Husband says have a cheat day once a week.....REALLY ?

IJNIPA

So he says if I have a cheat day once a week, then it will reset my metabolism. Is that really true? He also says it readjusts how your glycemic foods register inside your body. Sounds crazy to me. What do you guys think ?

fitmom4lifemfp

Tell him to don't quit his day job.

SonyaCele

stick to advice from professionals

Alatariel75

Metabolisms don't just 'reset', nor are they so fussy that eating more calories one day a week will cause any change to them. Your husband has been reading too many magazines

IJNIPA

Thanks everyone. Thought it was weird and didn't make any sense. I've got a feeling he's starting to feel a little uneasy about me getting smaller. He was praying before a meal one night and asked to "not let his wife go overboard with her diet." I will tell him to keep his day job...LOL.

SusanMFindlay

So, is it possible that what he really wants is to have one day per week when the two of you eat more "normally"? Whatever that means for you? Has his food changed as a result of your dieting? Because one way to accommodate that (if you want to) is to eat a little less six days a week so that you can have one day per week where you can have dessert or a drink or a higher calorie dinner or whatever. It's called banking calories. The idea would be that if your goal was to eat 1500 calories/day, you'd instead eat 1400 calories/day for five or six days of the week - which gives you an extra 500-600 calories to play with on the remaining day(s).

I'm not saying you have to do this. It's completely up to you whether or not it appeals to you. But, in the grand scheme of things, it's the weekly average that matters not every single day. And this has nothing to do with any sort of metabolic anything. It's really more about making dieting easier on your social life. It's not a "cheat day" in the sense of being "eat anything and don't care". It's a planned maintenance day - which can be really great from a psychological perspective.

You may also want to talk to your husband about what he means by "going overboard". Is it just that you're eating *differently* than before (which may well be necessary to lose weight) - or are you eating at low enough levels that he's worried about your health?

Parkercomom

I have read that a cheat meal a week is good. It has an effect on thyroid levels.

LucasWilland

I think what your husband is referring to is the idea of a refeed day or cheat day. It was believed for some time in some circles that having a few days where calories were above maintenance would result in an increase in Leptin levels. Leptin is the prime regulator of body fatness by initiating signals to the hypothalamus to control appetite. In response to a diet, Leptin levels notably decrease, which acts as a homeostatic defense mechanism to defend the body from losing stored fat any further. This can notably cause a decrease in NEAT levels and even the calories burned during exercise. This is part of the semi-true idea of starvation mode. Yes, it is true that the body does try to defend itself from long periods of being in a deficit, but it very rarely will ever cancel out the deficit entirely. There have only been a few studies that show this to be the case in some individuals.

While cheat days or refeeds can be beneficial psychologically, due to being able to eat more, Leptin levels do not increase enough to make a significant impact on energy expenditure. A far better idea is to take a diet break after every 8 weeks of successful dieting, where calories are brought up to maintenance and stay there for 2 weeks. This will help increase some of the Leptin lost from the deficit and ease ghrelin, which will make dieting easier.

* One thing to note is that if you are going to implement a strategy like this, the increase in calories should come primarily from carbohydrates, as they have the biggest impact on circulating Leptin levels, while protein could perhaps be lowered a bit, and fat could be kept the same, assuming that you are not consuming a very high fat diet of 40% calories or higher.

RodaRose

Talk with him. He probably means well. Good luck.

MaddMaestro

HAHAHHAHA You should have cheat meals, but not because of metabolic reset. That doesn't make sense.

Morgaen73

I have a cheat day once a week which has absolutely nothing to do with my metabolism and everything with sustaining my lifestyle.

I;ve tried this twice before and failed after a few months because the meal plans I was put on were to strict and I started missing "regular" food.

I've been doing this one for over 3 years and lost 62kg (in part) because of cheat days. It helps me feel that I am not on diet.

Do what is best for you and don't listen to "bro-science"

size102b

Once you use the word cheat on an eating plan you've told yourself your deprived
Cheat days can mean anything from eating a higher cal meal than normal or blowing all your good work out the window for that whole week

If he's worried you run off reassure him
If he's missing how you used to eat explain how I lots t your health is

ericthoresen

Problem is one cheat day a week could lead to two cheat days a week. Then eventually three. Next thing you know your gaining wait. If you want to cheat, have that item you would not have normally had at dinner time, or that desert, but factor in the calories so you don't go over.

Silentpadna

In this entire thread, I haven't seen it defined what a "cheat day" is. Not trying to be snarky, but if you're in a situation where you may be trying to be -1000 for the day (like I am), it's awfully hard to hit that number exactly. As I log my calories in / calories out every day, I average about -1100 (not on purpose), but I don't consider it a cheat day when I have a day of -650 or -700. I've also found that with healthier choices, it would be difficult for me to reach my maintenance calories in a day as it is.

But the main point I was making is this: what is a "cheat day" for you? Yesterday I had two slices of pizza for dinner (and felt an irrational pang of guilt). It brought my deficit to about -750. Other than the explosion of sodium and the fluid I'll likely retain for a few days because of it, it'll be no big deal.

So is a cheat day an indulgence? Or is it just missing a target by a little?

inertiastrength

I could make a spectacular disaster in one day a week, highly don't recommend doing a yolo day once a week lol

LivingtheLeanDream

Sounds like your husband shouldn't give up his day job any time soon LOL

'cheat' days can actually undo all our hard work by wiping out the weeks calorie deficit if we're not careful...

TimothyFish

The only thing that "resets" metabolism is exercise and it actually resets it in a good way, but even there it is of little consequence because what you eat and how active you are has such an overpowering impact on your calorie deficit. The rest is marginal. But I agree that we need to know what is meant by "cheat day." For one person a cheat day might be eating a slice of cake. For another it might be eating the whole three layer cake.

My personal view of the best way to go is to not label any foods as off-limits, but always eat in moderation. It's a mental thing. When we start saying, "It's okay because its my cheat day," we can easily eat enough to undo our efforts from the rest of the week. If we're doing something that we aren't comfortable doing all the time then we might ought to find a different approach.

oceancitybum1

"Eaten ain't cheating." Bill Clinton.

Rocknut53

When I cheat:

RaphaBianchi

How much extra would you eat on a cheat day? 1000 calories extra? 1500? That could be setting you back 2-3 days. Personally I wouldn't do it but it's up to you if you are prepared to slow down your progress.