Winners Cheat

We can say what we want about following the rules, about how doing the right thing is the key to success. None of that can take away from one undeniable fact: winners cheat.

No, I'm not talking about performance-enhancing drugs or equipment that violates the rules of a particular sport. I'm talking about the concept of the "cheat meal" and the role it plays in your longterm fitness success.

My diet is clean 90 - 95% of the time. Lean proteins, good carbs and fats, and effective supplementation are the keys to my nutrition. Nearly every time I eat or drink, I follow the plan I have set out for myself. The other 5 - 10% of the time, however, I eat and drink whatever I want. Fat, sugar, salt...if I want it, I eat it. And I DON'T beat myself up about it later. I think that one meal a week, where you "cheat" on your usual nutrition plan, can have many benefits. Here's a few of them:

1. Psychological -- I think there are a couple of ways cheat meals can give you a mental boost. The first is by letting you ease off food measuring and calorie counting, and just eating what you like. This mental break from being your own food police can be a welcome change. Like taking a break at work, it can help re-charge your batteries and let you re-commit to healthy eating stronger than before.

The second way is very different, and becomes more pronounced the longer you eat a clean diet most of the time. If you are eating good, wholesome, unprocessed food the other 90% of the time, a big fatty meal of say, KFC will certainly taste good going down, but will almost certainly leave you feeling like you've been hit by a truck immediately afterward. In this way, the cheat meal provides very strong reinforcment for healthy eating; unhealthy food makes you feel bloated, sick and sluggish. Don't want to feel that way? Don't eat that food. For me, this is the biggest benefit to a cheat meal. Feeling downright gross afterward is a strong reminder that food like that is not good for me. Days later, when I feel the temptation to indulge (yes, that temptation returns soon enough), I remember back to that sick feeling I had the last time I gave in. I don't want to feel that way, so I'm less likely to surrender to whatever is tempting me.

2. Physical -- While eating a cheat meal may not make you want to lace up your cross-trainers and get in a workout, it can give you some physical benefits. If you eat the exact same thing, day in and day out, your body gets used to it. You metabolize your food the same way every day because it's the same food every day. Shock it with a high-calorie meal full of things you don't normally ask it to deal with, like fat and salt, and you essentially startle it into a higher gear. Your body has to work harder to digest and process a cheat meal, and as a result your metabolism gets a boost. It's the same concept as switching up your workouts: give your body something new to do and it will have no choice but to work harder and improve.

It may also be that your regular diet needs adjusting but you don't know it. You could be a bit low in carbs, say, and as a result not performing as well as you could be in your workouts. A cheat meal will likely give your body a big boost of carbs, helping it replenish muscle glycogen stores that have run low, and can actually increase your athletic performance.

3. Social -- Unless you live in some kind of fitness colony, odds are the people around you aren't as committed to fitness as you are. Going out with friends while maintaining healthy nutrition can be difficult. Not impossible, of course -- there are always healthy options no matter where you go -- but difficult. Sure, you could order a salad with grilled chicken and drink water when you go out to celebrate your friend's birthday, or stick to the fresh vegetable tray while watching the Super Bowl, but sometimes you want to indulge just because everyone else is. There's nothing wrong with that. Planning for a night out or special occasion by saving a weekly cheat meal can be just the ticket to give you the best of both worlds: you get the benefits noted above, plus you don't have to hear the razzing about "Oh, come on, live a little!"


The key to all of this is to keep your cheat meals as the rare exception in an otherwise solid nutrition plan. One meal a week is enough to get all the benefits without setting your progress back. Some people suggest a whole cheat day, but unless you are already in excellent shape with a very high metabolism, and are working out hard 5 to 7 days a week, I tend to think an entire day of cheating is too much. You will almost certainly slow your progress, if not slide backwards. And remember, even cheat meals have their limits. Want pizza, followed by a hot fudge sundae? Knock yourself out. Want three pizzas and an entire tub of ice cream? Too much of a good thing.

So, as I said at the outset, the plain truth is that winners cheat. If you want to maximze your longterm success, maybe you should consider becoming a cheater, too.