting his progress, this behavior is severely hurting this person's relationship with food. Just because they planned this day does not make it any different from a binge. Remember, a planned binge is still a binge. The second person, on the other hand, has no issues with binging. Even though it's a cheat day, he eats normally throughout the day following his meal plan and adds just one extra meal at night. Let's assume he is dedicated to his goals and limits himself to just a pizza and dessert on this given night.
Now, which person do you think is correctly utilizing cheat days to help them reach their goals efficiently? Well, it’s neither of them. To begin with, let’s get the first person out of our way. This individual is definitely not on the right track. If this is you, you have to reassess the way you're dieting and make it more sustainable so as to avoid putting yourself in such situations over and over again. The second person is where it gets interesting. Doesn’t it sound completely logical to allow yourself at least one cheat meal every week after all the effort you put in? In fact, this person even stuck to his plan throughout the day. The problem comes in when you look at his net calorie intake for the week. Heres a graph showing you what exactly happened here in our hypothetical situation (Yes, just a pizza and dessert on top of your 2000 calorie meal plan can easily put you in a massive surplus!):
Thus, we see that despite all his effort, this individual ends up at a 0 calorie deficit. He put in all the effort and yet this one meal brings him back to where he started. This is usually the type of people who come up to you and tell you that they are dieting hard and yet don’t seem to make any progress. Again, this was just a hypothetical scenario, but you get the point. In addition to this, research has shown that people generally underestimate the number of calories they consume by a significant margin. Underestimating your intake along with throwing in these cheat days every now and then is a recipe for disaster. But does this mean that you have to feel miserable throughout your diet if you want to reach your goals?
No, surely not. Capping your cheat day is a great way to make sure you don’t go off track. This simply means you fit cheat days into your plan in a way that you still have a net weekly deficit. For example, in the above example, if the person just capped his intake on day seven to around 3000 calories, he could plan his day out better and still get to eat the food he likes while still maintaining a net calorie deficit throughout the week.
The concept of cheat days is basically for those of you who prefer to follow a strict meal plan. However, if you’re someone who prefers a more flexible approach with your diet, you could incorporate the food you crave into your diet in moderation. Doing this helps reduce cravings and makes it easier to create that deficit consistently. But what about the mental relief that cheat days provide? Wouldn’t it be a lot more stressful to diet consistently for a long period of time? Well, there is a better way to get the same benefit without sabotaging your progress.
Refeed Days and Diet Breaks
This is where refeed days come into the picture. A refeed day is simply a day where you eat at or slightly above maintenance. How this is different from a cheat day is that the amount of calories you are consuming is still controlled which helps you stick to the plan and achieve your goals while getting a break mentally for that given day. The increase in calories on a refeed day is generally done by adding more carbs. Because of this, refeed days have been shown to increase leptin, a hormone regulating satiety, thus making it easier for you to sustain your diet. While a cheat day would give you the same benefit, it comes with the cost of possibly erasing some of the progress you have made. In fact, as you get leaner, it would be beneficial to take more refeed days in a week, so as to allow yourself to stick to the diet. This is especially for those of you who plan on getting down to very lean conditions in a sustainable manner.
In addition to refeed days, if you are dieting for a longer period of time, I would recommend you to throw in diet breaks every 8-12 weeks. This purely depends on how you feel. Even though this extends the amount of time it’ll take you to reach your goals, it increases the probability of you actually reaching them. You have to be smart and work with your body, not against it. A refeed day would just give you a break for a single day, but a diet break is where you eat at maintenance for 1-3 weeks. This helps you drop off all the diet stress you’re carrying and at the same time helps you to learn to maintain the progress you’re making over time. You can jump back into your diet whenever you feel ready.
Conclusion
The conclusion here is for you to decide. Are you someone who feels that conventional cheat days are a great addition to your diet plan? If you are seeing results incorporating these cheat days, stick with it. On the other hand, if you feel you aren’t making any progress even though you are putting efforts, it's time to reassess and make some changes. Cheat days could be slowing you down and maybe it would be wise to replace them with controlled refeeds instead. If you find yourself binging and feeling miserable on your plan, try something that feels sustainable. Dieting will never feel comfortable, but it definitely doesn’t have to make you feel completely miserable. Surely not if your goal is to just get ripped. If you feel your cut is going to be a long one, diet breaks are highly recommended as it will just make the progress easier for you. And remember that this post isn’t about being perfect. When you ever do end up having an unplanned cheat day, get over it and move on. Stay consistent most of the time and you will get where you want to be!
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