You’ve committed to eating healthy. You want to look and feel great, and you’ve already stuck to your diet for an entire week. You feel good about how you’ve done and think you deserve a gold star… or that cupcake calling your name (especially the one with the extra layer of frosting on top). Maybe you even think you deserve a day off—a designated “cheat day.”
But are “cheat days” a good idea? Do these special days of indulgence help you reach your health goals? Or do they set you up on a seesaw of destructive eating habits?
Some say that giving yourself days of indulgence is giving yourself a needed break from your diet. These cheat days are a relief valve that helps you stick to healthier foods.
The philosophy behind this basically goes something like this: Healthy eating requires some willpower—willpower you’ve used to keep yourself from forbidden foods—so to reward your constraint, it helps to have one scheduled day (or meal) per week where you’re allowed to eat some of the treats you’ve been avoiding. When you give yourself a window to enjoy these off-limit foods, it’ll satisfy your cravings, replenish your depleted willpower, and, some studies suggest, even increase your production of the hunger-dampening hormone leptin while boosting metabolism.
So cheat days sound like a good thing, right? Not so fast. The logic behind these days has more than a few flaws, and it’s due to the psychology and physiology behind them.
“The very phrase ‘cheat day’ sets up enjoying a meal as something forbidden,” says Sondra Kronberg, R.D., executive director of the Eating Disorder Treatment Collaborative. “Separating foods into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ categories encourages you to associate eating with guilt and shame.” This means that instead of enjoying everything we eat, we feel bad about ourselves when we eat something we consider “bad.”
What’s more, when we deem certain foods “bad” or “cheating,” the negative name doesn’t help us pump the breaks.
“When a food is off-limits, it can develop a specific, emotional charge,” explains Melanie Rogers, RD, a nutritionist and eating disorder specialist. “You begin obsessing over it, fantasizing about it, and looking forward to that ‘indulge day’ all week. Then, when you finally have access to it, you overeat.”
On the flip side, labeling foods as “good” or “healthy” can also backfire. Science shows when we think something is healthy, we’re not concerned with portion control and thus overdo it—whether it’s a “normal” day or a “cheat” day. Yes, there can be too much of a good thing.
Along these same lines, thinking of a meal or snack as “healthy” can have a surprising effect on our hunger. Studies show merely considering items we put in our mouth as “healthy” can literally make us feel hungrier—especially if we select a “good-for-you” item out of obligation over something we’re truly hungry for.
WebMD article
Yes, this is a good post but I think it might be a little deep into the psychology of the “cheat day”. The simple way to look at it is that changing what you eat is like someone who stops smoking. Have you ever heard of a smoker who was trying to quit and scheduled a “cheap day” in his or her week when they’re allowed to smoke? The smoker would never stop, the smoker would always have the nicotine in their system and therefore wouldn’t be able to quit.?
It’s the same principle when you eat fatty foods or foods high in sugar or salt. You can form an addiction to those foods and that’s why you crave those foods. Those are the addictions you have to change if you’re going to change your diet. If I crave something salty, I get a celery stick and a salt shaker. I sometimes eat plain salted popcorn. There are dozens of things like hard-boiled eggs that you can salt and are still good for you. I don’t believe the salt shaker will give you high blood pressure, but eating processed foods with a high sodium content will increase your blood pressure and can also cause food addiction. Frozen foods with high-fat content will do the same thing.
Having a “cheat day” in your diet will only destroy your diet. If you like to have a reward for your hard efforts, buy a new pair of jeans after you lose two inches of belly fat. You will be much happier.
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