If you're interested in nutrition, you've likely heard of "cheat meals" or "cheat days." These terms refer to deviations from a typical diet, often involving indulgent, high-calorie foods. While cheat meals are a popular concept, especially in fitness circles, it's essential to understand their potential benefits and drawbacks before incorporating them into your routine.
What is a Cheat Meal?
A "cheat meal" is a planned indulgence in foods typically restricted on a diet. These are often high-calorie, high-fat, or high-sugar foods. Cheat meals are intended as a temporary break from strict eating behaviors.
Popularity and Prevalence
The popularity of cheat meals is evident on social media, with millions of posts tagged with "#cheatmeal." These posts often showcase large volumes of energy-dense foods, reflecting a hyperfixation on overeating for hedonic purposes.
Potential Benefits of Cheat Meals
Psychological Relief and Motivation
Cheat days can serve as a motivational tool. Knowing that there is a day set aside for indulgence can help individuals stay committed to their diet during the week. Dieting can be mentally taxing, especially when it involves significant restrictions. Occasional indulgence may provide psychological relief, making it easier to adhere to a diet long-term.
Metabolic Boost (Debated)
Some proponents suggest that cheat meals can boost metabolic rate by increasing levels of leptin, a hormone that regulates energy balance. Leptin tends to decrease during calorie restriction, which can slow metabolism. The theory is that a cheat meal can temporarily increase leptin levels, preventing metabolic slowdown.
Read also: Risks of Keto Cheat Days
Research shows that a short-term carb overload can increase leptin production by nearly 30% for 24 hours, which may lead to a temporary increase in metabolism.
However, research on this is inconsistent, and it's unclear how much of an impact cheat meals have on leptin levels and metabolism.
Replenishing Glycogen Stores
High-carb cheat meals can replenish glycogen stores in muscles and the liver, which can be depleted during periods of calorie restriction. Glycogen is a polysaccharide found in the liver and muscles. It is important for controlling blood sugar levels and provides the muscles with the necessary energy. To maximize glycogen levels in your muscles, you need to consume carbohydrates.
Social Flexibility
Strict dieting can make social events challenging. A cheat day allows for indulgence, making it easier to navigate social situations without feeling overly restricted.
Hormone Regulation
When you are in a calorie deficit, your body produces fewer T3 and T4 hormones. These are iodinated amino acids that regulate gene expression in the body by similar mechanisms as steroid hormones and are also essential for the thyroid gland to function properly. It is just cheat meals that are used to partially increase these hormones.
Read also: Indulgences on Carnivore
Potential Drawbacks of Cheat Meals
Parallels to Binge Eating
The excessive caloric intake and perceived loss of control during cheat meals can resemble binge eating episodes. This can be troubling, especially for individuals with a history of disordered eating.
Dysfunctional View of Food
Framing cheat meals as "rewards" for dietary adherence can create a transactional view of food. This can lead to a cycle of restriction and binging, where food is seen as something to be earned or compensated for.
Cognitive Dissonance
Cheat meals can contradict the goals of a healthy lifestyle, introducing conflict and cognitive dissonance. This can threaten self-efficacy and enthusiasm for goal striving.
Disruption of Healthy Eating Patterns
Cheat days can disrupt healthy eating patterns and make it more difficult to return to a regular diet.
Feelings of Guilt and Loss of Control
For some individuals, cheat days can lead to feelings of guilt or loss of control, resulting in binge eating.
Read also: Your Guide to Lazy Keto
Emphasis on Physical Appearance
The social media culture associated with cheat meals can place an excessive focus on physical appearance, which may be harmful to vulnerable populations.
Rigid vs. Flexible Dietary Restraint
A dieter may approach their diet with flexible cognitive restraint or rigid dietary restraint, and the route they choose makes a big difference. Rigid restraint describes an approach that sets a lot of inflexible and dichotomous boundaries, with clear delineations between acceptable and unacceptable intakes. With this approach, perfection is the goal, and there is little room for flexibility, adaptability, or approximation.
How to Approach Cheat Meals Mindfully
Plan and Track
Having a cheat meal isn’t permission for a free-for-all, it’s a controlled but indulgent celebration of life and the hard work you’ve been putting into your workouts. Plan and track it. Put it on the calendar.
Moderation
While it's a cheat day, aiming for some balance can help mitigate negative effects. While it's tempting to go all out, try to maintain a level of moderation.
Mindful Eating
Pay attention to hunger and fullness cues. Avoid Overeating: Aim to feel satisfied, not stuffed.
Hydration
Drink plenty of water throughout the day.
Spread Out Cheat Meals
Instead of consuming all cheat meals in one sitting, spread them throughout the day.
Focus on Enjoyment
Treat yourself to the best of the best. Don’t get yourself a stale donut from the grocery store, get the best donut in town. Don’t waste your cheat meal on something that isn’t worth it.
Socialize
Part of the human experience is enjoying life with friends and being social, your social health is a big part of a healthy lifestyle too.
Don't Give In to Guilt
It can be easy get discouraged, but one bad meal or one bad day is not indicative of failure.
Alternatives to Cheat Days
Cheat Meals
Instead of a full cheat day, have a cheat meal once or twice a week.
Flexible Dieting
Incorporate flexibility into your daily diet by allowing small treats regularly.
Refeed Days
Refeed days involve increasing carbohydrate intake to replenish glycogen stores without indulging in high-fat, high-sugar foods. A refeed is a brief period of overfeeding in which caloric intake is raised slightly above maintenance levels, usually by increasing carbohydrate consumption.
Treat Meals
James recommends reserving 80% of your meals for healthy, nutritious foods, and setting aside 20% of your meals for cheat days each week. According to James, he doesn’t even like to use the word ‘cheat’ meals. “I like to use the word ‘treat’ meals because I think they’re that special,” he shares.
The 80/20 Rule
James recommends reserving 80% of your meals for healthy, nutritious foods, and setting aside 20% of your meals for cheat days each week.
Cheat Meals and Weight Loss
Yep! Believe it or not, you can have cheat day meals, and still, achieve your weight loss goals. James recommends starting your weight loss diet by taking one portion of carbs away from one meal each day. From there, check in on your weight loss over seven days. Are you losing weight, maintaining weight, or gaining weight? You can adjust your intake from there, maybe you need to cut out one more portion, or take out a snack in the afternoon. Remember, the adjustments should be small. To indulge in treat days during your weight loss diet, follow the 80/20 rule: eating healthy, nutritious meals 80% of the time, and treating yourself about 20% of the time.
Cheat Meals and Bulking
Unfortunately, bulking doesn’t mean you can eat all the cheat day meals you want. If only! Maintaining an 80/20 balance is important for your health too. To get started with increasing your muscle mass, James recommends adding just one portion to one meal of the day - it can be carbs, healthy fats, or lean protein. Again, track by taking photos of your meals throughout the day or keep a food journal of what you’re eating. After tracking, it’s also important to reflect on your methods, and the progress you’ve made from the changes in your diet.