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  • Alright, it's time to lose weight, pull out the cooking pans

  • get out the food scale, and download your favorite calorie tracking app.

  • This summer, you're gonna take it even more seriously than last summer... where your efforts lasted an amazing

  • two weeks... but not this time!

  • You do everything right from eating healthier home meals with a bunch of vegetables,

  • to cutting down your carb intake to roughly 10%.

  • But then, just one week in, those naughty naughty cravings kick in,

  • and you look miserably up into the ceiling and tell yourself,

  • "I can really go for some pizza and ice cream right now!" Mmm.

  • So... why not have a cheat day?

  • Warning, Up ahead you will find some opinions! If you don't like what's said or disagree with it,

  • that's fine, just leave your disagreements in the comments!

  • Okay. Cheat days are simple.

  • A day in a month, a week, two weeks, or whenever

  • where you can splurge on all your favorite junk food and satisfy your gluttonous desires

  • You get a quick taste of your favorite food and then return to you insufferable pattern of pain

  • you call a die

  • dei-t

  • Sounds good. Well, actually it is.

  • When you're dieting, you're also considered cutting. During a cut, hormonal changes

  • changes take place in the body where it shifts the energy allocation state to catabolism.

  • That means that your body begins to break down stored energy, mainly in the form of fat, of course,

  • , but it'll also wither away some of your muscle mass, especially if you're not resistance training.

  • And even if you are, it'll be very difficult for your body to build more muscle

  • muscle since you're not providing enough nutrients to do so. (not enough minerals)

  • The thing is, the longer you stay in a cutting or dieting phase, the more profound these effects on your body takes place.

  • By introducing a cheat meal, or some call it a nicer term of "re-feed day,"

  • you can in a way reset the effects of catabolism, therefore the hormonal effects aren't as potent.

  • And since diets and cuts usually restrict the amount of carbs you eat because it's easy to do so,

  • your net glycogen stores go down as well.

  • . Glycogen is important for providing quick energy for the body.

  • When you have the cheat day, you will be able to replenish your glycogen stores since,

  • be honest, most of your cheat food are carb heavy.

  • So there you have it, cheat days are good! But, remember, weight loss is ultimately a numbers game

  • Eat too many calories overall and you lose the game.

  • You can argue that a calorie is not a calorie and certain macronutrients digest differently meaning different effects

  • on your weight but in general, this is the best way to track it.

  • . You might lose some water weight if you eat fewer carbs and salt, but no real weight such as coming from fat

  • . For example, let's say that if you eat 2000 calories per day, you won't gain weight.

  • This is considered your energy balance.

  • . In a span of a week, that's 14,000 calories to maintain your weight.

  • . Going on a diet, you bring that daily calorie number down to 1500. Now that's 10,500 calories per week.

  • Great, but that's before the cheat day.

  • Let's say, on Sunday, you go a little bit crazy and indulge on 3,000 calories worth of junk.

  • Now we're looking at 12,000 calories for the week.

  • Still good, you won't lose as much weight but still under 14,000 calories.

  • But let's be real... 3,000 calories is nothing.

  • Heck, that's probably just your breakfast. Add the burger and fries for lunch and

  • pizza and ice cream for dinner, you'll be lucky if you make it out with just 5,000 calories.

  • And if you did, that will add to the grand total of 14,000 calories for the week.

  • All that hard work the first six days completely obliterated by a happy and hungry Sunday.

  • Moral of the story is, have your cheat day, just don't go absolutely berzerk.

  • So, physiologically, cheat days have some good benefits, but it's certainly not required

  • and in fact can be completely ignored if you just go on a steady caloric deficit

  • where you eat food high in protein and fats since they will make you full and satisfied.

  • Hurray for Keto Dieters out there.

  • And also stay just slightly below your energy balance, about 250 calories less or so,

  • , and have that occasional treat without indulging too much, then you'll be perfectly fine.

  • Thank you to Chance for his awesome support for PictureFit on Patreon.

  • If you would like to also support PictureFit, come check it out on patreon.com/picturefit

  • Leave your comments below and don't forget to like and subscribe! Thanks for watching!

Alright, it's time to lose weight, pull out the cooking pans

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