In 90% of cases, people want to switch to proper nutrition in order to lose weight. Only then does the PP follower begin to see the other advantages of such a diet - improved health, increased levels of energy, vigor, even obvious rejuvenation. But initially this is precisely weight loss - albeit correctly, even if not hungry, but with restrictions that are not easy for everyone. Therefore, I propose to consider in detail everything related to the concept of heat meal, cheating, cheat meal. Let's look at what it is, what role cheat meals play in losing weight, why they are needed in proper nutrition, who can do it, when, and how to cheat meals correctly so as not to lose your temper. Let's also look at similar names - cheat day, refeed.
What is a cheat meal: concepts, translation, meaning of the word
Everyone who is losing weight has probably heard about the mysterious cheat meal. Most people think that this is a day when you can eat more and more of everything. There is some truth in this - they are “loaded” with any products, but not uncontrollably .
So, the concept itself came to us from the Americans; the translation of cheat meal from English is something like cheating with food or cheating food. I think the point is clear - these are food tricks that have several purposes at once .
A cheat meal is a one-time consumption of “forbidden” food. Pre-planned, foreseen. The calorie content of such meals is often very high.
Chitday is different in that the “glutton” lasts all day.
Refeed - this concept also refers to pre-planned ones. Only unlike a Cheat meal, a refeed involves the absorption of carbohydrate foods. carbohydrates should be slow, “correct”.
Cheat meal - what is it?
The very concept of a cheat meal means nothing more than a loading day at the very height of your diet or during the drying period. Literally, cheat meal translates as “fraud or scam with food,” which is what it actually is.
The purpose of this action is to make your body think that there is no calorie deficit, and, therefore, there is no reason to worry and go into an energy-saving mode, in which our body loses excess fat very slowly and reluctantly.
A cheat meal is a planned addition of extra calories to your diet so that your body does not suffer due to restrictions.
On this day, you can calmly dine on a delicious and juicy steak, and at the end of the meal, with a clear conscience, allow yourself to eat any dessert you want. Such a short-term deviation from the chosen nutrition plan will not be considered a failure, and the next day you will again return to the ranks of losing weight, while receiving a short break that will allow you to continue your diet.
This little trick is good because it allows your body to relax and at the same time speeds up your metabolism by increasing the level of the hormone leptin, which is responsible for the feeling of hunger. After all, as soon as your body receives a signal about a decrease in leptin, it stops releasing calories, but rather diligently accumulates them. It is especially good to have a cheat meal during drying, when the diet consists mainly of protein and low-carbohydrate dishes.
PP recipes with pasta
Guided by the same principle, it is good to arrange such fasting days during weight loss. Often one of the side effects of the diet is the plateau effect (the body’s reluctance to part with extra pounds, with strict adherence to the diet), which can last for weeks. Often, due to a plateau, the diet stops completely and, disappointed in dietary nutrition, those losing weight begin to eat everything, knowing that all that had to be done was to spend 1-2 days of a cheat meal so that the body would stop experiencing stress.
But accelerating metabolism is not the only reason why you should spend such fasting days.
The main effect of a cheat meal is psychological relief.
The moral aspect is one of the important aspects of any diet, and not everyone can do it. Even if your body does not experience stress from restricting your diet, at the subconscious level you may experience psychological resistance to the diet and a desire to get rid of strict limits. With a cheat meal you can rest easy, because you will know for sure that you will not have any restrictions for long weeks and months, and at a specially planned time you can safely treat yourself to your favorite delicacies.
How many calories are spent in 1 hour of fitness?
Another pleasant bonus after a cheat meal will be increased performance, and this is especially true if you do grueling workouts in the gym and at the same time adhere to a diet that limits carbohydrate intake. You will receive an additional boost of energy and will be able to easily continue your physical activity without reducing the intensity (relevant for cheat meals in bodybuilding).
Very often people are interested in whether a cheat meal during cutting is different from a cheat meal during a diet or proper nutrition. Since this process is always the addition of extra calories to the diet, there are no differences. The only thing that can be noted is that during proper nutrition there are rarely cheat meals, since there are no strict restrictions or frameworks, and the diet is varied and balanced.
Is there any harm from a cheat meal? There is harm only if the very concept of this process is misunderstood. Cheat meals can only be used if you really adhere to certain limits and are limited in nutrition. If you eat according to the usual pattern, without counting calories and the balance of dietary fat, then any portion of additional calories will not lead to an acceleration of metabolism, but only to excess weight gain. For example, during the day you received your usual breakfast, lunch and dinner, a couple of snacks, and at night you decided to eat a portion of cake. In this case, there is no question of any cheat meal, and all this is called banal overeating. Of course, in this case you will only gain extra pounds.
If you thought that a cheat meal has absolutely no boundaries or restrictions, then you are mistaken. There are certain dietary guidelines that you must follow when practicing such “loading days.”
- Meals. Cheat meal rules do not apply to all meals. This means that you can choose only one meal at which a planned diet violation will occur. Often many people prefer dinner around 17.00. It is not recommended to have a cheat meal for breakfast, as you may not be able to stop until the end of the day. This also applies to lunch, but ending the day with a cheat meal is ideal.
- Maintaining a normal diet. It is important to understand the main rule - you do not give up your usual meals, do not skip them or cut down on your diet. This means that you cannot skip breakfast and lunch in favor of dinner. You get your usual breakfast and lunch. You also eat snacks, but for dinner you treat yourself to non-diet food. This scheme will allow you to avoid a brutal appetite at dinner and you will not overeat. The biggest mistake of those losing weight is completely refusing to eat before the long-awaited cheat meal. As a result, digestive problems often arise due to excessive overeating.
- Give preference to quality food . Although a cheat meal means a day when you can afford to eat everything, you need to do it wisely. For example, when choosing a menu at McDonald's, give preference to the one that contains more proteins! Do you want something sweet? Choose cottage cheese-based cakes or cheesecakes, this way you will again get not only the fast carbohydrates you have been dreaming of for so long, but also healthy proteins. Even if the calorie content of the selected dishes is higher, in this case it is better to rely on the BJU ratio.
- Don't forget to drink water. On the day of a cheat meal, it is extremely important not to forget about water balance. Firstly, drinking water suppresses the feeling of hunger, and as you know, people very often confuse the feeling of thirst with the feeling of hunger. And secondly, water promotes the production of gastric juice, which will help digest food.
- Have a cheat meal on the day of your workout. A good way to not only relax psychologically during a diet, but also to get energy for exhausting cardio workouts is to have a cheat meal on training days. Then you don’t have to worry that a portion of spaghetti will be deposited on your thighs. On such days, our body needs glycogen more than ever, which means you can afford extra carbohydrates.
- Make a plan . To prevent a cheat meal from developing into banal overeating and extending over several days, it is best to prepare for this day in advance. Make a plan for when and where you will have your cheat meal. Write a list of foods and dishes that you want to try. A good option is to go to a restaurant, where the risk of overeating is greatly reduced.
A simple protein diet for every day
Why do they make Cheat meals?
There is more than one meaning to the planned one-time “relaxation” on food, there are several. It is necessary to give a shake-up to the body’s metabolic processes, and also to remove the psychological negative aspects that definitely exist with any food restrictions.
Let's say you are losing weight correctly, that is, you have a nutritious diet with a small calorie deficit (for example, 1500). That is, you do not torment yourself with physical activity, and your weight decreases by no more than 1 kg per week. And yet, the moment comes when “everything is boring . During such a period, everyone feels apathy, the euphoria that was there before disappears, you don’t want to bother with all these little containers, and sometimes it gets to the point where the desire to go to training disappears. It was so? Usually this moment coincides with the so-called plateau effect - the weight stops, you do not see the result of your weight loss. This all means that it’s time for cheating.
A properly planned, thoughtful cheat meal will really solve all these problems:
- will shake up, as if “rebooting” metabolic processes . Without going into complex medical terminology, we can explain it this way: any body gets used to any restrictions. Our organs and systems adapt to the caloric content of the diet, regulating the production of hormones, since the goal of the body is precisely the accumulation of fat, and certainly not its loss. The result is that you will stop losing weight even on the most restrictive diet. Well, that’s how it is by nature, there’s nothing you can do about it. And a cheat meal, thanks to the unique work of our hormones, will seem to show every cell that nothing critical is happening, there is no danger of exhaustion;
- morally it will definitely become much easier for you - the subconscious will form and confirm the fact that there is no strict ban on any food. You will know 100% that the day will come when you can eat a piece of your favorite cake or bounty with a cup of sweet cocoa.
In general, physiology and psychology are closely related, so listen to yourself - as soon as you begin to feel some dissatisfaction with your lifestyle, fatigue appears, which means you need to plan cheating! This is how the body itself signals that the time has come. During such a period, you shouldn’t consider yourself a weakling, look for additional resources, use your willpower, because proper nutrition should be easy! In addition, it is unlikely that you will be able to hold on solely to endurance for a long time - a breakdown will still overtake you! And this is a very high probability of a rollback to previous parameters, and even with a plus.
Don't confuse the need for a heat meal with something else! Hormonal changes, strict restrictions on food, an incorrectly composed menu - all this can also be the cause of apathy and a plateau effect! The simplest guideline is time! If you are losing weight or just exercising for at least 5 weeks, and discomfort has only appeared now, then you are doing everything right, you can introduce cheat meals. Otherwise, it is better to solve health problems, visit a doctor, perhaps get tested for hormones, and reconsider your diet.
Cheat meal: correct approach and mistakes
Check if you understand correctly what a cheat meal is:
Error
❎ Do a cheat meal when you don’t have the strength to endure the hardships of a diet.
❎ I had a cheat meal all day, eating whatever I wanted in unlimited quantities.
❎ Prepare the dish that first came to mind.
Right
✅ Set aside 1 day a week, carefully considering the menu.
✅ Eat something prohibited by the diet once a day.
✅ Listen to yourself and prepare the dish that your body asks for during the week.
Calorie Saving Rule
If you want to be sure that you won’t have to pay for a day of “gluttony” with extra folds at your waist, then you can use the calorie saving rule. But then you can’t do without control and counting.
There is a simple life hack: create a calorie deficit every day. Just accumulate bonuses - 150 kcal per day and in 6 days by the end of the week you will have collected as much as 900 kcal. Spend it on a cheat meal.
Cheatmiling needs to be done correctly!
A well-planned heat meal is not an uncontrolled gluttony. The frequency, quantity, quality of food - this is all important. Well, there are restrictions again, you say. Don’t worry, you just need to remember some rules, in practice you won’t feel any particular restrictions! You can understand how correctly you are cheating based on standard numbers:
- if you have a decent amount of fat (40%), and training is definitely not about your lifestyle, then there’s no need to talk about any cheat meals;
- for those who have about 20% body fat, you can have a heat meal every 7-20 days%
- if your body fat is less than 16%, once every three days.
There is no need to be afraid of “cheating with food” for those who train intensively and monitor their caloric intake. With a constant permissible calorie deficit, the extra “cheat meal” calories will simply be used to replenish glycogen stores, which are immediately used up during training.
Benefit
- We have already figured out above that a cheat meal is a planned violation. This means that you limit the amount of food you eat in advance and are less likely to deviate from the rules.
- Dieting becomes much easier and more enjoyable, because you know that at the end of the week a reward awaits you. The right cheat meal will bring you a positive mood, benefits for the body and loss of excess weight.
- Regulating hormone levels. There are two important hormones in the human body - ghrelin and leptin. They regulate the degree of our hunger. Leptin suppresses appetite, and ghrelin stimulates hunger. Nutritionists note that people on a calorie deficit diet experience a decrease in leptin levels and an increase in gelin levels. After eating a healthy, smaller portion, your appetite will increase and your feeling of fullness will not be high. When you temporarily increase the amount of calories you consume, your body begins to regulate hormone levels, thereby controlling your appetite. Leptin production can increase by 30% within 24 hours of a cheat meal. If you regularly include these meals in your diet, you can suppress hunger and increase your feeling of fullness.
- Ideal for athletes. During training, the polysaccharide glycogen, located in the liver and muscles, is removed from the body. This process helps control blood sugar levels, providing the muscles with the energy they need. To deplete glycogen stores, you need to consume carbohydrates. For example, a hamburger or pizza may contain enough carbohydrates, and eating them will help restore glycogen levels in the body. So don’t be afraid of fast food, sometimes you can indulge in this harmfulness without harming your body, and even on the contrary, help it.
What does a cheat meal look like?
A proper heat meal is a single meal, the duration of which can be extended to an hour! That is, you can plan a meeting with friends in a cafe, very convenient.
It is better, of course, to do this in the first half of the day, since you will successfully burn most of the calories later. But the evening is also quite suitable, especially if you had a strength training session before.
By the way, for beginners it is better to stick to non-homemade food - go to a good cafe. There is a high risk of purchasing different goodies for more than one occasion. And then it’s so difficult to resist eating it in the evening or the next day.
What not to do
Before you go all out, find out what a cheat meal is not. This is definitely not an attempt to see how much food you can eat at one time. Although this is how it is often understood. People fall into the same psychological trap. On the one hand, any violation of the diet is a failure and horror, and on the other hand, if you are allowed to eat harmful things, let it be a whole carload of food. Naturally, both options lead to trouble.
Chi is a meal that you don’t analyze by calories and BJU. If you want French fries or dessert after it, don’t deny yourself anything. Just don’t order two servings of fries, three desserts, or eat your household’s lunch with your lunch and then have ice cream on top. Just eat a “non-diet” lunch, slightly over the limit, and that’s it.
How often can you cheat?
Let's start with the fact that you can't organize a cheat meal every day, however, it's not just once a year . On average - every 7-10 days. The less fat you have, the more often you need to load. That is, the more weight you lose, the more often you can treat yourself to your favorite, even unhealthy foods! True, over time you will want one less and less. It happens that you are waiting for a heatmeal, dreaming of oatmeal with honey, butter, fruit, that is, a completely healthy food.
What do they eat at this time and how much?
Now about what you can eat, in what quantity. If you want to do everything absolutely, absolutely correctly, then first you need to pay attention to the KBJU of what you are going to load with. Ideally, this should be a food with a lot of carbohydrates, little protein, and a minimum of fat . Why is that? Yes, because your body, with a well-designed pp-menu, is unlikely to experience a shortage of proteins or fats, but carbohydrates in “weight loss” diets are usually minimal, which is what our cells “miss”. For example, a portion of pasta with some kind of tasty sauce is suitable; pizza with yeast dough or sushi is acceptable.
But if you don’t have a goal to dry yourself, then cheat meal with anything! Just stop at one thing. It's better to do this:
- think about what you want most. Maybe you’ve been dreaming about a huge cake with chocolate frosting or some kind of Big Mac for a couple of days;
- buy what you chose, trying to ensure that the portion is not the size of an elephant;
- eat, enjoying every bite;
- stop when you feel the first signals of satiety. Don't forget the good old rule - get up from the table with a slight feeling of hunger, this will be quite enough!
Cheat meal rules:
Many people who are losing weight ask a logical question: how to lose weight? Some rules must be followed. Yes, don’t be surprised, even such a seemingly pleasant meal has its own principles:
- So, you ordered pizza, a slice of cheesecake and settled in front of the TV. Okay, stop! This rule is as old as time: don't eat in front of the TV
! No, now we are not talking about discipline and rules of decency, you just risk eating 2 or even 3 times more than you planned. An interesting film can captivate you so much that without even realizing it, you eat the entire pizza, snack on dessert and drink 500 ml of Coca-Cola. - Remember: you only need to satisfy your need for junk food, but in no case overeat like the last time
. By the way, if you really like carbonated drinks, pay attention to their sugar-free version. Now on store shelves you can find a lot of “zero” lemonades - those that do not contain calories. Of course, they are still quite harmful to the body (hello, acne!), but this way you will at least reduce the calorie content of the food you consume. - On the most anticipated day of the week, you don’t have to deny yourself healthy food .
Are you used to starting your day with oatmeal? Eat to your health, do not limit yourself in calories, so that you can have a good time in the evening. Do everything as before, just replace one meal (preferably lunch) with a cheat meal. - Too frequent cheat meals will not be beneficial. It is ideal to organize a belly festival maximum 3 times a week
, but not more often. Otherwise, you risk gaining weight, but such a cheat meal is of no use. - Alcohol is not a cheat meal
. This is by no means snobbery and if you like to drink a glass of wine on a Saturday evening, then please. But this is not a cheat meal at all, because alcohol does not fill you up, but on the contrary, it causes a terrible appetite. And now you yourself don’t notice how you drink a bottle, and after it come chips, ice cream and other harmful things. By the way, on average, one bottle of wine has the same calorie content as an average pizza. Think about which cheat meal you will get more pleasure from? However, you can drink a glass of wine and eat a few slices of pizza - there won’t be much harm from such a meal. - Until day X, it is advisable to maintain a calorie deficit
. In this case, your belly celebration will not affect your figure in any way. Relax and have fun, because the body, not accustomed to such indulgences, can react sharply to junk food.
Is everything really so simple and good? Does this feast really have no drawbacks? Let's talk about the benefits and harms of such concessions.
Taboos and prohibitions
Now about what is strictly not allowed during cheat meals. There are not many of them:
- Go beyond one time. By the way, later, when the amount of your fat is minimal, the heat meal can be replaced with a cheat day, when you eat not just once, but several times, throughout one day.
- Overeat, as this can lead to gastrointestinal problems. This is also fraught with the fact that you will eat too many calories, and there will simply be no weight loss - the total calorie content when losing weight, even with cheat meals, should be in deficit, remember this.
- Cheat meal at night, and even in front of the TV (computer, gadgets).
- Weigh yourself the next day if you are not mentally prepared to see a significant plus on the scale. This is not fat that you have acquired due to overeating, since this is simply impossible from one meal. This is what athletes call “flooded”. Have you heard that one carbohydrate molecule attracts 4 water molecules? This is exactly the water that will go away on its own in 2-3 days.
Cheat meal for weight loss, cutting and bodybuilders: what is the difference
Bodybuilders and professional athletes also cheat. There are concepts of cheat meals for cutting, bodybuilding, etc. But everything must be done at a professional level, as it can seriously harm your health. If you are not a professional bodybuilder, then it is better not to dry out, but to cheat like them, and eat any product you dreamed of.
Have you heard about refeed? The difference between a cheat meal and a refeed is big, since a refeed is a loading of complex carbohydrates, where their nutrition and the number of calories are controlled.
How to do a cheat meal correctly? What are the rules?
To minimize the consequences of a cheat meal, follow these few rules:
1. Don't indulge in everything at once - for example, instead of a burger with fries and a milkshake, focus on just one dish. Even on a cheat day, the ability to control yourself will come in handy.
2. The day before your cheat meal, go to a workout - in this case, high-calorie foods will not have the slightest chance of being deposited in problem areas. How is this related? During physical activity, glycogen is consumed, which is used as an energy source. Eating after a workout will go towards replenishing energy sources and not into fat deposits.
3. Determine your cheat day in advance - if your meal plan already includes such an event, it will be easier to stick to your diet.
4. Do not have a meal in front of a TV or smartphone monitor - in this case it will be difficult to control portion sizes.
5. Dedicate only one meal to unhealthy foods, not the whole day - you can add only 300-500 additional calories to your main diet. For other meals, follow the same diet. According to dietician and nutritionist Elina Borkhanova , in a cheat meal you can happily eat only one full meal, which you have long dreamed of. But it is better to eat it for breakfast or lunch, but not dinner.
6. Choose quality products - you need to break your usual diet plan wisely. For example, if you have a sweet tooth, give preference to PP desserts.
Some scientific facts about the planned “food loading”
The secret of how the cheat meal mechanism works lies in the functionality of our hormonal system. To summarize, 4 hormones play a major role here - ghrelin, leptin, cortisol and dopamine.
Leptin is a hormone produced by our adipose tissue, and it is responsible for the feeling of fullness. The level of its content in the body affects a variety of processes. So, if it goes down, the brain understands this as a signal to replenish energy reserves. And if a person decides to lose weight and cuts (even if only by 10%) the number of calories, then the level of leptin in the body decreases much faster than the fat “melts”. That is, the brain receives a signal about the need to stock up when there are already enough supplies. A proper heat meal normalizes leptin levels.
During planned “gluttony,” the level of ghrelin, a hormone that regulates hunger, is also restored. This hormone is closely related to leptin, their influence on metabolic processes and the state of the body’s nervous system is great. Even scientific research and searches are being conducted for a “vaccination against obesity”, the main effect of which is based precisely on the peculiarities of the functions of ghrelin. There is quite complete information about anti-fat vaccine research here. In short, the tests were carried out on rats. The group of vaccinated rats had practically no excess weight, unlike the group of unvaccinated rats, although the diet of both groups was the same.
Insulin, a hormone directly related to the absorption of carbohydrates and obesity, also normalizes after a cheat meal. What does dopamine have to do with it, you ask? Everything is simple here! Dopamine is the hormone of joy. We ate candy (pizza, pasta, and even a Big Mac!) - we felt pleasure and life became easier).
How does a cheat meal work?
During a diet, a person experiences a feeling of hunger. This happens due to the fact that the body begins to produce less of the hormone leptin. This substance takes part in energy metabolism. The lower the level of the hormone leptin, the more acutely we feel hunger.
Note: Leptin is a peptide hormone that is synthesized by fat cells and controls feelings of hunger and fullness.
If the caloric content of food remains at a low level for a long time, then the secretion of leptin is disrupted. After this, the person constantly feels hungry, even if he has eaten the usual portion. To avoid the body getting used to a low-calorie menu, cheat meals were invented. Due to this, the functioning of the thyroid gland improves and hormones are more actively produced, in particular leptin.
This meal has its advantages and disadvantages. There are many more of the former - seven versus one.
Pros of a cheat meal:
✅ acceleration of metabolism (according to some data up to 10-15%);
✅ increasing glycogen reserves necessary for successful training;
✅ protecting muscles from their destruction;
✅ improvement of mood;
✅ reducing the harm of a protein diet, which causes the kidneys and urinary system to suffer;
✅ eliminating the risk of “breaking” during a diet;
✅ emergence of motivation: now the diet is not so exhausting and boring.
Cons of a cheat meal:
❎ psychological attachment: a person gets used to a cheat meal and it becomes difficult to exclude him from the regime.
