Should you have a cheat day or meal on the Ketogenic Diet? Will it ruin all those weeks of avoiding carbs or can it actually help you stay on track? Find out how to “cheat” the right way on the keto diet AND minimize the damage.
GET NEW POSTS VIA EMAIL:
Success! You’ll receive our next newsletter…
You’ll also receive our FREE 100 Ketogenic Foods List PDF and regular 30-minute keto recipes!
Your privacy is important to us. The information you provide on this form will only be used to provide you with updates from Appetite For Energy. Unsubscribe at any time.
IS IT OKAY TO HAVE A KETO CHEAT DAY OR MEAL?
If you’ve been following a ketogenic diet for a while and had some success with weight loss, at some point, you’re going to have to deal with real life occasions when it’s going to be hard to stay keto. You may want to relax your diet a little when faced with a family wedding, a vacation, girls weekend or during the festive season.
So the question is – should you have a keto cheat meal or cheat day and if you do, what are the consequences?
Firstly, when you have a cheat meal, you’re going to be kicked out of ketosis, which you’ve worked hard to achieve.
Now, if you’ve been on a keto diet for a while, you may be able to get back into ketosis reasonably quickly, but if you’ve been eating keto for less than 6 weeks, then you’ll set your self back a long way.
HOW TO DECIDE WHETHER TO HAVE A KETO CHEAT DAY OR NOT?
The first step in thinking about having a keto cheat day is how long you’ve been eating a keto diet for.
If you’ve been eating keto for less than 6 weeks, then I’d strongly advise you to stay on track if at all humanly possible and I’ll explain why.
In that first 6 weeks, your body is working really hard to become fat adapted.
WHAT IS FAT-ADAPTION?
What does becoming fat-adapted mean….when you first start keto, your body is not used to using fat as a primary fuel source so it needs to ramp up the cellular machinery required to burn fat efficiently.
This process can take 3-6 weeks.
When this process has taken place, you are now fat adapted.
This means that your body can…