NEW article on Cheat Meals—> Cheat Meals: The “Clean” Eating Disorder
Before we get started we need to set some definitions.
1.Cheat Meal– unplanned dietary lapse in which someone fails to eat food that is on their nutrition plan and/or eats foods not in their calorie/macronutrient guideline. This could be accomplished one of two ways. One, your nutrition plan/macronutrient distribution for a meal calls for 6oz chicken breast, 8oz sweet potato, green veggies, and 1oz almonds. You do not want to eat that meal so you have a milk shake instead (no macronutrient considerations given). That is the most obvious form of “cheating” but not the most common.
The second way a “cheat meal” happens is much more common, especially with people who pay to have nutrition plans designed for them. You’re nutrition plan calls for the same meal as above, 6oz chicken doesn’t look like much so you end up eating 8oz. That sweet potato looks kind of plain so you add some marshmallow or brown sugar and butter to it. Since 1oz of almonds is nearly nothing you end up eating over 2oz. Even though you ate nearly exactly what was on the nutrition plan, your calorie and macronutrient intake was nothing like the original meal possessed. Remember at the end of the day calorie and macronutrient targets are what is most important. In all reality there is no such thing as a “cheat meal” as long as you hit your macros at the end of the day, but that is an article for another time!
2. Re-Feed – Planned increase in caloric intake either over an entire day or over a specific period of time. Re-feeds usually occur on calorie restricted fat loss diets and the excess calories are usually in the form of carbohydrates. Normally during a re-feed my goal is to be very aggressive with carbohydrate consumption to really take full advantage of the metabolic power carbohydrates posses. In order to avoid going too far into a calorie overload (the body has an unlimited ability to store body fat) I will limit or at least keep the same fat intake during a re-feed. Depending on the client I may even lower protein intake to make room for more carbs. Carbohydrates are protein sparing so the need for protein goes down during a re-feed. The main point to consider is a re-feed is calculated and controlled. There is a specific calorie as well as macronutrient goal needed to be achieved. This is why re-feeds are my preferred method and most Hunt Fitness clients will have re-feeds planned into their programs at some point.
3. Free Meal “Planned Over Feeding” – Planned increase in calories over a single meal. This is typically NOT calculated. The main benefit here is psychological. I find clients are much better at adhering to their nutrition program if they know they have a scheduled free meal or re-feed for that matter coming soon. The Free Meal is just a mental ease of not having to track anything. One way I use free meals is with my offseason athletes or clients looking to gain weight. Having a couple scheduled free meals is a great way to bump up their overall calorie intake without them having to track everything and eat more on a day to day basis. However, the most common way a Free Meal makes it into a Hunt Fitness clients program is on a special event such as Birthdays, Christmas, Easter, etc. I don’t typically use Free Meals into my programs. I feel a calculated re-feed is much more effective.
The Free Meal…Is there such a thing?
The short response to that is no, in reality there is no such thing as a “free meal”. Think about it, can you just tell your body not to absorb anything you put in your mouth for a given period of time? Of course not unless you get into fat blockers such as Chitosan but then you will have other issues to deal with such as anal leakage and that’s enough for me to avoid those completely!
I believe people should track damn near everything, I have said it before but it is much easier to make progress when you know exactly what you are taking in. However, I know tracking all of your food can get to be a pain in the ass. This is where the free meal can have some benefit. It gives people a chance to have a meal and not beat themselves up over it and not have the stress of tracking it.
Leptin
The question of the effect free meals and re-feeds have on leptin always comes up. Leptin regulates both appetite and metabolism. When everything is running smoothly leptin is pretty good at telling us when we are full as well as making sure our metabolism is running properly. As many of you know, being in a calorie restricted diet down regulates the metabolism and leptin levels. Now the general misconception is that free meals and re-feeds are designed to bring leptin levels back up to normal. The fact is free meals and re-feeds probably will not do much in the way of raising leptin levels significantly. The problem is leptin levels fluctuate very rapidly as calorie intake changes. Any increase in leptin caused by a free meal or re-feed would be brought down shortly after. The effect would be acute and not very significant. The main reason for re-feeds and free meals are psychological, maintaining metabolic rate over a deficit, replenishing glycogen stores and to increasing overall calorie load.
How Much Damage Can You Do In One Meal
The human body has an unlimited ability to store body fat. What I mean by that is simple. There is no cut off point where your body will stop absorbing nutrients and accumulating body fat. This is even more prevalent when one’s body fat is well below their “set point”.
Look around, I bet you see a lot more people who are over 300lbs with a body fat percentage over 30% then you see people over 300lbs with a body fat percentage under 30%. The reason goes back to the fact that the body has an unlimited ability to store body fat. If you look at it from an evolutionary biology standpoint it makes perfect sense. Our hunter and gather ancestors needed to be able to survive possible food shortages for an extended period of time. Having a body that was efficient at storing body fat made long periods with limited food intake possible. The other side to that is it became beneficial to only have enough muscle to accomplish day to day activities and no more. Having any extra muscle became a burden. It would have just caused them to need to take in more calories because muscle tissue is so metabolically active. There is not even enough drugs in circulation to allow someone to put on muscle to the extent that they could put on body fat. If you eat 10,000 calories above maintenance, there is a very good chance that those 10,000 calories are going to be eventually stored. Body fat cells will grow to allow the storage of all of the unneeded calories. For this reason I believe free meals should have limitations if you should choose to go that route.
Now that we have determined the ability our bodies have to store body fat (after all it is a life saving mechanism) we can talk about how to eat off from your diet when the time comes.
How to go about eating during a Free Meal
1. Go out to eat- I recommend going out to eat when planning on having a free meal. For one, it allows you to go out and have fun without worrying about tracking all of the calories you take in. Secondly, chances are you are going to eat foods in your free meal that are not a regular part of your regular day to day meal plan. By going out to eat you do not have to worry about having leftovers. Do not go to a buffet and stuff your face. Go to a sit down traditional style restaurant.
2. Workout Before The Meal – Always have your free meal fall on a workout day, same thing goes for re-feeds. Take advantage of the extra calories when you need them. Resistance training makes it possible for the muscles to absorb the extra sugar/calories and replenish glycogen stores (if on a calories restricted diet) because of the non-insulin mediated GLUT-4 translocation. What that is saying is glucose has two mechanisms of getting into a cell, for our purpose a muscle cell. One way is driven by insulin and the other is stimulated by muscle contraction. GLUT-4 concentration increases in muscle cells in conjunction with resistance training, for this reason fat cells become far less able to store fat following a resistance training workout. (Same could be said for Re-Feeds. I always prefer them on training days however depending on the system I have set up that may or may not be required)
3. Can You Have Dessert? – Yes and an appetizer! This is how you should structure your free meal.
– Drink: Have whatever you want here. I really dislike most caloric beverages and prefer to eat and chew all my extra calories but if you really love soda (or beer) this is your time to have it.
– Appetizer: Order an appetizer if you want one. If not that is fine too. Remember this is a free meal for you to eat what you want. Try not to stress to hard.
– The Meal: The only guideline I have regarding the meal is it has to have a decent sized protein source. Other than that you are free to eat what you want.
– Dessert: Go ahead and order a dessert if you want one. It is perfectly fine to not have one, all I am saying is it is allowed.
– The Aftermath: If you have this meal for dinner and you do not feel like eating your next scheduled meal following the free meal that is ok. I don’t want you to feel obligated to eat when you are bloated and full. However, jump back on your regular diet immediately following the free meal. If you’re free meal was your last meal of the day that means get back on the wagon the next morning.
Hopefully this helped cleared up some of the questions surrounding cheat meals, free meals, and re-feeds.
As always if you have any questions feel free to contact me at KyleHuntFitness@gmail.com
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Kyle Hunt
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