How Bad Are Cheat Days For Your Fitness Diet?

To cheat or not to cheat; on your diet, of course. 

This is one of the most commonly asked questions asked by many casual and new fitness buffs when it comes to their diet plan. Unsurprisingly, the answer isn’t as straightforward as many would hope.

In this diet guide, we’ll start with a few of the drawbacks of cheat meals, followed by some of the benefits, and end with a no-bullshit bottom line answer for those serious about achieving their fitness goals.

DRAWBACKS OF CHEAT MEALS

1. FEEDS TEMPTATION

The first and most obvious drawback of cheat meals is that it feeds your temptation to slip back into unhealthy eating habits.

If you’re working on strengthening your mind as well as your body, it may be more damaging than beneficial to slip a cheat meal in if your self-control isn’t where you want it to be.

2. STOMACH ACHES

One of the changes your body undergoes after switching to a clean and healthy diet is cleaning out all of the shit your digestive system from your previously bad diet.

If your diet was poor for an extended period of time, your digestive system would have adapted to the trash you were putting into it, which is why you wouldn’t get stomach aches when regularly shoving garbage into your face.

However, once you clean your digestive tract out with a clean healthy diet, and then reintroduce the same toxic garbage back into it, you will more than likely suffer severe stomach aches that could throw you off for days.

3. LOWERS ENERGY LEVELS

Any moron with more than two brain cells to rub together knows that you need energy for your workouts - and cheat meals can steal the energy you need for days, if it’s bad enough.

Even if your cheat day is on a rest day, it can impact your workouts the next day and potentially the day after that seeing as it takes roughly 36 hours for food to move through the entire colon.

If that cheat meal was big and heavy, your body will focus energy on digesting the load of garbage you ate a few days ago, zapping the energy needed for your workouts.

BENEFITS OF CHEAT MEALS

1. PREVENTS BINGES

Depending on your mental strength and self-control, cheat meals aren’t all that bad.

If your mind is strong enough to not slip right back into the same old eating habits, cheat meals have the potential to prevent falling into a deep food binge.

2. REDUCES CRAVINGS

This is the same idea as preventing binges - if your mind is strong enough, and your self-control is developed enough, giving yourself a taste of what you used to overindulge in has the potential to reduce cravings for that food.

3. PROVIDES MENTAL BREAK

If your fitness diet is incredibly strict, it can get mentally exhausting, especially if your diet was completely unrestricted before. This mental exhaustion could lead to certain individuals completely giving up on the diet if it gets too difficult.

If you notice that you totally give up when you get too fatigued with challenges, give yourself a cheat meal. It’s better to eat one bad meal for every six good meals than eating shit meals seven days a week.

THE BOTTOM LINE

What this whole cheat meal debate comes down to is how your own mind operates.

Can’t control yourself? Don’t eat cheat meals.

Already have control of your mind? Indulge yourself sparingly.

Notice a pattern of giving up when the going gets tough? Give yourself a break once in a while.

My personal opinion when it comes to cheat meals? If you can’t control what you eat, you’ll struggle controlling yourself in every other aspect of your life.

Every time you say no to cravings and urges, you get a little bit stronger - every time you give in to those cravings and urges, you get a little bit weaker.

So ask yourself - do you want to be strong, or do you want to be weak?

Greg | MME