Diet 6 days, Cheat 1..this was on the News..!! (should i.?)

G

gibarian

0
Hello everyone a couple days ago i seen on the news that dr's where saying if you strictly diet you should cheat once a week so your metabolism will "wake up" from it's starvation mode. I know most of us don't diet to the extreme, but i'm wondering if i should do just that, like diet (which i'm on) and cheat a day. I'm not talkin a whole day buffet...just maybe like a fast food burger and fries, maybe eggs with bacon for breakfast...anything you want like 2-3 times out of the day.

OR is it best to just stick to a diet straight through..? The diet i'm on now is my own really, a low-cal/low-fat diet..and i'm losing like 3lbs a week with exercise.

Anyone know, technically if it's actually GOOD to kick start the metabolism by eating fatty foods one day out of the week..?
 
gibarian said:
Hello everyone a couple days ago i seen on the news that dr's where saying if you strictly diet you should cheat once a week so your metabolism will "wake up" from it's starvation mode. I know most of us don't diet to the extreme, but i'm wondering if i should do just that, like diet (which i'm on) and cheat a day. I'm not talkin a whole day buffet...just maybe like a fast food burger and fries, maybe eggs with bacon for breakfast...anything you want like 2-3 times out of the day.

OR is it best to just stick to a diet straight through..? The diet i'm on now is my own really, a low-cal/low-fat diet..and i'm losing like 3lbs a week with exercise.

Anyone know, technically if it's actually GOOD to kick start the metabolism by eating fatty foods one day out of the week..?
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I agree with this to a certain extent. I think your body does adapt to a certain calorie\dietary intake and may need to be joggled a bit to break a plateau. Unfortunetly, I think too many people use this as an excuse to 'binge' or 'gorge' themselves with unhealthy foods. I don't agree with that or anything referred to as a 'cheat' day. We should eat healthy (maybe 97% of the time), but we must also eat in a way that we can live with for a lifetime. If you are completely eliminating something from your diet I beleive you are setting yourself up for failure.

I eat lowfat as well. So I do have an occasional fatty food (whatever I may be craving), maybe a couple pieces of full fat cheese, or some art. & spinach dip (yummy), or maybe some lowfat frozen yogurt (icecream is my absolute fav.), are just a few examples.

When I do have an occasional craving (afterall we are only human), I feed it. I don't ever regret it nor do I call it a 'cheat'. I call it listening to my body and probably preventing many 'potential' binges in the future. I also believe that if we really are craving something it could be perhaps there is a lacking a specific vitamin\nutrient (ei. crave icecream maybe you are low on calcium).

I also increase my daily calories here and there to shake it up, not nec. with a 'fatty' food, but maybe an extra bite or two of everything throughout the day totaling an extra 100-300 calories. I really truly believe in mixing it up (mind you not gorging yourself) and being aware of your internal cues.

Now if you are a body builder and trying to 'bulk' up or you do intensive weight training I believe there are diff rules...but pardon me ladies & gent.s I am no bodybuilder, so you need to help them out, if it should apply :) .
 
If you are currently losing 3 pounds of fat per week.. stick with what you are doing until it stops working :)


There is some merit behind the cheat day. Some people believe that if you eat the same amount of calories every day then your body will get used to it and adjust itself. Meaning it will plateau.

To rectify that, they will eat 2 days at 1700 calories and then 2 days at 2100 calories then back to 1700 calories, etc. There is a popular diet plan using this general principle right now. It's called weight loss 4 idiots or something.

Personally, I think it's easier to eat well every day. And when you want something that isn't in your diet... eat it. Just don't eat ALL of it. Be realistic. As our body drops fat or as we increase our activity level our caloric needs MUST change.

At that point we stop seeing results (plateau) and know we need to switch something up... caloric intake, type of exercise, etc. That's when I re-evaluate what's going on :)
 
I am a huge advocate of the cheat day for 2 reasons. The first is the one you have mentioned which is not allowing my body to get stuck in the rut of a specific calorie intake. The second reason is a more psychological reason. It gives me something to look forward to all week so, I use it as a kind of reward aswell. I don't go completely mad mind you - I just allow myself to have a steak with pepper sauce or something washed down with a couple of beers.

I think if you can do something like this and still lose weight, its a good thing. I don't think it should be used as an excuse to gorge yourself on candy and burgers one day a week though ;)
 
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