So this weekend I told Ernie he was taking me out on a date. We've been so busy lately with basement renos, Ju Jitsu, etc that we haven't had a lot of time spent together. So I said to him last week I wanted to go on a date just the two of us.
Now I knew with this date would include a cheat, or rather a treat, meal. Treat meals as we all know are my weakness. I tend to get carried away and before I know it, my "meal" has turned into "weekend". See my post on my 24 Hours of Gluttony as an example. So I figured that I better work on that. Over the weekend I researched through multiple sources the best way to handle a cheat meal. I found some good information that I applied to myself this weekend to see what the difference would be.
First of all, I found some good, beneficial information on cheat meals. I read that they are good for you for multiple reasons. One reason is that it satisfies your cravings so you're less likely to go on an all out binge and completely fall off your diet plan. Another reason is that when you restrict your intake of calories with a diet, your body adjusts to that change. Your metabolism gets used to having lower amounts of calories and therefore will slow down to accommodate that change. The idea behind cheat meals is that you can increase your caloric intake which forces your metabolism to kick into high gear. According to some of the sources I read, this change can last a couple of days depending on the individual person.
One piece of information that I read is that cheat meals should be thought of as "carb-loading" or "re-feed" days. When people hear the word "cheat" they tend to think of it as a go all out on whatever you want, which is what I was doing. The best way to do a "cheat" is to think of it as a re-feed. On those days, you increase your caloric intake as well as your carbohydrate intake. So instead of eating a tub of ice cream (which is allowed sometimes!) go for things that include a hefty carbohydrate source (think pasta, buns, etc) and protein. This will satisfy any carb-lover's cravings; myself included. It is best to increase carbs over fat when doing a treat meal. This makes sense because excess calories from fat are more likely to be stored as fat. Alternatively, excessive calories from carbs are used towards energy.
The last and most important piece of information I read was that when doing treat days, it needs to be planned accordingly. For example, on days where you are going to stray from your regular diet, then it is best to go and do a hard workout before the cheat as well as a workout the day after. It's best to lift heavy on those days so when the carb intake is increased, the calories and energy from the carbs will go towards your muscles instead of being stored as fat. Planning out the rest of your day before and after the meal is important as well. It's best to still eat healthy that day and not to restrict eating.
The other important point is to plan frequency. This one depends on the individual person's goals. Some people do cheat meals once weekly, some go every 2 weeks or longer. For me right now I feel that once weekly is best to keep myself on track and from going insane.
So after reading all of this information, I decided to apply this to myself Saturday night as a little experiment. Saturday morning, I ate a bit more of a calorie dense breakfast with my coffee. For lunch, I ate a salad with chicken and had some of my regular snacks like Greek yogurt and a veggie bag with a Greek yogurt dip. Then we hit the gym hard. I intensified my regular cardio by running longer sprints and pushed myself harder. I had Ernie running sprints with me so I pushed myself to run harder and faster to keep up with him. Then I made sure I lifted weights, I did some clean and jerk sets as well as did a full shoulder and arm day. After that, I had my protein shake and we went out for dinner. Now for dinner, I didn't exactly stick to the plan that I laid out. I went a little excessive on the fat side of things with ordering wings and had a couple pints of beer with dinner. To be honest, I can't remember the last time I had a beer; I've been sticking to wine lately with my cheat meals, so the beer alone was a huge treat. I may have almost chugged the first one! I had a burger for dinner, which I was craving so that was very satisfying. I swapped out the beef patty for a bison patty as an alternative and had sweet potato fries instead of regular fries. I wolfed down my food and felt completely satisfied and happy afterwards. The happiness may have been in part with the two beers I just downed; I'm a bit of a lightweight now that I don't drink a lot anymore.
The next day after our "cheat" I actually felt really good. I was a bit dehydrated from all the sodium from the wings. Overall, I felt very satisfied from my cheat and more focused on my regular diet plan. I didn't feel bloated and regretful like I did after my 24 Hours of Gluttony, I felt good. The day after, we went back to the gym for another hard workout and I felt awesome; more energetic if you will.
So overall, I feel that my cheat meal experiment was successful. I feel like this is something I can do more often to help maintain my diet and stick to my goals in the long run.
First of all, I found some good, beneficial information on cheat meals. I read that they are good for you for multiple reasons. One reason is that it satisfies your cravings so you're less likely to go on an all out binge and completely fall off your diet plan. Another reason is that when you restrict your intake of calories with a diet, your body adjusts to that change. Your metabolism gets used to having lower amounts of calories and therefore will slow down to accommodate that change. The idea behind cheat meals is that you can increase your caloric intake which forces your metabolism to kick into high gear. According to some of the sources I read, this change can last a couple of days depending on the individual person.
One piece of information that I read is that cheat meals should be thought of as "carb-loading" or "re-feed" days. When people hear the word "cheat" they tend to think of it as a go all out on whatever you want, which is what I was doing. The best way to do a "cheat" is to think of it as a re-feed. On those days, you increase your caloric intake as well as your carbohydrate intake. So instead of eating a tub of ice cream (which is allowed sometimes!) go for things that include a hefty carbohydrate source (think pasta, buns, etc) and protein. This will satisfy any carb-lover's cravings; myself included. It is best to increase carbs over fat when doing a treat meal. This makes sense because excess calories from fat are more likely to be stored as fat. Alternatively, excessive calories from carbs are used towards energy.
The last and most important piece of information I read was that when doing treat days, it needs to be planned accordingly. For example, on days where you are going to stray from your regular diet, then it is best to go and do a hard workout before the cheat as well as a workout the day after. It's best to lift heavy on those days so when the carb intake is increased, the calories and energy from the carbs will go towards your muscles instead of being stored as fat. Planning out the rest of your day before and after the meal is important as well. It's best to still eat healthy that day and not to restrict eating.
The other important point is to plan frequency. This one depends on the individual person's goals. Some people do cheat meals once weekly, some go every 2 weeks or longer. For me right now I feel that once weekly is best to keep myself on track and from going insane.
So after reading all of this information, I decided to apply this to myself Saturday night as a little experiment. Saturday morning, I ate a bit more of a calorie dense breakfast with my coffee. For lunch, I ate a salad with chicken and had some of my regular snacks like Greek yogurt and a veggie bag with a Greek yogurt dip. Then we hit the gym hard. I intensified my regular cardio by running longer sprints and pushed myself harder. I had Ernie running sprints with me so I pushed myself to run harder and faster to keep up with him. Then I made sure I lifted weights, I did some clean and jerk sets as well as did a full shoulder and arm day. After that, I had my protein shake and we went out for dinner. Now for dinner, I didn't exactly stick to the plan that I laid out. I went a little excessive on the fat side of things with ordering wings and had a couple pints of beer with dinner. To be honest, I can't remember the last time I had a beer; I've been sticking to wine lately with my cheat meals, so the beer alone was a huge treat. I may have almost chugged the first one! I had a burger for dinner, which I was craving so that was very satisfying. I swapped out the beef patty for a bison patty as an alternative and had sweet potato fries instead of regular fries. I wolfed down my food and felt completely satisfied and happy afterwards. The happiness may have been in part with the two beers I just downed; I'm a bit of a lightweight now that I don't drink a lot anymore.
The next day after our "cheat" I actually felt really good. I was a bit dehydrated from all the sodium from the wings. Overall, I felt very satisfied from my cheat and more focused on my regular diet plan. I didn't feel bloated and regretful like I did after my 24 Hours of Gluttony, I felt good. The day after, we went back to the gym for another hard workout and I felt awesome; more energetic if you will.
So overall, I feel that my cheat meal experiment was successful. I feel like this is something I can do more often to help maintain my diet and stick to my goals in the long run.
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