Cheat Stop Eat Your Way Thin: Cheat Diet, Intermittent Fasting, and Healthy Eating
Over the past month, I’ve revamped my diet a little bit. After many years of unsuccessfully trying the calorie restrictive approach, I found success with intermittent fasting, specifically Eat Stop Eat. I’ve gotten to a point that I’m as lean as I’ve ever been but still want to continue trimming fat on the margins. I decided to incorporate some of the “cheat diet” recommendations from Cheat Your Way Thin to aid in this fat burning process. Combining these approaches with an overall healthy eating diet has been highly beneficial for me.
I think each approach has benefits on its own, but provide an ideal fat burning diet when put together. However, assess each on your own and decide what fits best with your lifestyle and overall fitness goals. Here’s how I went from a simple calorie restrictive diet to the combination I’m calling Cheat Stop Eat Your Way Thin.
Calorie Restrictive Approach
Like many dieters, when I first began trying to lose body fat, I took a simple approach. I tried to eliminate all sweets and treats from my diet and tried to reduce the amount of food I was eating. This worked very well in the short term. Unfortunately, life, or my lack of willpower, always got in the way. Weddings, birthday parties, anniversaries, holidays, nights out with friends…each of these provided too much temptation to avoid sweets over the long term. I could really only limit my food choices for so long. I had to find a more suitable approach for my lifestyle…
A delicious "calorie restrictive" meal...
Eat Stop Eat
Eat Stop Eat really hit home with me. Intermittent fasting, done 1-2 times per week, allowed me to create a caloric deficit while still being able to enjoy the foods I liked the rest of the week. I didn’t worry about my diet getting in the way of life events any more. I knew that if I skipped breakfast and lunch on Mondays and Fridays, that I would lose 1-2 pounds each week. Over the course of a few months, this worked flawlessly. I enjoyed my weekends eating whatever I wanted and even ate dessert during the week. However, as I dieted down to the leanest I’ve been in 10+ years, I decided I wanted to focus on eating healthier and increasing my body’s fat burning potential, so I added a little refinement to Eat Stop Eat…
Cheat Your Way Thin
I had heard great things about Cheat Your Way Thin but was doing so well with Eat Stop Eat that I was reluctant to completely switch diets. Additionally, Cheat Your Way Thin was a little restrictive for me during the week with recommendations of high GI and low GI days. However, the theory behind Cheat Your Way Thin’s success was enough to convince me to add a cheat day to my diet.
What happens with a calorie restrictive diet is that your body’s leptin levels are significantly reduced, ever after just one week. Leptin regulates hunger and fat burning and low levels due to a restrictive diet make it that much more challenging to lose fat. Cheat Your Way Thin circumvents this by not only allowing, but requiring, a cheat day each work. This cheat day, in which you each whatever you can get your hands on, allows leptin levels to become elevated, thereby promoting further fat loss over the long term. The key is that you have to be highly restrictive during the week to create an overall caloric deficit. Cheat one day, eat very healthy the rest.
Defeated by all you can eat meat in Aruba
In addition, Cheat Your Way Thin has emotional eating benefits as well. It allows me to get my fix of sweets and treats and not sacrifice my lifestyle. Every Saturday or Sunday (not both), I can eat whatever food I want, in whatever quantity I want. Cheats days are also a good reminder of what it feels like to overeat. After gorging myself, I often feel lethargic and slow and realize why it’s important for me to eat healthy until next weekend.
Cheat Stop Eat Your Way Thin
Ultimately, combining Eat Stop Eat with Cheat Your Way Thin was my ideal dieting approach. I perform the “intermittent fasting diet” part on Fridays and Mondays, fasting for 24 hours by simply skipping breakfast and lunch. I perform the “cheat diet” part on Saturday or Sunday when I eat all the sugar and saturated fat that I feel like. After the cheat day, I avoid refined sugar and saturated fat for the most part. I also like to skip breakfast during the week to create an additional caloric deficit, since I tend to eat bigger meals at dinner time. Overall, you may have success with one or both of these diets. Maybe you’ll even have success with a calorie restrictive approach. Just try to find a diet that creates a weekly caloric deficit over the long-term that doesn’t interfere with your lifestyle, and you’ll be well on your way to fat loss.
Related posts:
- A Great Fat Loss Combo: Intermittent Fasting and Cheat Days
- Cheat Your Way Thin Review: Use Cheat Days to Burn Fat
- My Intermittent Fasting Experience: 24 Hours of Eat Stop Eat
- My Fat Loss Diet: How I Became an Advocate of Intermittent Fasting
- Intermittent Fasting Weight Loss Approaches: Daily vs. Weekly Fasts
Posted in Health and Nutrition
Dave, I have heard good things about the Eat-Stop-Eat program. In fact, I have heard from several serious fitness folks that Eat-Stop-Eat has helped them literally drop the pudgy look and develop a lot of lean muscle.
I haven’t built up the courage to try it yet because my family, immediate and extended, entertain a lot and there is always food to be had.
But I’ve not heard of the Cheat your way thin program. The combo that you suggest in this post may be something that I can work with.
Thanks
Cheatin’s the way to go – when it comes to food, that is.
Back in the days when I was on really restrictive diets it just killed me – one day with one cheat meal every week, and even then I couldn’t cut loose much. Blech.
I too am doing IF and couldn’t be more pleased with the results (just got done finishing a fast with a big pile of grilled chicken and veggies.)
I got the idea from Craig over at hollywoodbodyfitness.com to have one day of pure debauched gluttony the day before my weekly IF. Think of it as cheating like there’s no tomorrow!
Bryan,
Even with Eat Stop Eat alone you’re allowed as much flexibility as you want the rest of the week; just find 1-2 days to skip breakfast and lunch. Brad Pilon and Joel Marion both lay out plenty of good details on their sites so you can assess what fits best for your lifestyle.
Darrin,
I was happy to see that Craig took this approach as well. It was something I considered for a while and finally pulled the trigger on.
Dave
Its funny that I started to lose more weight the moment I started to add a cheat day. I haven’t read the “Cheat your way thin” book, but I will grab it so that I learn those techniques as well, but I like your idea of combining. nice job
I think all that you meantion is a really good tactic for everyone to lose fat.
I fast only once a month and cheat on weekends on keep low calorie intake during the week and this really helps me maintain my body fat.
When summer comes on I probably lessen the calories by fasting more but doing what you say is the quickest method I have found that works for me ..excellent topic I hope everyone follows yout advice
RAymond
Alejandro,
It’s certainly counter intuitive to think you can lose more weight by adding a cheat day, but the research and experience of many shows otherwise. Glad you’ve found success with cheat days as well.
Raymond,
Your diet has obviously helped get you really lean and with the cheat days, I’m sure your lifestyle hasn’t changed for the worse either.
Dave
Hey Dave, I too have a very similar approach. I do my 6-hour feeding windows 5 times a week and take a break from it for 2 days. During the 2 days, I still watch what I eat but not as restricted i.e. I can have waffles for breakfast on Saturdays…haha. This way is so much better than counting calories and eating like a bird with 5 small meals a day.
Anna
Anna,
Great approach and you’re right about the 5 small meals…the only way that’s effective is if you only eat 300-400 calories per meal…certainly a challenge for me.
Dave
I have a few questions about “cheat days.” I’ve been following Eat Stop Eat for a few months now, but haven’t read Cheat Your Way Thin yet, so sorry if these are covered in the book:
1) Do you go all out on your cheat day, or do you just splurge a little bit more than usual? Basically, I can eat a ridiculous amount of food if I want to. I could knock out a half dozen donuts for breakfast, a whopper or two for lunch, an entire pizza for dinner, and still wash it down with some ice cream. (Not that I ever eat like that, just using it as an example — if I don’t restrict my portion size, I can keep eating and eating without feeling full). Do you limit how much you consume on your cheat day? I.E. a cheat meal instead of an entire day? Or do you really go all out all day, and eat whatever you feel like? Is there a limit to how far you can “cheat” in a single day without sabotaging yourself?
2) Do you force a cheat day each week, even if you don’t feel like eating any unhealthy foods, just for the spike in leptin levels? Or do you only take a cheat day when you have a craving to overeat? This is kind of related to above — how far should we “cheat” to gain the leptin benefits of doing so? Will eating a few hundred calories over maintenance achieve this, or do you have to eat until you’re stuffed to experience the leptin spike?
Sorry if I’m over thinking what’s supposed to be a day to relax, but a “cheat day” to one person could mean something completely different than a cheat day to another person. Someone like me who can almost finish off an entire box of pasta in a single serving can obviously consume a lot more calories in a cheat day than someone who feels full after a fast food value meal. I’ll pick up a copy of cheat your way thin and give it a read, but I wanted to hear your take on this.
Cheers,
McSalty
McSalty,
Great nickname by the way! Here is how I cheat:
1. I get every craving out of my system on a cheat day. That sometimes means donuts for breakfast, ice cream for lunch, and hamburgers for dinner. There’s no limit, but remember the overall equation for weight loss: calories eaten < calories expended over a period of time. If you eat 10,000 calories, then you better find a way to eliminate or burn off 8,000 over the course of the next 6 days. Cheat meals aren’t as effective as cheat days to create a big enough leptin response. Additionally, don’t eat just to eat. Simply eat as many unhealthy foods until your body is satisfied…don’t gorge!
2. Yes, I do cheat every week to increase leptin. However, while foods like pizza and cake are great ways to spike leptin levels, any foods that combine fats and carbs will create an insulin response and a corresponding leptin level increase. I’ve never tried doing a light cheat day, but feel free to give it a test drive.
Overall, remember that I’m using Cheat Your Way Thin to reduce fat on the margins. If you still have a lot of excess weight to lose, I might just continue with Eat Stop Eat. Let me know if you have any other questions on either.
Dave
I’ve always gone with 6 small meals a day with one cheat meal on Sundays. To me this works perfect. It does take discipline, but just knowing that meal is their on Sunday is enough for me to stay focused. I can’t imagine using the Eat stop Eat method. If I ever get in a position where I’m behind on a meal time I began to shake and feel extremely weak.
Sean,
It’s definitely an adjustment going to/from 5-6 meals per day to 1-2 meals per day. It was both challenging for me to skip meals in the beginning but also to eat more meals when I used that method. Habits and routines are hard to break. As long as you’ve got a plan that works for you, that’s what’s most important.
Dave
Hi Dave! I love the idea of this diet! I just bumped into a friend who now looks amazing, when I asked her what she had done she told me about your program! I am so excited to start… I know it will be difficult, but the results speak for themselves! Thank you!
Sarah,
Good luck and let me know if you need any help along the way…anything from diet and exercise tips to a little motivation.
Dave
Hi Dave,
Amazing job me and my husband tried this diet and it really worked. Extra pounds eliminated, love handle’s gone. This diet is definitely effective but it took a lot of courage to stay away from your favourite foods for 6 days. During our cheat day we eat like crazy LOL… Again thank you!
Melissa,
Glad you liked the approach. Psychologically the cheat day is critical to making everything work in the long term. Did you do intermittent fasting during the week as well or just try to limit calories and eat healthy?
Now that you’re in great shape, you can probably be a little more lenient and have a cheat meal/snack (not day) mid week if you want…just watch out for rebound weight gain if you go that route; no reason for all your hard work to go to waste!
Dave
Wow This is really cool, kind a funny even diet do have rest days LOL But I think this is amazing since you cant just starve and stay away from your favorite foods forever . Having to think about the cheat day IT MAKE me feel better that after a week of diet i can still indulge! Thank you!
Carol,
Yep, it’s OK to take a rest day from dieting! The psychological benefit of a cheat day is great too.
Dave
Hmmm… I’m going to have your approach to dieting a try I think. I’ve tried others diets before, and suffered from the same thing you did, about not being able to avoid the “temptation” when going out with friends, attending family functions, etc. And you pretty much hit the nail on the head when it comes to picking the right diet: everyone’s a bit different, it just comes down to what work best for you.
And from there its just a matter of sticking with the diet.
Dave,
I’m going to *try* IF again once the holidays are over. Currently, the whole ‘multiple meal thing’ is working for me, as much as it pains to admit it. Yet I know I cannot continue with that way of eating long-term; too much work.
At my lowest this summer, I was 114 (!) whereas now I’m at 121. I wanted to gain 10 lbs. and I’m almost there. I *know* I can still gain via IF but eating 800-950 calories at each of the three meals is just not feasible in my mind; too much food.
The last time I attempted IF, I found I lost instead of maintained. I think I messed up because I wasn’t hitting my weekly calorie quota via some weekend cheat meals. My concerns are as follows:
1. Can you successfully maintain your weight on IF without the cheat meals? Some weekends I don’t have the “opportunity” to cheat while others I do.
2. How do you still eat cleanly if you cheat? Meaning that I’ve worked darn hard to get down to a respectable level of body fat/leanness and I don’t want my diet to go totally ‘off-course’ because IF is less strict. When you eat multiple times daily, diet has to be spot-on whereas with IF, the flexibility scares me a little – if that makes sense.
3. Expanding upon the above question, I realize this may sound totally vain but I don’t want my waist to expand (!) so how do I balance the cheat days with the clean eating so my lean body mass stays constant? I don’t want to become ‘skinny fat’ or soft again, if that makes any sense at all.
I apologize for all the questions and I know you didn’t *invent* IF but you follow it so I figured you may be able to help me.
I guess, I just want to be able to eat when hungry, stop when full, maintain my weight, cheat every now and then, not have to think about food all the time, remain constant with body fat percentage and still keep the muscle definition that I actually do have. Not too much to ask, huh?
~Toni
Joseph,
Finding a diet that’s right for your lifestyle is key. Hope fasting and cheat days is the right fit for you!
Toni,
Congrats on getting your weight back up…I know it was a challenging goal for you. As for your questions:
1. I think you can maintain your weight…IF just provides the means to be less restrictive the rest of the week or exercise less.
2. Just eat more clean foods if you don’t want to eat junk food. For example, nuts are very calorie dense and contain a lot of calories. A handful has about 100 calories. Add 2-3 handfuls every day if you need more calories.
3. If you’re doing IF and exercising, I think you have room for a cheat day without increasing your waist size or becoming skinny fat. You don’t have to be 100% perfect all the time. There’s plenty of room for flexibility.
It’s challenging but I’m confident you’ll find the right approach over time.
Dave
Dave,
You are so spot on with the whole cheat day thing. What works best for me is that I eat extremely healthy during the week, and from lunch Saturday to lunch Sunday, I allow myself to eat whatever I want.
I find exactly like you noticed- you wind up feeling stuffed and slow and it really fires you up to eat healthy for the next 5 or 6 days.
I’m down 28 lbs since I started getting fit three years ago, and the best part is my weight is now completely stable. I fluctuate between 160 and 162 lbs throughout the week.
-Declan
Declan,
Awesome to hear you’ve lost so much weight and have been making progress over 3 years. The challenge with restrictive diets that don’t involve cheat days is keeping them up over the long term so it seems like you’ve found a balanced approach that works. Glad to see we share the same view/experience.
Dave