The Psychology of Cheat Days

amberlynwellbeing
Nov 23, 2022
2 min read

Why cheat days?

Why not cheat days?

What are cheat days?

A cheat day or cheat meal is when the food you eat is not a part of the diet plan you are following. Typically it's food you don’t allow yourself to have and/or you are taking in a higher calorie amount than usual. For so long cheat days have been a part of the vocabulary in diet culture. But do you really need to have cheat days or meals. Are they doing more harm than good?

Why do people have cheat days?

A common theory in favor of cheat days is that they help boost your metabolism. There is a hormone your body produces, called leptin, it plays a role in your hunger cues. It helps regulate your energy balance and keeps you from the extremes of starving or overeating. When levels are low, you are hungry and when they are high you're not. When you are on a strict diet you leptin levels are low, which tells your body you are at a low-energy level. When you participate in a cheat day your leptin levels will rise and in turn your body is in a high energy state, your body wants to burn the excess calories. This response is very temporary, about 30 minutes after you eat more calories than your body is used to eating. This is not long enough to have any lasting effects on your metabolism.

Benefits:

It seems that the majority of benefits of cheat days are psychological. They can be helpful to keep people on their diets. A cheat day or meal at the end of the week can work as a reward to stay motivated throughout the week. A strict long-term diet can be taxing not only on your body but also your mind. To constantly have to tell yourself no. When it comes to certain foods, it can be nice to indulge yourself a bit. Supporters of cheat days say that if you do decide that they work for you it is important they are planned out, instead of spur of the moment. Doing so can help you from slipping into a binge state and feeling defeated.

Risks:

One of the psychological risks of cheat days is that they put a moral value onto food. The cheat day foods are ‘bad’ and the food you eat on a regular basis is ‘good’. It can encourage a scarcity mentality when it comes to the cheat day foods, it gives them more power. In my experience the more I tell myself I can’t have something the more I want it, can’t stop thinking about it. The issue more often than not, is not what you are eating, but how much of it you are eating. Balance is key. Physiological, cheat days/meals can lead to stomach distress and in turn decreased activity, due to not feeling well.

I think far too often health and fitness is taken to the extreme and cheat days are indicative of that. There is space for you to have the foods you want while still reaching your goals. It doesn’t have to be this or that. I encourage both mindful and inuitive eating.