Cheat Day!
Today is my second cheat day on The Cheat To Lose Diet.
Here’s a reminder of how the program goes: Week 1 – Low Carbohydrate, Week 2 – Lower Glycemic Index / Lower Glycemic Load, Week 3 – Higher GI / GL, Day 22 – Cheat Day (unlimited choice of foods and no calorie counting necessary. My first cheat day was just over 2500 calories. Most other days were between 1400 to 1800 calories). Week 4 and so on – 2 days of low carbohydrate, 2 days of Lower GI / GL, 2 days of Higher GI / GL, day 7 is cheat day.
My menu today is..oh, oooo, la, la, Ghirardelli dark 60 % chocolate with Caramel Truffle coffee before breakfast, Bellagio Holiday Spice Gourmet hot cocoa with whole wheat toast and peanut butter and jam for breakfast, Chicken Alfredo with pasta for lunch, Chicken Enchilada Suiza with rice, beans, red peppers and corn as an afternoon snack (or tea for you Anglophiles), and Ultimate Supreme Pepperoni pizza with Chianti wine for dinner! (Portion control is still practiced but I eat higher calorie and higher carbohydrate foods. The point isn't to eat the whole contents of the kitchen but to enjoy foods normally off limits in reasonable amounts).
The premise behind The Cheat To Lose Diet is based on science. The book has over 300 scientific references to the studies that support its efficacy. Some chapters have as many pages of references as they do information about how to do the diet. At the end of each chapter the author lists pertinent references - sometimes 8-10 pages worth – but if you want the whole enchilada on the research you’ll have to go find it yourself. It's not included in the book in full or even abstracts.
The main premise of The Cheat To Lose Diet is that our bodies adapt relatively quickly to a low calorie or low carbohydrate diet, or even a steady amount of calories and macro-nutrients consumed regularly. (You know those dieters who never vary their calories by more than a few hundred and eat between 1250 and 1450 calories day in and day out). Remaining on a strict diet reduces key hormones including leptin. Leptin is a key hunger hormone and when it drops due to dieting your body goes into starvation mode and holds onto fat stores – even if you’re eating above your BMR. By manipulating calories and macro-nutrients on different days you can fool your body into thinking it’s not on a diet and avoid lowering leptin levels thus making way for greater fat loss.
Author Joel Marion was doing the Body For Life Challenge when he discovered that his weight losses were greater after an occasional cheat day than when he stuck to a strict eating program. (I’ve experienced this same phenomenon in the past after enjoying pizza and beer after 7-14 days of eating a strictly clean diet. The day after a pig out I'd get a whoosh and lose a few pounds). The Cheat To Lose diet structures in “cheating” or simply put a higher calorie and carbohydrate intake day into your weekly diet to manipulate leptin levels and encourage greater fat loss.
Will this diet work for everyone? Does any diet work for everyone? No. But the main reason diets “fail” is people go off of them, cheat, feel guilty and quit. This main fault of most diets - never being able to "cheat" - is why these diets don't translate into a livable or sustainable lifestyle. This roadblock is removed from the equation on The Cheat To Lose Diet. You are SUPPOSED to cheat, although on a specific day with a specific purpose. Knowing you have that cheat day to look forward to when you can eat anything and everything makes it easier to stick to the other six days of stricter eating.
I’m still on the fence whether I’d recommend this plan. I’m not having the glowing results it claims to provide - yet. But several personal factors are at play; I have only about seven pounds of cosmetic body fat I want to lose before bikini season, and I’m not doing the prescribed '18 minute cardio workout' he recommends. I’m doing a much more demanding exercise regimen with heavy weight training 4 to 5 days a week, and a minimum of 45 minutes of cardio a day. This might lead to muscle gain – which I want – and offset any fat loss on the scale. I plan to stay on this program at least until May 1st then reassess my results and decide what I can change to improve it to fit my lifestyle and goals.
Until then, I’m going to enjoy my cheat day…
Today's also a rest day as I'm sore all over from my weight training and aerobics over the past several days. I did eight (count them 8!) sessions of circuit training mixing weight training and cardio in the last 11 Days! Woo Hoo! By alternating a three day circuit of a chest & back training day, then a leg day, followed by a bicep / tricep / shoulder training day, then on day four another leg day, repeat. (Not working the same muscle groups two days in a row allows them to rest although you're hitting another muscle group the next day). I can get at least 4 days of weight training into a week, and on an ambitious week I get six weight training days. Cardio was done six days a week for 45-60 minutes. I'm thrilled to get back into a full workout schedule again (I have had great results in the past using a similar training split). After my lengthy battle with the flu and then a sinus infection it took several weeks to build back up to full speed.
Today's Kitten Photos - Four are 16 Days Old and Four are 9 Days Old
