To Cheat or not to Cheat - Cheat meals!

This is always a topic of discussion amongst many in the fitness industry, everyone has their personal beliefs about the pro's and con's on having a cheat day/meal and have read all the articles out there on the internet so instantly they are pro's about the topic without understand any of the physiological responses the body goes through!

All I’m going to do is discuss some of the theoretical benefits and chuck in my 2 cents worth as well.

Increases thyroid hormone production - So when someone is calorie deficient they produce less hormones that regulate the thyroid (T3 and T4) so a strategic cheat meal or overfeed is beneficial to increase these hormones and regulate the thyroid to keep it functional and productive.

Increased energy output (24hr) - The surplus calories from a cheat causes the body to up regulate basal metabolic rate (BMR).And there are studies out there to show an increase of 9% above baseline, all in all giving you more energy the next day foe heavier lifting and giving you an upbeat mood for the day :)

Psychological benefit - This is plain and simple, You follow your diet for the week knowing that after all that hard training and clean eating you get a reward......for some people that is enough to keep them going week to week, but then it comes down to the individual to know how far to take their cheat meal/day, this is something you cant calculate and you learn from experience about your own personal limits. It's totally worth it!

So with that being said it sounds like having a cheat meal or re-feed day will work for anyone wanting to gain some lean mass and for a fat loss diet........well it's not always the case! Many trainers condone the idea of cheat meals while others support it knowing it works from personal experience. And I’m one to promote the idea from it not hampering my results over time!

But we also have to understand the human body, and I’ll break it down quickly! 

You have to remember we are talking about the human body, our bodies will adapt to anything we throw at it over time, so when you first start restricting calories and have your results you will then notice that you will hit a plateau, whether it be diet, weight training or cardio, it happens to everyone. So this for me is a good sign that we need to break the cycle and another reason why a cheat meal is beneficial :)

This being said to certain degree, a high calorie meal will help off set your metabolism but the benefit from the cheat meal comes from the higher calorie intake on that day, not the usual junk food that most people consume. Having no moderation or control on cheat days carries far more risk than benefits to your physical and mental health, it can lead to a fatal outcome from extreme acute gastric dilation after an eating binge.

A good little tip is buy enough for a couple of cheat meals and no more! If you have a 2 packs of Tim-tams in the fridge and 2L of ice cream in the freezer then we all know what is going to happen right......Epic FAIL. So keep that in mind and just get what you need for that cheat meal :)

So to sum up, YES by all means have a cheat meal.......but don't binge on unhealthy junk food, and there is no need for a whole cheat day.