Cheat Meals, Good or Bad?

I've always been against cheat days, and I'm still against a cheat day, people tend to go wild and spend the day bingeing. I always felt that If you give a person the ability to cheat as part of the diet, they would know how to control themselves and they'd go overboard.

Now the experts are saying that many dieters are slowing down their metabolism with the restrictive diets they're on. When you slow down your metabolism your body stops secreting Leptin, a hormone that boosts metabolism and helps burn fat, and you'll stop burning fat. This will happen over time and we usually don't even realize it's happening.

So because I'm still against cheating basically, the question is"how much extra calories do I need to increase my Leptin level and start burning fat again? It turns out you only need to increase your carb calories by 20%, one day a week. The whole idea is about tricking your body. What happened to you is that your restrictive diet put your body into a hibernating mode and you didn't realize it. By boosting calories one day a week and all you need is 20% boost, you're going to boost your Leptin levels and boost your metabolism.

I also have to mention, that the extra calories should be calories from carbs. not fats or protein, but carbs like whole grains. Maybe you're not eating rice or white potatoes because of the starches but with this plan one meal a week your should add more carbs.

So how much is 20%? Okay, I'll explain, Say you're on a 2000 calorie a day diet because you're working out and need the energy. One day a week you would boost your calories to 2400 and that would be enough to boost your metabolism. Just be careful  what kind of calories you're adding, you don't want to blow your diet and start to add fat. So because I suggested white potatoes as a good carb, doesn't mean you should buy some french fries or order fried rice. Fried foods have saturated fats and should always be avoided. A naked potato with salt and pepper or some other seasoning is very sensible and has lots of nutrition but it's only 120 calories so you might have to double up on vegetables like corn.

If you're not exercising you might be on a lower calorie diet like 1500 calories which means you only want to boost calories by 300 one day a week. It's important that you're careful that you pre-plan that calorie boost so you eat the right things.

If you're having trouble losing fat you might try this method for a few weeks and see if it works for you. Be careful you don't ruin your diet.



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