Cheat Day: What Is It And How To Manage It

30% training, 70% nutrition: if you want to work on your body in a targeted way, you can’t help but follow a specific diet. Better still if it includes a cheat day, which will help you reach your goals.

What is a cheat day?

A cheat day is a day free from the restrictions of your diet, in which you can simply eat whatever you like. Does it seem impossible to you? It is not! Predicting a day off will help you cope with your diet and achieve the goals you have set for yourself.

1. Cheat day helps you keep going

A birthday cake, brunch with friends, or an aperitif with colleagues: for some time you have had to say goodbye to these habits for the sake of your body. The risk is that with constant renunciation the motivation will fail, thus returning to old habits or abandoning the program out of frustration.

2. Cheat days won’t put a damper on your metabolism

If you consume fewer calories than you need for a long time, your metabolism also adjusts and slows down. Simply put, it will go into some sort of constant energy-saving mode and your basal metabolic rate will drop permanently. And so, when you go back to eating more, the yo-yo effect will be guaranteed.

3. Change your diet? With cheat day it’s easier!

Imagine: your cheat day has arrived, yet you have no desire to eat whatever you promised yourself and prefer to continue with your diet. After a certain period, the body and mind get used to the new diet and consider it completely normal.

Cheat day: how to manage it

1. Calculate the weekly calorie intake

Counting calories is the pillar of an effective diet: if you want to gain muscle mass you will have to take more, if you want to lose weight you will have to do exactly the opposite.

2. Treat yourself to what you like best

Letting go yes, but how? Going astray does not mean “overdoing it” as if there was no tomorrow just because it is allowed.

3. Find your rhythm

How often do you schedule a day off? Opinions differ, but in principle, we are talking about one cheat day per week. So 6 days of rigor and 1 of freedom. According to some, however, there is no doubt: 13 days of diet and 1 cheat day. Our advice? Try to figure out what’s best for you and your body.