In our daily lives, we hear the phrase “Cheat meal” quite often! The concept of “cheat meal” was invented because of our inability to stick to one particular diet for a long period of time.
Cheat meal is meant to let you try something cheesy or which meets your food dopamine when you are eating clean for 90% of the time during the week. At the end of week, you allow yourself to satisfy your desire for your temptations or cravings which you love to eat but in a limited quantity so that you taste the foods which you are seriously missing.
Although not many studies have been done on whether cheat meals have an impact on your metabolism, it does have physiological impact. This holds true specially when you are starting your fitness journey. It’s easy & convenient to assume that after giving so many hours for high intense physical activity/exercise & eating healthy & clean for 6 days at a row, you should have a guilty pleasure to satisfy your food dopamine.
We have at our disposal, various ways to enjoy our cheat meal through nutrient dense foods as well by experimenting with taste, flavor & recipes. Still we have that craving to try out pizza, hot dog or donut. But having one or two slices of pizza or a bite of donut is not a bad thing.
A lot of fitness experts advise having a cheat meal during the post workout period since your body has depleted all glycogen stores & anything consumed would be used as a fuel to replenish energy rather than stored as fat.
While deciding to have a cheat meal, you should consider the following:
- Having a cheat meal more often
- Having too much of the cheat meal
- Cheat days instead of cheat meals
All these mean that you are not sticking to your diet & most likely it will be a watersplash to the hard work you have put in to meet your weight/fat loss goals. In order to lose weight & have a good muscle build, you should have a clean & healthy meal that works for your body a majority of times. Besides, it goes without saying that you should be burning more calories than what you consume.
What is an appropriate game plan for having a cheat meal?
We would recommend you to have a 90/10 plan. It essentially means that if 90% of the time you are eating clean & healthy & making sure that you are getting the right macros & micronutrients at every meal, you can have that pleasure to consume a cheat meal 10% of time. However make sure that your cheat meal does not have food items which have empty calories. This method is perfect for people who are not active the whole day &/or who follow a sedentary lifestyle. The best strategy for these categories or people would be to restrict calorie consumption during weekdays when they do not have time to do some physical activity & over weekend have a guilty pleasure meal since they can go for a jog or a gym run during weekend
You should be well aware that to meet your sustainable fitness & nutrition goals, you should have a nutritious & balanced healthy meal a majority of time & stick to your workout schedule.
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