Eating Cake Can Help Your Long-Term Weight Loss Success

Most people don’t see cake, cake being a metaphor for any food that you enjoy, as being part of a diet that is conducive to losing weight. For obvious reasons this makes sense. However, in many cases, especially if you have 15+ pounds to lose, having cake might actually help your long-term weight loss success. 

Before we dive into that, let’s first let’s acknowledge that dieting can be one of the most challenging, and frustrating, components of weight loss; there are many internal and external factors at play that make it harder to simply “eat less.”

For those that dieted before ask yourself this question: how many times have you sworn off cake, or other foods you love, only to find yourself having it mere days later? I think we’ve all been there, if not this example something similar. What happens next? Feelings of guilt and frustration. Why is my will power so weak, do I have no discipline? The negative self-talk continues and suggests you ruined all the hard work you put in that week and might as well finish a bottle of wine and a bag of chips, right?  

“I’ll start again Monday,” you say. Each time you do this you’re more restrictive than last, only to find yourself back in the same place a week or two later. Sound familiar? 

• Read: Don’t “restart” on Monday and avoid last chance syndrome

Successive cycles of this develop poor eating habits (binge eating, purging, etc.), personal confidence issues, and ultimately leave you feeling like you’ve been spinning your wheels this whole time; you have little-to-no progress to show for all the hard work you’ve put in. 

Picture from GirlsGoneStrong

Fortunately, It doesn’t have to be like that. You can have your cake, and eat it too, and reach your goals sooner than if you were to swear off cake completely.

How is this true? It’s true when you factor in long-term adherence. The most common reason diets fail is they don’t stick long-term, which is usually the result of a diet that isn’t practical long-term and is too strict.

This is where having cake can be the answer, cake once again being a metaphor for any food that you like. If you diet with the mindset that it’s ok to treat yourself every once in a while and not have an all-or-nothing mentality, chances are you’re going to do a lot better; treating yourself is not to be read as having a cheat meal. Part of why this approach is more successful is because you won’t have the negating psychology telling yourself you can’t have something. Rather it’s a form of flexible delayed onset gratification, where you’re in control and telling yourself not today but maybe later; this can help also deflate any feelings of deprivation and frustration. 

• Read: Why you shouldn’t have cheat meals

This doesn’t mean you have cake every day, or even every week. Maybe you have it once a month and you enjoy the hell out of it without guilt. The biggest component of this approach is the mindset of allowing yourself to choose, and accepting the results that follow. You have permission to have cake if you’d like, or not if you instead want to focus on results; this isn’t to be understood as rewarding yourself with food, you aren’t a dog, rather you’re changing the way you think about what you can and can’t have – and when.

Struggling with long-term weight loss success? Try having some cake. You’ll likely see the whole dieting process more do-able and possibly even enjoy it – the allowance of still being able to eat food you enjoy, while also losing weight, that is. And, you’ll create some healthier habits surrounding food along the way.

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