The cheat meal is a topic of confusion for many. This article is written primarily for the many clients for whom I manage nutrition. They are always asking if it is OK to eat this or that on a cheat meal and are amazed when I say “yes” to the most indulgent things they can come up with.

The Context: Nutrition Plans

For those of you readers that are not familiar with mine or any managed nutrition plan, I’ll explain things a little. When you come in for a nutrition consult, we sit down and discuss your goals, the time frame in which you want to achieve them and a lot of other things. I then put together a plan for you to attain success.

The plan will include a meal-by-meal plan of what you need to eat based on your goals and daily activities. There is quite a bit of freedom in the plan, for example, if it says to eat chicken, you can substitute any lean protein you like as long as the portion size is the same. This goes for all macro-nutrients. Macro-nutrients are protein, fat and carbohydrate.

Why the Cheat Meal?

Generally, once a week you are allowed a “cheat” meal. The purpose of this is twofold: it gives your body an abundance of calories on one day – this is good because we are usually trying to create a caloric deficit for most people. The caloric deficit is for fat loss. To lose body fat, you need to eat less calories than you burn. When you eat more calories once a week, it stops your body from creating a metabolic set point. The metabolic set point is, put simply, when your body adapts to what you feed it and it gets used to that amount. When this happens, fat loss stops.

The second purpose of the cheat meal is as a break from dieting; it is a reward. We all have food cravings and, when on a calorically reduced meal plan, they can increase. When the cravings get too bad, a lot of people go nuts and blow the whole plan. Having a cheat meal as a reward for all of your diligence is something for you to look forward to mentally. The cheat meal makes the plan much easier to stick to.

What You Can Eat in a Cheat Meal

So, what is a cheat meal? Well, for most it is anything that you want. I tell my clients to eat whatever they want for one meal. If you want a whole pizza and ice cream, eat it. If you want three beers and a plate of wings, go ahead. This is not what most nutritionists do; they are generally using a meal plan designed by some expensive software program that was generated by inputting a few parameters and allows little to no individuality. Software does not take the human condition into account. I do. Most nutritionists tell people that they cannot cheat. This is nonsense. I have a very high compliance rate when it comes to people following the suggestions and plans I create and the cheat meal is a big reason why.

While you might get slightly better fat loss results by not ever having pizza, I have had no problems with the clients that follow the plan and only have one cheat meal. The problem comes when people turn it into a cheat day or a cheat weekend. Even then, some still make progress. The thing with nutrition is that I can tell you what to do; you have to do it to get the results that you want. You must take control of your own destiny.

When it comes to choosing a cheat meal, obviously, you will get better results if you don’t eat a 5,000 calorie fast-food bomb and drink a 12-pack. The best idea is to figure out what you crave the most and have a moderate portion of whatever it is. If you like cake, have a piece. Ice cream, have some. If you go nuts, don’t stress over it. Get right back on the plan on your next meal. Not the next day.

Or Just Double Up

Sometimes the cheat meal is just a double portion of whatever you are having. Some people call this a refeed. I think that is the stupidest name I ever heard and it sounds like a PC yuppie nitwit made it up. You will not hear me using the term reefed, ever, unless it is to make fun of it.

The person having a double portion of the same healthy foods and not whatever they want is usually someone on a Protein Sparing Modified Fast, which I do not use very often. It can also be someone getting ready for a physique contest.

Hopefully I have shed some light on this somewhat confusing issue for my readers and clients.

Good luck, and if you would like to book a Nutrition Consult, start keeping a food journal (write down EVERYTHING you eat) right now and call me in a week. I’ll get you ripped.