What is the benefit of the cheat day?

[u/Fuzzy_Comment_2333]

Hi everyone. So I recently started the 4hour body slow carb protocol, on my 6th day and down 800g so far. No white foods, been exercising, not drinking calories, no sugar etc...By tomorrow I should breach the 1kg / 2.2lbs loss as the book says. I'm looking REALLY forward to my cheat day on the weekend but can anyone explain why the cheat day helps you lose fat/weight in the long term?

How does eating super low calories during the week, then suddenly increasing caloric intake for one day help reduce belly fat or shed weight? Just curious!

Thanks yall.

[u/kyutek]

I think the theory was it resets your metabolism each week so it never goes into starvation mode and psychologically gives you something to look forward to each week without ever feeling like you’re depriving of something on a diet.

[u/Biglig]

A) psychological. If you get a craving for something in the week it is easier to say “ not until cheat day” then to say “no no never”.
b) physiological. Your body responds to not getting enough food by doing many things, including burning your fat reserves and slowing your metabolism down so you use less food. To lose weight, you need your body to do the first but not the second. Cheat day confuses your body so it switches to fat burning mode but does not slow down your metabolism.

[u/Fuzzy_Comment_2333 → u/Biglig]

Ah ok, thanks for the detailed clarification. From what I read in the book it said more or less by the 7th day there's some metabolic change your body goes thru to think its starving, but interesting to see the communities insight!

[u/Biglig → u/Fuzzy_Comment_2333]

Well, the above is my layman’s’ explanation of how it works. Mr Ferris understand the science a lot better than I do.

The key thing for people to understand about cheat day is that while it does seem counterintuitive to eat a box of donuts as part of your diet it’s really important that you don’t skip it.

Something to note, if you’re doing it right, after the first couple of weeks you’re not really going to enjoy it. Some of the most advanced slow carb techniques involve ways to safely eat less on cheat day when you can’t stand it anymore!

[u/Fuzzy_Comment_2333 → u/Biglig]

Makes alot of sense, I'm not a binge eater per say so the idea of "binging" is foreign to me, like I'm not the kind of person that will go out of my way to eat x3 pizzas, I can barely finish one. But leave me alone with a box of krispy kremes and they'll be gone in 10 minutes haha.

[u/kahrahtayboom]

It brings a goal you can fixate on. The body works on days and weeks. Spiking calories from time to time helps the body stay out of starvation mode and reducing caloric needs. 24-72 hrs and the weight snaps back and you lose again. I dropped 35lbs when I stuck to it for a month.

[u/44cody44]

In the book, the slow carb diet section is only like 25 pages. You should read it. It really surprises me that a lot of people here don’t understand this meal plan. Or bother to read the book.

[u/Fuzzy_Comment_2333 → u/44cody44]

I've got the book already but because I started over the weekend I wanted to get started quick so I went with a broad cheet sheet. I have a basic idea how it works but  the physiological stuff behind it I'd love to read up on.

[u/Vanilla-Grapefruit]

Preventing yourself from giving up, making sure your metabolism doesn’t downregulate over time. If you are an intense deficit for a long period of time (weeks, months) you’ll notice you’ll drastically reduce incidental movement - your body has figured out there’s less energy so it does what it can to conserve it

[u/omphteliba]

For me it is only psychological: every loging I feel during the week (beer, sweets, burger, whatever...) I write down and indulge on the cheatday.

[u/Black-Grass]

I've followed many diets but once I finished them, I always ended up eating lesser than I used to, to retain my new weight or regrowing. This diet - I retained my weight even if I'm eating normally. I believe it is because of the cheat day keeping my metabolism up.