Cheat days are nothing new to life in the fitness world. Being physically active and normally disciplined about your diet and exercise regimen most of the time is the goal.
However, being disciplined 24/7 100% of the time can be challenging mentally and physically. It's logical to have a day when you let yourself be human and enjoy many of the things you love but normally sacrifice. If you do things right, cheat days do not negate the other six days of the week, when you were disciplined in your eating and training habits.
Cheat days come in many varieties. Increased consumption of the foods and drinks that you abstain from during the week, increased serving sizes and guilty pleasures -- within reason -- are mentally healthy for you.
These days can be weekly, every two weeks or monthly depending on the individual, but a regularly scheduled cheat day can help you reduce cravings and prevent binge-eating by providing a mental break from a restricted eating plan.
Many find it difficult to train one hour a day 5-6 days a week. For those who do not have that problem, the remaining 23 hours of the day are an even bigger challenge. Your hour of fitness will not outwork a bad diet, especially as you get older.
When to schedule a cheat day? I like a cheat day on days where the workouts were particularly challenging, like a Saturday morning with a long workout full of running, calisthenics, weightlifting and swimming.
After two hours of that kind of caloric burn, you can afford a cheat day, and you earned it. Following this type of workout will be larger meals that include burritos, chips and salsa, and maybe a few beers in the evening.
My cheat day tends to be moderately healthful foods -- just in bigger portions and moderating things that require it. However, the following day is a physical recovery day where I sleep in, rest, stretch and do some mobility work, and get mentally focused on my eating and meal preparation for the week.
Consider this way a 1-2 punch to mental and physical recovery, where you physically earn your cheat day, then recover well the following day.
But to receive the mental recovery benefits of a cheat day, you also can do this on your actual physical recovery day, if you prefer. Remember the goal of a rest day, cheat day or recovery day is to recover from the previous week's physical, mental and emotional strain. They do not need to be done on the same day.
Where you can go wrong. If recovery is the goal, you also should eat foods (with moderation still) that do not inhibit recovery. Deep-fried foods, greasy fast food and items with high sugar content tend not to help the recovery process. But if you can keep your cheating calories to a limit of 500, you will be OK. If you overdo the bad calories, your energy levels the following day likely will suffer. Your fuel today is tomorrow's workout energy.
If your goal of having a cheat day is to help with the mental discipline challenges you fight off all week, great. Do it if it is helping. If you find that your cheat day turns into a cheat weekend, cheat hump day and you start the weekend on Thursday night, you are overdoing it and likely will not achieve your goals -- unless that goal is weight gain.
However, if your goal is weight gain -- enjoy -- as those are the best. Be warned: You may be a hard gainer now, but one day you will not be, and your habits of overeating to gain or even maintain weight will end when athletics and high-level activity are reduced.
At that point, you'll have to learn new habits and discipline when you can't outwork your diet and realize that 1,000 calories burned or consumed can be the difference between success and failure -- and even life or death in some cases.
So, what is the solution? Here is the math: To burn a pound per week, you need to reduce your daily intake by 500 calories or increase your activity by 500 calories burned per day in order to total 3,500 calories burned (or not consumed) in one week as a caloric deficit.
However, you do what works for you. This may be eating smaller portions each meal; fasting parts of the day; not eating particular foods or food groups to reduce daily dietary habits; or another method that works for you. That typically will require discipline but let yourself be human (once in a while).
Stew Smith is a former Navy SEAL and fitness author certified as a Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) with the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Visit his Fitness eBook store if you’re looking to start a workout program to create a healthy lifestyle. Send your fitness questions to stew@stewsmith.com.
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