How To Minimize The Impact Of Cheat Meals

SUMMARY

Cheat meals… how to do them without actually feeling like sh*t? Well, I am glad you ask! This is how:

• Do refeed days instead of cheat meals most of the times. They will hep you raise leptin levels back up, allow you to indulge a bit more on food and just have the same satisfaction.
• Be active on the days you cheat. The best way to make sure you don’t feel like crap after a cheat meal is to actually train before it.
• Drinks lots of water to compensate the excess of sodium and carbs and to hold less water. 
• Estimate your calories for the day before your cheat so you don’t end up consuming 8k. 
• Cheating doesn’t mean eating everything you see. Keep that in mind. 

Want to know more about why these will help you? Keep reading then 🙂

Cheat meals… we al love them.

Eating is the greatest pleasure in the world. Period.

and if someone doesn’t agree with this, don’t trust them… they are hiding something lol Okay, serious now. We all know that happens the day after a cheat meal: you get bloated, retain a lot of water, lose definition, etc.

Not ideal.

It s no big deal because it is just a temporary effect caused by the excess of food and in a day or two is usually gone. But still, it is annoying.

So in today’s post I am going to share with you a few tips on how to minimize the impact of cheat meals and still enjoy them to the fullest.

REFEED DAYS > CHEAT MEALS

Instead of cheat meals, you could do refeed days. I know, I know, it sounds like ” if you don’t want to get bloated after a cheat meal, just don’t do them”… but that is not what I mean. While cheat meals are thought to be a break from your daily diet and provide you with temporary freedom to eat whatever you want, refeed days have a more precise purpose.

The idea behind them is to raise back up leptin levels.

Leptine is the hormone that controls satiety and energy intake. With leptin levels raising after a refeed day, you are able to reduce hunger throughout the week, increase your energy levels and just stabilize that hormone’s levels again. If you are cutting, this is the best you can do. If you are not, you can do cheat meals every now and then, but just don’t get too crazy.

GO WORK OUT

This one is pretty obvious but there are two Ain reasons why you should work out on your cheat days or the day after.

The first one: your body will utilize all those extra calories better. It will get the most out of them and use all the nutrients more optimally, specially for glycogen replenishment, muscle protein synthesis and energy production.

The second one: you are going to burn some of those extra calories. If you are going to have a solid cheat meal, just make sure you workout first or after to burn some of the extra cals.

WATER

One of the main reasons why people get so bloated and get stomach discomfort after a cheat meal is because they don’t drink enough water.

Whenever you have a cheat meal, your sodium intake is most likely to be higher than usual. If you don’t compensate that buy drinking extra liquid, you will just get bloated. Besides, your body needs extra water to digest all those extra calories you are going to consume, and if you don’t keep it hydrated, it will take it way longer than usual to digest food.

COUNT CALORIES

If you are having an actual cheat meal and not a refeed day, make sure you save some calories during the day for that meal. Let’s say your cheat meal is going to be your dinner.Then try to keep your calories low on the other meals during the day. Just make sure you get plenty of protein and save carbs and fats for your cheat.

If you eat like you normally would and then you have a cheat meal your calories for that day will be unnecessarily high. Instead, try to adjust your caloric intake during the day so you can make everything fit a little bit closer to your usual caloric intake.

DON’T BINGE EAT EVERYTHING IN SIGHT

I know, I know, this is not a tip, but it is even more important than any other tip I can give you: it is all about moderation.

Don’t go all crazy every time you have a cheat meal, don’t eat everything in sight, don’t always order the biggest option. Just control yourself and learn to enjoy food, not to devour it. Everything in life is about balance and food is no exception.

WHAT ABOUT THE NEXT DAY?

First of all, water. Make sure you drink lots of water. Why? You are most likely to still feel full, so make sure you provide your body with enough water to keep digesting everything properly.

Second of all, you can decrease your caloric intake for the day if you are not that hungry. Obviously, the day after a massive cheat you will still feel full and chances are that you are not going to be that hungry during that day. So that is a good opportunity for you to decrease your caloric intake to compensate a little bit for the excess of calories the day before.

What I usually do is to combine it with intermittent fasting: I wake up early but don’t eat anything till lunch time (around 1 pm for me). Just water and coffee. That allows me to reduce the bloating and to get my appetite back for when I start eating.

Finally, I just want to mention that there is nothing wrong with cheat meals. At the end of the day, it is just food, and just because some foods do not fit your daily nutrition doesn’t mean you should perceive them as bad. So whenever you do a so called “cheat meal” don’t overcomplicate it: enjoy it and get back on track right after.