Cheat Days Boost Metabolism, Break Monotony
More and more eating regimens are building in a “cheat day,” a day in which you’re allowed to eat whatever the heck you want and in whatever portions you want. Back in college, I was following the Body for Life regimen and was introduced to the idea of a cheat day as a means of breaking monotony and boosting your metabolism.
Breaking Monotony
Let’s be honest, the day to day eating of the same lean meats, fish, legumes, whole grains, etc. can get a little boring. You start craving the very things you shouldn’t be having (though I love fish so I’m happy eating it all the time) such as pizza, sausages, ice cream, etc; and it does drive you a little crazy. However, having a cheat day in place gives you something to look forward to. If you can never have pizzeria pizza again, you start going crazy, right? But if you can’t have pizzeria pizza today or tomorrow, but wait until Saturday and you can eat three pizzeria pizzas if you want… then you don’t mind eating the monotony now as long as you can reward yourself later.
Boosting Metabolism
One of the downsides of eating a reduced caloric diet is that your body adapts to it and starts slowing down your metabolism. The counter to this is to drastically increase your caloric intake so that your body is tricked into understanding you’re not starving. See, if you’ve been eating very little for a long time, your body thinks that food is scarce and begins storing nutrients rather than expending it. By increasing your intake for such a short period of time, your body is adjusted back to normal.
So, remember your to utilize your cheat day and enjoy those brownies, chocolate chip cookies, and ice cream sundaes!
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