Can You Have a Cheat Day on Keto and Still Lose Weight?

If you’ve done a keto diet for any amount of time, you know how hard it is. 

That’s why you may be wondering if you should have a cheat day or not. 

In this article I’ll discuss if you should have a cheat day on keto or not if you want lose weight.

I’ll also discuss who should have cheat days on keto, & how to carb cycle correctly.

How Does Keto Work?

Keto is a diet where you eat foods that are low in carbs, but high in fats. This puts your body into a state of ketosis where you can burn your own fat for fuel. This allows you to lose weight without being extremely hungry or tired.

However, eating so low carb can be very difficult for people to stick to.

Why Do People Have Cheat Days?

People on diets have cheat days to satisfy their cravings. With a keto diet, people usually have cheat days to eat foods higher in carbs which they wouldn’t have normally been able to eat.

However, if you have a cheat day on keto, you’ll be kicked out of ketosis. This makes it much harder to lose weight.

How Many Carbs Will Break Ketosis?

Eating over 50 grams of net carbs in a day will put you out of ketosis. This this is because the carbs raise insulin, so your body senses that it has carbs to use as fuel. This means that it will stop using its own fat for fuel and convert back to carbs as the main fuel source.

Can I Have a Cheat Day on Keto and Still Lose Weight?

No, you shouldn’t have cheat days on keto if you want to keep losing weight on keto. This is because eating carbs kicks you out of ketosis, and it’ll take you multiple days to get back into ketosis, which would slow down your progress tremendously. It’s much better to stay disciplined and eat keto until you’ve reached your weight loss goal on keto.

Though it’s possible to keep losing weight even after a cheat day on keto, it’ll take much longer since you’d constantly be getting kicked out of ketosis. 

How Long Does It Take to Recover From a Cheat Day on Keto?

Even if you had one cheat day a week on keto, your weight loss will probably get cut in half. This is because for around half of the days of the week you’d just be adjusting back into ketosis.

Compared to other diets, on keto, it takes much longer to continue to lose weight after a cheat day. 

This is because your body needs time to adjust to using its own fat as fuel. 

So, when you add carbs back into the mix, even with a once a week cheat day, you’d stop losing weight.

With keto, it is much better to just stay disciplined and not have cheat days. 

You must break your bad habits of unhealthy eating so you prevent what caused you to gain weight in the first place. 

Cheat days only make the problem of binge eating worse.

What Are the Signs That You Aren’t In Ketosis?

If you notice that you gained a lot of water weight and bloat after eating some carbs, or if you noticed that you became tired after eating carbs, you probably aren’t in ketosis. 

Excess water weight can indicate that you ate too many carbs. This is because carbs hold water. This can help you to know if you eat a lot of carbs, which would indicate that you got kicked out of ketosis.

Being tired after eating carbs also shows that you got kicked out of ketosis. This is because after eating keto, your body becomes adjusted to using fat for fuel. 

However, when you add carbs back into your diet, your body can’t metabolize carbs as efficiently as it used to, so you might notice a dip in energy.

Will One Cheat Day Ruin Ketosis?

Yes, one cheat day would put you out of ketosis. However, you shouldn’t worry too much and instead just focus on eating low carb again. As long as you stick to low carb eating, you’ll get back into ketosis & start losing weight again within a couple of days.

Who Should Eat Carbs on Keto?

If you’ve lost all the weight you wanted to lose, then you can start doing long-term carb cycling. With long-term carb cycling, you eat carbs for two months of the year as an example, and eat keto for the rest of the year. This helps your body to adapt to using both carbs and fats as fuel, making your metabolism & body more balanced and healthy overall.

In addition to helping your body stay more balanced & healthy, long-term carb cycling can give you a break from eating keto. 

This can help you to have more dietary freedom, which is especially useful during the holidays.

I’ve personally lost all the weight I wanted to lose with keto, so I carb cycle for two months of the year during my summer break––which is my longest vacation. 

This allows me to have more freedom during my vacation whilst also helping my body to adjust to using both fuel sources. It’s a win-win!

Why Is Long-Term Carb Cycling Better Than Short-Term Carb Cycling?

Long term carb cycling is better than short term carb cycling because it gives your body enough time to fully adjust to using both food groups. It takes your mitochondria around six weeks to go through their lifecycle. So, if you go on and off on carbs and fats, you’re going to never fully get the benefits of either side.

Instead, you’ll be really sluggish and want to go back to keto before seeing the benefits of carbs.

How to Carb Cycle on Keto

To carb cycle on keto, you should eat carbs for two months of the year, and eat keto for the rest of the year. This gives your body enough time to fully adjust to using both fuel sources. This means that whenever you eat carbs, instead of being tired, you’re going to have more energy since your body can metabolize it better.

Remember that if you haven’t reached your weight loss goal with keto, stick to a strict, low-carb keto plan & only do long term carb cycling after you’ve lost all the weight. 

This is because if you do long term carb cycling whilst you still haven’t lost all the way you needed to lose, you’d just stop losing weight. 

But, losing weight is the number one priority, & only after you’ve lost weight, you should prioritize making your body more adjusted to both fuel types.

Conclusion

In conclusion, you shouldn’t have cheat meals on keto. This is because it takes your body multiple days to get ketosis, so for multiple days after the cheat day, you wouldn’t lose weight. Instead, if you want to continue to lose weight, stick to a strict, low-carb keto plan & kick binge eating to the curb.

If you want to read my full guide on how to lose weight with keto and intermittent fasting, you can read my article here where I take you step-by-step on how to start keto & IF today.