Hang on a moment, did someone say cheat?
Yes, you heard right. Contrary to popular opinion, a planned, reasonably healthy cheat meal is actually good for your fitness and workout regime and can help you bust through weight-loss plateaus.
Here’s how:
When you’re eating less calories and exercising regularly, the level of ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates appetite in our bodies (should be called gremlin, right?) increases, making us want to eat more food.
On top of that, the protein Leptin, which acts to suppress food intake, is increased after more than 72 hours of low calorie intake.
So What?
What this basically means is that eating boiled chicken and salad every day without giving yourself an injection of a higher calorie cheat meal from time to time, can leave you feeling sluggish and tired, and even lead to a weight loss plateau, as your body goes into “starvation” mode and begins to conserve calories.
So all that saintly behaviour actually has a negative effect on your weight loss programme.
How do I cheat?
Plan your cheat meal ahead of time. Cheating when you’re feeling hungry could lead you to eating just about anything and the idea of a cheat meal is that you can stray away from your regular eating habits, without pigging out on high fat, sugary foods. Cheat about once a week.
If you plan your cheat meal every Saturday for example, you’ll have something extra to look forward to at the weekend.
Cheat at night, as this will make you less likely to want to keep on cheating throughout the day and, finally, and most importantly, cheat healthily. Here are the top five cheat meals:
- Hamburger – Classic, delicious, easy. Having a hamburger once a week if that’s your particular weakness, won’t kill you. Try it without mayonnaise or butter, and avoid fast food places like MacDonald’s and Burger King. A home-cooked or freshly prepared burger will not only stave a craving but actually provide you with many muscle building nutrients, including protein and iron.
- Spaghetti – While this high carbohydrate meal is often considered taboo in your weight loss plan, a once a week indulge can do you good. It’s also filling and will leave you satisfied. Be sensible though. Order a tomato based sauce, or cook it at home. Don’t pile on the cream and bacon.
- Sweet potato fries
– While this may be more of a snack than a meal, it’s OK if you want to accompany your hamburger with a serving of sweet potato fries. You could try swapping out the bun for this high dose of beta-carotene, complex carbs, to vary your weekly cheat meal. - Pizza – Depending on how you cook it or where you buy it, this could be a giant no-no if you’re ordering a fast food, stuffed crust, high fat pizza, oozing with cheese. Opt for a meat-free one or order it plain, with a thin base. The tomato sauce in pizza, if prepared healthily offers a high dose of lycopene, which is an important nutrient for prostate health.
- Sushi – This delicious fashionable food can be back on your menu again, especially if you stick to sashimi and rolls that come without thick cream cheese, or that are deep fried.
Basically, it’s all about being sensible and letting yourself have a reward without pigging out and ditching your healthy habits completely.
While there are certain foods that you can also use to cheat with, such as dark chocolate, nuts, or dark beer, these are more like snacks and less satisfying that a whole meal, so you might be left feeling cheated out of your cheat meal.
