Is It Ok To Have A Cheat Day When On A Calorie Restricted Diet?

Can cheating on your diet help you lose weight?

There have been many controversies around a cheat meal or a cheat day. A cheat meal is generally a meal that you would not eat when on a diet, a meal that would make you feel guilty. I personally together would many other professionals out there know that cheat meals or a cheat day does have benefits and can boost fat loss. Cheat days also helps make dieting more bearable; imagine staying away from your favorite foods like pizza for 12 weeks? That’s one of the reasons why people cannot stay on diets for long periods.

Having a cheat day will help prevent your body from going into an adaptive state like starvation mode. Going on low calorie diets for long periods without a cheat day lowers the leptin levels in your body thus in turn slowing your metabolism. For those of you that don’t know what leptin is, let me explain; leptin is a hormone that communicates the nutritional status to your body, your body then uses this information to make the necessary changes like fat burning and metabolism. Low levels of leptin = low fat burning and metabolism and high levels of leptin = high fat burning and metabolism.

Low calorie diets will eventually lower your leptin levels which will lead to you hitting a plateau but the good news is that it takes just 1 day of cheating to bring your leptin levels back to normal thus boosting fat burning and keeping your metabolism running at its peak. So don’t feel guilty and give up on your diet because you had a cheat day.

When on a calorie restricted diet choose a day and cheat without feeling guilty but my advice is to try and keep your cheat meals to a maximum of 2 meals for that day. There are some people that have leptin resistance and this is developed in the same way that diabetics develop insulin resistance. If you consider yourself to be overly obese then there is a chance that you have leptin resistance and if that’s the case then I would suggest staying away from cheat days for about 3 to 4 weeks until your leptin resistance has been reduced. 

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What Effect Does Alcohol Have On The Human Body?

Small amounts of alcohol may have some benefits but large amounts or the abuse of alcohol will be detrimental to your health and physique. Now when I say small amounts I mean 1 glass per day, ( example a glass of wine or a glass of whisky) this has been proven to increase HDL (good cholesterol) in the body. This excludes the soft drinks or sweetened drinks that are sometimes added to alcohol.

If you are serious about losing weight and getting into shape then I would suggest not consuming any alcohol at all. Alcohol has 7calories per gram which makes it the second highest, second to fat which has 9 calories per gram. If you are on a calorie restricted diet then alcohol is just going to be extra calories that your body does not need, these are wasted calories and have no benefit.

Alcohol reduces the body’s ability to burn fat, the liver is responsible for metabolizing alcohol and fat, and alcohol prevents the liver from metabolizing fat, that’s because alcohol takes priority over fat. Alcohol is a toxin (poison) and it has to be detoxified by the body. Consuming alcohol has other risks like; damaged muscle cells, various heart and circulatory problems, effects the nervous system and brain, less efficient healing of injuries, it’s a diuretic which leads to dehydration, Numerous sexual dysfunctions like; loss of libido, reduced sperm formation, menstrual irregularities, and shrinkage of sexual organs. Alcohol also reduces the absorption of many vitamins like vitamin B which could lead to you becoming anemic.

The next time you consider consuming alcohol, take a look at some of the risks and ask yourself;  is this what I really need and want for my body? It is not going to be easy for some to stay away from alcohol; you need to create a new addiction, the addiction of having perfect health and physique.

Is Exercise Necessary for Weight Loss?

If you require quick, permanent results in terms of fat loss and all the health benefits that come with exercise then exercise is necessary. In my opinion exercise is not just necessary; it is vital and should be a must in everyone’s life. You will eventually hit a plateau if you try to diet the fat of with no exercise and this will force you to cut more calories (reduce food intake). A large reduction in calories will send your body into starvation mode which slows your metabolism down to cater for the minimal food intake and you will find yourself hitting another plateau, not to mention the cravings you will have which will force you to binge and eventually come of the diet.

Now that you are of the diet and lost  a few pounds, keeping that weight of is going to be impossible because you now have a slower metabolism than before and putting that weight back on and more is going to be a whole lot easier.  This is the reason why people go on and off these kind of fat loss programs which is also known as the YOYO diet.

The best way to lose fat is to burn it off and not starve it off. By introducing exercise into your program you can achieve fast and permanent fat loss results. Exercise should become a part of your lifestyle and should be performed even when not on a fat loss program. Apart from having numerous health benefits, exercise is also known for extending one’s lifespan.

Aerobic (cardiovascular) exercise requires energy and this energy comes primarily from stored body fat. Aerobic exercise also strengthens the heart and increases the lung capacity thus alleviating numerous health problems

Anaerobic (weight) exercise also plays an important role in Fat loss. Weight training helps you put on muscle and the more muscle you have the higher your metabolism is. Muscle is your body’s metabolic furnace; it requires energy all day long even while you sleeping, thus burning more calories and promoting fat loss. Having strong healthy muscles also puts less stress on joints and bones thus reducing the risk of joint injury and bone disease (osteoporosis).

The combination of a proper eating plan, aerobic exercise and weight training will boost fat loss tremendously and keep it off, Alleviate numerous health problems and prolong life.