What’s the deal with a cheat meal?

Is a weekly cheat meal still a relevant diet strategy or it is a weight-loss diet pitfall?

With junk food and sweets often the go-to cheat meal or treat for physique-conscious individuals or those on a diet, the jury is out on whether regular indulgences are still a relevant and effective strategy to support diet adherence and effectiveness from a physiological and psychological perspective.

Cheat meals are described as brief eating episodes that depart from established dietary practices to consume prohibited foods, and are an increasingly common eating behaviour¹.

However, research¹ links this practice with potential issues and eating disorders, especially among adolescents and young adults.

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The re-feed metabolic boost

From a physiological perspective, limited research suggests cheat meals might provide a short-term metabolic boost.

An early study² suggested that overfeeding – now commonly referred to as a re-feed – boosted metabolism between 3-10% for up to 24 hours.

Later research³ showed that temporarily upping your calorie intake could boost leptin production by nearly 30% over the following 24 hours.

Leptin, known as the satiety hormone, plays a key role in regulating appetite and body weight. When leptin levels rise, it signals to your brain that you have enough energy stores to stop eating. This suppresses your appetite, which means you eat less while increasing your energy expenditure, particularly from stored fat.

Prolonged calorie restriction during a diet also impacts ghrelin, a hunger-stimulating hormone that typically decreases once we’ve eaten to turn off the hunger impulse. But dieting can raise ghrelin levels while lowering leptin. The net effect is ravenous hunger that is hard to resist.

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Strategic re-feeds

Including a regular ‘strategic’ treat or cheat meal could lessen or reverse this effect with a periodic increase in calories.

Commonly referred to as re-feeds, these cheat meals may help to raise leptin and lower ghrelin levels in the short term to reduce those powerful hunger pangs and shift your metabolism back into fat-loss mode.

An additional physiological benefit associated with a strategic cheat meal is increased glycogen stores, which may reduce feelings of perceived and actual fatigue so that you can train harder or more intensely.

However, it is debatable whether the additional calories are worth it from an effect that only lasts 24 hours, which is insignificant for long-term weight loss.

The issue with re-feeds, particularly when there is no control over calories or sugar content, is that large meals can wipe out calorie deficits and hinder progress.

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The mental benefits

There are also potential psychological benefits to consider. Treats, cheat meals or re-feeds can offer a mental break from the restrictiveness that accompanies dieting, potentially improving long-term adherence.

Willpower is also a finite resource. A satisfying re-feed or treat can help reduce the stress and boredom experienced within the confinement of a strict diet by offering alternatives, and may serve as an incentive to get through tough times or when cravings kick in. Knowing that you have a tasty treat or re-feed waiting for you can work wonders for your motivation.

Cheat meals can also foster a healthier relationship with food during a diet by avoiding feelings of deprivation, or creating unhealthy associations between good, or bad foods.

READ MORE | What you Need to Know About Reverse Dieting

Successfully incorporating cheat meals

The first rule of integrating cheat days into your diet? Don’t think of them as cheating. Rather, consider them as a meal or treat that you earned and should enjoy without any guilt attached to it.

It is also important to put limits and boundaries on what’s on the menu to avoid overeating or binging. Instead of a cheat day, have a planned, mindful indulgence of a smaller portion of your favourite food so that you don’t completely derail your dieting efforts.

Design your diet in a way that lets you occasionally eat treats that fit within your daily and weekly calorie goals. You can also schedule treats or cheat meals on days when you are focused on training larger muscle groups like legs and back, as you naturally burn off the extra calories.

Ultimately, cheat meals will work for some, but not all. Their place in your dieting strategy and their effectiveness depend on your personality and dietary goals. The best approach is one you can stick with over the long term. If you’re unsure about incorporating cheat meals, consult a registered dietitian for personalised advice.

References:

1. Ganson KT, Cunningham ML, Pila E, Rodgers RF, Murray SB, Nagata JM. Characterizing cheat meals among a national sample of Canadian adolescents and young adults. J Eat Disord. 2022 Aug 6;10(1):113. doi: 10.1186/s40337-022-00642-6. PMID: 35933394; PMCID: PMC9357326.
2. Katzeff HL, et al. (1986). Metabolic studies in human obesity during overnutrition and undernutrition: Thermogenic and hormonal responses to norepinephrine. DOI: 10.1016/0026-0495(86)90119-8.
3. Dirlewanger M, et al. (2000). Effects of short-term carbohydrate or fat overfeeding on energy expenditure and plasma leptin concentrations in healthy female subjects. DOI: 10.1038/sj.ijo.0801395

Author: Pedro van Gaalen

When he’s not writing about sport or health and fitness, Pedro is probably out training for his next marathon or ultra-marathon. He’s worked as a fitness professional and as a marketing and comms expert. He now combines his passions in his role as managing editor at Fitness magazine.

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