Can a Cheat Day Help You Lose Weight?
A cheat day can be a beneficial tool to help you lose weight. It’s one of the few times you can actually go off your diet and see better fat loss as a result. By taking a preplanned approach towards eating bad, you have the potential to accelerate your weight loss. Cheat days boost metabolism and satisfy you psychologically. Knowing you can be a little looser with your diet, and be able to eat some of those forbidden foods, will help keep you motivated the rest of the time to stay on track. Take the time to understand what a cheat day is, what it does to your body, and how to implement it, and you’ll soon be able to harness that perfect weapon in the fight against fat.
A Cheat Day Boosts Your Metabolism
Having a cheat day boosts your metabolism in many ways. One way a cheat day boosts your metabolism is by increasing leptin levels. Leptin is a hormone that influences hunger and body fat levels. When you diet and cut your calories, your leptin levels also drop. This causes those extreme hunger signals, and as a result, your body will hold onto body fat thinking that it’s going to need it to survive in the future. Leptin levels are directly correlated with your total caloric intake. Low calories lower leptin levels. By having a cheat day, you give your body a chance to “reset” your hormone levels – leptin included.
Cheat days keep your body guessing. You don’t want your body thinking that it’s going to be getting low calories forever. Throwing in a high calorie day sends your body a signal that food is plentiful, and that it’s OK to shed some fat reserves because there’s not a famine on the horizon.
How Often Should You Have a Cheat Day
While having a cheat day can be beneficial, you don’t want to overdo it. I recommend that you have a cheat day once per week. In the very beginning when you first start your diet, wait two weeks before having your first cheat day. This serves two purposes.
- It gives your mind and body a chance to get over your withdrawal symptoms of bad food. Waiting just one week at the beginning for your cheat day can keep the bad cycle of unhealthy eating going.
- It gives you a chance to deplete some of your glycogen stores. More than likely your muscles are full of glycogen. You probably haven’t been eating carbohydrates sparingly, so it will take a little longer for your muscles to deplete themselves of glucose. This will make your cheat day more effective.
As you start getting leaner, the frequency of your cheat days will actually increase. The lower your body fat levels, the more your body wants to hang on to the energy reserves (fat) it has. You have to do a few tricks to get rid of that last bit of fat. Increasing the cheat day frequency to twice a week is not unheard of.
Cheat Day or Cheat Meal?
So you’re all excited about this cheat day. You’re dreaming of eating pizza, ice cream, chips, and fast food all day. Let’s take a step back for a second. Remember, a cheat day is a preplanned approach to help you lose fat. You don’t want to go and blow a whole week’s worth of dieting by eating an insane amount of calories one day a week. I recommend that at first you limit your cheat day to a single cheat meal. This way you can gauge the effects the cheat day has on your fat loss progress. If you see that you are losing weight at an extreme rate, you can either be a little looser with food choices during that single cheat meal, or you can add a second cheat meal to your cheat day.
Your cheat day guidelines should look like this:
- Limit fat intake. Carbohydrates are going to have the biggest influence on your leptin levels. In addition, by eating a large amount of carbohydrates, your insulin levels will be high, so you don’t want to be combining fat with a storage hormone.
- Eat more calories this day than other days of the week. Try eating 500-1000 calories more than what you would need to maintain your current weight. If you need help determining this number, see how many calories should I eat.
- Your food choices can be looser than normal. They don’t have to be diet foods. However, not everyone can get away with eating 5 bowls of cereal. If you find that having a dirty cheat meal isn’t working for you, trying keeping your carb choices healthier, but eating a lot more of them. This in effect turns your cheat meal into a carb up, but what can I say…not everyone’s genetics allow for dirty cheat meals.
For more tips on cheat meals see cheat meal rules and guidelines
When Should You Have a Cheat Meal?
The are a few different times that are more beneficial than others to have a cheat meal. This will depend on what your goals are and how they affect your lifestyle. Speaking from a strictly physiological standpoint, the best time to have your cheat meal will be when your insulin sensitivity is at its highest. When is this? It’s right after a good workout. After a high intensity workout that demands energy from glucose, your muscles are primed and ready to absorb carbohydrates. It’s during this time that you will be less likely to store these carbohydrates as fat.
The other good time to have a cheat meal, and the time I actually prefer, is at a time when it is socially beneficial to you. As you might have noticed, when you diet, you become somewhat of a social outcast. Bad food always seems to show itself when you’re out with friends. I like to save my cheat meal for a Friday or Saturday night when I can enjoy going out to dinner or a party and not worry about having to say no to every temptation.
What do you think? Have you found cheat meals to be beneficial towards fat loss? What is your favorite cheat meal?
About Coach Calorie
Twitter: FFT_UK
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Hey Tony – Personally I prefer having cheat meals rather than an entire cheat day. The reason for this is that a cheat day is so definitive. I might wake up on that day and not be craving healthy foods but eat them anyway because it’s my cheat day. Plus, there might be times during the week where I go out for dinner and I cannot really enjoy the meal because there are no healthy options I like eating. Not only does this affect my enjoyment but as you say it turns me into a bit of a social outcast.
If I have cheat meals I can eat healthy most of the time but when I fancy a pizza or a burger I can still have it. If I end up eating out 2 or 3 times in 1 week I can go to the restaurant without worrying about what they have on the menu. I find this method much easier to incorporate into my lifestyle.
As for the amount of cheat meals, I generally go with an 80/20 approach so a maximum of 1 in 5 of my meals can be a cheat meal (approximately 4 meals per week). I generally slot them in when I am eating out but sometimes I will also use a cheat meal to have a pizza night.
Good points Tom. Sometimes an unplanned cheat meal is best. That way when one of life’s unplanned moments comes up, you can let go a little and enjoy yourself. I’ve found plenty of times that I’ve had a planned cheat meal, only to wish I would have saved it for the social event I was at just a day or two later.
I eat clean all week and have a cheat meal (usually a Saturday evening) where I kick back and have loads of home-made bread and a few beers as a reward. It works for me. I would thoroughly recommend it. I believe it’s good for your mind & metabolism. I might also add it will NOT affect your waistline…in fact I would make it mandatory for anyone thinking of making regular diet & exercise part of their lifestyle. Another great article.
Very true Matt. And as I pointed out, not only will it not affect your waistline, but it can actually improve it.
Fortunately my cheat day is today. This is usually my most intense workout day which makes me feel like I earned my cheat meals. Plus, today happens to be a holiday party so I try to time my cheat days on the weekends when events like this are more likely. One thing I’m curious about..you said to limit fat intake, but I thought a combination of carbs and fat was what resulted in increased leptin levels, not just carbs?
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Hey Dave, while mixing fat and carbohydrates can improve leptin levels, fat alone has no effect. -John Berardi
It’s the carbohydrates and the resulting insulin increase that has the greatest effect on leptin levels.
As I’ve said in a previous post my cheat day is usually a Saturday but next week it’ll be Sunday (for obvious reasons) But what will everyone else be doing for Christmas? Will some of you still be watching what you eat or just saying to yourself ‘ah, what the heck…it’s Christmas!’ It is only once a year I suppose but I personally can’t be bothered with having to shift a load of weight after the new year so I’ll be training & eating clean as usual. Nice to hear others thoughts on how they handle the holiday season temptations.
I personally won’t be worrying about Christmas. If I really wanted to, I could save my cheat meal for that Sunday. Unless you are getting ready for some special event, one day is not going to kill you. You’d have to eat 3500 calories OVER your maintenance calories to put on a single pound. That is very hard to do. As long as you get right back on your “diet”, I think you’ll be fine.
I love the idea of a cheat day (it will probably keep me more motivated in my weight loss goals)…500+ calories extra that day gives a lot of leeway too! I find that having a break from dieting not only makes it more tolerable, but breaking it down over a week (500 extra calories one day is only 80 something extra calories a day)…it’s not really any damage.
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Good point Penelope. 500 calories one day isn’t much, especially considering the fact you’ve been eating 500-1000 calories below maintenance the rest of the week.
Twitter: Dovescry2000
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I am going to incorporate Cheat Day into my dieting. I feel so deprived most times as I am a chip eater by nature (genetics I swear)…lol. So to know that one day a week I can eat a small bag of chips and not feel guilty to so help me be good the other 6 days1
The hardest part for me is getting back on a healthy eating schedule after eating a cheat meal. If you can do that, then you have the most difficult part down.
i have a daily cheat but it’s almost always dark chocolate so even that i dont feel very bad about having. I eat a couple pieces of at least 70% dark chocolate with a handful of almonds and a cup of decaf coffee. I think eating the chocolate with the almonds makes it last longer and taste more like i’m eating a candy bar and having with the coffee helps me unwind. I wouldn’t want to go without my chocolate fix!
I do the same Anna. Works very well for me too! Gotta have my Choc fix…
I’ve incorporated cheats into my diet but I probably do it more often than I realize since I don’t have a formal system. I think I’ll try yours
thanks for sharing!
Twitter: guyanese_gal
says:
I love this article. Cheating as a motivation will certainly help a lot of people stick to a good diet and fitness plan.
Once a week after my regular swim I’ll stop and get a small dish of ice cream. Makes me happy.
I saw a piece on Dr. Oz on this very topic late last week. I did like that he advocated cheating in moderation and not using it to totally pig out. I find as I’ve cleaned up my diet, my cravings for the bad stuff have really plummeted and when I do cheat, my old favorites taste disgusting. I just wish I’d done this a lot sooner!
This is music to my ears, I have been working out solidly since October and have hit a major ‘emotional’ plateau, don’t worry I’m not freaking out or in need of therapy! I have lost 5 inches off my waist and 3 off my leg but my scales hasn’t moved. I know what you are going to say but it has become a ‘thing’ with me so I keep tightening up my diet further, pushing myself in the gym more and nothing is making that scales move! I do 2 kettlebell classes a week and 2/3 other weight / cardio sessions (all given to be my an instructor so I have good guidance). I know I shouldn’t care about the scales and yes my figure is changing but until I see that scales move I know I won’t be happy. I’m 133lbs and have had 4 little boys in 5 years so I shouldn’t complain! I’m loving your articles by the way!
I LOVE your ideas about a cheat day, Sunday are my hubby and my cheat day. Hubby has a hard time on this day he wants to eat everything like popcorn, donuts and chocolate cake. If I tell him that he should choose one he gets mad and tells me he know what he is doing. We have been on a diet since the first of the year. He has only lose 1 to 2 lbs. I that it’s because of our Sunday cheat day and him going hog wild on those days.
I love cheat day! Whenever I am trying to lose some weight, I have incorporated cheat day into my regiment. It gives me something to look forward to, and keeps me from straying the other days. And I believe it really does work – I think it helps shock your metabolism into gear. Great article!
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I don’t have ‘cheat days’, but instead a cheat meal is enough for me. I usually order something that’s not too bad (it’s usually chicken & a kid’s portion of fries) and I’m happy for (most of) the week after that. My cheat meal is actually tonight, I enjoy getting back from work, going to the gym and then I order something and watch a movie. A great way to start the weekend, in my opinion
I eat clean most of the week, so I don’t feel bad or guilty about this meal. I don’t binge, either.
I don’t go overboard (with cake, alchohol, etc) just because my body doesn’t take it so well anyways. I usually end up feeling sick (literally) the next day.
So happy to have read this article. I’ve been going out to dinner once a week with my friends and feeling totally puzzled with what to get. I’ve been sticking to a pretty strict vegetable/lean protein/healthy fat diet for the past couple months and it makes going out pretty tough. Glad to know I can add in some carbohydrates so I don’t have to feel awkward and explain why I can’t share an appetizer or have a beer!
Upcoming Cheat Days
05/06 – International No Diet Day
05/11 – Eat What You Want Day
Let’s all celebrate!
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