I know I’ve gone on a lot in previous posts about the importance of sticking to your food plan…and it’s true. You are what you eat. Nutrition is 80% of your body transformation goal.
But…incorporating “cheating” into your diet can actually play a role in the overall success of your health plan.
Stay with me. There’s a method to my madness.
Besides the obvious short-term emotional benefits of eating something you really love and miss eating, there are actual physical benefits to cheating.
- It can help break a fat-loss plateau by giving your metabolism a needed boost.
- It can boost training intensity for the next few days by restoring carbohydrate stores that may be on the low side from low carb intake and intense training. Better training intensity equals quicker results.
- It reduces anxiety and elevates your mood—so long as you don’t beat yourself up for deviating from your diet.
- It reduces the risk of totally “falling off the wagon”. The longer you deprive yourself, the higher the risk of binging.
However, when you’re serious about having a ripped physique then there are rules to cheat meals. I call it “Smart Cheating”.
Smart Cheating 101:
- You need to earn the cheat meal. You can’t have it just because you feel like it. You need to set milestones to allow for a cheat (i.e. when you lose 5 lbs).
- Usually it’s best to schedule a cheat meal earlier in the day vs. late at night. That way your body can use the extra calories during the day. If you still have a lot of fat to lose then schedule your meal about 4 – 6 hours before your training. However, if you are quite lean, you can schedule a cheat meal on a rest day.
- Have a good serving of what you desire but don’t eat everything in sight. One burger, one order of fries and one scoop of ice cream is doable…but three of each is not.
- If you’ve been dieting for a long time with only clean-food calorie boosts allow yourself a full “cheat day”. Your body will benefit. You can also sneak in a cheat day if you have a super-fast metabolism. If you have a lot of lean muscle and relatively low body fat you can usually handle a full cheat day with no problems. But, as I said before, don’t go crazy. Keep each meal reasonable.
If done right you can receive immense benefit from scheduling cheat meals into your diet. And if you’ve already achieved your fitness goals you can likely get away with one or two cheat meals a week, or even one full cheat day, with no negative impact on your body.
So…in a way, you can have your cake and eat it too!
Stay tuned for my Tuesday update on Team T & E.
Yours in health,
Tammy
Angela says:
Tammy,
Thank you so much for this! I have been dieting since January and in that time I have cheated on my diet about 6 times. Each time I felt so horrible about myself. I am competing in my first competition at the end of this month (May) and I use to weigh 215lbs. I am currently 130 and my body fat is 17%! Its been a long road! Anyways, I cheated today because I know that I am going to be eating next to nothing the next 3 weeks. This made me feel a lot better mentally about my eating what I ate today. Thank you so much!
P.S. I am not cheating anymore after this piece of pizza lol!
Tammy says:
I am glad the post helped you and I hope your show went very well. The biggest thing to remember is that cheats needs to be truly earned and properly timed. We have to be very careful to not let feelings of exhaustion, anxiety or deprivation drive the need to the cheat. The body just might not be there just yet. Perserverance is a big part of success in contest prep but knowing when and how to cheat can help your body and your head along the way.