Should You Cheat On The Keto Diet?

Last Updated on September 16, 2020

Is it a good idea to have a cheat day when you’re on the keto diet?

The ketogenic diet is extremely popular now. It’s also being used to treat medical conditions like type II diabetes. The ketogenic diet is used for weight loss. People on the diet consume relatively large amounts of fat, smaller amounts of protein and then only 10 to 15% carbs.

I read an interesting study that was conducted by an associate professor at a University in British Columbia. In this study, nine young men went on a strict ketogenic diet for ten days after which time they were given a 75 gram dose of carbohydrates. 75 grams of carbs is equivalent to a soda drink or a small plate of fries.

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The goal was to see what would happen to the blood sugar regulation in these young men after days of eating minimal carbs. To their horror, what they discovered was a massive spike in inflammatory markers. As a result of these findings, the professor stated that he has grave concerns for people who have cheats days while on the ketogenic diet.

Many people have will do this. They’ll have six or seven days where they strictly follow the ketogenic diet and they’ll they have one day of eating whatever they want. Invariably the cheat day means eating a ton of carbs. Unfortunately, you can’t do have cheat days on while on the ketogenic diet without damaging the blood vessels.

The study revealed that these inflammatory markers can cause quite serious damage to small blood vessels. This is my concern. If you have people on a strict type of diet for long, they’re going to break out and go crazy after a while. They’re going to binge on junk.

After years of helping people with their weight and nutrition, I’ve found that in most cases dieting doesn’t work. People certainly lose weight but then they put it all back – and sometimes very quickly.

Sources:

• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30813579/
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22669333/