Cutting out foods like refined sugar, carbs and any foods covered by cheese from our diet can be a challenging task. This is especially true when you have just started a fresh eating plan and are concentrating on losing weight at all costs. This is one of the reasons why a cheat day is gaining in popularity among people. If you are not aware of what a cheat day is all about, just keep reading.

What Precisely Is A Cheat Day

A Cheat Day Is Designed To Help People Stay Motivated To Their Weight Loss Plan

When you decide to go on a diet to lose weight you will be required to cut back on all the substances mentioned before. You will be counting your calories and making every attempt to stick to the diet planned. A cheat day is a sneaky way of doing something else within your diet. It gives you the license to have anything you want without even bothering to count calories or worrying about your diet. You have the benefit of saying goodbye to plain chicken and all the healthy stuff you have been having and jump at the foods you like best without any hesitation. A cheat day can be planned anytime during the week, but it has been observed that most people plan their day on a weekend.

The idea behind a cheat day is simply to keep you focused on your diet throughout the week by not looking at the foods that tempt you by reminding yourself you have a planned outing during the weekend. On the day you have planned to have the cheat day you can enjoy the foods you have been forgoing despite the temptations overcoming you regularly. Despite cheat days being called illicit, they are actually followed by professional athletes and bodybuilders who are often employing them during their training programs. This concept is now being adopted by countless numbers of people that believe these days have their benefits as well as their problems.

What Are The Benefits of Cheat Days?

Cheat Days Are Helpful For Making Choices To Meet Long-Term Goals

They Can Help You Stick To Your Long-Term Goals.

Despite being called cheat days, they have been found beneficial, especially among people who were on a diet of 1500 cal per day and were given the option of doubling their calorie intake over the weekend. People who were given this benefit displayed a better sense of self-control before the onset of the cheat day. They also made attempts to stick to their diet plan during the rest of the time.

Cheat days also have the ability to boost metabolism because people who are dieting generally find their metabolism slowing down. This is because they have reduced their intake of calories which would have affected their leptin levels. The reduction in leptin levels can make it difficult for people to continue losing weight, despite eating less. Having a cheat day will help people rectify their leptin levels along with their metabolism.

Cheat days can help people make the right choices making it easier for them to achieve their long-term goals. People working on a diet often come across days at home or in the office when they are tempted by foods they love. This problem can easily be overcome when people decide to leave the foods aside for the cheat day they have planned. They will be making smarter choices by indulging in such behavior.

What Are The Problems With Cheat Days?

Cheat Days Are Not for Gorging Without Limits

When you consider having a cheat day into your diet plan, you will also have a few problems to encounter some of which are as follows:

Cheat days have a certain plan which is to keep people avoiding midweek slip-ups and have a great weekend with the foods they like, but have eliminated from their diet. However, observations have been made that people tend to gorge themselves even simply to ensure they don’t waste their day at the end of the week. Gorging themselves would not be a solution of any kind, but if people need to overeat they should consider a bowl of fresh fruit rather than pizzas and burgers because it would be a healthier option.

By the time the cheat day arrives, people can begin to believe they can eat anything they have been thinking about throughout the week. They could consider having a box of chocolate chip cookies to satisfy their desire for eating. However, the better option for people would be to sit down with a glass of milk and a couple of chocolate chip cookies and enjoy them because it would satisfy the desire while keeping them away from over-gorging themselves.

Professional athletes and bodybuilders can justify cheat days because they are constantly training. However, people are not indulging in similar habits because they are often eating more calories and burning less. Therefore people are advised not to have a cheat day but rather choose to have a cheat meal because it would be suitable for their bodies.

How Should Cheat Days Be Considered?

Considering Cheat Days As Treat Days Would Be Better

People who are following a diet plan will not find a cheat day beneficial for their weight loss program. It would rather compromise their program and possibly put them back to their unhealthy habits. They are advised to consider a cheat day as a treat day when they are only allowed to treat themselves to a single meal of their choice and not to have it the entire day. A treat day rather than a cheat one will prove a better option if planned on occasions which are special.