Cheat Day is designed to make losing weight easier: you can eat what and how much you want one day a week. Here you can find out whether cheat days make sense.
How useful is cheat day?
Whether a cheat day makes sense depends very much on how you interpret it. If you look around the internet, many a cheat day turns out to be a pure binge eating. This makes no sense for a number of reasons and can even be unhealthy.
If you want to lose weight with your diet, an extreme cheat day quickly thwarts your plans: To compensate for it, you have to stick to a strict diet the rest of the time.
According to studies, regular binge eating on cheat days can lead to disturbed eating behavior with binge eating symptoms. In a study with around 500 participants, emotional binge eating and binge eating symptoms were correlated. This means that people who often eat a lot in order to feel better are more likely to have disordered eating habits.
On cheat day, you associate tasty (but unhealthy) food with cheating and guilt. However, one study found that people are more likely to be motivated to lose weight when they associate occasional “sins” with positive feelings. Example: A piece of cake at a party is better than a piece of cake as a sin on cheat day. Of course, that doesn’t mean everyone reacts the same way – but it’s a point worth considering nonetheless.
Cheat Day: Not inherently bad
So an extreme cheat day doesn’t seem like a good idea. The actual concept of Cheat Day, not to ban any food at all, is a good idea. Diet experts think this makes sense. In Der Spiegel they recommend eating a balanced diet and treating yourself to something special every now and then – in moderation and without feelings of guilt. So you can eat healthy without getting cravings for forbidden foods.
