Can a “Cheat Day” Really Promote Rapid Fat Loss?  By Brad Campbell

If you’re a regular reader of TopFatLossTrainer, then you know I promote strategic cheating to be used within your fat loss diet plan.  Here’s an older post I wrote about using cheat days to help you burn fat even faster —> Cheating On Your Diet.

I’ll be the first one to admit this is an advanced fat loss strategy that is hard to wrap your brain around.  After all, doesn’t binging on junk food seem like it would set you back in your quest to lose fat and get a lean body?

It sure does and this is exactly how I felt until I dug a little deeper and did some in-depth research on dieting and why most diet plans fail to produce weight loss results.

Surprisingly, I found that a cheat day may actually be the KEY to rapid fat loss.

Like I say in my ‘about’ section (you can read that here —> Brad Campbell), being a closet science nerd has its advantages.

I was stoked to find a mechanism and lots of scientific studies that supported my hunch that cheat days can be used strategically to produce rapid fat loss.

Honestly, I lucked out BIG time ‘cuz shortly after studying the cheat day tactic, I discovered that a well-known nutrition expert had come out with an advanced dieting strategy that used this exact concept to produce better fat loss results.  Although I was pissed that he beat me to the punch and came out with a product first, I eagerly purchased it and was quite impressed.  He’d done his homework and the dieting system was very comprehensive.

That’s why I’m a proud partner and I can recommend this weight loss solution to all my TopFatLossTrainer readers…because I know it works and I’ve done the research into the science behind it.  You can pick up this life-changing (not to be dramatic, but it’s really that good) system right here: Cheaters ALWAYS Win.

This was a big relief for me because I freakin’ LOVE eating, especially when it comes to high carb foods that every “diet” tells you to avoid.  Seriously, I still feel bad for my parents because when I was growing up I know I must have cost them a fortune in grocery bills.

I’ve always had a hard time eating too “clean” for too long.  It was just a matter of time before I’d fall off the damn fat loss wagon and go on a week-long binge because I was feeling so deprived of great-tasting comfort foods.

Do you know this feeling?  I’m sure you do.

That’s why using a weekly cheat day gives you a huge psychological benefit, to go along with the “internal” metabolism-boosting benefits.

Not only does a cheat day promote rapid fat loss through a series of hormonal effects, but it allows you to enjoy your favorite foods and look forward to indulging in them once a week.  I think this is HUGE for most normal people who don’t have the discipline of a world class bodybuilder.

But still…a once-weekly cheat day to produce rapid fat loss…that’s just not an easy piece of weight loss advice to understand, let alone start doing without some concerns.

I know that’s what many of you are thinking and I actually just had a question about this dieting strategy from one of my TopFatLossTrainer VIP members.  Here’s his question about cheat days and fat loss:

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Brad, Thanks for the top-notch content!

I am having a hard time understanding the physiological benefits of such cheat days.

While I understand the concept, in practice is where it hits the fan. I follow a very strict diet 5 days per week, throw in a cheat day and a fast day per your guideline.

However, during the cheat day I feel absolutely disgusting, there is no way this could be good for my body! Pizza, nachos, burgers, fries, etc… it just doesn’t feel right.

Could you please elaborate behind the science as to why this works?  Does the food have to be dirty, or can it be just a large amount of healthier foods?

Your interval training has done wonders – however I am struggling to embrace this cheat day strategy.

Thanks in advance.

-Robert

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First of all, that’s a great question Robert.  I totally understand why you’d have doubts about the concept of a cheat day being beneficial for fat loss.  I’m sure many other readers are also wondering if I was on crack when I suggested this technique.

I want everyone to grasp this concept and believe in it.  To accept the notion that cheat days help your body to lose fat more rapidly, you need to know about a super important hormone…one that you’ve probably never even heard of before —> LEPTIN.

Why is leptin so important to your fat loss goals?

Leptin’s main role is to tell your brain and body about your overall nutritional status.  There are two ways leptin levels are controlled.

The first is the amount of body fat you have.  Basically, people with higher levels of body fat will have greater leptin levels than those with lower body fat percentages.

Because leptin is released by fat cells (STUPID fat cells), you’d think that under everyday conditions there would be a direct relationship between the amount of fat you have and the rate of leptin production.

But when you try to lose fat by following a diet plan and restricting food intake, your internal conditions become a little screwy.  This brings us to the second way leptin levels are adjusted by your body…

The amount and types of calories you eat will also affect leptin levels.  Therefore, a fat loss diet causes your body to reduce leptin levels, regardless of how much body fat you have.

This means you can be really overweight and still have low leptin levels…just by starting on a diet in attempt to shed some body fat.  Why is this important?

Well, like I said before…normally, leptin levels are hanging around at a typical level and the brain therefore thinks that nutrition intake is fine and dandy.  Your metabolic rate is operating at a good clip and technically, your body is ready to burn fat.

But almost as soon as you decide to go on a fat loss diet, problems arise…

After just 6-8 days of dieting, leptin levels will drop by at least 50-60%.  This sends a signal to the brain that you’re starving and not eating enough food.

Unfortunately, your body responds by shutting down your metabolism (ability to burn fat) and creating a hormone response that’s even worse…your thyroid hormones are also reduced substantially (this causes an even slower metabolism) and you release more cortisol (a nasty stress hormone that likes to store fat, especially in your stomach area…damn you, cortisol!).

Let me summarize because I don’t want to lose you…

You aren’t happy with your body because you have extra fat you want to get rid of.  So you go on a fat loss diet and eat healthier foods in smaller quantities, like a good boy or girl.

After about one week of this diet, your leptin levels drop and your body tries it’s hardest to STORE more fat because it thinks you’re going to starve (the body acts this way because of the old days where we actually DID go weeks at a time without eating…you know before all the fast food restaurants and total over-abundance of food options everywhere you go).

Are you starting to see why most diets only work at first and then for some reason they always fail?  It’s because after a short amount of time and a small amount of progress, your body starts working against you.

As if all this wasn’t bad enough, your body now releases other hormones to increase appetite.  So inside your body is trying to store more fat and now you have to deal with cravings for the food you’re trying to avoid in the first place.

This makes sense, right?  Remember how I said I could only go so long with my clean eating and after a while it’s like I couldn’t control myself…well, this explains why that ALWAYS happens.  So un-cool…

Basically, our bodies are only ready to achieve fat loss when we’re stuffing our faces with high calorie foods (aka eating normally).

But as soon as we start to try to lose weight and get a lean body, all hell breaks loose and your body goes into fat-storing mode.  That’s enough to drive me to start drinking (Tequila anyone?)

So what’s the solution?

We have to find a way to keep leptin levels high and our bodies ready for fat loss DURING a dieting process that produces a caloric deficit.

Here’s where a cheat day comes into play.

I told you that fat loss diets will drop leptin levels by about 50% or more after just one week.  The good thing is that it doesn’t take near that long to bump leptin levels back to normal, through planned high calorie intake.

The research I found says we can accomplish this in as little as 8-12 hours.  So the answer to our fat loss dilemma is strategic, high calorie, high carbohydrate (and high fat) food intake.

By eating calorie dense foods on purpose one day per week, you’ll give leptin levels (and your metabolism) a “reset” before your body starts to work against you.  This keeps your fat-burning potential maxed out.

When you follow this cheat day up with a total fasting day, you create a huge caloric deficit and thanks to your newly recharged metabolism, you can tear through stubborn body fat stores and finally achieve rapid fat loss.

The fasting day may not totally cancel out all the extra calories you hogged down (in a strategic way) during your cheat day, but you have to trust that the benefits of a much higher metabolism and less hunger cravings will more than make up this ground later in the week and in each subsequent week.

—> What I’m telling you is if you don’t do some form of cheat day, carb-cycling, carb-rotation, etc (call it what you want), your fat loss results will eventually come to a screeching halt and you may even start to GAIN back the fat you’ve already lost.

Again, this is why every single fad diet fails in the long run.  These diet plans restrict the calories and the amounts/types of food you can eat (usually the carbs are the first thing to go) and this is just flat-out too simple of an approach.

These bogus fat loss diets fail to out-smart your body.  After a while the metabolism slows, the fat-storing begins, and cravings skyrocket, leading to another failed fat loss attempt.

Hopefully this complex topic makes sense and you’re starting to understand why fat loss is so damn difficult.

Now for the second part of Robert’s question…let’s assume some people STILL don’t feel comfortable with eating low-quality food, in the form of a strategic cheat day once each week.

Does it have to be “junk food” or can you just eat larger quantities of healthier foods on the cheat day?

Studies show that carbohydrates, insulin and leptin all have a very strong connection.  Higher calories alone will NOT get the job done.  In other words, overeating on chicken breasts, green beans and almonds does not produce a bump in dwindling leptin levels.

To produce a major increase in leptin levels from pigging out, there needs to be a lot of carbs consumed.

Because of this relationship amongst leptin levels, carbs and insulin, it works best to eat foods that are high in carbs and fat.  Pizza, breadsticks, pasta dishes, macaroni and cheese, cookies, candy, cake, doughnuts, etc therefore all work great due to the huge amount of insulin they release when eaten.

I’m telling you that the exact foods we usually crave and are told to avoid when trying to lose fat are actually the best to consume during our cheat day.  They cause the largest increase in leptin levels, which means a body that is more primed for rapid fat loss.

I think it’s equally important – from a metal and emotional standpoint – to allow yourself to indulge once a week on the foods we all love.  Plus, you can plan this cheat day around your life.

In other words, if you know you’re celebrating a friend’s birthday at an Italian restaurant next weekend, just schedule that day in for your cheat day.  This way you can still take part in all the social activities and you don’t have to be a “fun-hater.”

Trust me; if anyone believes in making sacrifices to lose fat and get a lean, shredded body, it’s me…

But in the past, I’ve been “that guy” who never wants to do anything fun and who was always making excuses to dodge any get-together that would involve unhealthy eating (that’s a LOT of stuff if you think about it).  I was so worried that I’d ruin all the hard work I’d put in.

Little did I know that I could show up to these events, pig out, have the time of my life AND lose fat in the process.

I guess you really can have your cake and eat it too.  Just don’t take that too literal and think that you never have to turn down an invitation to eat out.  One day a week is all you get, so plan accordingly.

Okay, but maybe you still feel like a fat slob after consuming these bad foods for an entire cheat day.  Can you still get the same effects with other, healthier foods?

You CAN, but it may not be quite as effective…

Food choices that have lots of high-glycemic carbs AND fat show a much more powerful response when it comes to releasing insulin.

Cleaner foods that have complex carbs and healthy fats are okay to eat during your cheat day, but you’ll also need some higher-glycemic carbs (with fat)  to get the best insulin (and therefore leptin) response.

In fact, for those people who have a higher amount of fat to lose, you may be better off starting with a “pseudo-cheat day,” where you simply sprinkle in a few small cheat items with a normal day of clean eating.  This is because you are more likely to be slightly leptin resistant and would benefit from getting the ball rolling, losing some fat, regaining leptin sensitivity and then bringing on the all-out cheat day.

Also note, the cheat day strategy may not be appropriate for those with a serious history of binging or for anyone who thinks they may have issues cutting the unclean eating off after one day.  Although there are no calorie restrictions on your cheat day, I wouldn’t recommend going totally overboard – just enjoy whatever you want throughout the entire day, without gorging yourself.

And remember, a cheat “meal” does nothing to accomplish the boost in leptin we’re looking for…this has to be maintained for at least 8 hours, hence a cheat “day.”

Really, the cheat day concept has been around in various forms for a long time.  You’ve probably heard of carb cycling, carb rotation, calorie zig-zagging, etc – these are all different ways of playing off this phenomenon.

I certainly did not invent the cheat day, but have studied it thoroughly, believe in the mechanisms and research behind it, and have used it myself with great success (so have all of my personal training and TopFatLossTrainer clients).

However, my dieting strategy differs from other cheat day diets in that I recommend a total 24-hr fast the day after cheating.  I also incorporate several other tactical methods the remainder of the week, to really take advantage of a jacked-up metabolism.  If you want a comprehensive plan that details each step, try my partner’s Cheat Diet I was talking about earlier.

Now that’s what I’d call advanced fat loss coaching.  I took a lot of time to break the cheat day concept down for you…

I really hope you’re starting to see how a cheat day may just be the missing key you’ve been searching for in your quest to unlock the rapid fat loss door.

You have to trust the science behind this, but it DOES work.  And it’s the best way I’ve found to stick to my “clean eating” the rest of the week.

Your Coach,

Brad Campbell

PS – Hands down, the most knowledgeable nutrition expert I know has a top-selling dieting system that is based around this exact mechanism.  I bought this product myself, had amazing results and that’s why I’m a proud partner of this cutting edge fat loss solution.  Outsmart your body, get faster fat loss and enjoy all your favorite guilty pleasures —> Cheat Your Way to Rapid Fat Loss

*I took this killer program one step further and added a 24-hr fast to follow up the cheat day, but his program calls for another awesome tactic that works equally well.  In the end, you have several options that allow you to create the perfect weekly diet plan that leads to fast and consistent fat loss, without subjecting you to plateaus like all the other crap diets out there.

Tags: body fat, burn fat, cheat day, cheat days, cheating on your diet, clean eating, cortisol, fad diets, fasting day, fat loss, Fat loss diet plan, high glycemic carbs, insulin, junk food, lean body, leptin, leptin levels, lose fat, metabolism, nutrition, once weekly cheat day, one cheat day a week, pigging out, rapid fat loss, store body fat, strategic cheating, Weight Loss

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 12th, 2009 at 3:00 pm and is filed under Advanced Fat Loss, Diets and Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.