Get Fit: Cheat days

So, you've been on that diet for a good two months or so now, and you might find your willpower slipping little by little. Oh, how tempting that pack of fries must look, gazing at you from a stranger's tray, tempting, taunting, mocking you. To make sure you don't fall prey to despair and temptation, here's our number one solution for your painful pangs of hunger! It's quite simple really, and that's to give yourself a cheat day!

You're probably familiar with what cheat days are, but if you aren't, allow us to fill you in on the juicy details. Cheat days are basically days where you cheat on your diet, be it with a seductive slice of steak or a saucy serving of sundae. After all we all need to get away from the monotomy and gratingness of our diets. In fact, health experts say that having cheat day can actually HELP you lose more weight.

When we go on diets, the thing most of us will cut out first and foremost are carbohydrates, which is our body's main source of energy. Keeping our carb intake low helps increase energy defecit and helps control our insulin levels, which is a hormone that stimulates hunger and fat storage. However, a side effect to low carbohydrate diets is that in order to adapt to this newfound lack of calories that we are creating for ourselves, the body will slow down its metabolism and burn fewer calories. A cheat day can help interrupt this and keep your metabolism at regular levels.

So, how often should you be having this cheat day? Once a week is usually a good place to start, if you're in relatively average health. As you get fitter, you can allow yourself more days off but make sure you don't go overboard and throw all your hard work out the window. Realistically, one meal out of many in a week shouldn't have too big an impact on your diet as a whole, so don't hold back too much either.

Well, that's it for this week, So what are you waiting for? Go on and have your secret scrumptious affair, we promise we won't tell on you...