Are cheat days good or bad? Are they an effective motivator to elicit long-term behavior change, or do they counteract positive progress?
Here’s the thing: we don’t have much good research on cheat days or cheat meals. Despite this, I have a lot of opinions about cheat days/meals as a dietitian. Keep in mind, however, that these are just that: my opinions. They’re based on things I’ve observed and experienced in my personal and professional life, but that’s it. Until we actually know more from a research-based perspective, it’s best to take anything you see about cheat days/meals with a grain of salt. Ultimately, it’s up to you whether or not you think they fit well with your lifestyle and health goals. With all that being said, let’s unpack my thoughts, as a dietitian, about cheat days/meals.
What are cheat days and cheat meals?
To be perfectly honest, I hate even calling them “cheat” days or meals… I’ll talk a bit more about why I find this language problematic later. For now, though, I’m going to do my best to explain what they are without using a bunch of language I don’t like. Wish me luck. :P These terms were coined from diet culture. Essentially, you follow your diet most of the time and then occasionally deviate from it. If you have a meal that doesn’t align with your diet, that’s a cheat meal. Some people, however, will have a whole day that they dedicate to eating outside of their diet. This becomes a cheat day. The frequency of these cheat days and meals varies person-to-person.
Why do people have cheat days and meals?
Maintaining diet adherence
The general idea behind these “cheat” days and meals is to facilitate motivation and adherence to a diet plan. Basically, diets suck (more on that here) and because of this people are bound to deviate from them at some point. If it’s scheduled, however, there’s a belief that you’ll get “right back on track” afterwards. Instead of deviating for a whole week or longer, for example, you’ll just do the one meal or day and then that’s it (until the next time). This helps assuage any feelings of guilt for “failing” your diet because these cheat days and meals are part of the diet itself.
Motivation
Another reason why people like cheat days/meals is because it gives them something to look forward to. Instead of knowing they can’t have a favorite food for the indeterminate future, they know they can have it on this day/time. Having this type of “reward” in place can help build motivation to stick with the diet the rest of the time.
Balancing hunger/fullness hormones
There’s also an idea circulating out there (note that despite what you may read, there’s no good research to back it up) that having a cheat day or meal helps keep your hunger/fullness hormones balanced. Basically, when you follow a low-calorie diet your hunger hormone increases (this is actually true). If you have a cheat day/meal, many claim that this will lower your hunger hormone which will keep your metabolism from slowing down while you’re eating fewer calories than you need (this is not proven).
As a dietitian, what are your thoughts on cheat days/meals?
Diets suck
At their core, cheat days and meals are a part of diet culture. This is something that I fundamentally oppose because there’s no good evidence that diets help anyone in the long-term (more on that here). Basically, I don’t think dieting is helpful, and therefore I don’t think having a cheat day or meal is either (because those can’t exist without the diet in the first place).
Food morals
Even if dieting did work (which it doesn’t), I still take issue with the language around cheat days/meals. If you’ve been around here for even a little bit, you know that I firmly believe there’s no such thing as “good” and “bad” foods. Therefore, the very idea of “cheating” or “indulging” just doesn’t fit in my vocabulary. When you look at food as it actually is, without these moralistic labels we’ve placed on them you’ll come to realize that you can’t “cheat” on your eating plan. Why? Because all foods can and do fit in a healthy eating pattern.
Disordered eating behaviors
As a dietitian who primarily works with people with eating disorders, I notice a lot of parallels between disordered eating behaviors and the ideas around cheat days/meals. Essentially, you’re underfeeding yourself for the majority of the time, and then overfeeding yourself for your cheat day/meal. When one serving of your favorite food might satisfy you, for example, you might have several since you know you won’t be able to have it again until your next cheat day. Instead of relying on numbers or a day of the week to decide what and how much to eat, what if you just listened to your body and what it actually wants/needs? This cycle of dieting/cheating ignores your body’s natural hunger and fullness cues which can result in you not providing your body with the nourishment that it needs.
Promoting extremism
This goes along with what I wrote about disordered eating behaviors. Basically, this concept of having a cheat day or meal promotes extreme eating behaviors. Either you have to be really “good” on the days you’re dieting, or really “bad” on the cheat day. There’s no room for normal, realistic, and sustainable eating patterns in this dichotomous way of thinking. Not to mention the fact that the very word “cheating” is a bit extreme in and of itself. Is it actually cheating if it’s scheduled into your eating plan? I’d argue no, and that the very wording is still guilt and shame producing despite being “approved” cheating.
The logic is flawed
As I mentioned at the beginning, we don’t have good research to back up cheat meals/days one way or the other. The logic behind them, however, just doesn’t really stack up when you think about how our body metabolizes and processes food. Now, weight science is actually a lot more complicated than people will have you believe. Even if it was as simple as eat less, lose weight, however, cheat days/meals would throw off this balance. Say you’re able to maintain a caloric deficit most days of the week (this still doesn’t guarantee weight loss). Realistically, you’d probably end up consuming more excess calories on your cheat day/meal than your deficit. And there’s so many reasons why this might be the case: you’re hungry from restricting food the rest of the week, you finally get to eat the foods you like instead of diet food, etc. Obviously this is not guaranteed, but neither are diets and cheat days (and there’s a lot of good research to suggest that diets don’t work long-term anyway).
So what should you do instead?
Rather than saving up all your favorite foods for one day of the week, try having them when you actually want them. You’ll find that you use a lot less mental energy thinking about food when you allow yourself unconditional permission to eat the things you want. Taking a balanced approach to eating where you can enjoy all foods rather than label them unnecessarily makes life a whole lot brighter. Spend a little more time listening to your body and what it actually wants, and a little less on the unnecessary food rules. Food is about so much more than just health, and once again, all foods can fit in a healthy eating pattern.
What are your thoughts? Have you ever followed a cheat day/meal approach? Did you notice any mental or physical changes as a result?