Why Cheat Days are Killing your Weight Loss
Sorry for the dramatic title, but you know how it is with algorithms, they love click bait…..
Though I don’t believe this is really click bait, because cheat days are a growing trend and for a lot of people, they can either lead to a reduction in progress or even a regression altogether.
In this article, I’m going to be going over what cheat days are, what their purpose is, and why the vast majority of people probably don’t need to include them in their program.
What are “Cheat Days”?
Before going into explaining cheat days, I do wanna explain something. Cheat days and cheat meals are not the same thing. A cheat meal is a single dedicated meal where there’s no restrictions and you’re allowed to have whatever you want, just so long as it’s within reasonable quantities.
“Cheat days” though, are something entirely different.
A cheat day is an entire day with no restrictions, a day where you’re allowed to have anything and everything you want. Typically, these are more commonly used with physique competitors or high-level athletes where they’re sticking to a rigid diet plan for extended periods of time. Cheat days are usually a way for an athlete to replenish his/her body with things like calories, sodium, and carbohydrates after a lengthy bout of undernourishment.
See, it’s not uncommon for a bodybuilding competitor, especially a bikini competitor, to bring their caloric intake to below 1400 calories per day during their preparation towards a competition. They’re restricting calories, carbs, salt, and even water leading right up to the show. Fun fact, you’ll usually see EMS on standby at a lot of these competitions because it’s not uncommon for a competitor to pass out, or even freeze up on stage.
Yes, freeze up
When you’re so depleted on key nutrients like sodium, potassium, and magnesium, and you’re doing long bouts of hard posing, though rare, a bodybuilder can experience a total body muscle cramp where they can actually become frozen in place.
It’s also not uncommon for a bodybuilder to get woozy and lose their footing due to lack of nourishment, here is a good video showcasing some of these mishaps.
So, from an outsider’s perspective, it makes sense why someone who’s putting themselves through this level of restriction may want to have a day or two of unrestriction. I mean, after all, they’ve put themselves through hell for the past 12 weeks, aren’t they allowed to enjoy themselves? Absolutely!
But here’s the thing man, 99% of people are NOT physique competitors.
Most people are looking to lose bodyfat and build muscle, all of which is possible without ever having a cheat day. But there's another thing I really want to hone in on before moving on.
Bodybuilding and strength training are NOT the same thing!
Would you call yourself a professional formula 1 driver just because you take your car to work everyday? Probably not!
Bodybuilding is the extreme end of strength training, just like professional formula 1 racing is the extreme end of driving a vehicle.
Most people are not going to be hopping on stage anytime soon. To get so lean that you’re risking your health requires extreme levels of restriction, far beyond just reducing calories and monitoring alcohol consumption. Most people will make amazing progress by just doing the little things, i.e. small reduction in calories, strength training 2-4x per week, getting 7-9 hours of sleep, and improving overall stress management; there’s no need to restrict yourself THAT MUCH to where you need an entire day to just to regain your sanity.
The whole reason why I'm making this article in the first place is because cheat days have gotten wildly popular across social media. If you search anything fitness related, chances are, you’ll see a bunch of posts of these extreme 10,000 calorie cheat days, and each of these posts are garnering thousands of likes.
And I’ll admit, sometimes I’ll catch myself watching one or two because yeah, they’re entertaining. Seeing someone consume 10k plus calories in a single sitting to me is like watching a circus act, it’s so unnatural that you can't help but watch. Luckily for me, I know that a lot of these are either fabricated or the guy/gal behind it is going crazy with their physical activity to burn off the calories, or they’re only doing them once in a blue moon. And though the 10k calorie challenges are a niche, standard cheat day vids are still crazy popular.
But I know that a lot of people watching these don’t know that. What they see is someone fit and lean eating all these amazing foods and, partly due to past diet culture, they want to achieve progress just like them without restricting themselves from their favorite foods. It’s still a belief that in order to make any ounce of progress, you need to cut out everything enjoyable from your diet.
So now you’ll now have someone like Jessica, who’s looking to lose about 20lbs going crazy on her “cheat day” when she’s only been consistent for about 3 days. She wasn’t consistent for 4 days, not 5, or even 6, just 3. She, along with a ton of others fall into the trap of thinking “more = better”, that the more you restrict, the more progress you’ll make.
That’s not usually the case.
Are Cheat Days Ruining My Progress?
You going out to eat on the weekend with your friends is most likely not going to ruin all of your hard work. A single fun meal isn’t what I’m talking about here. What I’ll be talking about is dedicating an entire day towards eating anything and everything. It's when we get extreme that we see larger derailments.
But theoretically, yes, a single cheat day can ruin an entire week’s worth of work.
And I’m 100% serious
Though if you had a single cheat meal instead, it’s really hard to go that crazy, even on the most processed of foods.
Let me give you an example, sticking with Jessica
Jessica needs 2,200 calories per day or 15,400 calories per week in order to maintain her weight. Anything less puts her in a deficit, and anything more puts her in a surplus.
Jessica wants to lose 20lbs, but you see, Jessica’s not that patient.
She’s heard the “take the slow approach to minimize muscle loss” spiel a thousand times, but she believes she’s built different.
A realistic cut for Jessica would be maybe 250-500 calories per day or between 1,700 - 1,950 calories. This would equate to half a pound to a pound of fat lost per week. But she wants it to happen faster, so she sets her calories at 1,200 per day. This would equate to roughly 2 pounds lost per week.
Day 1 and day 2 go off without a hitch, she’s strategic by including high volume foods like leafy greens, lean meats, and fruits, and is prioritizing protein for satiety and muscle preservation. She’s a little hungrier, you know, nothing crazy.
Day 3 and 4, things are now becoming questionable. Despite a high protein intake, Jessica is feeling constantly ravenous, despite eating tons of salad and other vegetables.
Day 5 comes along, and shit’s about to hit the fan. Jessica is constantly thinking about food, to the point it’s distracting her from doing her normal regular tasks. She feels lethargic, weak, and is experiencing wicked food noise.
She makes it all the way to Saturday, day 6, where she ultimately ends up finding herself in what’s known as “fuck it mode”.
“Fuck it mode” is where you essentially give in to your cravings and allow your body to run on autopilot.
Jessica starts her morning at Dunkin Donuts where she orders 1 big’n’toasted sandwich, an order of hash browns, and a large pumpkin spice latte. She then stops by the store to get some snacks, of which she buys a large bag of barbecue chips and a pint of Ben and Jerry’s cookie dough ice cream. For lunch, she gets two slices of pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut with a large Dr. Pepper. And finally for dinner, she drives to the cheesecake factory and her order includes a bacon cheeseburger, fries, a large sweetened iced tea, and two slices of cheesecake.
Here’s an actual breakdown of Jessica’s cheat day
Jessica’s Super Awesome Cheat Day
Breakfast
1x Big’N’Toasted sandwhiches from Dunkin (530 cals)
1x Hash browns (110 cals)
1x Large Pumpkin Spice Latte w/ whole milk, 3 shots pumpkin swirl, 1 sugar, whipped cream, w/ a caramel drizzle (480 cals)
Reference = CheatDayDesign’s Dunkin & Fast Food Calculator
Snack
Large bag Barbecue Potato Chips (Lays) (1,200 cals)
Half a pint of Ben and Jerry’s Cookie Dough (565 cals)
Reference = Lay’s & B+J official websites
Lunch
2 slices of pepperoni pizza (Pizza hut) (300 cals)
1x Dr. Pepper (20z) (240 calories)
Reference = Pizza Hut website
Dinner
1x CF Bacon-bacon Cheesebeurger (1,610 cals)
1x order of fries (1,060 cals)
1x Large sweetened Iced Tea (110 cals)
1x Oreo Dream Extreme cheesecake slice (1,510 cals)
1x Coconut Cream pie cheesecake slice (1,370 cals)
Reference = https://www.thecheesecakefactory.com/media/631/download?inline
In total, in just one single day, Jessica consumed a total of 9,085 calories!
This right here is not an unrealistic cheat day in the context of over restriction. You may be thinking, “oh my god, that’s way too much food, I could never eat that much”.
You really think I would put this example in If I didn’t think anyone could eat this much, especially with severe hunger? When you've restricted yourself enough, you’ll give yourself this almost primal type of hunger that bypasses normal satiety mechanisms, meaning you’ll just eat and eat way past normal fullness.
By going absolutely bonkers on Saturday, Jessica managed to undue all of her hard work throughout the week. Let me show you why.
Jessica needed 15,400 total calories for the week just to maintain her weight. Her goal was to eat 1200 calories per day which would put her at 8,400 total calories, resulting in a 7,000 calorie deficit or roughly 2 pounds of fat lost per week.
Maintenance = 15,400 calories
Deficit Goal = 8,400 calories
Day 1 = 1200 calories
Day 2 = 1200 calories
Day 3 = 1200 calories
Day 4 = 1200 calories
Day 5 = 1200 calories
Day 6 = 9085 calories
Day 7 = 1200 calories
By the end of the week, Jessica's total weekly calories came to 16,285!
Not only did she undue everything in one day, but she managed to put herself in a surplus! If she stuck with this yo-yo approach of restricting and binging, she would inevitably start to gain weight overtime.
This is why taking away doesn’t exactly lead to more progress. The name of the game is sustainability. You gotta set yourself up for success. If you’re setting your calories too low for fast results, sure, you might see some initial progress in the first week or two. But at some point, your hunger is gonna catch up to you, and when it does, it won't be fun.
It’s really not that hard to consume a lot of calories. A single slice of cheesecake from CF alone could be 1300 - of which I could scarf in just a couple bites. Pair that with soda, iced coffee, alcohol, and eating out, it ain’t hard to consume north of 4,000 or more calories within a single day.
So then, what’s the solution? How can Jessica lose weight without going crazy on the weekends?
The answer is to raise her deficit calories to something that she can stick to.
Instead of aiming for 1,200 calories per day, she could try eating 1,700 instead. This would bring her total calories to 11,900 or a 3500 calorie deficit, one pound of fat lost per week.
She can now eat way more food for each day, not feel terribly hungry, and still lose weight!
A huge win for Jessica.
Look how happy she is now
Conclusion
Cheat days are great for high level athletes or figure competitors who have to go through periods of severe restriction. Used as a way to replenish the body and the mind, cheat days in some cases can be a viable strategy to help someone come back from a massive cut, though, overdoing the cheat day even for them can lead to various consequences such as excessive bodyfat regain, binge eating, or digestive issues. Most people who want to get lean do not need to have a dedicated cheat day simply because there’s no need. A flexible approach where you prioritize whole, nutrient-rich foods while also including the foods you enjoy is a pretty darn good strategy for most. You don’t need to restrict yourself like a bikini competitor to shed those last few pounds.
Fat loss takes time, just like building muscle. 0.5 - 1 lb per week lost is a good general guideline for weight loss. This article is not meant to demonize eating out or having drinks or grabbing a cupcake at the office surprise party. This is meant to showcase how severe over-restriction can often lead to a vicious cycle of yo-yo dieting, where you restrict, then binge then repeat.
Always keep your long term health in mind when setting new goals. Think about what you can sustain. A certain level of restriction is always going to be necessary when we’re trying to spark some level of change, and having a cheeseburger with some fries will certainly not ruin your progress.
Work hard, stay consistent, and don’t go crazy.
But always chase greatness
Talk soon
-R
