The Cheat Day Diet is confusing. What is wrong with the Cheat Day Diet? Well, isn’t a common knowledge that the best way to lose weight fast has to do with following a strict diet? Isn’t true that to lose 10 pounds in just three days you have to count calories and exercise like crazy? The Cheat Day Diet is not only confusing, the common knowledge tells us that this diet simply cannot work, right? Wrong!
Contrary to popular belief – even if the focus of a given diet is on daily calorie consumption – they are not all created equal. The Food Combining Diet, for example, does not work despite the fact that it tries to limit the amount of calories you consume daily. The Cheat Day Diet, on the hand, seems counterintuitive, but it is one of the best diets out there.
Here is what some experts say about the Cheat Day Diet: According to one of our favorite personal trainers, Harley Pasternak, author of The 5-Factor Diet and The 5-Factor World Diet, you can easily lose weight without depriving yourself. “Everything is about balance, moderation and sustainability. No lifestyle should forbid indulging,” says Pasternak. Another expert, life coach and psychologist Dr. Leslie Seppinni, seems to agree with Pasternak. “It is impossible to be perfect all the time. Anybody who tries to be a perfectionist is bound to feel like she [or he] is failing,” she says.
What is the Cheat Day Diet? If you work out hard a few times a week and follow a generally healthy eating regimen, pick one day a week when anything goes. “I call it a free day. You eat whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want,” says Pasternak. That’s right, unlike other diets that restrict your food choices, the Cheat Day Diet actually requires that you cheat on your diet and indulge your food cravings at least once a week.
But depending on what your short- and long-term weight-loss goals are, you may want to consider just having a cheat meal instead of eating anything you want all day. Dr. Seppinni suggests that you plan the meal so you can look forward to it. “You should tell yourself, ‘It has been a great week, and on Friday I really want those french fries and I am going to have them.’ “Yes, french fries! Anything goes, and that is the best part. “The point is there are no guidelines. Make it whatever you want it to be. And wake up the next day and start all over again,” says Pasternak. [via]