Two Rules for Successful Cheat Meals
Let's talk about cheat meals. To set the stage, let's say you’ve joined a nutrition program, you’re eating super clean, feeling amazing, and even losing weight that you never thought would come off. It’s going well, REALLY well.
But on the horizon you see some turbulence brewing. Your birthday / anniversary / major holiday is coming up and you’d like to celebrate with some foods you haven’t had in a while. How do you incorporate the occasional treat without fear of destroying your hard earned progress? What should you expect to happen after that treat? And how do you navigate this without unnecessary stress or guilt?
There are two rules we tell clients to follow as they think about stepping out of their clean eating plan. They are:
Premeditate your treats, do not be opportunistic
Once you’ve made your decision, execute with joy and be disciplined about any negative emotions.
Premeditation means we want food murder in the first degree. This is well thought out ahead of time with a plan of what you’re going to have, when, and how you’ll get back on track. Half the joy is in anticipation anyways, right? The real value here though is that you will be making a rational decision ahead of time that you can commit to and not an emotional decision in the moment. Avoiding emotional snap decision making lets you better align your behaviors with your values and removes some of the power of cravings and short term temptation around food.
This premeditation can look like “I’m going to go out for ice cream on Friday with the kids, but after that I’m back on plan” or “I’m going to enjoy dinner out with my wife for our anniversary, but just food, no alcohol, and I’ll be back on plan with breakfast.” You can see how this bounds the situation and allows you to indulge without letting the train come completely off the tracks for a full day or more.
Rule #2 is equally important. Once you’ve committed to a plan of action, enjoy yourself and be careful not to let negative emotions creep in. If after you’ve enjoyed your treat you start to feel guilty or ashamed of having “cheated” on your clean eating, you’re setting yourself up for failure. It’s important to note that you PLANNED for this treat. You made a rational decision with good intentions given the information you had at the time. You wanted this and there’s no reason you shouldn’t have it. You’re doing great!
If you start to feel negatively about your treat though this can quickly spiral into “well I’m already eating off plan, why not just go big” or “this day is already a loss, lets get some chips and queso.” A planned cheat meal is nothing to feel guilty about and certainly isn’t a mistake. The negative thoughts that might creep in after are a red flag that you’re about to make a mistake though. Stick to your plan. Enjoy your cheat meal, smile, and revel in the freedom you’ve given yourself.
Next it’s important to know what you can expect after a cheat meal. While results will vary based on the individuality of your body, what you indulged in, and what your behaviors looked like before the cheat meal, you can expect a few things to happen.
FIrst, your body weight will jump up the next day, usually in the ballpark of 1-4% of your body weight, which can easily mean several pounds. This is an inflammatory response to what you ate and not a body composition change. You have not gained body fat overnight. Just to prove the point, for you to add 3lbs of body fat overnight, you would need to eat 10,500 calories more than you burned that previous day with 100% of that being stored as body fat. It’s just not possible. The weight gain is fluid retention associated with gut inflammation.
You may also experience other symptoms after your cheat meal like bloating, brain fog, lack of energy, disrupted sleep, nasal congestion, GI issues, and even joint and muscle aches. We’ve even had clients experience a recurrence of chronic back pain just from a change in the food they’re eating.
The good news is that the weight gain and other accompanying symptoms will be short lived. Weight from an inflammatory response usually comes off within 2-4 days if you get back to clean eating immediately. The other symptoms tend to resolve even quicker with the exception being some autoimmune symptoms. AI symptoms can persist longer depending on the individual and what they ate.
Inflammatory symptoms aside, it’s also important to recognize that treat meals will often mean a significant increase in caloric intake for that day over your normal plan. If you’ve been experiencing weight loss of roughly 1lb per week, that means you’re in a calorie deficit of ~500cal per day, or 3,500 cal a week.
Even a well planned single cheat meal can easily increase calorie intake by 1,000-2,000 calories wiping out several days of clean eating and hard earned progress. This is a factor you should take into account when making a decision about whether or not the cheat meal is worth it to you. Also, it leads us to conclude that infrequent cheat meals don’t really have the power to stop your progress, but weekly or more often can absolutely stop you in your tracks.
In conclusion, while on a strict nutrition plan and making progress, you shouldn’t have to abstain completely from cheat meals and treats you love, but be selective and choose the opportunities that mean the most. Think ahead and plan out what you’re going to have and avoid being opportunistic. Lastly, enjoy yourself. You’ve chosen this as an opportunity to enjoy life a little bit. Don’t let guilt or negative thoughts disrupt your enjoyment or lead to a bigger slide.