Cheat Days 101: How To have a cheat day Wthout Gaining Weight

Cheat days are one of those things that almost everyone is interested in learning more about as they progress through their fat loss diet. Any time you begin cutting out the foods you enjoy from your diet plan, your brain is going to immediately want what it cannot have.
This is where cheat days come in incredibly handy. By adding them to your program you can give yourself that psychological break you need without totally falling off the plan. Since you literally are giving yourself permission to cheat, you won’t have the black and white thinking you otherwise might have that senses you destroyed your diet entirely.
But, in order to have a cheat day and not gain weight because of it, there are a few important things to know. Let’s have a look at those right now so you can see the full picture and do your cheat days properly.
Frequency Of Cheats
The first thing to consider is how often you have this cheat meal. Ideally you should be doing them no more than once every two weeks if you have 20 or more pounds to lose and no more than once per week if you have less than twenty pounds to lose.
Those who are at a leaner state can afford to have cheat meals a little more often and may actually need them because they will be at a bigger risk of suffering from that metabolic slow-down.
What To Eat On Cheat Days
Next, you have to think about what you’re going to eat on the cheat days you have. Ideally if you want to see the best metabolic benefits possible you should be aiming to eat low fat, high carb cheat meals as these are what will stroke the metabolism the most.
Since much of dieting is determined by your metabolic rate, especially if yours is moving along quite sluggishly, this will definitely hold you back.
This doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t have your favorite foods however as the whole point of the cheat meal is to give in to your cravings, but it does help if you can lean towards higher carb sources of foods such as pasta, potatoes, cereals, breads, or low-fat ice cream.
These will be slightly better for you than serving up something like deep fried foods, French fries, pizza, or full fat ice cream.
Setting Up Your Cheats
Finally when it comes to setting up the actual cheat meals in your day, it’ll be best if you can aim to have them after the hardest workout of your week. For most people this means after their leg workout as this is when the body is most depleted.
By putting it at this time you’ll really be sure to send all those extra calories into the muscle cells rather than the fat cells, further improving the results.
So keep these points in mind. Cheat days are definitely something that you can work into your program and if you do it wisely, they will allow you to satisfy your cravings without gaining any body fat.