How to cheat safely on your healthy diet

​ Many people are wondering if you can cheat on a healthy diet. How much can you indulge in rich, salty, or sugary weekend cuisine without risking weight gain, heart and blood pressure problems, or high blood sugar?

Ideally you should always follow a healthy eating plan, such as a Mediterranean-style diet. In addition, you need to limit the following: added sugars, salt – healthy people should limit intake to 2,300 milligrams per day – and saturated fat.

What about calories? Daily calorie needs depend on many factors, including your age, activity level, body composition, overall health, and weight goals, such as weight loss.

If you're a healthy person who exercises 30 minutes per day, you can estimate how many daily calories you need to maintain your current weight by multiplying your weight (in pounds) by 15.

While a good diet is crucial for health, bending the rules on occasion probably won't hurt. A tip you can try is the 90-10 rule. Eat a healthy diet 90% of the time and splurge 10% of the time. Eating three meals a day for a week means 21 total meals: avoid splurging for more than two of those meals.

Knowing that you can cheat a little might tempt you to push the 90-10 rule beyond its limits. For example, you might overdo a cheat meal or you can start gaining weight and keeping on it. What you can do is to follow a healthy diet on most days, and allow yourself the pleasure of ocasionally indulging.

Sources: Harvard Health Publishing