Cheat day. You know when you are following a strict diet and you let yourself go wild one day and eat things off the diet.
It sounds great…in theory. Often times you’re left feeling bloated, groggy, and just meh. Why? Well your body is used to eating the foods from your diet – which should be steering you clear of the toxins, pesticides, and bad ingredients of super-processed foods and steering you towards REAL food.
Usually when you start a diet your body freaks out a little and you have some not fun symptoms. The same thing happens when you are on a diet and have a cheat day – your body freaks out a little and leaves you feeling not good.
Regardless, are cheat days a good idea? Well, I have 3 reasons cheat days are not the best ideas and 2 things you should do instead.
Today’s Topics
- Progress is Easily Erased
- You’ll Feel Like Trash
- Eating Junk Makes You Crave Junk
- Two Alternatives to Cheat Days
Progress is Easily Erased
It’s so easy to lose 6 days of progress with one bad day of eating. I’ve seen it happen hundreds of times. Here’s an example:
There are roughly 3,500 calories in a pound of fat. If you eat at a 500 calorie deficit a day – 500 calories less than what it takes to maintain your current bodyweight – you will lose a pound of fat per week.
So, if your maintenance calories are 2,500 calories a day and you eat 2,000 calories a day for 6 days, you will be at a 3,000 calorie deficit for the week – almost a pound of fat! Well, on the seventh day you choose to have a cheat day and eat 4,000 calories.
Trust me, it’s not hard to do. Now, you’ve cut your fat loss from 1 pound to .5 pounds per week and doubled the time it will take to reach your goal. A half-pound of fat loss is an amazing rate for people, so I’m not knocking it. BUT, if your goal was 1 pound, you just cut it in half with ONE day of bad eating.
You’ll Feel Like Trash
You’re going to feel tired, bloated, overall like garbage if you cheat. I could be wrong, but I don’t think your cheat days include you binging on steak, rice, or veggies. If they do, you can still overeat, but it’s not going to be by a crazy amount.
Most of the time, cheat days include pizza, chips, cookies, and ice cream. I’m not opposed to including these into your diet – you can totally move calories around and indulge in these things! If this type of food is 10 maybe 20% of your diet, that’s fine, you can still see great results if you are controlling calories and protein intake.
If you consume these ‘junk’ foods in high quantities, you are going to feel tired and sluggish, you’ll take less steps, you won’t train as hard, and you might even skip the gym.
It can also affect you mentally. You’re feeling great, lean, strong, and healthy when you are eating right, but BAM! You have a cheat day and you feel bloated and bleh, making you second guess your current plan.
Eating Junk Makes You Crave Junk
There are some people who can be craving pizza and go have 1 or 2 slices and they are good. I feel like most people are more all or none than this. Personally, it’s easier for me to cut out all the junk food if I’m dieting because if I let myself have 1 bite, I’m going to want 20 more.
Amazingly, when you start eating healthier, real, single-ingredient foods God made for us, your body starts to crave that. The same goes for junk food cravings as well.
If you find this is how you are, I would avoid cheat days at all cost.
2 Alternatives to Cheat Days
- Eat Foods You Enjoy
This is our 5th Nutrition Principle at Steel. Set up your diet in a way that will make you want to stick to your plan and leave you looking forward to your meals. The other night my family and I had New York Strip Steaks, Broccoli, and Rice for dinner. 3 ingredients – 5 if you count the seasoning. It was super tasty, and we felt AMAZING afterwards.
My wife, Shelby, mentioned that this is what healthy eating should be like all the time. If you don’t look forward to eating healthy, you aren’t doing something right.
No matter if you are eating to lose fat, gain weight, or maintain, God made food to be fuel and to be enjoyed.
Set up your nutrition plan in a way that you don’t feel like you need to escape from it! You should honestly set up your marriage, relationships, and your work this same way.
So, you should find a way to hit the other 4 principles – Eat Mostly Real Foods, Eat the Right Amount of Food For Your Goals, Eat the Right Amount of Protein For Your Goals, and Don’t Eat Foods That Make You Feel Bad – and still adhere to the 5th – Eat Foods You Enjoy.
There are tons of ways to adhere to all 5 principles. Eating healthy shouldn’t be miserable – if it is, you are doing something wrong.
2. Take a Break
If you are PHYSICALLY hungry all the time – not just desiring to eat good foods – take a 1-3 day break from your diet. Eat at or slightly above your maintenance calories.
Sometimes you have to take a break. I mean, we can’t be in a deficit forever lol. If you’ve only been dieting for a few weeks, take a 1-3 day break and eat at or slightly above your maintenance calories. If you’ve been dieting for 2-4 months, take a a 2-4 week break and eat at or slightly above your maintenance calories.
Taking a break like this has many psychological and physiological benefits that will make future fat loss and diet adherence more successful.
We want to break free from the extremes. You don’t want to be in some crazy deficit where you’re hungry ALL the time, and you get so miserable you start binging which leaves you feeling like trash.
Overeating isn’t a bad thing. God gave us fat cells for a reason. We have to break free of this shame and guilt that surrounds overeating. If you think about it, that’s all we do we overeat or undereat.
It all comes down to how you are looking at your diet. It should be ‘oh I want to eat a little more here because it sounds good’ and not ‘I’ve been so restrictive I’m going to go hog wild right now’.
Wrap Up
Overall, we have to break free from all the extremes around dieting! It can and should be enjoyable and get you amazing results.
You just need to avoid ‘cheat days’. They can easily erase your progress, leave you feeling like trash, and make you crave more junk. Instead, create your diet to where you can enjoy it and not like you need to escape from it.
If you are curious as to how you can create a diet plan that you look forward to, we want to work with you at Steel! Our team of trainers will craft a workout plan that goes hand-in-hand with the nutrition plan our Nutrition Specialist will make for you.