Do you count the minutes until you can eat what you like on your cheat day? Also known as a cheat day, this method is part of many people's diets, including athletes. However, experts such as Márcio Atala and Sophie Deram have warned that it can be harmful to your physical and mental health.

In this article, we will show you how this strategy backfires and better alternatives for including what you like to eat in your routine.

Dangers of Trash Day

Controversial, but still recommended and practiced by many people, garbage day can be harmful to health in several ways. They are:

Binge eating

People who have a cheat day in their diet generally eat very little on the other days. And, as science proves, restriction leads to binge eating. A cheat day is the perfect opportunity to eat as much as you want, without any criteria. It can be enough to make you start having binge eating episodes.

For people who have already had an eating disorder, especially bulimia, or binge eating, they should be even more careful with cheat days. After all, the person already has a history of losing control over food.

Food addiction trigger

A truly healthy diet is characterized by balance. In other words, addictions should be transformed into a good relationship with food. If you are trying to eat less sugar, chocolate or something else, a cheat day on your diet can trigger the addiction to return.

Impaired relationship with food

In healthy eating, there are no miracle or villainous foods. The free day classifies some options as junk. In other words, it is even worse than saying that a certain food is bad for your health. After all, junk is something that is useless, it refers to leftovers, what is useless and dirty, and should be thrown away.

Anxiety and other emotional problems

Extreme dietary control can lead to some disorders, such as anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), since we must follow the rules very carefully. This requires extreme control.

People wait for cheat day to eat that much-desired food. So, it's normal for people to look forward to this long-awaited occasion.

Intestinal and digestive problems

Eating too much outside of your usual routine can cause changes in your digestion. Your stomach produces more acid to digest your food. The volume of food you eat can also cause discomfort and even reflux.

In the long term, these excesses, even once a week, can cause illnesses such as gastritis. The next day, if the food does not go down well, diarrhea, vomiting and malaise are also common.

Swap Trash Day for a Mindful Pause

As we mentioned throughout the text, restrictive diets are not good for your health and are not the best way to lose weight. The ideal is to have a balanced diet on a daily basis. It is even normal to have meals that are not part of your routine from time to time. These escapes make healthy eating sustainable, unlike diets, which have an end date.

The suggestion is to replace your cheat day with a conscious break. This way, you can eat what is not considered normal, but in a different way. The idea is not to overeat and eat excessively, as if it would take a long time before you would be allowed to enjoy the delicacy again.

According to Dr. Sophie Deram, the body can handle extra food and out of context from time to time. The doctor's tip is to interpret the signs of satiety and even desire to understand when to try something or not.

Another advantage of a mindful break is that you can fit in meals outside of your routine on any day of the week. After all, our bodies don't know if it's Sunday or Monday. Satisfying a craving when it appears avoids binge eating on what would otherwise be a cheat day. We tend to eat much less than if we saved our cravings for a specific day. We also reduce anxiety.

Bypass the plateau effect with mindful pausing

The plateau effect is when we stop losing weight. It is very common in very low-calorie diets, as the body begins to burn fewer calories to have more energy.

“After significant weight loss, it is common for the body to reduce its calorie expenditure and there to be a decrease in weight loss, which is known as the plateau effect. Therefore, increasing calorie intake and then reducing it again will cause the metabolism to remain accelerated even with a lower food intake, thus promoting weight loss,” highlighted nutritionist Marcella Garcez, professor and director of the Brazilian Association of Nutrition (ABRAN) in an article on Márcio Atala's website.

So, in addition to making life more enjoyable and healthy eating more sustainable, a conscious break is strategic for you to continue losing weight.

Take a break whenever you feel like eating something that is out of your normal routine. It is also welcome in your social life, such as going to a bar, a restaurant with your family, and parties. Some people stop going to these places to avoid eating foods that are prohibited on their diet. In addition to not being good for your body and weight loss, this attitude increases anxiety, stress, and reduces the amount of pleasurable moments you have with your loved ones.

Also remember that losing weight is not always necessary or healthy. Today, we have a culture that overvalues ​​a thin body; the less weight, the more beautiful a person is considered. Study what your healthy weight is and whether you really need to lose so much weight to be healthy. But there is one thing we are sure of: eating well is necessary for everyone, regardless of their health or weight indicators, in order to stay healthy.

So, review your concepts about healthy eating, forget the idea of ​​cheat days and eat the right way.

Calling food junk food is quite problematic in a context where many people do not have access to basic foods. We can also eat what is not considered so healthy, in moderation. Swap nutritional terrorism for conscious eating and gain more health and pleasure in your life.