This may sound like a crazy idea, but it’s true. There’s a lot of research behind cheat meals and how to lose pounds and body fat. You can find articles everywhere on this subject. So, let’s educate you on this topic.
What is a Cheat Day or Cheat Meal?
A cheat day is a day where you don’t diet at all and you give in to your desires of food and beverage. I have met a lot of people who swear to the cheat days as the best way to lose body fat. However, I think that the cheat DAY may be a little too much. I think that taking an entire day to eat whatever you want may jeopardize your total caloric intake for the week and thus lead to a standstill in weight loss, or worse yet, an increase in weight. The theory behind the cheat day is to trick your body into thinking that it is not in starvation mode but in a feast mode and thereby tricking your body to increase metabolism to burn off fat. This can and does work to an extent. Your metabolism can definitely be tricked in this regard, however, you still may consume a huge amount of calories in that one day to jeopardize your entire weight loss efforts for the week. However, it does provide an advantage to the dieter because it tricks you into feeling as if you are not dieting and you are able to eat what you want.
This works, as I have done this before, but I have also hit a plateau quickly by doing this. I felt great the day I ate whatever I wanted, however, it also made me feel pretty bad by the end of the day. I felt bloated and I could not wait to get back on my diet as the excess food just made me ill as my body was used to eating healthy and working out. Therefore, it was a positive because it made me feel excited to go back to eating right and exercising. However, there were times I realized that my calorie intake for the week was in jeopardy due to the amount of calories I consumed in just that one day. So, yes it can trick YOU and your feelings more than it tricks your metabolism. You just have to be careful.
Contrary to a cheat day, I like to use cheat meals.
These are anywhere between 2-3 meals per week that you feel comfortable eating anything you like, but at one time. The result will be a quickly bloated person who is satisfied that they ate what they wanted and therefore did not feel as if they were stuck on a diet. Cheat meals can be saved for nights out with friends or special occasions. During that one meal you don’t consume enough calories to jeopardize your weeklong weight loss efforts and you still are tricking your metabolism because your body never knows what day you are going to consume the extra calories. It is the same idea as above but a different way to go about increasing metabolism.
So there you have it, cheat meals and cheat days can trick your metabolism. I prefer to have a few cheat meals throughout the week rather than a cheat day, but if you do it smart and don’t jeopardize your entire weeklong weight loss efforts they both will work for you.
For what it’s worth,
Dr. B
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