Cheat Days In Your Diet

Most diet strategies are based on a calorie deficit
approach. You eat les fuel than the body requires each day,
which creates an energy deficit and the body responds by
calling upon body fat as fuel. Yet adopting a severely low
calorie diet in hoes of a quick fix only sets you up for
failure.

The biggest mistake you can make is starving yourself. It
drains your energy and you cant work out so you cant change
the way you look. Drastic calorie reduction leads to a slow
down in the metabolic rate, the total calories burned in a
day and a slow metabolism is the death wish for anyone
seeking a hard body.

Research has indicated that the thyroid gland, the source of
thyroid hormones that ultimately help determine your
metabolic rate, reacts quickly to starvation diets. That is
, when you eat too few calories your body decreases it
thyroid hormone output, which decreases your metabolic rate.
Other detrimental effects of starving include an increase in
fat-storing enzymes in the body. Once enzyme called
lipoprotein lipase acts as sort of a gatekeeper, allowing
fatty acids to flow in and out of fat ells. While mild
reductions in calories cause a decrease in LPL activity,
giving fatty acids the freedom to flow out of fat cells,
overly aggressive calorie cuts actually increase LPL
activity. In concert with decreased levels of thyroid
hormone, this causes the body to cling to stored body fat.

While severe caloric reductions seem to throw a monkey
wrench into the fat loss equation, calorie surpluses or
overeating exerts another puzzling effect. Not only does
body fat increase, but overeating may cause a mild increase
in thyroid levels and an increase in anabolic hormones that
help support muscle mass such a growth hormone, testosterone
and IGF-1.

Since extended periods of dieting can slow the metabolism, a
single cheat day where you boost your carb intake 50 percent
higher than normal can avoid the decrease in your metabolism
and actually promote the release of beneficial hormones.

Learn to plan out your diet properly at planningdiets.com