One thing a lot of friends and family have asked me since I’ve been on Keto is whether or not I can have “cheat days”. They have mentioned, “don’t most diets have cheat days?”. This, of course, is a complicated question with a complicated answer. To start, there is no “cheating” on a ketogenic diet, because either you are in ketosis (under a carb amount), or you’re not. Ketosis is not a diet, but instead a metabolic state brought about by controlling our daily intake of carbohydrates. In that sense, no, you cannot cheat because your body will take any excess carbohydrates as fuel, and thus will no longer be in ketosis.

However, we are human beings and for many of us, carbohydrates are something we associate with comfort (dopamine is to blame here), and thus, cheat days may be something that from time to time we decide to do for our own mental wellbeing. The crux here is whether or not you as an individual can handle one day or so of high carb and then quickly go back to ketosis without the cravings continuing. Even for the strongest willed among us, this can be a challenging endeavour.

One way to “cheat” on the keto diet is to find alternatives to your favourite snacks that are low carb. For example, Quest chips can be a good dupe for Doritos. As for actually cheating while over-all living a ketogenic lifestyle, this is up to the person on whether or not they think it is worth it. Insulin spikes can be harder for some individuals than others, so this is a very personal decision.