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Nutrition Physiological justification behind cheat days

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Phil12

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Hey gang,

I am interested in the physiological reasons that some diets include cheat days. I know several well-respected diets include them (Hit the Target, Slow Carb) etc. I've been searching on and off for info but I seem to just come up with a lot of blogspam, so I'm curious if anyone has any sources handy as to why it might be a good idea to include cheat days in a diet.

edit: Answering my own question to a degree, it seems like the arguments revolve around raising leptin levels.
 
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I will offer my opinion.

Having three meals a day, every day, is IMHO like putting a one-inch bandage on a broken arm. It addresses symptoms and not underlying needs and issues.

A life well lived is a life fully lived, one that experiences many places on many continua. We should experience maximum muscle tension, and maximum muscle relaxation. We should experience being solitary to the point of loneliness, and feeling overwhelmed with the amount of people and human energy around us. We should feel unlimited love, and unbridled hate.

We should experience not having enough food to satisfy our hunger, having more to eat than we could possibly need, and all the many places in between.

And I can't tell you a d@#$ thing about leptin levels.

-S-
 
I've looked into this as well, because for me personally I "validate" having a cheat day more often then I should.

Though as far as necessity to have a cheat day: Geoff neuperts "six pack abs 365" there's only 2 mentions of a cheat day, and they seem to be for none other than psychological relief from constant diet and/or restriction.

Otherwise, the rest of the stuff I came across mentions "restarting the metabolism", "caloric refeed", etc. though I feel the underlying theme is the same: moderation. Though that's where I fail miserably.

-WF
 
Same reason why the junk food is in the back of the supermarket. You feel so good about all the healthy food you bought, you by some treats for yourself.
 
Leptin levels are what I've read about for this. Specifically in The 4-Hour Body (Slow Carb).

Leptins are new (discovered in the 90s I believe) and not fully understood, but from what I can tell the signaling they play a role in can get messed up with chronic caloric restriction, and need to be jump started every so often. They are the satiety hormone and thus cause problems if disfunctional.

Seems that obese people have high levels of leptin, but something akin to "leptin resistance" where the brain doesn't get the "I'm full, stop feeding me" message and the fat cells don't get the "It's okay, we have enough food, you can release your energy to burn" message.
 
I believe most of the cheat days recommended in typical diets are there only to appease certain psychological wants. "No cheat days ever" is a really tough thing to sell, even if it turns out for the better both physiologically and psychologically.

Even if it may be good to vary the intake of calories, I still can't see the reasoning for cheat days. Why not just have an extra serving of potatoes, broccoli and apples? I don't see the body needing chocolate or pizza in any way.

All that said, there is 0% wrong in eating a diet of ice cream and cheesecake. It is none of my business and nothing to value someone by. But there's no sense in deceiving oneself for the reasons to do so.
 
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All that said, there is 0% wrong in eating a diet of ice cream and cheesecake. It is none of my business and nothing to value someone by. But there's no sense in deceiving oneself for the reasons to do so.

Well there goes my A plan! Cheesecake works for Brian Shaw, I don't see why it shouldn't work for me... ;)

I can tell you someone who's not in favor of that terminiology... and a podcast you might find fascinating:

Wired to Eat: Neuroregulation of Appetite with Robb Wolf - Elite HRV

This was really fascinating, thanks for sharing. It helped coalesce some of the thinking I've been having about my own diet. I'll probably pick up the book and read it.
 
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I found having cheat days make the HtT plan psychologically very easy.

I could always have whatever I wanted... later.

Saying it's JUST a psychological need and therefore unnecessary is, in my opinion, unreasonable.

I'd rather an easy 16 weeks where I lost 30 pounds (like i did) than a brutal 16 where I lost 40+. I historically wouldn't have lasted the 16 or even the 8 without blowouts anyway.

The question is 'do cheat days unacceptably slow weight loss' not 'are they optimal or necessary'.

People with no souls who don't want icecream can do what ever makes them happy. Personally I'd rather slower progress while enjoying myself.
 
I found having cheat days make the HtT plan psychologically very easy.

I could always have whatever I wanted... later.

Saying it's JUST a psychological need and therefore unnecessary is, in my opinion, unreasonable.

I'd rather an easy 16 weeks where I lost 30 pounds (like i did) than a brutal 16 where I lost 40+. I historically wouldn't have lasted the 16 or even the 8 without blowouts anyway.

The question is 'do cheat days unacceptably slow weight loss' not 'are they optimal or necessary'.

People with no souls who don't want icecream can do what ever makes them happy. Personally I'd rather slower progress while enjoying myself.


Actually, the question was: "Physiological justification behind cheat days". And there aren't any.

I really like ice cream. I eat it often. I see nothing wrong with it, even if I don't physiologically need it. I also see no reason to deceive myself for the reasons to eat it.

If someone asked me a question if "cheat days unacceptably slow weight loss" I'd first ask his goal and the time frame. It's very probable that they do not slow it unacceptably. Just like ice cream can be a reasonable part of a reasonable diet.
 
I don't really know much about the physiological reasons for/against a cheat day.

However, I agree with Tim Ferriss. Willpower and self discipline are overrated and unreliable, my personal experience of this is that I've tried IIFYM and flexible dieting, because apparently it's easier to have a little bit of cake/chocolate/ice cream here and there and it reduces cravings. Excuse my language, but f**k off. Give me the whole f***ing cake/bar/tub or none at all, don't tease me with a tiny bit of such unsatiating foods.

A cheat day as in the SCD allows one to accept the fact that you will break eventually and instead allows you to reduce the damage by planning for it.
 
Cheat means different things to different people. One meaning is caloric quantity, the other is caloric quality. I think a quantity cheat day full of micronutrient dense whole foods in massive quantities will have a better physiological benefit. Cheating on caloric quality with cake has psychological benefits but I don't think it replaces a sweet potato for physiological benefits. The exception I think would be for nutrient specific diets. Keto 6 days/ week with a higher carb day once would be an example of a quality cheat that has both physiological and psychological benefits.
 
Speaking from a pure physiological standpoint the sake of a cheat day is to raise leptin levels. The more body fat you have the more leptin your body secretes but the cells become insensible to the hormone. Leptin regulates the metabolism signalling satiety and kickstarting several biochemical pathways to decrease body fat.
The leaner you are, the more senible you react to leptin. Also the leaner you are the less you excrete leptin.
Thus the need to boost levels by a caloric surplus.
However eating to boost leptin levels cals for a caloric surplus or maintanace cals (~500 kcal above maintenance/maintanance). As for macro distibution it should be lower protein, low fat, high carb. This pretty much eliminates huge amounts of pizza, burgers and ice cream sice fat is the limiting factor. So in order to really have a physiologically correct cheat day you would gave to eat pretty boring things like rice cakes...

Having huge amounts of fun foods rather serves a psychological reason however the caloric surplus will boost the metabolism after prolonged periods of dieting
 
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