Cheat Meals while going Keto: Yay or Nay?

The most important thing when it comes to losing weight is eating the right food. And nowadays, what’s better than a Keto diet. It’s become a loved diet among fitness freaks and chronic weight-related issues’ patients. 

The ketogenic diet was started about a century back to treat and reverse the symptoms of epilepsy, a neural disorder characterized by tonic-clonic seizures. Hundreds of dietary regimes have evolved over the timeline and disappeared within years. So, what makes the keto diet survive so long?

 Yes, it’s the results, the transformations people are getting with the Keto diet. The rapid weight loss and reversal of many chronic weight-related health conditions are what you can expect out of a Keto diet.

Known for being restrictive in nature, you might well want to know if you can eat this or that. Who doesn’t love cheat days on any kind of diet? Owing to its restrictive nature, the keto diet is no exception. On a keto diet, you always wonder about what to eat and what not to eat. A cheat meal on a keto diet might hamper your keto regime. Let’s know a little about the keto diet before we can answer your question.

Keto Diet Basics

Keto diet is a low-carb diet, moderate in proteins and at the higher end with healthy fats. How does it work?It’s proven and occurs through an induced metabolic process called ketosis. Your body needs energy, and primarily this energy is driven from carbs. Thus, glycogen (basically sugar) is your energy source in normal conditions.

The Keto diet deprives your body of carbs and in turn gets you in ketosis, a state wherein your body turns to fats for energy as it runs out of carbohydrates. This helps you lose your extra fats within no time and at the same time helps you with your chronic conditions like Diabetes Type II, PCOD, etc. A dose of those extra proteins helps you get better skin and hair.

A healthy thing that keto does to you is that it helps you get rid of your unhealthy snack cravings. When you want to, you can have low-carb/keto snacks, which some brands are offering right now.

On a Keto Diet, You are not only cutting down carbs, but you are limiting them to the point that you stimulate supported ketone creation — something that you can’t do with other mainstream diets.Because of executing this dietary methodology, numerous changes will happen all through your body, for example,

• Increased water and mineral discharge,
• Hormonal Changes,
• Ketone creation,
• Critical changes in blood lipid levels,
• Reduction in glucose levels.

Nonetheless, the keto diet might get tough at execution. You might want to take on a keto diet but not able to sustain it. Most people have issues with diets for they don’t let you eat your favorite food. Any cheat meal on keto diet? Is there a cheat meal on a keto diet? Can I have any cheat meal on keto diet? The next section will focus on answering your most asked questions on a keto diet.

Cheat Meals On Keto Diet

Everyone thinks about Cheat meals when they follow any diet and there is no exception when it comes to Ketogenic Diet.Since Ketogenic Diet is stricter than other low carb diets, it doesn’t let you eat the tasty carbohydrate foods. Sticking to low-carb and bland food might help you end up abandoning the diet. Being strict, it is tempting to go for cheat meals.

Let’s discuss the side effects of cheat meals while you are on a Keto Diet and whether it is worth to have cheat meals or not.

1.    Weight Gain

Cheat meals lead to immediate weight gain because carbs put your body back to fat-storing mode. Once you have high-carn cheat meal, it stimulates your body back into storing the high fats you eat on a keto diet. The effect of a cheat meal on keto diet, on your weight, may not be visible but will definitely hamper your health goals.

2.    Cravings

Cheat Meals means inviting hunger and cravings back to your life. If you have given up on carbs for a while you know that Carbs make you hungry. Having a cheat meal might affect your healthy habits if not your ketosis. Even if you have a small cheat meal, it will instigate to eat more and more of it. You might lose on your healthy low-carb habit and fall prey to your unhealthy cravings.

3.    Keto Flu

When you go in ketosis for the first time, you experience a lot of symptoms categorized as keto-flu. When you go from following a strict keto diet to having cheat meals, you might go out of ketosis, and might experience symptoms of Keto Flu-like Fatigue, headaches, low energy, headaches, and bloating when you go back to low-carb.

4.    Blood Sugar Spikes

Keto Diet is great for stabilizing blood glucose. If you are suffering from type 2 diabetes and following a keto diet; a cheat meal would be a bad idea. When you eat carbs, your blood sugar can spike to high levels, possibly even dangerous levels. Remember, a cheat meal on keto diet can lead to sugar hikes.

5.  Stomach Bloating 

Eating a high carb meal will lead to increased water weight and make you feel bloated. You might also experience constipation, heartburn, gas, cramping, etc. Your body on ketosis is habitual of eating healthy and this sudden dose of high carb meal might disturb the balance.

The bottom lines 

Keto diet is restrictive, low-carb, moderate protein, and high-fat diet. The restriction of having cheat meals might force you to have a craving! Keto diet stimulates you in a metabolic state called ketosis. The high carb cheat meal may have an ill-effect not only on your keto campaign but also on your overall health. You might experience some uneasy symptoms like bloating, headache, and most importantly kick your body out of ketosis.

 “It’s up to you whether you want to make cheat meals a part of your Ketogenic Diet. A cheat meal on keto diet might seem no big deal, but it is. Also, understand the consequences before going for cheat Meals and what it will take to get back into ketosis afterward”.