Cheat Day: Indulge without regret
Indulging without guilt, even on a diet? Thanks to cheat days! But we'll tell you which mistakes you should still avoid.
from Paulina
"No thanks, I'm on a diet." – Have you ever heard yourself say this when your mom's delicious-smelling cake was on the table or your friend wanted to treat you to ice cream? Diets and losing weight require discipline, and it's annoying to always have to say no. Thanks to cheat days, that's all over now. When the next delicious meal is on the horizon, simply treat yourself to a cheat day. We'll now explain what a cheat day (also known as a sin day or indulgence day) actually is and why you can allow yourself this little indulgence.
Cheat Day – Origin and Basic Idea
For some who want to lose weight , cheat days are an integral part of their fitness, diet, or nutrition plan. A cheat day is, once a week, a free pass to indulge—at least when it comes to your eating habits. The cheat day throws all your diet plans out the window for one day. On a cheat day, you can eat whatever you want. Pizza, fries, excessive amounts of sweets, and regular cola—that's what a successful cheat day looks like.
This doesn't have much to do with healthy eating , but supposedly a regular cheat day even helps with weight loss because it keeps the metabolism going. And this is how it works: If you're on a diet , you cut sugar, pizza, and the like from your menu. If you abstain from carbohydrates for an extended period, your metabolism pulls the emergency brake and slows down. To boost fat burning... To kickstart your diet again, a cheat day is a clever solution. Afterwards, you continue to stick to your diet with discipline. Forgetting all food restrictions for a day can give you little moments of happiness and is therefore also beneficial for weight loss .
The cheat day originated in competitive sports. Athletes there have to establish extremely conscious eating habits and drastically control the amount of food they consume. They can't afford any slip-ups or cheat days, because that would undo all the progress they've made on their diet. In many cases, however, they cheat without a shred of guilt once their goal or the competition is over.
How useful is a cheat day?
A calorie deficit occurs during a diet because you naturally consume fewer calories than your body burns . This calorie deficit typically leads to fatigue, low mood, a slowed metabolism, and muscle loss.
The result : Your basal metabolic rate decreases! And a low basal metabolic rate makes losing weight more difficult and can even lead to weight gain.
Cheat days are meant to counteract this and, through the calorie surplus, signal to the body that it doesn't have to fear starvation. Instead of drawing on muscle, your body reduces its energy expenditure and starts burning fat . We preach it often, but we'll say it again: The important thing is that you stay within your calorie budget – when you eat is relatively unimportant.
- boosts metabolism
- The happiness hormone serotonin is released.
- relieves the psyche
- provides new energy
- motivated to stick to the diet
- not for people with high
- suitable body fat percentage
- It nevertheless demands discipline, but leads to excessive and uncontrolled eating.
That's the theory. However, for a cheat day to work in practice, there are a few things to keep in mind.
Cheat day and still lose weight – here's how to balance it out
Can you cheat and lose weight at the same time? It's a valid question, but it actually can work. However, you should n't mistake a cheat day for a feast day . Controlled cheating and weight loss are not mutually exclusive.
On the contrary, the metabolism gets going and burns more fat than if it were constantly running on low power and facing a perpetual state of starvation. This is the real trick of cheating .
You need to determine your calorie needs. and know how much you can eat to stay in a calorie deficit. Then nothing can really go wrong. We'll explain more about that below.
Sometimes you just need a piece of apple pie, chips in the evening, or a burger with friends… don't forget: a balance shake is always a good way to compensate if you've overdone it on your cheat day.
Here's what you should keep in mind for a cheat day
Is anything allowed on cheat day? Yes and no. Before you sprint to the fridge and keep the pizza delivery service busy, we'd like to give you a few simple rules.
The cheat day wasn't invented so you can binge on junk food and end up sick at the end of the day. Use your cheat day wisely . A restaurant visit with friends or coffee and cake on Grandpa's birthday is no longer taboo. Mindlessly snacking and then lying on the couch with a stomachache, however, is.
A cheat day requires some planning. To keep your calorie balance from getting out of control, it's important to have a rough idea of your calorie needs. It's important to know. Even on cheat days, adequate nutrient intake is crucial.
Planning recipes
Don't approach your cheat day without a plan. A meal plan can help you look forward to it. Shop with a specific goal in mind to create some delicious recipes . How about waffles with strawberries on your cheat day, for example? You can still be mindful of calories on this special day by opting for protein waffles. instead of the unhealthy original.
Six days of discipline, one cheat day: that's the principle of the cheat day and your diet plan . And if you do get a craving and feel like something sweet, reach for low-calorie sweets .
Keep an eye on your calorie balance
Weight loss only works through a negative calorie balance: You only lose weight if you burn more calories than you consume. This also applies to cheat days: Even on a cheat day, calories don't magically become ineffective. What you consume in excess on your cheat day must be reduced on the other days of the week.
To illustrate, here's an example : You want to lose a few kilos. With our calorie calculator... Have you calculated that instead of your normal 1900 kcal, you can only consume 1500 kcal per day until you reach your target weight? You can either stick to this diet seven days a week and skip the cheat day – or you can limit yourself to 1250 kcal for six days and then eat a generous 3000 kcal on the seventh day. Some people swear by a diet with 13 days of discipline and one cheat day . Indulging for just one day every two weeks will get you to your goal faster, but it also requires more discipline.
Women of a certain age should consume fewer than 2,500 calories on their cheat day. If you are under 30 and exercise a lot, you can allow yourself 2,800 calories .
Find your own cheat rhythm
The cheat day is meant to show you that a healthy diet works even with occasional indulgences . For the sake of simplicity (and to avoid fooling yourself in the process of cheating too much), these exceptions are usually all scheduled for one day, but you can adjust this to suit your own preferences. Some people even swear by having a cheat day every two weeks. Experiment to find what works best for you.
It does n't matter which day becomes your personal cheat day . Most people use the weekend, though, when they meet up with friends or family. You can also split your cheat day into so-called cheat meals . This way, you don't feast all day, but only replace one meal – which one is entirely up to you.
Balance instead of exaggeration
If you overindulge on your cheat day without a plan, it will harm your diet and your health . Balance is key. Even if you stay within your calorie target over the course of the week, a mountain of sugar, fat, and carbohydrates will disrupt your metabolism . And while it might taste good, it's not good for you.
Nutrition experts are critical of cheat days within a diet, as it's simply excessive to consume meals with excessive amounts of carbohydrates, fat, and sugar in a short period of time. For successful weight loss, the 80/20 rule is helpful. Eighty percent of your meals should be healthy, while the remaining 20 percent can be indulgent. If your balance gets out of whack, skip a meal and opt for a balance shake instead to create a calorie deficit.
When you're full, you're full: Don't cheat for the sake of cheating.
Just because it's Sunday and you usually load up on carbs on Sundays doesn't mean you have to stuff yourself with fatty, sweet, and otherwise unhealthy food even though you're not actually hungry. Even on a cheat day , you should listen to your body and stop eating right then.
Eat only what you really want. Don't eat anything if you're not hungry.
Motivation instead of reward
A cheat day isn't a reward for your diet, nor is it a free pass for mindless binge eating . Please don't misunderstand the cheat day; instead, use it as motivation to live healthily and do something good for your body. Your reward for a healthy lifestyle is a healthy body, and that's better than any pizza could ever be.
The cheat day, as a small exception to the rule, helps you to maintain a generally healthy diet and thus achieve your goals – but overeating on the cheat day itself should never be your goal.
Our opinion on cheat days
No matter which diet you try, weight loss can only work if you consume fewer calories than you burn . This calorie deficit... It's necessary, but also annoying, because when your metabolism slows down, your mood also drops.
This is where the cheat day comes in. Once a week, you can indulge. This boosts your mood and gives your metabolism a new lease on life. This helps prevent muscle loss and avoid the dreaded yo-yo effect .
When asked about cheat days at SHEKO, we can definitely recommend them to healthy and active people who have already internalized their diet plan. The cheat day follows our principle: "The Power of Balance." SHEKO supports a healthy diet , which should be considered a long-term goal without requiring complete deprivation.
We would advise against a cheat day if you've just started changing your diet and are still carrying a significant amount of excess weight. The temptation to fall back into old eating habits is simply too great. If you want to lose weight quickly , we also advise against a cheat day.
Humans are creatures of habit, and so is their diet . Even your sense of taste can be trained with a little practice (and for a change, that simply involves eating). This happens quite naturally: If you eat properly for a while, consuming plenty of fresh and light foods and limiting yourself to sweets and junk food, you'll soon realize how incredibly sweet, fatty, or over-seasoned what you used to consider normal or delicious actually is. This also means that it can be tough at first , but later you'll enjoy your new way of eating and no longer feel like you're missing out on anything. Then you might wake up one morning really looking forward to your creamy Balance Shake – and not give Nutella sandwiches another thought.
Nutrition experts believe that cheat days can even have a positive impact on eating habits and reduce cravings for fast food, sweets, and fatty foods. And that should be your goal: a dietary change that transforms your eating habits so that you... eats well intuitively .
Alternatives to Cheat Day
Here are our recommendations:
Introducing the cheat meal . Instead of indulging all day long, limit your cheating to just one meal . This will have a positive effect on your calorie balance, as you can easily compensate for it with your other two meals of the day.
Last but not least: the 80/20 rule . This rule is about eating healthy, balanced foods 80% of the time and indulging in treats 20% of the time . This rule isn't tied to a specific timeframe; you can apply it to a single day or an entire week.
Summary & Conclusion
Weight loss made easy – that's the best way to describe a cheat day. If you stay flexible and allow yourself to treat yourself occasionally, sticking to your diet becomes much easier .
A cheat day is a day of the week when diets and dietary changes are paused . On this day, you can eat all kinds of food, even if they don't fit your overall dietary goals. A cheat day makes your diet more bearable because you have a day where you can indulge in whatever you like without having to worry about your carbohydrate intake. A weekly cheat day is common. It's also possible to divide your cheat day into smaller, more frequent meals.
To ensure that a cheat day doesn't derail your weight loss efforts, it's important to maintain a negative calorie balance . Cheat days generally have advantages. A day of indulgence can motivate those trying to lose weight and simultaneously boost metabolism, thus increasing fat burning . However, cheat days are not suitable for severely overweight individuals who have just started their weight loss journey – the risk of the yo-yo effect is still too high.
FAQ about Cheat Days
Does the idea of a diet now seem less daunting, and are you already looking forward to your first cheat day? Then you'll surely be curious about our concluding facts for speed readers.
