"Cheat" Day Pros and Cons
We all want to know, although for some of us, ignorance is bliss… Did that entire personal pan pizza just ruin the last month of perfectly planned meals and exercise? Well, if you actually stayed on track for an entire month, chances are the pizza wouldn’t derail your gains. If you’re asking that question every few days, the answer is undoubtedly, yes. You cannot frequently deviate from the path and expect to see results.
While indulging in a “cheat” meal will temporarily increase your metabolism (especially if you’re on a calorie deficit), the effects are not enough to account for an additional 3,000 calories in a day. Generally speaking, the metabolic boost would only increase caloric expenditure by a couple hundred calories. There are different schools of thought regarding 80/20 moderation, 90/10, or a system where there’s an entire cheat day per week, or a couple instances of treats throughout the week every couple days. To know which of these options is the best for you, you need to take into consideration what you’re training for. Are you an athlete training for a fitness competition or triathlon? Are you trying to lose 20lbs at a rate of 1-2lbs per week? Maybe more weight than that? Or are you trying to maintain your current size and shape with regular exercise and a generally healthy diet? This piece matters when it comes to determining how to handle dietary restrictions.
Chances are, if you’re an athlete training for a major competition, for example physique, you already have your own coach and team helping you with diet and exercise. In this case, it is important to stop cheat meals 2-4 weeks out from the show in order to fine tune any parameters in need of tweaking.
For the average person, this system is going to work a little differently. It’s important to determine the food relationship before deciding if and when to indulge. Some people have a hard time eating a cookie without going back for the entire sleeve. If this is you, choosing treats with intention is incredibly important. Treats don’t have to be entire packages of Oreos or triple cheeseburgers and a double order of fries with a milkshake. More than likely, if you are honed in on your nutrition, you’d never be able to eat that much anyway. Get a single burger and share the fries. The idea here is being able to eat something you love, once in a while, without seeing the negative side effects. Knowing your own food boundaries is important in making sure that your relationship with food is a healthy one. No guilt, and no pity parties. And if you can’t leave the package alone once you start, choosing something that won’t ruin your progress is critical.
If you’re looking to lose weight, the best way to incorporate cheat meals is to try and offset some of the calories in your workout - I don’t want you to mistake this with exercising in order to eat junk, but rather to account for the portion of the calories that aren’t going to be burned by that slight metabolic increase. This only helps to maintain progress. HOWEVER, if you’re decent at maintaining your meal plan and exercise, the occasional cheat meal could lead to better outcomes. The less deprived you feel, the more likely you’ll be to adhere to a program longterm. Basically in the weight loss phase, eat the good stuff 90% of the time and you’ll see progress.
When seeking to maintain your current physical state, this means maintaining your weight, shape, and muscle mass, there’s a little more wiggle room. If you’re totally happy and content, you can adopt an 80/20 plan in terms of adherence. If 80% of the time you’re dialed in, chances are you’ll succeed.
So after that long winded and convoluted examination, the conclusion here is, no. One cheat meal will not derail your progress. I would suggest coming up with a new way to think of your diet - as a lifestyle - and incorporate things that you love on occasion, but recognize that eating junk all of the time will stagnate and even turn progress upside down no matter who you are. Even if you don’t see it on the outside (which is unlikely), what it’s doing internally is opposite the vision of health and longevity.