Skiman
Super Freak
The Cheat Meal… There comes a day in most dieters’ lives when a cheat meal is necessary. And depending on your personality, you either love it or hate it. There are those who look forward to a cheat meal because it gives some psychological relief from the strictness of a stringent diet and gives an energy boost that rejuvenates a heavily trained body! Then there are the dieters who use a cheat meal as a license to overeat. This, by the way, is not a true cheat! It is a binge!
On the other side of the spectrum, we have dieters who dread a cheat meal…athletes who are so locked into "the zone" that they are afraid to eat anything other than what is on their base meal plan. Even though their metabolism may be slowing, they may be losing muscle and they may be suffering from the fatigue a tough diet can induce, they refuse to cheat.
The benefits of cheating, and the importance of cheating when you are told to (and only when you are told to in some cases!)
What is a Cheat Meal?
The definition of a Cheat Meal is a meal that is higher in calories (and potentially higher in carbs or healthy fats) but is still nutritionally dense. In other words, eating foods that your body can put to good use, such as a steak and a potato (or even Chipotle!) and NOT eating empty calories like sweets and highly processed foods.
An important note that many dieters may not be aware of, is that a cheat meal is meant to be consumed within a 20 minute time frame. It is a MEAL not a DAY! The benefits are to be gained from one caloric boost, not a day long binge that, instead of stoking the metabolism, instead overwhelms the body’s systems. Such prolonged overeating stresses your digestive system and leads to unwanted fat storage.
Benefits of Cheating
When you are on a very restrictive diet, as time goes on, the metabolism begins to slow, adapting to the current calorie intake you are taking in. So, for example, if you used to require 1800 calories to maintain your weight, but have been dieting at a level closer to around 1300, you now may only require 1600 calories to just maintain because of the fact the metabolism has slowed. The degree of slow-down that you experience will vary depending on how severe your diet is and how lean you are to start with, but one thing is for certain, long periods of dieting can spell trouble for metabolic rates. When you incorporate in a cheat meal you may trick your metabolism into thinking that it’s okay to speed up once again. Basically, that famine it thought was occurring is not.
Physically, as you diet to break down fat, you also inevitably break down muscle. The less fat you have to lose, the more your body will turn to muscle when it requires a source of energy. By eating a cheat meal, you fill your glycogen stores, offsetting catabolism and maintaining that hard earned muscle. Since muscle tissue burns calories at a higher rate than other body tissues, you are also maintaining a higher metabolic rate based on your body composition!
Cheat meals also offer a great energy boost. When trying to lose body fat, you are not only dieting, but you are training hard as well. A depleted body cannot work as hard and thereby burns fewer calories. A nutritious cheat meal can boost energy levels for days, allowing for increased training intensity and more effective workouts.
In addition to this, cheat meals can also help your psychological mindset, making it that much easier to stick with a diet program. A bit of relief and slight indulgence can satisfy cravings and make the focus and discipline required for intense dieting possible.
To Cheat Or Not To Cheat
Cheat meal frequency and/or size should be minimized when you are carrying high levels of body fat. Basically, the more fat you carry, the more likely that any excess food will be shuttled toward body-fat storage rather than muscle mass, whereas, the leaner you are, the more likely you are to burn those calories or use them for muscle retention.
Here are the physiological benefits of cheating, when it is appropriate:
* Increased release of thyroid hormone (T3 and T4).
* Increased thermic effect of feeding. This is the energy expenditure for metabolizing the food.
* Increased spontaneous activity or NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis). This represents the activities of daily living, changes of posture, and fidgeting.
It’s important to note that individual responses are quite variable. In fact, as you might expect, your genetic make-up and exercise activity have a lot to do with your response. Your degree of leanness is also an important factor. This is where the timing of a cheat in a diet plan is crucial!! Cheat too soon and you undo your hard work and set yourself back days and even weeks in the process!
Physiological responses to cheating based on these variables:
* Lean people have a significant increase in sympathetic autonomic nervous system activity while obese people often have no response.
* Lean and obese people show increases in T3 and T4 release but there’s large variability. This variability may be explained by the fact that the obese may release less thyroid hormone when overfeeding.
* When exercise-trained people overeat, they may store more carbohydrate while burning more fat. Non-exercisers, on the other hand, may store more fat and burn more carbohydrate.
* Weight-gain resistant people tend to experience huge increases in NEAT as a result of cheating (most of the extra calories are burned, not stored), while people who gain weight easily tend to store most of the extra calories as fat. In one overfeeding study, subjects were given 1000 calories above maintenance per day. The weight-gain resistant subjects in this study oxidized 70% of those 1000 calories. Those who gain weight easily actually stored most of those calories as fat. After 8 weeks of this cheating pattern, fat gain varied almost 10-fold among subjects, ranging from a gain of only 0.79 lb to a gain of 9.31 lb!
* In lean people, the normal insulin response to a meal only minimally affects fat mobilization and fat storage. However, in fatter people, the normal insulin response to a meal nearly shuts down fat mobilization and leads to large increases in fat storage.
As you can see, reaping the benefits of a cheat meal depend on a few different factors. The more body fat you carry, the more likely you are to store those “cheat” calories as fat; the leaner you are, the more likely you are to burn those calories. In addition, genetics play a big role. Since some people respond to cheating by boosting their metabolisms dramatically while others respond by storing that energy as fat. You must also define exactly what you’re hoping to accomplish with the cheat. Are you hoping to make the diet psychologically easier? Are you hoping to increase the intensity of your subsequent workouts so that you can burn more calories during and after the workout? All of these factors play a role in determining whether to cheat or not to cheat.
SO, start considering all of these variables when incorporating cheat meals into your nutrition plan. If you do not have them on your plan given bya trainer or nutritionist, do not take or add them! Your body is not ready for it and there will be no benefits, only set backs and the undoing of weeks of focus and hard work. If you are asked to take a cheat meal, enjoy it! Eat something to replenish your body and know that you are refueling your muscles and, if eating responsibly, you are increasing your metabolism!
Remember: “Don’t Cheat Yourself, Treat Yourself”…but only when it’s appropriate!
On the other side of the spectrum, we have dieters who dread a cheat meal…athletes who are so locked into "the zone" that they are afraid to eat anything other than what is on their base meal plan. Even though their metabolism may be slowing, they may be losing muscle and they may be suffering from the fatigue a tough diet can induce, they refuse to cheat.
The benefits of cheating, and the importance of cheating when you are told to (and only when you are told to in some cases!)
What is a Cheat Meal?
The definition of a Cheat Meal is a meal that is higher in calories (and potentially higher in carbs or healthy fats) but is still nutritionally dense. In other words, eating foods that your body can put to good use, such as a steak and a potato (or even Chipotle!) and NOT eating empty calories like sweets and highly processed foods.
An important note that many dieters may not be aware of, is that a cheat meal is meant to be consumed within a 20 minute time frame. It is a MEAL not a DAY! The benefits are to be gained from one caloric boost, not a day long binge that, instead of stoking the metabolism, instead overwhelms the body’s systems. Such prolonged overeating stresses your digestive system and leads to unwanted fat storage.
Benefits of Cheating
When you are on a very restrictive diet, as time goes on, the metabolism begins to slow, adapting to the current calorie intake you are taking in. So, for example, if you used to require 1800 calories to maintain your weight, but have been dieting at a level closer to around 1300, you now may only require 1600 calories to just maintain because of the fact the metabolism has slowed. The degree of slow-down that you experience will vary depending on how severe your diet is and how lean you are to start with, but one thing is for certain, long periods of dieting can spell trouble for metabolic rates. When you incorporate in a cheat meal you may trick your metabolism into thinking that it’s okay to speed up once again. Basically, that famine it thought was occurring is not.
Physically, as you diet to break down fat, you also inevitably break down muscle. The less fat you have to lose, the more your body will turn to muscle when it requires a source of energy. By eating a cheat meal, you fill your glycogen stores, offsetting catabolism and maintaining that hard earned muscle. Since muscle tissue burns calories at a higher rate than other body tissues, you are also maintaining a higher metabolic rate based on your body composition!
Cheat meals also offer a great energy boost. When trying to lose body fat, you are not only dieting, but you are training hard as well. A depleted body cannot work as hard and thereby burns fewer calories. A nutritious cheat meal can boost energy levels for days, allowing for increased training intensity and more effective workouts.
In addition to this, cheat meals can also help your psychological mindset, making it that much easier to stick with a diet program. A bit of relief and slight indulgence can satisfy cravings and make the focus and discipline required for intense dieting possible.
To Cheat Or Not To Cheat
Cheat meal frequency and/or size should be minimized when you are carrying high levels of body fat. Basically, the more fat you carry, the more likely that any excess food will be shuttled toward body-fat storage rather than muscle mass, whereas, the leaner you are, the more likely you are to burn those calories or use them for muscle retention.
Here are the physiological benefits of cheating, when it is appropriate:
* Increased release of thyroid hormone (T3 and T4).
* Increased thermic effect of feeding. This is the energy expenditure for metabolizing the food.
* Increased spontaneous activity or NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis). This represents the activities of daily living, changes of posture, and fidgeting.
It’s important to note that individual responses are quite variable. In fact, as you might expect, your genetic make-up and exercise activity have a lot to do with your response. Your degree of leanness is also an important factor. This is where the timing of a cheat in a diet plan is crucial!! Cheat too soon and you undo your hard work and set yourself back days and even weeks in the process!
Physiological responses to cheating based on these variables:
* Lean people have a significant increase in sympathetic autonomic nervous system activity while obese people often have no response.
* Lean and obese people show increases in T3 and T4 release but there’s large variability. This variability may be explained by the fact that the obese may release less thyroid hormone when overfeeding.
* When exercise-trained people overeat, they may store more carbohydrate while burning more fat. Non-exercisers, on the other hand, may store more fat and burn more carbohydrate.
* Weight-gain resistant people tend to experience huge increases in NEAT as a result of cheating (most of the extra calories are burned, not stored), while people who gain weight easily tend to store most of the extra calories as fat. In one overfeeding study, subjects were given 1000 calories above maintenance per day. The weight-gain resistant subjects in this study oxidized 70% of those 1000 calories. Those who gain weight easily actually stored most of those calories as fat. After 8 weeks of this cheating pattern, fat gain varied almost 10-fold among subjects, ranging from a gain of only 0.79 lb to a gain of 9.31 lb!
* In lean people, the normal insulin response to a meal only minimally affects fat mobilization and fat storage. However, in fatter people, the normal insulin response to a meal nearly shuts down fat mobilization and leads to large increases in fat storage.
As you can see, reaping the benefits of a cheat meal depend on a few different factors. The more body fat you carry, the more likely you are to store those “cheat” calories as fat; the leaner you are, the more likely you are to burn those calories. In addition, genetics play a big role. Since some people respond to cheating by boosting their metabolisms dramatically while others respond by storing that energy as fat. You must also define exactly what you’re hoping to accomplish with the cheat. Are you hoping to make the diet psychologically easier? Are you hoping to increase the intensity of your subsequent workouts so that you can burn more calories during and after the workout? All of these factors play a role in determining whether to cheat or not to cheat.
SO, start considering all of these variables when incorporating cheat meals into your nutrition plan. If you do not have them on your plan given bya trainer or nutritionist, do not take or add them! Your body is not ready for it and there will be no benefits, only set backs and the undoing of weeks of focus and hard work. If you are asked to take a cheat meal, enjoy it! Eat something to replenish your body and know that you are refueling your muscles and, if eating responsibly, you are increasing your metabolism!
Remember: “Don’t Cheat Yourself, Treat Yourself”…but only when it’s appropriate!
