The Anatomy of A Cheat Day

One thing that is usually brought up in conversation is whether or not to have a cheat day when doing a program like P90x, Insanity or any of the others that are out there. There are a couple different schools of thought around them. Some think never cheat while you are doing a program. Others say have a cheat day, and others say do a cheat meal or two throughout the week.

 Like many my exposure to exercise and nutrition came in the late 1990s early 2000s with the Body for Life program. That works a cheat day into the program where on your rest day you eat whatever you want. Like many, I took full advantage of that and would eat like crap all day long. Early on I probably did undo some of my progress for the week by eating thousands of calories of junk in a single day. But what it did was get me to stick to the program. Reality is, even if you are not morbidly obese, chances are if you are overweight you have at least some psychological issues surrounding food. You probably did not get to where you are  just just because of  how your body breaks down food and stores fat. It is because you eat to provide yourself some measure of happiness. And let's face it junk food tastes good.

The reason why I hate the word diet (one of them anyway) is because it implies restriction. How many people have you heard start a diet with the intention of never eating anything bad for X amount of weeks, months, or even never again. The intention supposes they will either never again be tempted to eat anything bad or will have an iron will to resist that temptation. But to be blunt, if you are overweight you do not have an iron will when it comes to food. So when the person is tempted, and does eat the thing that he or she swore to not eat what happens? Many think "well I had it yesterday so it wont hurt to have it again today." That in turn switches to "I don't have to be as strict with my diet." And then after the person gains some weight back it goes to "I can't do it and will always be fat." Some people just jump to that last step right after cheating on the diet. That is how people get into the yo-yo dieting where they lose, then gain all the weight back, plus some. When the truth is if the person would have gone back to the diet (presuming it was healthy in the first place) the cheat would have been a blip and would have not done any damage in the long run.

That is why I personally feel that some kind of cheat is necessary to stay on a good nutrition plan. You will be tempted to eat badly at some time over the course of 90 days. Whether it is a party, a holiday, or just the smell of the bakery isle at the grocery store. If a cheat day where you eat a bunch of junk is what keeps you doing the program go for it. Will you get the best results possible doing that? Probably not. Obviously if you can get through the entire program eating cleanly the entire time the better results you will get. But the best program is the one that you stick to. It can work for millions of people but if you cannot stick to it then it is not right for you. Personally my cheat days these days look a lot different than they did back then. I still do eat junk food, but a lot less than before. Many times I will eat healthier versions of the junk food I like. For example I will make a homemade cheeseburger on one of those indoor grills so it is lower fat, put it on a whole grain bun, and control what goes on it. Or I will have a single serving size thing of frozen yogurt, or a small bag of chips. Things that are gone after I eat them so I do not have leftovers around to tempt me the rest of the week. Even back when I was doing the "day of junk" cheat days was that after about a month of exercising and eating well the rest of the week, I could not eat as much junk on my cheat days, and did not crave it as much anyway.

These days I may do a cheat day or just a couple cheat meals per week. It just depends. The good thing about the cheat day is it is an isolated thing that you can compartmentalize, but it does not give a lot of flexibility. On the other hand if you do the cheat meal approach you can have it whenever, but you have to have the will power to say I am only going to do two or three a week and that is it. So if you get invited out to dinner you can count it as a meal, but then get back to the eating on your nutrition plan with the next meal. The popular thing when it comes to nutrition is the 90/10 rule. If you eat clean 90% of the time, you can eat whatever you want the other 10% of the time. Yes, you will get the best results from any plan if you can eat cleanly 100% of the time, but that is not realistic. Especially when you are starting out. The great thing about cheat days or meals is that you do not have to use them, but they can be there if you need to. If you would like me to coach you through a P90x or any of the other Beachbody programs, just click the link for my Beachbody page over on the left. Good luck and stay fit my friends.