Cheat Meals... Are They Worth It?

Are cheat meals killing your results, or helping you get there? Could be either, depending how you approach it, learn what the science has to say in this issue.

Author

Mark Christie
November 11, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 12 minutes

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IN TODAY’S ISSUE
Are Cheat Meals Worth It?

Cheat meals don’t necessarily need to be classed as “junk food”, a cheat meal is any meal which puts you way over your calorie intake prescribed for your diet and as a result increases your total daily, and even your weekly calorie intake, offsetting your diet progress made over the week.

This can be from foods labeled “clean” or “junk”. At the end of the day how many calories you consume vs how many you burn is what determines weight loss or gain.

Sure, eating foods typically labeled as “clean” will provide more micronutrients, leaving you feeling better overall, but at the end of the day, your calorie intake is factor number one when it comes to your fat and weight loss goals.

Example:

Let’s say you have been on a 250 kcal deficit per day which is what you have established you need in order for your body fat to start dropping.

Thats a 1,750 kcal deficit per week.

Then on a friday night, you get a takeaway… Let’s use a Dominoes for example, and everyone’s favourite pizza, Hawaiian…

One medium Hawaiian (classic crust) is 1,555 kcal.

But you (and I) always get a big garlic dip, obviously… that’s another, 675 kcal.

1,555 + 675 = 2,230 kcal

So you’ve now effectively cancelled out your weekly calorie deficit.

Could having a weekly cheat meal help you on your way to your body composition goals however? We have dug up some scientific evidence for you to dive into just that.

I mean, we have all seen Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s epic cheat meals, and he’s jacked…

What You'll Find Out

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WHATS UP
The Effects Of Calorie Restriction

During energy restriction diets, your body tries to fight back to survive on the calories it's given:

  1. Your muscle glycogen levels gradually decrease as they’re being used for energy, resulting in harder workouts and a decrease in your performance.

  2. A decreases in your leptin hormone levels, leading to an increase in your appetite.

  3. Reduced Metabolic Rate (adaptive thermogenesis) - (Müller & Bosy-Westphal, 2013)

  4. A decrease in your energy expenditure due to you moving less and burning less calories to function on a day to day basis.

Your body begins to acclimatize to consuming less food and starts to reduce the number of calories it expends each day while heighten your feeling of hunger.

UPSIDE
How Can Cheat Meals Help?

Cheat meals, done correctly, can actually aid your fat loss goals.

Now I’m not talking about your cheat meal (which should increase that days calorie intake by 20-30%) turning into a cheat day or full binge weekend, which is a totally different subject.

A weekly cheat meal can:

  1. Help boost your metabolism (Resting Metabolic Rate)

  2. Increase your appetite suppression through increased leptin concentrations

  3. Increase in performance

The study below outlines the benefits of PLANNED cheat meals throughout your diet, when calories are accounted for and the increased calorie consumption is planned into your total weekly calorie intake to still ensure your in a total weekly average deficit.

A 7 week randomised controlled trial by (Campbell et al., 2020) including 27 resistance trained adults, looking at the effects of a ~25% calorie deficit continuous diet vs 5 days of ~35% calorie restriction with 2 days of increased calorie intake (from increased carbohydrate consumption) while resistance training 4x Per Week. See the outline diet prescription for the subjects in Figure A Below 👇.

Figure A: From (Campbell et al., 2020)

As you can see, the authors of the study designed the study to have both groups in a -25% weekly calorie deficit, to compare the effects of 2x refeed (cheat meal) days per week while maintaining a calorie deficit.

The results from the study showed that both groups significantly reduced their body mass and fat mass with no differences between groups.

However, in the 2x Refeed group, Fat Free Mass (FFM) (which is what you want to preserve or increase), dry FFM and Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) were all preserved better during the 7 week calorie restriction protocol. See Figures B (Fat Mass) & C (Fat Free Mass) below for results.

Figure B: From (Campbell et al., 2020) - Fat Mass Results

Figure C: From (Campbell et al., 2020) - FFM Results.

DOWNSIDE
The Potential Drawbacks of Cheat Meals

Psychological effects

Some studies have shown planning cheat meals to be a associated with greater eating disorder psychopathology (Ganson et al., 2022) and regularly lead to “binge episodes”. The study by (Ganson et al., 2022) which included 2,717 Canadian Adolescents and young adults, states the typical “cheat meal” found in the large participant sample size was between 1,000 & 1,499 Kcal (See Figure D). Which for most people with the goal for fat loss would really increase their weekly calorie intake, pushing you further away from that total weekly deficit.

Figure D: From (Ganson et al., 2022)

Other studies on the other hand (Murray et al., 2018), have shown that cheat meals, although may have similar properties to binge episodes, “do not confer psychological distress”.

Physiological Effects

If not planned and calories kept in check, cheat meals can derail your long term progress.

With the chart above showing the most common cheat meal containing between 1,000-1,499 kcals, this for most people, would cancel out their weekly deficit and could end up resulting in weight gain.

The main physiological drawback from cheat meals almost all come from the end result of overeating your weekly calorie requirement due to lack of planning, resulting in cancelling out your fat loss or even adding weight.

TL:DR
Key Takeaways & Practical Applications

  • Incorporating 1-2 planned cheat meals per week (1-2x refeed days) can temporarily increase your leptin levels and help fight against adaptive thermogenesis, a bodies natural survival process that may interfere with weight loss.

  • Planned Cheat Meals have been shown to help preserve more lean muscle mass during your cut, potentially due to the sustained increase in gym performance.

  • Cheat meals have been associated with binge eating disorders in some studies and not others, so just be mindful of how you incorporate them and keep them in check.

Incorporating planned weekly cheat meals, according to the scientific evidence, will lead to the same overall weight loss (the key word there is planned), while potentially preserving more lean FFM (muscle mass). All while making the process of dieting more enjoyable and sustainable.

The key to incorporating cheat meals effectively is to follow a similar pattern the study by (Campbell et al., 2020) above used, to increase the calorie deficit during the week to allow for extra calories on two dedicated refeed days. Which still netted a total weekly deficit of 25% while showing to increase FFM preservation and allowing calorie room to enjoy a weekly treat. This helps make the diet more sustainable and enjoyable.

This newsletter is intended to have no-bias, and present you the scientific evidence. However I also offer my own experience, for those who may want it.

Personally I have found that planning and incorporating cheat meals to be one of the best ways to make a diet, maintenance phase or even bulk more sustainable and enjoyable. We are human after all.

It’s one thing to do an 8 week cut, but to change your lifestyle for the long term and sustain that for the next decade + is another thing entirely. We want this to be the long game and get fitter for good.

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