Cheat Meals… (A Must Read)
If you’ve ever put yourself through a diet, you’ve probably heard of cheat meals and cheat days - if you’re a fitness enthusiast you’ve definitely heard of them. As the obesity epidemic gets worse, more and more people are looking for solutions to making diets more sustainable and less miserable. As a result cheat meals have been emerging in mainstream diet culture and as a fitness enthusiast, I love to see it.
What are Cheat Meals?
Incase you haven’t heard, cheat days are scheduled/ calculated reward-based diet breaks which are supposed to help you stick to a diet. As the name implies, you allow yourself to eat anything you want for an entire day. Then cheat meals are the same thing but on a smaller scale where you only take a diet break for a single meal. How these are implemented into diets varies heavily but the most common practice I’ve seen is indulging once a week. Personally I try to go as many weeks as I can without one and only give in if I have a particularly strong craving one day. But that’s just one of many ways to implement it.
Do They Work?
If you’re eating less calories than you burn, weight loss will occur. So if you implement the cheat day into your diet as a reward based strategy to help consistently eat less than you burn, then cheat meals could work wonders. That being said, the science behind cheat days is still quite conflicted due to the variety in results people experience which makes sense because everyone reacts to changes differently psychologically and physically. So at the end of the day, the best diet plan is the one that you can stick to.
Alternative Strategies to Consider
- Instead of cheat meals or cheat days, focus on a specific cheat food
If you don’t respond well to cheat meals or cheat days for whatever reason (you start binging, you have too many cheat days, your relationship with food becomes toxic, etc.) try scaling it down even more. Instead of trying to fit all your favorite indulgences into a meal or day, just focus on one or two of your favorite foods. By focusing on just one food, you’ll be less likely to start over-consuming and tipping the scale in the wrong direction.
2. Establish a diet before adding cheat days
If you start your diet planning to cheat every week, you might be setting yourself up for failure. Remember why you started this diet in the first place! You have a goal to reach whether it’s to gain muscle, lose fat, or stay in shape. After you’ve stayed on your diet for 2–3 weeks, then slowly add in a weekly/ monthly cheat day/ meal.
3. Make your diet enjoyable
If you just can’t respond well to cheat days no matter how many times you try, just make your diet more sustainable. Add some more of your favorite healthy foods and find alternatives for the unhealthy ones. There’s no one size fits all way to do this so approach your diet in a way you think will be the easiest for you.
Summary
If this is your first time hearing about cheat meals and you’re starting or on a diet, beware. While it is an effective fat-loss strategy, it can also do just the opposite and mess everything up. If you knew about them already then I hope I’ve just reaffirmed your knowledge of them in some way. Let’s get healthy!! :)
