Cheat days have been around for quite a while, and even the best of us have resorted to eating their fair share of nutritionally poor foods occasionally. For most who decide to eat healthily, cheat days come as a chance to indulge a little bit and remember the pleasant taste of their favourite treat, snack or dessert. However, cheat days or cheat meals can be tricky. If one is not careful, they might find themselves at the same position as when they started their weight loss journey.
What Is A Cheat Day?
A cheat day is a day when you decide to let go of your clean eating habits. Essentially, if you have been restrictive in eating nutritionally rich foods for the last six days (i.e. sticking to your diet, tracking your macros, calories and avoiding junk food), then a cheat day would be you choosing to ‘break the rules’ and eat what you have been depriving yourself of.
What Do People think Of Cheat Days?
Depending on who you ask, cheat days are either super important to bring about a balance in what you consume, or they’re a surefire road to backsliding and undoing all your nutritional hard work on your health and fitness journey.
One argument for cheat meals is that they help those on low-calorie diets eat better. Since there is a planned day to ‘let loose’, those on such a restricted diet have a lower chance to go looking for chances to sneak something in because they have something to look forward to. This can help keep the binge-inducing meals at bay.
The Effect Of A Cheat Day
In some instances, cheat days can cause individuals to view the foods they eat, or don’t eat, as either a reward or a punishment. This can lead to many issues whereby individuals form unhealthy relationships with food and given that the body needs the nutrients found in food these types of unhealthy relationships often have severe consequences.
In other cases, cheat days may bring a sense of ‘balance’ given the commitment and dedication an individual has to their diet. This sense of balance can serve as a motivator for those days where following the set diet feels quite challenging.
The Best Way To Cheat
Is there a ‘good’ way to cheat? It is true that sticking to a diet can be mentally exhausting and that you may need a break occasionally. Here are some things you can implement within your diet which might make you feel less guilty about your cheat day:
● One way you can ensure you do not go overboard is to plan your cheat day. The same way you plan the ‘diet’ days, cheat days should not be an exception. You can choose sweet but nutritious foods, or you can just make sure your portions are of an adequate size;
● Cheating on an exercise day is also a way to ensure you burn off the extra calories from your cravings;
Conclusion
Fitness journeys should not be a dreaded experience. You need to find what is going to work best for you. If you’re an individual who knows they need the restrictive approach of following a diet for six days, followed by a cheat day to help keep them balanced, then go for it. Just be smart to ensure that your cheat day doesn’t slowly begin to extend into two, three or four days.
However, if you’re an individual who likes the idea of having balance on a regular basis, and not feel like they’re missing out, then you could incorporate the idea of not indulging in cheat days. The key is ensuring that the overall daily nutritional component of your health and fitness journey is made up following the 80/20 rule. 80% of your food and drink for the day comes from nutritionally rich sources while the other 20% does not.
Ultimately, each individual needs to be able to live with the results of their actions. If your goal is fat loss, you need to ask yourself this question – are the decisions I’m making on a regular basis taking me closer to, or further away, from my health, fitness and well-being goals?
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