The concept of cheating in diet appeared relatively recently. Many professional athletes use this secret during periods of severe dietary restrictions to relieve psychological stress, relax and speed up the metabolism in the body. The essence of the technique is to periodically arrange loading days for yourself during the diet, that is, remove all restrictions and eat what you want.
This method may seem pointless to some. They say that in order to lose weight, you need to eat less, and a temporary increase in caloric intake leads to breakdowns and refusals of the diet. But practice shows that this approach allows you to avoid the so-called “plateau” when losing weight. People who watch their weight know that sooner or later there comes a time when you stop losing weight on a diet, even if you exercise regularly. Even greater restrictions lead to nothing. At such moments there comes a feeling of despair and the meaninglessness of all the activities being carried out. If you periodically arrange a “belly feast” for yourself, pampering yourself with your favorite forbidden dishes, then your weight loss will be uniform.
What is cheating
Cheating is literally translated from English as “fraud, cheating.” By allowing yourself to periodically enjoy your favorite dishes, you deceive the body and provide psychological relief. Any diet will not seem complicated or rigid if you know that at some point you can relax a little.
To effectively lose weight and stabilize your weight, keeping it within certain limits, you must constantly adhere to the principles of a healthy diet. Temporary diets never produce long-term results. We just need to come to the realization that only we ourselves are responsible for the beauty of our own body, for health and well-being. But on the way to this, thoughts periodically come to mind: “Will I never try my favorite dessert again, will I forget the taste of fast food.” To prevent such torment from stopping you, you should periodically arrange a cheat mill for yourself - a loading day.
All fans of temporary or permanent diets know what fasting days are. But loading on a diet is a relatively new concept. Cheating is a fasting day in reverse. This concept appeared in dietetics in 2005. It was introduced by American doctor Paul Rivas. In his own book, he explained in detail what a metabolic swing is, how important it is to periodically radically change the diet, to give the body a shake-up on the path to effective weight loss.
The only way to lose weight is by maintaining a calorie deficit. You should spend a little more energy than you consume. In this way, metabolism accelerates. Nutritionists and athletes often suggest imagining the body’s metabolism as a stove in which combustion must be constantly maintained.
If you throw very little fuel into it, the fire will not flare up, and if you throw too much wood, the fire may go out altogether. The same processes occur inside us. In order for energy to be burned along with existing fat deposits, you need to periodically change your diet, either increasing or decreasing the calorie content of the foods consumed. If you eat monotonously, your body gets used to it and eventually stops responding with weight loss.
But when you suddenly change your diet and allow yourself some forbidden foods and dishes, your body thanks you for this by actively losing weight.
Cheating goals
By using cheating to lose weight, you achieve the following goals:
- Psychological comfort during weight loss - for many, the diet is accompanied by a bad mood due to the constant desire to eat something tasty, but harmful. Cheating relieves stress and feelings of dissatisfaction, because you know exactly when you can afford a little more than what is allowed,
- Saturating the body with useful substances - even with the most balanced diet there is a risk of vitamin deficiency. By arranging a cheat mill for yourself, you get a lot of vitamins, microelements, provoke the active production of amino acids, which are vital for every person,
- Acceleration of metabolism - cheating allows you to lose weight faster, avoiding the “plateau” effect,
- Reducing the risk of breakdowns, increasing the duration of the diet - by arranging periodic loading days for yourself, you can significantly extend the duration of the diet, because it is easier to endure strict restrictions, knowing that on a certain day you can eat something tasty, but high in calories.
Psychological comfort
Saturation of the body
Acceleration of metabolism
Reducing the risk of breakdowns
If you have never been on a diet before and are now overweight, it will be difficult to change your usual diet and eating habits. This is a huge stress for the whole body. Cheating allows you to smoothly switch to following the principles of proper nutrition.
Why cheating and how to use it
Cheating is “deception” in English. Such a “swing” of macronutrients imitates a physiologically natural process. The body is created as a mechanism for survival. Some periods of macronutrient deficiency are natural for him.
But the longer they are, the lower the calorie consumption and the slower the weight loss. You can “deceive” this mechanism and avoid slowdown only by a one-time sharp increase in energy value.
The rules of cheating are quite simple:
- You need to be on a diet exactly until a “plateau” occurs.
- Stopping weight loss means that you need to sharply increase the amount of carbohydrates in your diet, up to 5-6 g per day.
- “Window to the world of overeating” is strictly fixed at 12 hours. You can’t eat at night, the next day - return to your normal diet.
- On the day of cheating, you don’t have to train, but you should move around to avoid lymph stagnation and swelling.
How often will the operation be repeated? Food lovers are ready to do this every week, but in fact, it’s worth cheating only when the weight rises.
How is cheating different from dieting?
When you go on a strict diet, you risk breaking down sooner or later. It will be difficult to return to the given nutritional limits later. The psychological aspect is also of great importance in this process. Because of each next failure, you will reproach yourself greatly; the process of losing weight will not bring any pleasure. Sooner or later you will give up the diet altogether.
Cheating in this regard is fundamentally different from breakdowns, because you break your diet as planned, preparing for this process in advance. You should definitely think through the menu for the loading day in advance and plan a trip to training.
With unplanned breakdowns, problems with the gastrointestinal tract often arise, because you are weaned from fatty high-calorie foods and the body cannot cope with the stress. Then you feel heaviness in the stomach, nausea, and bowel movements may be disturbed. If cheating is planned using all loading rules, then no health problems will arise.
Cheating does not always last one day. Sometimes you can arrange whole weeks of permissiveness if you are going on vacation, but this does not mean that the diet does not need to be controlled at all. You should still calculate the caloric content of foods and the ratio of nutrients.
Deception of the body or urgent need?
Literally translated, the word “cheating” means fraud or deception. The point of diet cheating is to periodically include days in your diet when you can eat almost anything.
Such days are also called “loading” - as opposed to unloading.
First of all, cheating on a strict diet brings enormous psychological benefits: it is much easier not to break off the diet when you know for sure that you will soon have a completely legitimate breakdown, not accompanied by remorse, guilt and punishment.
But what are the benefits of cheating for the body, and most importantly, how effective is such a system in terms of losing weight?
Basic Rules
Cheating is always carried out according to certain rules:
- Decide in advance on the loading day date,
- Create a sample menu
- Before the cheat mill, you can have a fasting day,
- An increase in the total calorie content of consumed foods should be accompanied by an increase in physical activity. On this day, it is worth carrying out an intensive workout in order to effectively burn incoming energy,
- Daily calorie content is calculated individually, based on weight, age, and usual diet, but it should not exceed 2500 kcal.
It is not advisable to have a cheat mill when you are sick or feeling unwell. Food loading after long-term restrictions is a serious stress for a weakened body. In this way, you can worsen an already poor health condition.
Women should consider the phase of their menstrual cycle when planning a cheat meal. All representatives of the fair sex know that after ovulation and before menstruation there is an increased appetite. During this period, you can arrange a planned load for yourself to meet the needs of the body.
Loading day rules
During a cheat day, the body relaxes and you need to find the strength to continue the process of losing excess weight. For this, nutritionists have developed certain rules that will help you not to break down and finish what you started.
The main condition for cheating is to drink plenty of liquid; you need to drink at least 1.5 liters of water per day.
You can eat anything, but half of the daily diet should be fresh vegetables and fruits, the other half - proteins and carbohydrates, the daily norm should be 2500 kcal. The duration of loading days is 48 hours maximum, frequency is no more than twice a month. It should be understood that cheating is not a diet, it is only a short pause during the chosen diet.
Types of cheating
There are many types of cheating based on goals, focus, and results. The most common types:
- Cheating bodybuilders,
- "The Cheater's Diet"
- Hedonistic cheating,
- Protein-carbohydrate alternation (PCA).
Cheating is used by bodybuilders during the “cutting” period. To achieve beautiful muscle definition before competitions, athletes go on a protein diet with a sufficient amount of fiber, but with a complete absence of short carbohydrates. Such restrictions are strict and require considerable willpower. To ensure psychological comfort during the diet, loading days are introduced every 1-2 weeks. Planned violations include consuming large quantities of carbohydrates, but active training is required on this day. The energy entering the body must be used correctly.
The concept of the “cheating diet” was introduced by Paul Rival, who introduced the ideology of cheating into the process of losing weight. In his book of the same name, he described in detail the optimal diet for a week. For five days you need to eat a balanced diet, and on weekends allow yourself a little more than usual.
To do this, you do not need to eat large amounts of sweets or fatty foods. Followers of this approach are confident that if you eat one piece of chocolate or one candy a day, there will be no harm to your figure. The main thing is to do this in the first half of the day. This type of cheating is suitable only for people with a high degree of self-organization, because not everyone can limit themselves to a minimum amount of a prohibited product.
Protein-carbohydrate alternation is a diet whose main goal is to accelerate metabolic processes in the body. The essence of the method is that you eat exclusively protein foods for two days, on the third day you give yourself a full load, and for another two days you eat restrainedly, creating a deficit of incoming energy of 300-400 kcal. In this way, you can achieve significant results and lose several kilograms in a short period without harm to the body.
The choice of a specific approach or technique depends on the goals you set for yourself. You should definitely consult with an experienced nutritionist and personal trainer and use an integrated approach to losing weight. Cheating will be beneficial if you actively engage in sports on a busy day.
Cheat day in bodybuilding
If we talk about gaining muscle mass, loading days are also used in bodybuilding. However, the concepts should not be confused. Cheating in sports has 2 meanings.
The first is the principle of the founder of bodybuilding, Joe Weider. It consists of deliberately violating the correct technique of performing an exercise in order to increase the number of repetitions and muscle growth. This is a special trick for advanced athletes.
However, we will talk about the second meaning of this word - “loading” with food. This technique in bodybuilding is relevant when an athlete adheres to a special diet with a certain caloric intake and the amount of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates consumed. Of course, athletes need to take cheating more seriously than people who want to lose weight. After all, in addition to losing fat, their goal is to gain muscle mass. Bodybuilders should not load their bodies with “garbage.” On these days, they need to eat more calories, which will energize their body and help make their workouts more productive.
Who is cheating suitable for?
The ideology of cheating is suitable for those who want to lose weight, but are not ready to give up their favorite foods forever. If you have never been on a diet or restricted yourself in anything before, periodic planned violations will allow you to avoid stress and feel comfortable.
Cheating is used by almost all professional athletes who also need periodic psychological relief. If you have reached a “plateau” effect in the process of losing weight, you need to radically change your usual diet. Alternating fasting and loading days will allow you to accelerate your metabolism and ensure active weight loss.
If you previously used low-calorie diets, but after completing them you only gained weight again, and now you have come to realize the need for radical permanent changes in your diet, cheating will help you come to terms with the restrictions being introduced. If you know that sometimes you can afford to eat more than usual, it is easier to give up your favorite foods while dieting.
Who is not suitable for cheating?
Cheating is not suitable for people with chronic gastrointestinal diseases. They are shown a constant strict diet without the slightest violations. Refusal of a balanced diet and consumption of prohibited foods can lead to exacerbations of the disease.
Cheating is also not suitable for people with a weak will. If you are not sure that you can limit yourself to one day of gastronomic permissiveness, you should not even try. There are often cases when a cheat mill becomes the start of active uncontrolled gluttony and subsequent weight gain.
The ideology of cheating cannot be used by those people who are trying to lose weight only by dieting and not exercising. A prerequisite for a cheat mill is an increase in physical activity on this day. Otherwise, everything eaten will be stored as fat on the sides and hips.
How does this method work?
Surely you have noticed that when you diet, the body gets used to the new regime and begins to store “fat” in reserve. Yes, yes, our body is so cunning that it is able to bypass diets, because it does not know that we are losing weight on purpose. A long hunger strike and a constant lack of useful elements are perceived by him as torture and a threat to life, so weight gain is a completely adequate reaction.
But what to do if you are overweight, but you need to lose weight? In this case, the method of deceiving the body will help when, after several weeks of dieting, we begin to treat ourselves to something harmful. This action confuses our body, and it completely changes the vector of its direction, beginning to intensively shed excess.
Benefits of cheating
Cheating has many significant advantages. This approach makes it easy to stick to a diet, switch to regular healthy eating, lose weight and stabilize it, that is, to avoid further fluctuations.
You guarantee yourself psychological comfort during the diet, good mood and activity. Saturate your body with healthy vitamins, minerals, and microelements. When you enjoy delicious food, your body produces numerous hormones that are responsible for the health of all organs and systems.
It turns out that dieting is not at all difficult. You don't deprive yourself of the joys in life in the form of a piece of cake or a scoop of ice cream.
To experience all the benefits of cheating, you need to take a rational approach to organizing your diet, remember the goals you are pursuing and the ways to achieve them.
