Keto Cheat Days: How Long Should You Wait?

The keto diet is a very low-carb, high-fat diet that is popular for its weight loss effects. It encourages ketosis, a metabolic state in which your body burns fat as its primary source of energy instead of carbohydrates. As the keto diet is very strict, it is natural to wonder if you can have a cheat meal or cheat day without kicking yourself out of ketosis.

While cheat days and meals are common strategies for strict diets, they are not ideal for the keto diet. This is because the keto diet relies on your body staying in ketosis, which requires eating fewer than 50 grams of carbs per day. Eating more than this can kick your body out of ketosis. As carbs are your body's preferred energy source, it will use them over ketone bodies (derived from fats) as soon as they are available.

A single cheat meal can easily exceed your daily carb allowance and take your body out of ketosis, while a cheat day is almost certain to surpass 50 grams of carbs. In addition, some research suggests that suddenly reintroducing a high-carb meal to a ketogenic diet may damage your blood vessels.

If you do decide to have a cheat meal, it is important to note that it can take several days to one week to re-enter ketosis, depending on your carb intake, metabolism, and activity levels. To get back into ketosis, you can try intermittent fasting, fat fasting, and exercise.

To avoid cheating on the keto diet, you can keep tempting foods out of the house, rope in an accountability partner, practice mindfulness, and make a strong daily diet plan.

How to recover from a cheat meal

So, you've had a cheat meal on keto—now what? Well, firstly, don't stress. One cheat meal isn't a reason to throw your entire diet out the window. It's likely that you're now out of ketosis, and it will take several days to one week to get back into it, depending on your carb intake, metabolism, and activity levels. Here's what you can do to get back into ketosis faster:

• Intermittent fasting: Try combining intermittent fasting with the keto diet to help your body shift its fuel source from carbs to fat.
• Track your carb intake: Keep a food diary to note your daily carb intake and ensure you don't underestimate it.
• Fat fasting: Try a short-term fat fast like an egg fast, which is a very high-fat, low-carb diet meant to last only a brief period.
• Exercise more: Physical activity depletes your glycogen stores, which are your body's stored form of carbs, and promotes ketosis.
• Medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) supplement: MCTs are rapidly absorbed fatty acids that are easily converted into ketones.

The best way to know if you've reached ketosis is to test your ketone levels using ketone breath meters, blood ketone meters, and keto urine strips.

Tips to Avoid Cheating

• Practice mindfulness: Pay attention to your body, which may help you resist cravings and emotional eating.
• Plan your meals and snacks: A solid dietary plan makes it less likely that you'll get hungry during the day.
• Make your everyday diet enjoyable: Try incorporating different keto-friendly meals to vary your diet and make it enjoyable.
• Keep tempting foods out of the house: Keeping treats and other tempting, high-carb foods out of sight can make cheating inconvenient.
• Have an accountability partner: A buddy can help you stay motivated to stick to your diet.

Tips to avoid cheating

Mindset

• Be honest with yourselfconscious decision about what to eat, and that you will live with the consequences of your food choices.
• Don't feel guilty: It's okay to have a cheat meal or day once in a while. It's only natural to crave forbidden, carby foods, especially if they are your favourite foods.
• Don't be too hard on yourself: If you do cheat, don't throw your entire diet out the window. Get back into ketosis as soon as possible and continue with your diet.

Planning

• Plan your meals: Make a solid dietary plan to ensure you don't get hungry during the day and are less likely to cheat.
• Make your diet enjoyable: Incorporate different keto-friendly meals to vary your diet and make it more enjoyable.
• Don't keep tempting foods in the house: Out of sight, out of mind!
• Have an accountability partner: Rope in a buddy to help you stay motivated and stick to your diet.
• Plan for cheat meals: If you are going to cheat, plan it for a special occasion and make sure it's worth it.

Other Tips

• Practice mindfulness: Pay attention to your body, which may help you resist cravings and emotional eating.
• Exercise: This depletes your glycogen stores, promoting ketosis.
• Try intermittent fasting: This may help your body shift its fuel source from carbs to fat.
• Drink apple cider vinegar: This has a protective effect on the induced insulin response.
• Use keto-friendly sweeteners: These can include erythritol, stevia, and monk fruit.

Pros and cons of cheating on keto

Pros

• The most popular argument for cheating on keto is that it can help you stick to the diet in the long term. If you allow yourself some flexibility, you may be more likely to return to the keto diet after taking a break.
• Cheating on keto can have psychological benefits, such as reduced cravings and the ability to stick to your meal plan.
• If you are trying to lose weight, the occasional cheat meal is unlikely to undo all your hard work, as long as you are maintaining calorie control overall.

Cons

• Cheat meals or days disrupt ketosis, the metabolic state that is the hallmark of the keto diet.
• It can take several days to one week to re-enter ketosis after cheating. In the meantime, your weight loss may be disrupted.
• Some research suggests that suddenly reintroducing a high-carb meal to a ketogenic diet may damage your blood vessels.
• Cheating on keto can lead to dramatic and immediate setbacks, such as bloating, stomach upset, gas, and acne.
• If you are keeping diabetes at bay with a low-carb or keto diet, cheating is generally a bad idea. Eating too many carbs can increase your blood sugar to high levels, increasing the risk of long-term complications like blindness, dementia, and amputations.
• Cheating can strengthen addiction pathways, making it harder to avoid sugary treats in the future.
• Cheat meals can lead to guilt.
• Cheat days can lead to binge eating, which can cause weight gain and digestive issues.

How to cheat on keto the right way

The keto diet is a very low-carb, high-fat diet that is popular for its weight loss effects. It encourages ketosis, a metabolic state in which your body burns fat as its primary source of energy instead of carbohydrates.

Because the keto diet is very strict, you may find yourself tempted by the occasional high-carb food. While cheat days and meals are common strategies for strict diets, they are not ideal for keto. This is because the keto diet relies on your body staying in ketosis, and a single cheat meal can easily exceed your daily carb allowance and take your body out of ketosis.

However, if you do choose to have a cheat meal or day, here are some tips to do it the right way:

• Opt for keto-approved cheat meals: Instead of cheating on your diet, splurge on keto-friendly substitutes to curb your cravings. There are many keto-friendly recipes and alternatives available, such as keto pizza, keto cookies, and low-carb zucchini pasta.
• Have cheat meals, not cheat days: It is much easier to stay on top of your overall nutrition and calories with cheat meals compared to entire keto cheat days. One large cheat meal can add 1000 or more calories to your day, while a whole cheat day will add much more and potentially undo all of your hard work.
• Plan your cheats: Pick which meals you're going to cheat on and budget some calories and carbs in advance. Prioritize certain events or favorite foods over random temptations. For example, if you know there is a social event coming up, plan how you will cheat and enjoy it without going overboard.
• Cheat close to exercise: Exercise increases insulin sensitivity, so you can get back into ketosis faster. Try planning smaller cheats around exercise to help keep you in ketosis.
• Return to keto quickly: The longer you avoid your low-carb routine, the harder it will be to get back on track. Don't wait too long to resume your keto diet after a cheat meal or day.
• Track your daily intake: Don't forget to track your calories and macros. If your cheats are blowing your weekly nutrition goals, you might end up gaining weight. Use a macro-friendly app to see the impact of your cheats.
• Follow a cyclical ketogenic diet: On the cyclical ketogenic diet (CKD), you would only eat a strict keto diet for five days within a seven-day period. Many people choose to eat keto during the weekdays and then have a high-carb approach on the weekends.
• Enjoy keto desserts and comfort foods: There are many keto-friendly dessert recipes available that recreate your favorite treats and comfort foods with healthy, low-carb ingredients. For example, baked goods can be made with almond or coconut flour instead of white flour and sweetened with monk fruit or stevia instead of sugar.
• Experience life without feeling restricted: A diet that causes physical or emotional deprivation is not healthy. If you're experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime moment, such as eating Italian pizza in Rome or a slice of cake at your grandmother's birthday, it's your choice whether to deviate from strict keto. Ideally, keto will help you to eat intuitively, knowing when to treat yourself and when to stick to green veggies, protein, and healthy fats.

Remember, the best diet for you is one that you can stick to! If you're finding it difficult to stick to keto consistently, it might be time to revisit whether this diet is right for you.

How to enjoy a cheat meal on keto

The keto diet is a very low-carb, high-fat diet that is popular for its weight loss effects. It encourages ketosis, a metabolic state in which your body burns fat as its primary source of energy instead of carbohydrates. This diet is very strict, and it is natural to be tempted by the occasional high-carb food.

Cheat days and cheat meals are common strategies for strict diets. Cheat days allow you to break the diet rules throughout the day, while cheat meals let you have a single meal that breaks the rules. The idea of planned cheating is that by allowing yourself short periods of indulgence, you are more likely to stick to the diet over the long term.

While cheating may be helpful for some eating patterns, it is not ideal for the keto diet. This is because the keto diet relies on your body staying in ketosis. To do so, you need to eat fewer than 50 grams of carbohydrates per day. Eating more than 50 grams can kick your body out of ketosis. As carbohydrates are your body's preferred energy source, your body will use them over ketone bodies—the main source of fuel during ketosis, which are derived from fats—as soon as a sufficient number of carbohydrates are available.

Because 50 grams of carbohydrates is relatively few, a single cheat meal can easily exceed your daily carb allowance and take your body out of ketosis, while a cheat day is almost certain to surpass 50 grams of carbs. In addition, some research suggests that suddenly reintroducing a high-carb meal to a ketogenic diet may damage your blood vessels.

• Opt for keto-approved cheat meals: The best way to approach cheat days is by not cheating on your diet at all and indulging in keto-friendly substitutes to curb your cravings instead, saving true cheat meals as a last resort. You can find keto-friendly versions of popular meals, snacks, and treats that are made with low-carb substitutes and are just as delicious.
• Have cheat meals, not cheat days: It is much easier to stay on top of your overall nutrition and calories with cheat meals compared to entire keto cheat days. One large cheat meal can add 1,000 or more calories to your day, while a whole cheat day will add much more and potentially undo all of your hard work.
• Plan your cheat meals: The easiest way to ensure your diet cheats don't ruin your progress is to plan for them. Pick which meals you're going to cheat on and budget some calories and carbs in advance if you can. Prioritize certain events or your favorite foods over random temptations that will always be there.
• Make it rare: Cheat days are not a daily thing. Space them out generously. The less you cheat, the less likely you'll form bad eating habits.
• Make it count: Don't waste your cheat meal on something that isn't worth it. Eat the foods you miss the most or save your cheat meal for a special occasion.
• Cheat close to exercise: Exercise increases insulin sensitivity (your ability to handle carbs), so you can get back into ketosis faster.
• Return to eating keto quickly: The longer you avoid your low-carb routine, the harder it will be to get back on track.
• Don't beat yourself up: What you do today is important, not what you did yesterday. Get back to eating healthy in the present, and the future will be bright.

Remember, the best diet for you is one that you can stick to!

Frequently asked questions