I have answered this question a lot over the break, and I feel I should stress the importance of having a cheat day!
First of all let me explain quickly what happens when we eat. Keep in mind when reading this, we are no longer Neanderthals but have only been civiled for a short period of time and that our body is still very primal. When we eat our body stores food or uses food for repair/energy. It stores some food for the sole reason that we may not get food again as we were once hunters. This allows us to have an energy source on hand at all times. Our bodies metabolism is what essentially burns and signals energy consumption. When our metabolism is high, we will burn a lot of fuel and not store things like fat as easily. When our metabolism is slow, we will burn few calories and conserve energy aka store things like fat.
When humans go a long time eating perfectly (high protein/ healthy fat diet) our bodies will slow our metabolism down and will burn less energy. Not only this, but your body will be more affected by carbs when you do eat them. This is where the atkins diet often fails. People go carb free for too long, and then when their body is introduced to carbs again, they are taken up and stored immediately.
However, there is a solution! A CHEAT DAY once a week will actually help your metabolism! By eating "bad" foods like sugar and carbs, you are shocking your body, which will then help build your metabolism up and keep your body burning calories more efficiently! Think of it as having a quiz scheduled every friday of the week rather than having one surprise you every now and then. Much like you would perform better on consistent testing, your body will perform better with a structured cheat day. It will keep your metabolism up as well as prepare your body for future carbs!
This chart shows how primal our evolution still is! We were wild hunters for over 4 million years compared to the ~12,000 years we have been civilized and cultured! Our bodies being built for the past is another reason why refined white sugars and syrups are so unhealthy for us, we aren't built to handel all this fructose!
It gets better! Not only will you improve physiologically, psychologically cheat days are affective too! A cheat day is something to look forward to, and it therefore is a reward day. It makes eating clean worth it so you can have one day of all those bad foods you want and not gain any unwanted weight. My tip is make a list. If I am craving say cookies on a tuesday, I write it down on my want list. It helps take away some of the craving and leads to a gratification for the craving. Not only does it help you eat clean, but it makes eating it later taste even better!
You can also keep your metabolism up by eating breakfast first thing, or eating slow burning proteins like casein protein before bed! When you sleep your body thinks it is starving because of your lack of nutrient intake. This leads to slowing down your metabolism. Slow burning proteins and breakfast help keep us out of starvation mode (ketosis) and keeps our metabolism up!
Note: It is still not healthy or ok to have trans fats. Trans fats are bad for because of their molecular shape, not because they are fat. They are hard to burn and get rid of regardless of time.
So for the love of god, don't give up that Willy's Poutine for good!
Bonus tip! If you find it hard to eat clean for 6 days in a row, try introducing 2 cheat meals (two meals, not two days) a week into your diet. It can allow for a guilt free instant cheat and similar metabolism effects!
Cheers, Ryan Trueman
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