“Holy Cat!” But my fave part: “Rich in dextrose for quick food energy”!! Yep, sugar is quick energy all right!
Oh the cheat day! Back when I was doing such things (before Intuitive Eating), I used to dream about my cheat days. I’d plan out well in advance what restaurants I wanted to hit, what candy I wanted to inhale and, always, what little amount of time I had to do it in. Ostensibly the idea of a cheat day is supposed to be freeing – all the “bad” food you’d been avoiding for six days you could enjoy guilt-free on the seventh. It never worked for me. First, nothing is ever guilt-free for me and ending my cheat day or cheat meal feeling bloated, over full and yet still oddly deprived often sent me into a shame spiral. Second, it was really hard getting back on the wagon after a day of deli-fueled debauchery. I’d always end up the next day huddled over the tub of ice cream swearing I was only going to “finish up this last tub.” Either that or I’d go back to clean eating but jones for sweets for days afterward.
According to research, however, I’m not the willpower-less freak I’d always assumed I was! Scientists have discovered that not only can bad eating derail you in the moment but it also sets up a chemical chain reaction in your brain that blocks the hormones that signal satiety for up to three days, giving new meaning to a “weekend bender.”
Dr. Clegg, the lead researcher says, “What we’ve shown in this study is that someone’s entire brain chemistry can change in a very short period of time. Our findings suggest that when you eat something high in fat, your brain gets ‘hit’ with the fatty acids, and you become resistant to insulin and leptin.” She adds, “Since you’re not being told by the brain to stop eating, you overeat.”
While I find this news depressing, I am actually relieved that someone scientific (and by scientific I mean not just wearing a lab coat in a Hydroxy ad) found this connection because this is the number one reason why I have always had an uneasy relationship with the “cheat day” concept. (I love it when research validates me!) After spending six days clearing the crap out of my system I was basically undoing all my hard work by throwing my hormone levels out of whack for three days. I had a sugar hangover. By the time I finally felt good again, it was time to start the cycle all over! This was especially apparent when I tried out the “Every Other Day Diet” to disastrous results. (Which also prompted this response – people are weirdly protective of that diet!)
So what’s a healthy living girl to do? One thing I learned when I first embraced Intuitive Eating is that I am not one of those people that can just say, “I will never eat sugar, flour or processed foods ever again for the rest of my life.” Therein lies the way to bingeville and angry self-recriminations. And yet eating junk gives me headaches and makes me feel sick. So what works?
I’m still trying to figure that out for myself – I’m really good at finding what doesn’t work for me, not so good at the reverse – but I have noticed a few things about myself:
1. I need something sweet every day.
2. I can usually limit myself to one sweet.
3. If I eat it earlier in the day, it doesn’t seem to affect me as much.
4. Tootsie Rolls are vile and should not be considered “chocolate”.
Knowing that about myself, I eat dessert after lunch. Every day. Most often it’s some dark chocolate. Sometimes dunked in peanut butter. Or it will be ice cream. Or Extreme Sour Patch Kids. But whatever it is I enjoy it and don’t feel bad about it. But I also know my limits (see? Intuitive!) and eating anything sugary at night is likely to send me on the 3-day round trip to the Isle of Insulin Hell. Which isn’t to say I never go there, I’m just not buying lakefront property is all. It’s a fragile peace but so far it’s working.
What do you think of the “cheat day” method – does it work for you or did it make you nuts too? Does anyone else notice that eating sweets earlier in the day doesn’t bother them but eating sweets at night makes them crazy?
Here’s how some (seriously funny) kids deal with the temptation of sugar (click through to see the video):
Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.
This TED Talk is the basis for the marshmallow thing (it’s not only hilarious, but also really interesting- I’m personally big on delaying gratification, so it was nice to see what was up with that) There’s a little girl who eats the inside of the marshmallow, so adorable: http://www.ted.com/talks/joachim_de_posada_says_don_t_eat_the_marshmallow_yet.html
Also, I’ve heard lots of people say that the cheat day works, but honestly…I don’t think it does. I end up feeling like crap for so long, and instead of believing that my ‘nature’ is to eat nutritionally dense food, I go back to believing that if I had the choice, I’d subsist solely on oreo cheesecake. I’m better sitting in a place where I believe myself to be ‘moderate’- someone who can eat one oreo, but have lots of vegetables the rest of the day!
“Cheat day” does not work for me! I could never eat another fried or greasy item of food ever again and be completely happy… sweets on the other hand I can’t seem to live without! And I have the same problem with the sugar hangover, headaches, and just plain feeling nasty after a sugar bender. But I can seem to leave the sweets alone! I’m finally coming down from a frozen yogurt high I had over the weekend and I’m already planning this weekend’s binge. If anyone has any genius suggestions on how to ignore the sugar cravings, let me know!
Actually, when I was in my mini-fitness competition (aka, weight loss competition), I would go about a week to 10 days and then gorge on a single awesome thing and go right back. (pizza or box of Girl Scout cookies, etc.) I lost a steady pound a week. However, I was eating extremely clean the entire rest of the time. Tim Ferriss seems to be an advocate of the cheat day/meal (http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/04/06/how-to-lose-20-lbs-of-fat-in-30-days-without-doing-any-exercise/). I think the key to it working is that you have to be extremely good the rest of the time. And also not go completely insane – stick to the one or two things you really, really want. (He doesn’t say that – I am.)
I’m on the same page as far as the night sugar/carbs issue. I think another fitness guru out there talks about “night carbs” or something, but I can’t remember who at the moment.
Right now, I’ve definitely fallen off the wagon by allowing myself to eat a few more less than great foods (but not necessarily bad) daily, and it has totally stalled my weight loss. I need to get back to the other way. I’d say it worked for me, until I quit doing it (which is true for most methods. It only works if you do it!).
That was so funny!
I wonder what my facial expression looks like when I’m trying not to eat chocolate. 🙂
I am confused on this. Tim Ferriss (sp?) shows the science behind endorsing it (and his science is usually well-researched as well as test-driven) and I LOVE the idea, but I’m not sure I can handle it. Also, I’m terrified of intuitive eating because of my eating disordered brain. Just can’t trust myself even though in most other things I’m fairly intelligent and competent.
Yes, I’ve read Tim’s book. Most diet gurus endorse the “cheat day/meal” idea. I really think this is a matter of finding what works best for you and your body. Some people seem to do really well with it. For me it made my ED’d behavior worse but perhaps for you it wouldn’t? I’d say try it a few times – if it makes you crazy then don’t:) Good luck and let me know how it goes!
Chocolate was my big weakness.
We used to buy chocolate from the cash and carry and then try to ration it for the month.
It is so hard! Nowadays I don’t really eat chocolate at all simply because I decided not to buy it any more.
However a couple of weeks ago,my husband bought me a chocolate covered raisin bar and I ate it in the morning after a workout and it didn’t send any craving messages to my brain at all. I am still able to leave the chocolate on the supermarket shelf.
I lost a lot of body fat (actually too much) doing the clean eating/cheat day method, but I was a crazy mess and NO one wanted to eat with me. I was a royal pain and always cranky. Also, I WAY overdid cheat day and would feel so sick every Saturday. I found I did best with no restrictions as well, a little sugar daily and I was happy and fit…but now that I am in gaining mode (pregnancy) I don’t trust myself at all. All my hard work went right out the window. Uhhhhh, why???
Anyway, did you ever see the dietician? Did she help or drive you crazy with more rules?
I don’t do a cheat day, per se. Like you, I usually have a little bit of something sweet every day (usually chocolate). On the weekends or on special / social occasions I tend to loosen up on the restrictions a bit too. That seems to be a workable balance for me – I eat healthy most of the time, but if I really want something I’ll have it, so I’m not making myself miserable or feeling deprived.
I have tried the cheat day concept (or cheat meal – when I was doing Lindsey’s nutrition program she allowed one cheat meal, and I think there were also a couple of treats worked in there but not necessarily daily) and I didn’t really find it worked for me. The thing is, I don’t know when I’m going to really want a treat, so I don’t find that scheduling it works. Moderation does.
I can get behind you most of what you are saying…but tootsie rolls are not vile!!! Sure, they aren’t chocolate either, let’s not pretend here, but they are delicious in their own right!!
I don’t like the cheat day just because I like to eat what I want when I want. I eat dessert daily too. I think I’d be an evil person if I didn’t.
Right now I’m trying the slow-carb diet in the 4 hour body by Tim Ferriss. So far I love it! You follow a strict diet 6 days a week and then one day a week you can eat whatever you want! I save the cheat day till Saturday, which means that I can enjoy dining out with friends on the weekend.
I don’t think this diet is for everyone but if you want to get rid of that last little bit of fat, this is a great way to do it!
Cheat day for me is just another way to say ‘I don’t feel like paying attention to what I’m eating today so I’m going to stuff in as much junk as I can until I’m back on the wagon’. And usually it ends up being a cheat weekend, or a cheat week. So I tend to follow the same method as you – a treat or two each day at times when I know it won’t set off a sugar binge. For me, the safe times are right after lunch or dinner. If I have any sugar in the morning, I’ll be stalking the vending machines at work from 10am onwards – so I never have anything sweet for breakfast except for fruit. Ditto for sweet snacks – sugar on an empty stomach is a recipe for disaster in my world. But a piece of dark chocolate right after dinner seems to calm my taste buds down and signal that they are done eating for the day!
I’m with you, Charlotte – a little sweetie a day keeps the madness away. I seem to need it to feel satisfied and to signal the end of a meal, even if it’s only a little piece of chocolate.
But a cheat day for me usually turns into a what-the-hell,-binge-while-you-can day, and then leaves me feeling bloated, lethargic and down. (Copious sugar/starch and I just don’t get along.) Basically, a “cheat day” suggests that the rest of the time I’m having “diet days” and dieting is something I Just. Don’t. Do. Any. Longer. having learned my lessons the hard way along the twisted road to Crazytown.
IE is such a relief, isn’t it?
” by scientific I mean not just wearing a lab coat in a Hydroxy ad” YES! It’s really hard for me to listen to things unless they have some research behind them…being a scientist will do that to you 🙂
I could never really get the whole cheat day thing – for me it’s more of an “on the weekends I get to make pancakes” sort of thing…or a “sunday is pizza night” thing. I don’t go whole hog all day – I just know that there is at least aday or so in a week where I can have a few things I love taht aren’t so good for me. If I make it, I’ll eat it. So the better I can be at making healthy food, the better off I am. I like to cook for relaxation…so it can be a challenge to keep things healthy.
For me, a cheat day is like the one drink that sends an alcoholic on a bender–it takes me days to recover and get my cravings back under control. I’m better off having a little something sweet every day (a couple of squares of chocolate, for example) than gorging myself one day a week. This is complicated by the fact that I’m somewhat gluten intolerant (but love baked goods–another addiction to suppress) and have the metabolism of a slug. I’ve also just reached menopause (the slow metabolism is even slower). I find that by eating clean, I feel great and have a ton of energy. I’ve also started to work towards being “ranked” in girevoy sport (Russian kettlebell stuff) and may even compete in a local “festival of strength.” All this makes me feel much better than cookies ever could.
I think your experience shows very clear that everyboda is different. What works for one person might be a desaster for another one. Most of my clients achieved pretty good results with cheat days every week. However a few described the same thing you experienced.
I believe that most people who want to lose weight (and that’s the people I work with) don’t have a healthy relationship with food anymore, so inuitive eating is not an option – at least at the beginning. They just don”t experience this feeling of satisfaction after a meal, so they don’t know when to stop. The same goes for sweets.
It’s a very tricky subject and that’s why it’s so important to not have a “one-fits-all” approach when it comes to the right diet.
Yeah, the cheat day thing just always ended up being an insane eat until I thought I would explode day. Gross. And then I would inevitably gain 4lbs overnight and spend the rest week trying to lose those 4lbs. To say it didn’t work for me would be an understatement I think.
When I’m really watching what I’m eating, I give myself two cheat meals a week. I find that just works better with my lifestyle of occasionally eating out unexpectidly. It also ensures I don’t go overboard on a cheat day.
When I was doing cheat days, after the first few, I found I didn’t want to go crazy. I generally ended up eating about 2000 calories on the cheat days, not enough to gain, but not losing either.
However, lately I have been in a slump. I can’t seem to resist junk food. It’s easy to resist at the grocery store, but I have a husband who is not exactly into healthy eating. He loves what I cook for him, but he can’t stop the junk cravings. In the past few weeks he has surprised me with a trip to a new burger place (massive portions of course) and randomly brought home bags of chips. I’m okay with these things if it’s something I have REALLY wanted, but I don’t like it just being put in front of me. Anyhow, to get back to the point, I’ve been wanting more and more junk while this has been happening lately. The more I eat unplanned, the more I want to eat. The research that you’ve found is really interesting and gives me reason to just say NO when junk is put in front of me that I don’t REALLY want.
Cheat days don’t work for me, either. I’d imagine anyone with a history of EDs would have trouble with it. I just find it’s easier to focus on what makes me feel good and, like you, how much sugar I really want and when. This week, because Aunt Flow is in town, I’ve been craving my froofy-girly-coffee drinks. Yesterday it was a dark chocolate blended mocha with whipped cream. YUM! And I didn’t crave any other sweets for the rest of the day, because I’d had exactly what I wanted. If I’d tried to put the craving off with, say, a mass-produced low-fat cookie, I probably would have eaten an entire box trying to satisfy my craving. Thank you, IE!!!!!!
I have a similar reaction to sweets as you…if I eat them at night, I feel like I’m craving sugar for days and days. I have noticed that sweets after lunch don’t have the same effect on me. Hmmmm…I wonder why. Maybe those white-coated science people should figure that one out! I’ve never done “cheat days”. I do, however, order whatever I want when I go to a restaurant.
I’m like you…I can’t have cheat days because then I get tempted to go all cray cray and forget to stop….so I cheat every day…and it’s wonderful 🙂
and I cheat early…that way if i have a freak out moment after, I know I have the rest of the day to burn it off if I feel like I need to….(not saying I should have to…just saying if I want to!)
I am one of those people who the minute I tell myself get “you can’t have that today” it is ALL I think about, crave & obsess over until I drive myself crazy. I’m also one of those people who the minute you tell me I can’t do something (ex: you can’t lift that heavy bag or you can’t accomplish all that in one day) I will kill myself trying to do it. Darn screwy brain wiring 😉
I’ve never noticed a difference between eating junky stuff at night vs day, but there seems to be a cutoff. A chocolate almond or two is awesome, but a slice of cake will have me craving for a few days. I’ll try to notice if it’s a time of day thing in the future. Currently, I cheat all the time, just try not to make it too outrageous. This seems to be my new way of life. I’d still like to lose 20 pounds, but not willing to torture myself to do so, so it’s slow.
In my case, I’ve learned for every action (caloric restriction) there is an equal and opposite reaction (junk food binge), so the diet/cheat day thing definitely does not work for me. I remember back when I was still weird(er) about food, almost crying at a Mexican restaurant because I’d ordered sopapillas for dessert for my cheat day binge, and it turned out I didn’t like them. Seriously, I can’t figure out for the life of me now what the big deal was, but I felt like I’d been personally cheated, starving all week for a crappy dessert!
for every action (caloric restriction) there is an equal and opposite reaction (junk food binge)
*lol* Love it ! So very true
I have yet to find decent sopapillas in Australia. I used to love them when I lived in the US. It’s been so long – I wonder if I’d still like them.
Ok, but the research study points to palmitic acid as the culprit for the post-binge craving effect; a fatty acid present in “foods such as butter, cheese, milk and beef.” But -and I may be going out on a limb here- most peoples’ binging doesn’t really seem to be kick-started by these foods, but rather, by the irresistible combination of fat+sugar+salt. And when I continue to crave (and cave to) these foods for days after a weekend overeating episode, it is never never never butter or beef that I want, but either straight-up processed carbs (pasta, bread, crackers) or [more of the] the perenially-popular sweet treats that I ate to begin with. So, while I respect the science behind the findings of this study, I suspect they didn’t cast their net nearly wide enough by looking only at a couple of fatty acids.
I have never been a full on cheat day person. It might be because I rather have a treat than those that like the whole meal thing. Plus, I just feel like crap when I put that much junk in my bod that I don’t usually eat – especially all in a short period of time. Lie you, I know what I want to treat my self with, I do that & get back to it. Night treating does not really effect me.. it is more just a treat & I am done.
From what Ive always seen it is ENTIRELY Nicky’s first sentence.
TIm Ferriss may not agree—but Ive so rarely seen otherwise.
Wait, eating FAT makes you leptin resistant? Has anyone put this past Stefan Guyenet? I think Andrea’s on to something here with the trigger-cascade-craving pathway – if I have a lovely steak it does not make me want a croissant.
Personally I’ve found that a little dark chocolate in the evening is a lovely thing, but if it’s in the fridge (and nothing else as grabbable is) I can eat a bar in two or three days. The momentum of sugar hits picks up. Mostly the trouble seems to be hunger and lack of preparedness therefore, but I’ll keep an eye on the timing through the day too; thanks for the tip.
Cheating: a) nothing tastes as good as I think it will, so my cost/benefit calcualtions are off and I have the crying-over-sopapillas thing, b) I get the headache/bloating/ill feeling right away, c) I don’t poop for a week afterwards. So. not. worth it.
Love this. You are great at making sciency-stuff interesting!
This brings to mind my “feel like crap guidelines” that I made for myself. I try to follow IE as well but from time to time I don’t listen to my healthy self and let the “cheat” voice take over leading me to a feel-like-crap spiral. Whenever that kind of feeling kicks on, I can be pretty sure that instead of my feel-good guidelines (fresh foods, move more, drink less booze etc) I’m following the feel like crap ones instead. The whole idea of spiraling is really familiar and I’m glad to hear the guys in white coats say it has physiological roots.
If I eat say a cake mid morning, I’m then more likely to eat chocolate for lunch, a cookie in the afternoon and dessert in the evening. But if I just have dessert in the evening its fine, the next day is a new day. But I think that is the mentality of oh well I’ve blown today anyway, rather any hormonal response!
Cheat days def. do not work for me Char.
The last time I tried to do a cheat day I felt incredibly guilty to the point that my stomach was runny for two days after.
Also, I too need to include some small sweet natural things into my day otherwise I will spend too much time fighting off the temptation for sweets.
…I’m going to have a hell of a time with this in the next couple of weeks.
My doctor wants me to try going gluten-free for SIX MONTHS,
and that just sounds like an effing death sentence to me right now.
I just don’t think the answer to my 101 Varieties of Health Problems
is to completely drop an entire food group, you know?
I could see *limiting* my gluten intake,
but eliminating a food group just…makes for bad,
especially coming out of an history of ED.
I’ll probably rant about this on my blog later,
but needless to say,
I’m a bit worried about having a strict diet again…
I take what I call “sane” meals. The name has two-fold meaning. One being able to order nachos for dinner every once in a while keeps me “sane”. Two, I remember to keep my meals “sane” not crazy all out binges. So yes, I guess I have cheat meals but they are more controlled and therefore more enjoyable.
Yep during my 130 lb weight loss I would wax an entire large stuffed crust meat lovers pizza hut pizza every sunday. Still trained my butt off 4 days a week, did nothing special on sundays in the gym.
Cheat days CAN work if you are strong enough to just simply cold turkey it every monday.
I don’t however enjoy sweets, so I cannot say for the people that like to cheat with cake, cupcakes, jellybeans etc.
Remember it does set you back a few days of dieting. Example my pizza had 4,000 caories, plus the 1000 i would eat outside the pizza. Thats a 2000 calorie surplus for me, therefore setting my diet back ~3 days