Are you feeling a bit guilty for giving into the temptation of Halloween treats this year? I, unfortunately, indulged a little myself but let’s not beat ourselves up about it. I have some good news!
A recent Australian study published in the Journal of Obesity showed that dieters who take cheat days lose more weight than those who consistently restrict their diets. Can I get an amen?
Researchers from the University of Tasmania assigned 51 obese men to one of two groups. The first group cut calories by one-third for 16 weeks and the other group did the same for two weeks and then took a “cheat break” and ate their maintenance level of calories for two weeks. They repeated this cycle for the full 16 weeks of the study.
The study found that people who dieted for two weeks and then didn’t restrict their calories for two weeks lost about 50% more weight than the men in the other group. They also shed more fat. During a six-month follow-up, both groups of men gained some weight back that they had lost. However, the men who took a break from restricting calories during their diets were still an average of 18 pounds lighter than men in the other group.
How can this be? Well, when we restrict calories it lowers the level of leptin in our bodies, which is a hormone that helps regulate our energy levels when we’re hungry. These levels can get so low when we’re dieting that it forces the body into starvation mode. This causes our metabolism to slow and holds onto every last calorie for survival.
Cheating on our diets can help boost our metabolism by communicating to our bodies that the famine is over, which helps kick start our weight loss.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel so bad about eating that Halloween candy. We deserve a treat every now and then. Yay science!
What diet works for you?
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