Can You have Cheat Days and Still Get Results?

Are cheat days good or bad? If you do them, can you still get results?

I dive deep into my personal opinion about cheat days in this video, but if you want the Cliff Notes version of my thoughts, read below:

Cheat days are thought to be a break from eating super healthy throughout the week. They’re meant to give you a sense of freedom to eat anything and everything without any limitations that you’ve perhaps created throughout the week.

The good:

• It allows you to eat any food you want within that 24-hour period - FREEDOM!
• It can be a mental relief from eating super clean throughout the week
• It can create a sense of balance

The bad:

• Oftentimes cheat days can turn into cheat weeks, hurting progress in the end
• You start to label foods as good or bad, which can lead to a disordered relationship with food
• The all-or-nothing mentality can be very exhausting mentally and emotionally and doesn’t allow for moderation throughout the week
• Cravings can increase for those certain foods when you feel mentally restricted from eating them

Here’s my opinion:

• Rather than calling them cheat days, I encourage you to label them as treat days.
• I suggest practicing the 80/20 rule, eating healthy foods 80% of the time, 20% of the time intentionally allowing for treats and guilt-free splurges
• Moderation is key to sustaining a healthy balanced lifestyle while still allowing for the not-so-healthy foods

If you want to dive deeper into this topic, watch this video.

I’m curious, what are your thoughts on cheat days?