A smart reader of Fearless Fat Loss brought up a very interesting topic in her comment today on my post What Does Eating Clean Really Mean?
Sarah asked about “cheat days” because she’d heard that they are supposed to boost your metabolism but she wondered about how they would affect her fat cells.
I’m not really concerned about fat cells – unless you get liposuction (which I Do NOT recommend!) your fat cells are hanging around with ya but to me it doesn’t matter. When you lose weight and reduce the amount of fat on your body your fat cells release the fat they’ve been holding on to.
Cheat Days
I want to focus on the topic of “cheat days” instead of fat cells, have you heard this theory before? I bet you have, there’s even a book about it
I’ve heard of people liking this way of life and on the surface it sounds good I guess, but here’s what I see the problem would be for me and anyone else like me who has issues with food and/or food addiction.
The story goes something like this….
There you are, bipping along with your clean eating plan (what I’m describing here is the 6-Week Body Makeover weight loss and lifestyle plan), ridding your system of the processed foods that contain the loads of refined sugars, white flour, unhealthy fats, excess amounts of sodium, additives, and all of that stuff.
You’re drinking 100oz of clean water each day, walking, building muscle with strength training, journaling, and feeling your emotions instead of using food to cope with life’s ups and downs. In essence, you’re doing fabulous and you notice that your clothes are getting looser!
Perhaps you’re even doing what I suggest and using Shrink Yourself in combination with the 6-Week Body Makeover plan; either way you’re doing just great and you’re in a healthy groove.
After a Month of Clean Eating per the 6WBMO
Ok, so everything’s great, especially since you see that your food cravings have dropped off and while you used to eat tons of sugar-filled foods, now you’re craving fresh fruits and veggies and you love to move your body – who would have thought?
Then you hear about “cheat days” and decide to try it, not that you need help with your metabolism because you’ve already got it in high gear by eating smaller portions every 2.5 to 3 hours and doing your regular exercise. 😉
So, You Do It….
You decide to go for it and give yourself “cheat days” but here’s the big problem, or problems I should say, in several different areas:
Note: “cheat days” are not a part of the 6WBMO weight loss plan unless you choose to eat like that after you reach your goal, and then you’re not losing weight anymore.
Physical
You’ve effectively cleansed your system of the addictive ingredients over the past month, those ingredients that cause the endless cycle of food cravings. If you then start doing cheat days you now introduce all of that gunk back into your system and you’re back at square one.
Now your food cravings are back, and you don’t really want your whole foods. You’ve gotten a taste for the processed stuff again and you want more, and more…
Emotional
You’ve been doing so well over the past month and while you thought the “cheat day” would be great, you might be regretting it now. If you’re an emotional eater you could easily turn to food to try to make yourself feel better and the food you turn to will more than likely be the processed stuff. This will deepen the hooks of your food cravings and intensify the desire for more.
Mental
You may find yourself thinking some stinkin’ thinkin’ and a bit of negativity may be brewing. This could easily lead you further into the cycle of emotional eating and that one or two days of eating whatever you wanted could turn into a week of off plan eating and very little exercise.
Spiritual
After awhile, there’s only so many times that you can do this to yourself before you start to doubt if you’ll ever make it out. Going back and forth between the addictive foods and the clean, whole foods can put a strain on your belief in yourself.
You might start to feel like giving up on the whole darned thing and wonder why you can’t just eat whatever you want but eat in moderation. Well, if you’re addicted to sugar and white flour, it’s very hard for you to stop once you start eating that stuff.
What About Metabolism?
The argument for the “cheat days” is that it keeps your metabolism up, but you know what? With the 6-Week Body Makeover plan you eat every 2.5 to 3 hours, you eat foods that naturally speed up your metabolism instead of the processed, metabolism draggers, and when you do hit a plateau (you’re doing everything right but the scale isn’t moving) then all you need to do is eat more of the whole foods you’re already eating!
You simply increase your protein and carb portions proportionately for a few days and then go back to eating your regular portion sizes. I’ve done this myself and it worked.
So, are Cheat Days Worth It?
In my opinion, it’s not worth it to go for these “cheat days“, and anyway, I really don’t like the word “cheat” because it implies that you’re being naughty on your diet and I don’t believe in dieting or in criticizing yourself for what you eat – neither will get you the long term results that you want.
Now is it possible that some people could do well eating 6 days on plan and one day off plan? Sure, anything is possible, but I would not recommend that anyone who has issues with food addiction, emotional eating, food abuse, binging, or any other food and weight issue to go for the “cheat days”. I think that you stand the risk of doing more harm than good to yourself.
What about you? Do you eat like this and if you do, I imagine that you aren’t addicted to sugar or white flour and that you don’t have any food cravings after your “cheat days”?
Or, have you tried this and learned that it wasn’t worth putting the processed foods back into your system after you’d already cleansed yourself of them?
Im a big believe in treat days as a preventative for plateauing.
BIG.
keeps the body shocked and changing and NOT clinging to the saddlebags, errr, extra fat.
I SO think this helped me send my saddles packing.
MizFits last blog post..Tues Tips
I agree wholeheartedly. I tried this once, and it was absolutely disastrous…
Jens last blog post..The Me That I Am
Thank you. I’ve been struggling with these issues since I was 6 years old,(I’m 30 now) and your comments and insights make 100% total sense to me. It’s like you’re talking to my inner self and I relate to everything you’re saying. Keep up the great posts!
I tend to put an extra work out in prior or after a meal that includes more “guilty foods” than I would usually eat. But it is okay to have off days…..isn’t it?
Mark Salinass last blog post..Healthy/Unhealthy Food Lists
I found that when I allowed myself cheat days then I longed for the cheat day all week and never really focused on changing my underlying habits. On the cheat day itself I would wayyyyy overeat and feel like crap afterwards.
I’ve since banned cheatdays but rather allow myself to eat what I like whenever I like with one major caveat: I have to eat in MODERATION. Small portions.
Andrew is getting fits last blog post..Weigh in: So close yet so far
I know folks have different opinions about cheat days. I know that for me, they are not the best option. I notice that the more junk I eat the harder it is for me to get back on track. Sadly, it’s much easier for me to get lazy – to eat poorly and not exercise – so cheat days have the opposite of the intended affect on me!
Susans last blog post..Food Journal – Ally in Breaking Sugar Addiction
Cheating is like Dieting – an incorrect principle. I think you can have days where you plan to eat increased calories, say 20% more and can choose how to spend those calories. I think this should not be until you are “over” thoughts like this is unfair, or too hard. You know the kinds of complaints I am referring to.
Eating correctly is a mental exercise. To reinforce the mental attitude that what you are doing is hard, or that yo have to have time “off” because you are deprived is to keep yourself in the mental cycle that leads to deprivation, abandonment of effort and regaining weight. I agree that it is an incorrect concept. Live my a mental plan, not a list of foods that are OK but boring.
@M, that’s great, you must not be addicted to refined sugar and white flour then?
@Jen,
Hi, I’m with ya, if I do this I ruin all of the cleansing I’ve already done in my system, sets up my food cravings all over again.
@Ngangi,
Hi, and welcome!
Thank you so much for your feedback, makes me feel like all of the angst I’ve gone through with food and weight is a good thing because by sharing it and what’s worked for me, if I can help someone else then it’s worth it. 🙂
@Andrew,
Hi, you bring up an excellent point that I meant to include in my article – looking forward to that cheat day…thank you very much for sharing that!
@Susan,
Yeah, I’m like you, and anyway when I’ve plateaued before all I did was increase my protein and carb portions and it took care of it. I didn’t need to go eat a bunch of processed gunk to get results. 😉
@Bruce,
“Eating correctly is a mental exercise”…how true is that!!
Reminds me of what I wrote about re: the thought of deprivation, that you can look at it like you’re “deprived” because you aren’t eating that sweet or you can look at the sweet as depriving you of your goal of weight loss and health – Excellent! 😀
@Mark,
Hi, it depends on if it works for you or not. If you can eat foods containing refined sugar and white flour (the 2 most addictive ingredients) in moderation and they don’t cause you food cravings and overeating, then it works for ya. 😉
It just doesn’t work for me or others who are free of those cravings by staying off of the processed gunk, and Andrew brought up an important point too – if you spend your time looking forward to those off plan times then that whole thought process can be really damaging.
Hi JoLynn,
I’m all for cheat meals but not cheat days. If you eat right 90% of the time then your body should be able to handle the 10% of food that isn’t so good.
This is me! If I use a cheat day…or even a cheat moment, my cravings are back. I’d just as soon keep craving fresh fruits and veggies and enjoy the 20 pounds I’ve lost so far!
Hi Elliot,
I think you could be right that the body could stand it once in awhile, problem for me and many others if that getting back into those sugar-filled processed foods gets us back into that cycle of food cravings and sugar addiction.
But if you don’t have that problem then I think it’s great that you can eat in moderation and still lose weight and stay fit – if I could do that I would. 😉
Hi Lori,
Yeah, me too. You’ve got a good focus there, focusing on your cravings for fresh fruits and veggies, and Congratulations on losing 20 pounds, you go!! 😀
I think cheat days are acceptable. But, ofcourse, if you gorge on rubbish the whole day, you are looking for trouble. Just eat clean, train hard, sleep well and treat yourself on occassion.
I did this once already over the weekend (im doing 6WBMO) and although I only gained a pound and a half (yikes) what the BIGGEST DOWNFALL was is that it took me until Wednesday to get back to the weight I started from the Thursday before!! When you break it down THAT way, I lost almost FOUR DAYS that I could have been losing more weight.. and for me that could have been up to five lbs!! Plus there is no doubt that it does make you crave all those bad foods again! If anything at all I would agree that just allowing yourself a bigger portion of whole, healthy food or at the worst ONE meal on perhaps a special occasion etc., but not a whole day or weekend.. JUST TOO MUCH DAMAGE TO MAKE IT WORTHWHILE!
Hi Holly,
That’s been my experience too – it’s just too much damage to make it worthwhile. All of those food cravings come right back and you make it much easier on yourself by just staying off of the addictive foods in the first place – why go through the aftermath of detoxing from that stuff again? 😉