So, ever since trainer Bob said on last week’s episode of Biggest Loser that every week they give the contestants a cheat day to take a break from the diet I have been getting questioned about it all the time. People want to know if it’s true, if I took cheat days, if I think they are a good idea, and so on. So, before I give my opinion … let me clear a little something up:
There is no such thing as “cheat days” on the ranch. I mean, if you wanted to, you could take one … but you’d be in hot water with your team over it. When you’re in that kind of weight loss competition, every calorie counts. If anything, the problem is generally the other way – as revealed this season. Contestants tend to under eat because it hasn’t quite sunk in yet that they can eat a healthier amount of food, feel better and still lose the weight at the same rate.
Here’s the deal. As Jillian pointed out on her radio show the other week, the producers and writers come up with the “trainer tips,” so consequently, some of them are great … and some aren’t so hot. Bob was reading lines given to him that he was contractually obliged to do (I’m assuming).
On the other hand, a reward day is a good idea. I don’t really like the “cheat day” phrase because it implies a free pass, and that’s not good. You can blow a whole week’s worth of weight loss work with one bad day of eating. Then all you’re doing is maintaining. If I’m going to work this hard … I want it to pay off! On the other hand, it can be a great motivation to have a reward day: in other words, one day of the week you’re allowed to have that food you like that’s not healthy, but in moderate portions. Maybe you allow yourself an extra three or four hundred calories, which then gives you the freedom to have whatever that favorite food is. By satisfying that craving from time to time, it does make it easier to get through the week and behave the rest of the time. Plus, what happens with adding a few hundred calories for one day is that you are actually just hitting a maintainance calorie count, so you won’t actually put on weight (salty or high carb food might cause some extra water weight, but that goes away in a couple days).
So all that to say: there are no cheat days on the Biggest Loser Ranch. I certainly don’t like the idea of a cheat day and I don’t encourage them … but I definitely think it’s a great idea to have a weekly reward in the form of a few hundred extra calories one day, with the permission to not eat healthy that day if you want.
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