Disclaimer: This is an opinion piece and does not reflect the view of Steel Viking as an organisation
The famous cheat meal. In some places even legendary cheat meal comes to mind when I think about the Rock himself sharing a giant plate of pancakes that he was having on his cheat meal.
Beyond the cheat meal, there’s the cheat day. One meal wasn’t enough that they had to have the whole day. What a way to eradicate all the hard work and progress you’ve put in over the last 6 days.
Unpopular opinion.
I’m here to tell you that cheat meals or indeed whole cheat days are shit.
Just like I wrote about in my rant about fitness hacks, cheat meals fall into that some category of pointless shit promoted by terrible media for click bait and the raft of pointless ‘fitness influencers’ who are all a waste of oxygen in my humble opinion.
When was the last time you woke up and thought to yourself. You know what. Today I’m going to cheat. I’m going to be a cheater.
I’m going to cheat on my wife, husband, partner. I’m going to cheat at work. I’m going to cheat on this test and I’m going to cheat at this competition because I’m a cheater and also a lying arsehole.
Let’s quickly refer to the dictionary:
Cheat – verb
1. Act dishonestly. Or unfairly. In order to gain an advantage. “he always cheats at cards”
2. Avoid (something undesirable) by luck or skill. “she cheated death in a spectacular crash”
Cheat – noun
1. A person who behaves dishonestly in order to gain an advantage.
Now that we’re clear on what a cheat is and that you (hopefully) do not engage in such acts, why the fuck are you cheating on your diet?
And actually, if you’re having lots of ‘cheat meals’ you’re not even ‘unfairly gaining an advantage’ because you’re actually taking a step backwards in terms of your health, your fitness, your discipline and your mindset.
Basically, if your diet is so restrictive, so unpleasant and so strict that you need to cheat on it, then I’ve got news for you. Your diet is shit and it’s unsustainable.
What’s the biggest ‘hack’ when it comes to health and fitness? Consistency.
So I’m not trying to tell you that you need to live on a strict diet of chicken, rice and kale and never have another Reece’s Peanut Butter Cup (yum!) and never have a few too many beers on a night out.
What I’m trying to say is that you need to be realistic with yourself, with your goals and your abilities.
A diet isn’t a short term thing like the media likes you to believe.
10 week diet to better sex….
12 day diet detox for clearer wrinkles.
It’s all bullshit.
Let’s refer back to the handy dictionary:
Diet – noun
1. The kinds of food that a person, animal or community habitually eats.
The key word being habitually.
Your diet, is something long term that you adhere to forever. Yes, I said it, forever.
Can it change? Yes
And it should. Your diet evolves with you and around you just as your life changes and evolves and your goals change and evolve.
But you need to create a diet that works for you and for your goals.
If you like to drink beer, like I do, then be realistic and build them into your diet. Account for them.
Don’t create a strict no beer diet only to have a ‘cheat meal’ or ‘cheat day’ that consists of smashing all the beer with no regard to how it’s going to impact the rest of your diet.
Why is this important?
Well, it’s important because, if you’re having a ‘cheat meal’ then that implies that you’re following some sort of diet plan or nutrition plan which has some metrics attached to it. In most cases, and I’m generalising here, you’ll have some sort of calorie and/or macro target that you’re trying to hit.
If you’re not following some sort of plan, then there’s no need to cheat and you can just do whatever you want. Hats of to you.
So let’s say, you’re looking to lose a bit of body fat. And I’m using this example, again, because the vast majority of people who are having ‘cheat meals’ are generally those who are on some sort of diet looking to lose body fat.
So, let’s say you’re looking to sustainable lose body fat and have decided to do so by being in a 500kcal deficit on a daily basis. And you’re doing that because the math says that in order to lose 1lb or 0.45kg of fat, that’s about 3500 kcal so you need to create a 3500kcal deficit over the week and that equals 500 kcal meaning you lose 1lb or 0.45kg per week in theory.
We know it’s not as simple in practice but stick with me.
Now, you may be following the 500 kcal per day rule rather than the 3500kcal per week rule, which is what catches most people, especially those who do cheat meals.
So, lets say you’re maintenance calories are about 2,250 kcal per day or 15,750 over a week.
You cut that to 1,750 per day or 12,250 per week to give you that 3500kcal deficit which = 1 lb of fat.
So you’re being nice and strict, you are counting you calories like a nice lemming and smashing it. It’s all great as you’ve got a lovely cheat meal planned for Saturday.
Because it’s guilt free cheat meal, you don’t count the calories.
So we ultimately don’t know what your deficit for the week is, if any. And in most cases, a cheat meal will easily be 2,000 – 4,000 kcals if not more. A lovely meal in a restaurant with all the great butter. Maybe a starter or some dessert to finish. And a few beers or a bottle of wine. You’ve not counted it but you’d be surprised.
And then bam, you’ve just undone the whole week of pain and restriction. You end up totally closer to your maintenance calories of 15,750 for the week when you believe you’ve actually only had 12,250 and then you wonder why you’ve not lost ANY weight despite thinking you’ve been in a 500 kcal per day deficit.
Two things then happen, you give up because clearly this doesn’t work and you’re the one person on earth who doesn’t lose weight despite being in a calorie deficit. OR
You start to cut your daily calories even lower, to unsustainable and frankly dangerously low daily amounts and end up miserable and rebounding even harder during your ‘cheat meal’ or you end up having ‘cheat snacks’ throughout the day because you’re starving.
So this is why it’s my belief that cheat meals are shit.
Here’s what I propose instead.
Think about your calories over a week rather than a day. This gives you much much more flexibility. You can eat less one day and more another, as long as the total for the week adds up.
Create a plan that is sustainable. Add in your treats and track them. If you want to have a beer, that’s great, add it in, plan for it and track it. If you want chocolate, amazing, plan for it and track it. If you have a nice meal out planned, again, track it and build your diet for that week around it.
That way, you are never cheating. You don’t need to cheat on your diet or yourself because you’ve created a sustainable diet you enjoy.
Trust me, it works, I’ve done it.
And at the very least, please stop referring to yourself as a cheater and start at least, calling those meals where you are a bit more indulgent a TREAT meal.
And to be honest with you, why not treat yourself daily. If you build the foods that you love into your daily diet, then you’re more likely to stick to it and you will less likely feel the urge to go mental.
In summary, I’m stressing that instead of being restrictive and then going mental, a much healthier approach is to craft a plan that allows you to enjoy the food you love in a sustainable manner, negating any need for any cheat meals. And also, if you are calorie counting, then you need to count all calories, otherwise you’re negating the process.
Stuart
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