Cheating and Eating: Do Cheat Days Help Us Diet?
Whether we're following a diet for a short time with a specific goal in mind or if we want to change our long-term eating habits, cutting out tempting high-calorie foods isn't always easy.
Cheesy pizzas, juicy burgers and sweet cakes usually have to be pushed aside when we diet.
That is, unless you introduce "cheat days" into your eating plan. The BBC calls these "scheduled breaks" in a diet — and the idea is that whatever diet you may be following the rest of the week, on one day you get to ditch those rules.
People may see a cheat day as a chance to let loose — something to look forward to, or a reward for the hardship of six days of dieting.
A quick look at the social media hashtag "cheatmeal" will show you how popular the idea of cheat days is.
But what do experts say about cheat days? Are they deserved treats, or a quick way to ruin a perfectly good diet?
The answer to that question is not universally agreed. Some small studies have suggested that a cheat day may actually help us improve our metabolism and burn calories.
The suggestion is that, according to the Cleveland Clinic, "deviating from an eating plan helps temporarily raise your body's levels of leptin."
Leptin is a hormone that tells us when we're full, and a temporary increase in leptin may help keep us from feeling hungry while we're dieting.
But nutritionist Fiona Hunter told the BBC this idea isn't supported by "rigorous scientific research."
And others say a cheat day can undo the progress made in the previous six days, or may even lead to us bringing more of these cheat foods back onto our plates on a regular basis.
But according to dietitian Anna Taylor, calling foods "good" and "bad" isn't helpful, and can lead to poor eating behaviors.
Instead, Hunter says, we should follow a diet that we can stick to for a long time — and that includes things we can enjoy without feeling we have "cheated."
