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<\/a>Dieters often have lower leptin levels, which signals the brain to slow down metabolism. Cheat days give you a chance to increase leptin and keep your metabolism burning.<\/p><\/div>\n
Low calories are one of the reasons diets fail. Cutting the number of calories you eat often results in hunger which, in turn, causes leptin levels to drop. Leptin is the hormone that informs your brain that you have plenty of energy in reserves, but when the levels drop, your brain thinks that you\u2019re starving. The result is that your metabolism slows down, and you end up burning fewer calories. It\u2019s a vicious cycle that typically causes frustrated dieters to quit dieting altogether.<\/p>\n
Toss a cheat day into your dieting schedule, however, and, according to EatThis<\/a>,\u00a0 your leptin levels will go up, notifying your brain that all is well. It will keep your metabolism set to burn calories instead of conserving them.<\/p>\n Knowing you can eat what you want to on a regular basis will keep you from feeling deprived.<\/p><\/div>\n Another reason it\u2019s tough to stick to a diet is that you usually can\u2019t eat many of your favorite foods, and you end up feeling deprived before you start seeing results. Consequently, working a cheat day into your diet will make you feel like you\u2019re not being deprived at all. Bodybuilders like King Kamali tell Muscle & Fitness<\/a> that cheating gives them a mental break. Knowing that you\u2019ll be able to treat yourself on a specified day will make it easier to stick to stricter meal plans the rest of the time. What\u2019s more, you might notice you perform better in the gym or TargitFit class<\/a> the day after you cheat. Those extra calories will give you the energy to power through a beast of a workout, which will benefit your weight loss goals in the end.<\/p>\n Make a plan.<\/strong> If you want to use cheating as a dieting strategy, you can\u2019t just randomly decide that “today\u2019s the day” and then go back to dieting tomorrow. Having a plan is always the best bet. Decide if you\u2019re going to allow yourself one cheat meal every 10 meals or an entire cheat day every 10 days. There\u2019s nothing magic about the number 10, so don\u2019t get hung up on that. The point is to pick specific times for cheating and stick to that.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t over-restrict your calories before your cheat day.<\/strong> You\u2019re already cutting back by being on a diet, so it\u2019s not necessary to cut back extra right before a cheat day. Eliminating additional calories will only result in binge-eating on your cheat day\u2014which is unacceptable \u2026 and it\u2019s the next tip.<\/p>\n Taking a cheat day isn’t the same thing as having permission to eat yourself into a coma. On cheat days, eat moderate amounts of the foods you miss most when you’re following your diet. Image by Chelsea Marie Hicks\/Flickr<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n Don\u2019t binge!<\/strong> Allowing yourself a cheat day is not the same as getting permission to eat everything in sight. You\u2019ll still need to eat reasonably on your cheat day; it\u2019s just that you\u2019re allowed to have foods typically off limits. Eating slowly can help. Not only will you get to savor every drop of silky Alfredo sauce or delicious crumb of chocolate cake, but eating slowly will give your stomach enough time to signal your brain when you are full.<\/p>\n Keep working out.<\/strong> You should have rest days worked into your exercise schedule, but it\u2019s a good idea to manage them so that they don\u2019t coincide with your cheat days. Resting on a day when your caloric intake is low will help keep your body from thinking it\u2019s starving, and working out on a day when you indulge will help work off those extra calories before they\u2019re stored in fat cells.<\/p>\nAvoid Feeling Deprived<\/h4>\n
<\/a>Tips for Cheating the \u201cRight\u201d Way<\/h4>\n
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