Should You Have 'Cheat Days' as a Footballer?

As athletes, our nutrition is one of the most important dictators of our performance, our recovery, and our energy levels.

What we put into our bodies impacts how effectively our body is able to use the energy it is given and be able to provide energy to our working muscles and damaged tissues.

What we eat is also important when trying to lose fat and build lean, athletic muscle, and be able to have achieve the athletic physique that you see players like Marcos Llorente have.

However, we're all human, and it's not easy to avoid the cravings we get from the foods we love, such as pizza, sweets, and your occasional Chinese take-out.

Just because you're an athlete, that doesn't mean you need to restrict yourself and only consume salads 24/7 (even if you are a robot and can live like that, your diet shouldn't be limited to just salads).

Does that mean that you should have 'cheat days?' Which are days in which you completely abandon your diet and eat whatever the hell you want?

Not necessarily, and in this blog post, you will find out why having cheat days as a footballer isn't the most beneficial thing to be doing as an athlete, and how you can incorporate other methods to still enjoy your favorite foods in your diet.

Why Do We Eat Healthy As Footballers?

Before talking about why having cheat days are bad for you, let's talk about why having a good, well-balanced diet, is beneficial for your performance as a footballer.

Food is Fuel

Food is our bodies primary source of energy, the calories we consume is what gives our body the fuel it needs in order to perform daily tasks, whether that's working out, training, walking from place to place, and even when you're sleeping.

As athletes, we are constantly placing great stress on our body with intense training sessions and difficult workouts, and as a result, we burn a lot more calories than the average person.

By feeding our bodies quality nutrients and the macros we need, our working muscles will be more efficient since they are being fueled with the essential components our cells need to function properly.

For example, when we are training for football and constantly sprinting and changing direction, our muscles use up the stored glycogen in our bodies and convert it into a useable form of energy that will allow our muscles to continuously train.

If we don't feed our bodies the right amount of calories, and don't give our bodies the quality sources of carbohydrates that our muscles require, our working muscles when training will not have the energy they need to be able to perform at their highest intensity for an extended period of time.

We will quickly feel exhausted and lactic acid would build up at a much faster rate, which as a result, will impact your performance in your training sessions and games negatively.

Food Maximizes our Recovery

Even when we're not training, our bodies still uses the energy from the food we eat to fuel it's internal processes and help our bodies recovery after exercise.

When we train and workout, our muscles undergo a ton of muscular tension, which can lead to microscopic damage to the muscle tissues. This is what causes soreness and occasionally some tightness after a workout or session.

Your body naturally repairs that muscular damage so that you can be ready for your next workout or training session, and it does this through a process called Protein Synthesis.

Protein synthesis is a process in which old damaged muscle cells are replaced with new and improved muscle cells that are bigger, and a lot tougher than before. Protein Synthesis is what causes muscle growth and gains in strength in our bodies.

However, if our bodies are not fueled with the proper proteins and other essential micronutrients you get from foods such as fruits and vegetables, then the rate at which our muscles repair will be a lot slower.

By feeding our bodies with healthy, nutrient-dense food, we are maximizing our body's efficiency at being able to transport energy into our working cells and muscles, and it's efficiency to repair damaged muscle tissue as well.

Do We Always Have To Eat Healthy?

When I first started my strict diet as an athlete, I would stay FAR AWAY from any of the foods I enjoy.

I thought that I had to completely abandon the foods that I used to consume so much of, because I thought it would make me fat and lead to tons of inflammation.

Because of this mentality, I found it a lot harder to keep consistency in my diet.

I would end up starting the week very well with good foods, but towards the middle to the end of the week, I would have one bad meal and then let that be an excuse to "start fresh" next week.

By restricting myself from the foods that made me happy, I developed an unhealthy relationship with food and my body.

Whenever I messed up my diet and would go on a food binge, I would feel extremely guilty, and then I would punish myself with only salads for the next couple of days, until I ended up messing up my diet again and doing the exact same process over again.

Restricting yourself from the foods you love will only mess you up in the long run. Eating healthy has to be a lifestyle change, not a weekly change.

Eating Healthy is a LIFESTYLE CHANGE. Make sure you can sustain your diet for the rest of your life.

What are Cheat Days?

Many people use cheat days as a day to take a break from their diets and to completely let loose and eat whatever they want.

But is this a good method to make your diet a lifestyle change?

If you're the average person who only trains for the aesthetic, then yes, cheat days are a great way to make your diet manageable (as long as you're not overdoing it).

However if you're an athlete, and you're consistently training day after day, and your performance is heavily dictated by how quickly you are able to recover and how efficient your body can use the energy it has, then cheat days are something you should stay away from.

This is because having a day where you let loose and don't consume enough quality nutrients, will affect your body's recovery for that day, and will heavily impact your energy levels for the next day. This will lead to decreased performance in your sessions and workouts, which means you're not maximizing your development, and you have a higher risk of injury since your muscles aren't functioning as efficiently as they should.

Does this mean that you're not allowed to eat your favorite foods?

Of course not, however, there are better methods to still enjoy your favorite foods in your diet without sacrificing your energy and recovery.

The best of these methods, is called the 80-20 Rule.

The 80-20 Rule

One of the best ways to incorporate your favorite foods into your diet and make it more manageable to maintain consistency, is to follow the principles stated by the 80-20 Rule:

The 80-20 Rule: 80% of your nutrition throughout the week should be nutrient-dense foods, and 20% of it can be not so nutrient-dense foods.

Let's say you eat around 4 times every single day. In a week, you eat about a total of 28 meals.

According to the 80-20 Rule, 80% of the 28 meals you eat in a week have to be healthy, while 20% of the 28 meals don't have to be as healthy.

Doing the math, this comes out to about 22-23 meals that are nutrient dense, and about 5-6 times in the week where you treat yourself.

You can also change the ratio if you want to be a little extra strict. For example, I like to follow a 95-5 rule, where 95% of my diet are nutrient dense foods and only 5% of my meals are things I enjoy.

The reason why I am able to restrict myself more is because I have developed the discipline to stay on track with my diet, and I actually enjoy eating healthier a lot more than eating delicious foods.

However, not everybody is like this, and if you're someone who can't live without your mom's homemade chocolate chip cookies, then the 80-20 Rule is a great method to help you maintain a healthy diet while also enjoying your favorite foods.

Takeaway

As athletes, our performance and development is heavily reliant on our diet and the foods we eat.

The foods we eat are essential in dictating our efficiency and energy levels when working out, and it's important for proper recovery after exercise.

However, people find it hard to maintain a perfect diet and eat healthy consistently, and this is because they are restricting themselves too much from foods they enjoy.

Even as an athlete, you're still allowed to enjoy the delicacies of life, and be able to eat and savor the delicious foods this world has to offer.

However, the best way to still enjoy your favorite foods in your diet without sacrificing your energy levels and recovery, is to incorporate the 80-20 rule.

Stay away from 'cheat days,' since these days will affect your recovery and your performance for your training sessions, which will impact your development as an athlete.

I hope this article helps you make heathier decisions in your diet! If you would like more information on how to have a well-balanced nutrition, then feel free to download our free nutrition guide on our website!

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