The Truth About Cheat Days

It’s the beginning of spring-aka cutting season. You’re spending the last few months before summer trying to shred off as much fat as possible to reveal the solid muscle you’ve built, the result of grinding at the gym every week for the past year. For many, the “cut” is the most grueling phase. Long and tiring workouts, low calorie diets, and bland meals that typically consist of rubbery chicken breast, brown rice, and broccoli, it’s amazing that those who embark on such a challenge come out the other side alive.

The only things that keep us trudging onwards in our painful pursuit of leanness are:

1) that subtle hint of a six pack that is ever so slowly poking through, and

2) the controversial “cheat day,” in which all dieting rules get pushed to the side once a week, allowing our deprived taste buds to indulge in “unclean” foods that, during the rest of the week, are strictly off limits.

Cheeseburgers, nachos, pizza, ice cream-pretty much any food, is a possibility.

But is the infamous cheat day really worth it in the end?

While it may temporarily cure the cravings, does it set back all your hard work, and to what extent? Should you even have cheat days? The answer is by no means an easy one. For most, cheat days really do setback progress. To burn one pound of fat each week, you would need to eat at least 500 calories less than your body’s maintenance calorie intake every day, or roughly eat in a weekly deficit of 3500 calories.

One day filled with eating high-calorie foods with limited restraint can lead to consuming potentially 3,000-5,000 calories (depending on how much you eat that day). Not only does this severely diminish your aimed weekly deficit of 3500 calories, but it could, as stated earlier, transform the deficit into a surplus, in which you are now gaining fat, not losing it.

READ Low Calorie Recipes For Weight Loss

Naturally, this can setback your progress by weeks or even months, meaning more time spent in the gym, and more dry, tasteless meals that you have to consume.  Does this mean that you should cut out all “unhealthy” foods, and stick to the diet that’s making you hate mealtime? Not necessarily. Ultimately, how you manage your diet is up to you. If you want to get shredded as fast as possible, and can tolerate disgusting food for three months, then go for it.

After all, we are only human, and fitness should not be something that makes us miserable, but rather, something that makes us happy. There are two ways you can manage your diet so you can actually enjoy the process of leaning down in time for summer.

How To Manage Your Cheat Day

No one wants to be spinning their wheels by working out hard in the gym, dieting hard during the week, and then ruining all their progress through one cheat day just to satisfy cravings. Not only is this incredibly frustrating, but it’s also very mentally and physically exhausting to continually work hard throughout the week only to get nothing in return. This is the very reason why people often quit their diet or workout routine: they feel as if they are putting in so much effort but failing to make progress, and ultimately, become discouraged.

So to avoid this on your cut, whether it be during the spring, or at any time during the year, try implementing some strategy into your diet plan. There are two ways you can do this. 

The first method is to try planning out your cheat day.

It’s ok to eat at maintenance calories on your cheat day, or even slightly above, as a slight surplus of a few hundred calories for one day won’t largely offset your cut, however, by decreasing the deficit, know that the results that you are grinding for will only come slower.

When planning out your cut, it is crucial to commit yourself to a calorie limit for the day. This will help you “cheat” on only a moderate level so you do not over-consume, ruining your progress for that week. By setting a calorie limit, it will also be easier to determine your weekly deficit. Additionally, plan out the exact foods that you hope to eat, and make sure you are well aware of the calories per serving.

READ Twenty Secrets You Should Know To Cut 500 Calories A Day

By doing this, it will help you better satisfy the cravings you’ve had all week, as well as make calorie counting much more easy and efficient.

The next method to help manage your cheat day, is to not have one at all.

Instead, incorporate the foods that you enjoy in moderate amounts throughout the week. Many studies show that people trying to lose weight are much more successful when they include the foods they love in their daily diet, rather than abstaining from them.

One way to do this is to eat very lean and low-calorie protein sources to leave more calories for foods such as chocolate, ice cream, or tacos.

Another way to do this, which has become popular only recently, is by intermittent fasting. Essentially, you push your first meal later into the day, skipping breakfast, and having a late lunch or an early dinner. By doing this, you can save nearly all your calories for later in the day, and instead of eating several small meals, you can eat one or two large meals (still within the caloric deficit), and incorporate more of the high-calorie foods that you would typically eat on a cheat day.

READ Don't Just Count Calories: Figure Out Which Calories Count

In this way, you never feel deprived of the foods you enjoy, and finish every meal feeling full and satisfied. Whether you decide to incorporate these ideas into your cut or not, fitness and dieting should not be a grueling process that makes you feeling stressed and miserable everyday. Fitness should enrich your life, not detract from it, so whatever steps you take along the way to achieve your fitness goals, it is critical that you are happy and enjoying the process!