CHEAT DAY: BENEFICIAL or HARMFUL?
CHEAT DAY: BENEFICIAL or HARMFUL?
Why reframing how you approach a diet or nutrition is the real key to success
Aww the cheat day. We all know about the day that can keep us sane as we pursue body compositional excellence. The rationale is that we reward ourselves for eating a certain way for a period of time with something rewarding. But let’s take a second to evaluate if this is an effective line of thinking and if it’s healthy, both physiologically and emotionally.
There are principles to healthy eating:
Avoid: trans fat, processed foods, inflammatory foods
Limit: limit sugars
Increase: water, vegetables, sleep
Adjust: Based on your goals (protein, fat, carbohydrates, exercise).
Principles that need to be implemented at all times and can’t be broken without consequences.
If we have principles of healthy eating we need to approach the next aspect of strategizing: goals
the next part of your strategy is: what are your goals?
What are your goals? Can we reverse engineer your input to reach your output?
If we want to lose weight, or build muscle, start with that first. How far you are away from that goal and how long you have to get there determines the intensity and frequency your strategy needs to be.
In this case, a ‘cheat’ is saying “I am not happy with my current situation and want a break from the monotony”.
When you say “I’m having a cheat meal”, it’s saying you have an unhealthy relationship with eating.
Plain and simple. You selected a diet and will do it until you don’t want to do it anymore.
You’re cheating if you base your eating and lifestyle on healthy principles and manipulate the components to reach a goal.
Ironically, this will not be perceived as cheating. It’s perceived as optimizing.
Most diets are built on altering total calories and a specific macronutrient to get a specific goal.
We alternate our homeostatic set point and breaking up other tissues for fuel. Hopefully that fuels is fat.
This will work for a period of time until you hit a wall. Whether it’s physiologically, or psychologically, the wall creates a point of not wanting to continue. The ends do not justify the means and you need a break from your style of eating.
If that’s your perception of a cheat meal, here’s what happens. The frequency of those meals not in line with your overall plan can result in no weight-loss or worse – gaining weight.
Reframing it as part of an overall strategy is better than saying you’re having a cheat meal.
During periods of lower calories, an increase in calories increases thyroid output and overall metabolism.
The trick is to plan out that “optimized” meal well in advance, and not wait to hit a breaking point.
In periods during lower carbohydrate intake, there are incredible advantages to getting a systematic increase in carbohydrates:
Stimulate serotonin production
Lower dopamine uptake
Top off glycogen stores
Increase protein synthesis.
Planning your work and working your plan is key
Starting with a realistic goal is important. Building a realistic, sustainable plan will help get you there.
If you don’t have a specific goal timeline, try a 90/10 split.
90% of the time you eat according to an overall goal
10% of the time you deviate from that plan.
Let’s look at how this works for a regular week: For example:
7 days in a week
3 meals a day
21 total meals in a week
2 of those meals you deviate from the plan
19 of your meals, you stick to the plan