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Cheat meal: how to eat what you want and not get fat
Author: Slauta Alexander - sports nutrition specialist and gym trainer. All articles by the author ➤
Surely, everyone familiar with bodybuilding, fitness, and healthy eating knows what an exhausting low-carbohydrate diet is and how strict self-discipline is needed to shed those extra pounds. So what should you do if you slipped up and indulged in your favorite ice cream and followed it up with cheesecake? It's not as bad as you think. If that meal was an isolated incident, it's actually beneficial. In this article, we'll discuss what a "cheat meal" is and determine whether a person can lose weight while enjoying their favorite dishes. What is a Cheat Meal?Cheating, translated from English, means "deception," "trickery," or "fraud," while meal means "food." I think you’ve already guessed that this is about food-related deception. A cheat meal is a planned deviation from your low-carbohydrate or carbohydrate-free diet on specific days, usually no more than once a week, aimed at:
Whom are we fooling? Here, we are killing two birds with one stone: helping the body avoid stress and a slowdown in metabolism while simultaneously indulging in and "letting loose" with our favorite products and dishes. A cheat meal is similar to a "carbohydrate loading" phase that bodybuilders use. It’s employed during preparation for competitions on a low-carb diet. The goal of a cheat meal is to refresh the body's response to the diet, regain strength, improve mood, and continue progressing in your planned diet and break through weight loss plateaus. Typically, this meal is used once a week by individuals with a low body fat percentage and every two weeks by those with a medium or high amount of body fat. Benefits and Drawbacks of Cheat MealsLike any dietary approach, cheat meals come with their own set of advantages and disadvantages. They are few, so let’s delve into the nuances of "cheating" in food. Physiological Advantage The main benefit of a cheat meal is the improvement of metabolism and the reduction of catabolic processes. The human body has a complex system that is hard to deceive. If you are in a caloric deficit and lacking carbohydrates, your body will start to store even the small amount of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates coming from food. This will only accelerate fat deposition. Many fitness trainers utilize this approach to maintain athletic form, which speaks not only to its harmlessness but also its benefits. Psychological Dependency It is common for all people to exhibit addictive behaviors. Cheat meals are no exception. If you use this approach frequently and center your dietary habits around cheat meals, you risk developing a dependency on this method and may find yourself indulging two or even three times a week. I immediately recall a case from my training experience when a young man began to abuse cheat meals, and his diet began to resemble rare low-carb days. As a result, he inevitably gained weight and always justified himself by saying that cheat meals are beneficial. To avoid developing a dependency on cheat meals, I’ll provide some tips that will help you use this trick to benefit your body: 1. Do not replace regular meals with cheat meals and abandon your usual diet. Just add one additional serving of your favorite food on your cheat day. 2. Eat after your workout. At this moment, your metabolism is at a high rate, so all consumed food will be processed faster and more efficiently. 3. Don’t get carried away and think of cheat meals as a means for weight loss. The main mechanism for losing weight is your dietary regimen. A cheat meal is merely a technique that helps in achieving your ultimate goal. Do not allow yourself to cheat more than once a week. 4. Avoid consuming alcohol. Cheat meals do not include alcoholic and low-alcoholic beverages. I believe it goes without saying that alcohol negatively affects metabolism and overall body health. 5. Do not feel guilty on your cheat day; do not berate yourself for breaking the rules. Assure yourself that a cheat meal is a planned diet deviation and an integral part of your plan. If you haven't tried this approach yet, I’m confident you should experiment and observe how your body reacts to cheat meals. You can determine the number of additional calories consumed on this long-awaited day. From personal experience, I can say that I started with an additional 900 calories on cheat day. After a month on a diet that incorporated cheat meals, I raised the additional calories to 1200 once a week. Over the next month and a half, the fat-burning process continued successfully, just like in the first month of the diet. Personal Fitness Training by the Author of This Article:
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