By Jordana Brown | Edited by Joe Wuebben | Illustration by John Royle

Let's face it, dieting isn't a whole lot of fun. But it's always nice to know that the glorious cheat day is just around the corner. That said, making the most of your cheat days as a means of helping you get leaner is a simple matter of making wise choices while you're (kind of) pigging out.




Here are seven quick tips for cheating on two different diets—low-carb and low-fat. Follow these and cheat days won't just be about indulging in goodies, but getting leaner too.

CHEATING ON A LOW-CARB DIET
>> Bump up carbs on cheat days. Studies have shown that carbohydrates are what influence levels of leptin, a hormone that plays a major role in hunger and satiety. When leptin is low, your stomach will growl and you'll get that familiar hungry feeling. Eat a nice meal, and leptin levels rise, turning off the growling and contributing to making you feel full. It's the rise of insulin and/or glucose in the blood that drives up leptin levels previously suppressed by low-carb dieting. On your cheat day every week, it's critical that a low-carb dieter's extra calories come primarily from carbs. A standard low-carb diet allows for roughly 0.5 gram of carbs per pound of bodyweight or less. On your cheat day, increase that all the way to 2 grams of carbs per pound.

>> Watch fat intake.Eating lower-fat carbs (sorbet instead of ice cream, baked potato instead of fries, air-popped instead of microwave popcorn) on cheat days ensures their speedy digestion. Fat slows carb digestion, and since insulin is key to raising leptin levels, you want as big an insulin boost as possible. Besides, since you're taking in so many carbs, any fat you consume likely won't be used for energy, and instead will be stored as—you guessed it—fat.

>> Don't forget whole grains on cheat days. Just because it's a higher carb day doesn't mean you can neglect the health benefits of eating things like oatmeal, whole-wheat bread and brown rice. Their increased fiber content will help control hunger pangs and aide in fat loss.

>> Don't overdo it with fruit. Fruit contains sugar, yes, but it's in the form of fructose, which can't be used directly by muscles. That means that when your body digests fruit, it sends fructose straight to your liver, which converts it to liver glycogen. But once the liver's glycogen levels are full, it no longer converts fructose to glycogen; it converts it to fat. On a high-carb day, you run the risk of overloading your liver with glycogen, so keep fruit intake to 3—4 servings, and eat it earlier in the day.

CHEAT ON A LOW-FAT DIET

>> Boost fat and calorie intake on cheat days, but keep carb levels the same. Your normal diet provides you with enough carbs (it's fat you're restricting in this case, not carbs). To boost your metabolism, you need to replace what you're depriving yourself of: fat and calories. After all, it is a cheat day.

>> Eat some healthy fats. If you're eating low-fat, you're also eating low-healthy-fat. Try to get at least some calories from healthy fats (salmon, avocado, walnuts) on a daily basis, and especially on cheat days. There's a reason they call them healthy fats.

>> Dabble in some unhealthy fats, too. Though healthy fats obviously reign supreme, also allow yourself to indulge in fattier meats like burgers, bacon or ribs (but watch the barbecue sauce) and other sources of saturated fat, like macaroni and cheese or a chocolate bar. In addition to making you feel more satisfied after a meal, saturated fat helps boost levels of testosterone, which will help you build muscle and boost metabolism. HERS