Yes, cheat days work for a diet. When restricting your calories and limiting your food choices, cheat days provide a break in following a strict meal plan. Many trainers, dietitians and fitness enthusiasts recommend setting aside a day to have an item that has been removed from your regimen to increase energy levels, provide a splurge moment and give you a mental break from dieting.
Preventing Overeating
Providing a cheat day can decrease your chances of falling off your diet program altogether. According to ExRx.net, preparing for additional calories or restricted foods provides a mental break with following a calorie or food restricted regimen. This will prevent you from falling off your program altogether because mentally you know you are going to have extra food on a particular day. Cheat days can be part of your progressive eating goals to increase adherence and teach you flexibility with food to help you reach and maintain your goal.
Loss More Fat
Adding cheat days helps prevent starvation mode with your body. According to Joel Marion in "The Cheat to Lose Diet: Cheat BIG with the Foods You Love, Lose Fat Faster," leptin is an anti-starvation hormone and increasing calories in a planned fashion actually helps keep your body from thinking it is starving. When the extra calories are provided from a cheat day or meal, your body recognizes you aren't starving. Your leptin levels are increased with the cheat meals, causing your body to increase leptin to your body's unique level. Leptin keeps your body from hanging onto fat and excessive body weight when you are starving, as a means of protecting itself. When leptin levels increase, your body feels fed and allows you to lose more weight.
Individualize Dieting
Providing a cheat day helps to make your plan unique for you and increases compliance. By working with a professional, you can develop cheat meals and days that work within your lifestyle, calorie burns and works inside your goals. According to dietitian, Cynthia Sass, your meal plan should work inside of your goals and lifestyle. Cookie cutter programs that don't allow for flexibility decrease your success with any type of diet program. Many programs and books often don't use scientific principles or rationales that have been proven to work. Sounds principles and proven theories are to your benefit with reaching your weight loss goals.
Cheating All Day
According to Sass, cheating all day versus having a planned splurge within your dietary plan hasn't been proven to be successful in promoting weight loss. People who are successful in reaching their weight loss and maintaining the weight loss don't eat whatever they want all weekend long. This type of dieting can promote weight gain, if you don't carefully plan your calories and eat like a free for all. You still have to manage your calories accordingly when trying to reach your weight goals. Cheat days should be small dietary indulges within your calorie allotment.
Selecting Cheats
According to Joel Marion, you can use cheat meals to plan for events or special occasions where following a tight dietary restriction may prove challenging. By budgeting for these events and extra calories, you can exercise more or be more diligent with your diet during the days leading up to the cheat. The extra calories, fat or sugar you consume may not be as detrimental to your diet regimen and actual help boost your morale while going back on your diet program. Also budgeting for special events can be a teach opportunity in helping you gain skills to incorporate special times into your life while reaching and maintaining your weight loss.
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