Do Cheat Days Help With Weight loss?
We have all been there, thinking ‘surely one day off the diet won’t hurt’, then filling our faces with anything we can get our hands on, only to have huge regret the very next day.
But do these ‘cheat’ days really hold us back from achieving our weight-loss targets or do they in fact springboard us towards our weight-loss goals?
What is a ‘cheat’ day?
A ‘cheat’ day is when you decide to deviate from the typical foods you are supposed to be eating to lose weight, and instead, choose to eat anything you want, without considering the calories & macros included.
Why do we have ‘cheat’ days?
Why you may feel the need for a cheat day is simple, it is a huge indicator that your current diet of foods you deem to be ‘healthy’ are perhaps not correct, and you’re being too restrictive on the foods you allow yourself to eat to lose weight and maintain your results for good.
Are there any positives to ‘cheat’ days?
‘Cheat’ days can actually help regulate your hormones and help to boost your metabolism.
We store a protein within our fat cells called leptin, this is our bodies starvation hormone that tells our body if we have enough energy to maintain our normal bodily processes. Restricting calories over a prolonged time can cause our leptin levels to drop, triggering a signal to your brain that you are hungry and need to eat.
When our leptin levels drop and we go into ‘starvation mode’, your brain will automatically slow your bodies functions & processes, which includes your thyroid hormone. This hormone will control your metabolic rate, and in this state your body will slow our metabolism to conserve energy, therefore burning fat at a slower rate.
Temporarily increasing calorie intake with a ‘cheat’ day will help by increasing your bodies leptin levels, with one recent study finding that leptin production can be boosted by almost 30% after a high-carb meal, firing up the metabolism and helping to boost fat loss!
What are the negatives of a cheat day?
‘Cheat’ days in moderation are great, especially when timed around exercise, sleep & social situations to give a real sense of normality whilst helping to boost your energy & mood. But for some ‘cheat’ meals, these can cause a downward spiral of prolonged binge eating past a single day or meal. Binge eating may mean you are just too restrictive with the foods you allow yourself to eat most days and your ‘diet’ may need some re-thinking.
‘Cheat’ days are a fantastic tool when timed correctly, however as the saying goes “you can’t out train a bad diet”, as you can very easily overindulge ruining several days of being in a calories deficit. Remember, no calorie deficit = no weight-loss!
Conclusion
‘Cheat’ days do have their place to help regulate your bodies hormones and can in fact help boost your weight-loss process, however timing and what you decide to eat will have a big affect on the outcome of the ‘cheat’ day.
Overindulging & overeating the wrong food groups, will undo all of your good work and can force you out of an overall calorie deficit preventing you from losing weight.
Weight-loss most of the times requires us to work smarter, not harder.
If you are craving ‘cheat’ meals/days more often than not, this may be a big signal that you are being too restrictive on what you believe you can and cannot eat to lose weight.
Your dedicated Unite Fit coach will educate you on the basics of nutrition giving you an understanding of how many calories your body requires for weight-loss, breaking this down to protein, carbs & fats, so you understand how you can eat more than just a plain & restrictive diet to lose weight.
Your coach will also hand pick delicious recipes packed full of flavour for every meal, snack & treat during your 6 or 10-week weight-loss programme, working with your current lifestyle, likes & dislikes giving you the flexibility to include more of the foods you enjoy everyday to prevent you craving anything too much that will undo all or efforts… everything in moderation!
