Many people have encountered the problem of being unable to control their desire to eat when they are losing weight. Some senior weight loss experts say that eating a cheat meal appropriately when losing weight will not only not increase Is it true that weight also helps with weight loss?

How to eat a cheat meal

1. Cheat meal ≠ overeating and eating indiscriminately. Choose your favorite nutritious food that is high in carbohydrates and protein; try to avoid high sugar and greasy foods. of junk food. In addition, don’t eat when you are very hungry or when you are on a diet and only wait for cheat meals. It is easy to overdose!

2. Pay attention to the order of eating

(1) In terms of form, liquids should be eaten first Then solid, that is, drink soup first and then eat food - increase the feeling of fullness;

(2) In terms of volume, eat larger first and then smaller, that is, eat vegetables first and then eat other things - lower calories;

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(3) In terms of heat, lower it first and then increase it.

(4) You can eat half an hour before a meal: 1 apple/1 cucumber/other fruits; drink 1 bowl of soup first, then eat cold dishes/fried vegetables, then staple food and meat.

3. Plan your meal time reasonably. The choice of meal time and location must be carefully considered in advance. If you have a date with friends, feel free to throw your “cheat meal” at the party! Please see the first point for precautions.

4. Have a cheat meal, not a cheat day. Don’t deceive yourself in order to enjoy the long-awaited cheat meal. Eat from morning to night! The consequences - feel the flesh on your belly and you will understand this How deep the pain is

Can a cheat meal really deceive the body?

The so-called cheat meal is usually considered to be an indulgent meal after a period of low-calorie diet during fat loss. A high-calorie meal. People who support cheat meals during fat loss often believe that cheat meals have two significant benefits. Let’s look at them one by one.

First, those who support cheat meals believe that during fat loss, after a long period of low-calorie diet, the human body’s basal metabolism will be greatly reduced, and a cheat meal without calorie restriction will increase the human body’s basal metabolism. , maintain fat loss efficiency. In fact, the main factors that affect the human body's basal metabolism are age, gender and body surface area. Although a high-calorie meal will increase basal metabolism in a short period of time, for fat loss that takes 2-3 months, the help it can provide is actually a drop in the bucket. And in the long term, the reduction in fat content will inevitably lead to changes in body surface area, and a reduction in basal metabolism is inevitable. Carrying out resistance training while losing fat to increase "lean body mass" is the main way to increase consumption.

Second, some studies in recent years have found that fat cells secrete a substance called leptin, which plays a police role in the body and regulates the balance of fat metabolism in the body. When fat cells have sufficient energy, they will suppress appetite to avoid eating, and at the same time mobilize fat to participate in metabolism to avoid body obesity. However, when people lose weight, long-term low-calorie diet may lead to insufficient secretion of leptin, and the calorie consumption gradually decreases, thus entering a plateau period, affecting the efficiency of fat loss. High-calorie cheat meals can stimulate the body to secrete sufficient leptin, ensuring calorie consumption for fat loss and sustained fat loss. However, we may not have noticed that leptin is originally secreted by fat cells. Overweight or obese people often do not lack leptin (on the contrary, they have 4 times the leptin of ordinary people!), but they cannot gain weight. Effective control. This shows that more leptin is not more effective. For them, the main problem is not that there is not enough leptin, but that fat cells cannot efficiently recognize the signal sent by leptin (also called leptin resistance). Therefore, relying on increasing caloric intake to stimulate the body to secrete leptin to enhance caloric expenditure is not effective. Therefore, for most people, the cheat meal is mainly psychological rather than physical. That is to say, after a period of strict diet of low carbohydrate, low fat and low salt, a delicious meal that does not care about calories or nutrition can release stress and promote the secretion of dopamine. It is okay to have such a cheat meal once a week or every two weeks. However, if in order to satisfy the appetite, the cheat meal is scheduled to be twice a week, or even three meals are "cheated" on a cheat day, it is not good for fat loss. There would be no benefit whatsoever.

Different goals have different frequencies

1. If you are a lean person who wants to gain muscle but cannot gain weight no matter how you eat for a long time, then fitness is not deceiving for you. In terms of meals, you can eat whatever you like, because your biggest goal is to eat more. You can eat whatever you like. Eat more of what you like first and then develop the eating habit. High-calorie foods such as French fries and chicken drumsticks. There’s no problem, as long as it doesn’t affect your normal three-meal intake of adequate nutrients.

Number of cheat meals: No limit.

2. If your goal is to lose weight or reduce fat growth during the muscle-building process, you should indeed minimize the intake of foods such as fried chicken, French fries, and desserts. These foods are harmful to you. Cheat meals, because once consumed, it is easy to exceed the caloric limit and not feel full. Staple foods, pork, steak, rice and noodles are all normal and need to be consumed, and they are not cheat meals at all.

Many people always eat only boiled chicken breast, egg whites, and vegetables during fat loss. In this way, other foods, even a bowl of rice, naturally become "cheat meals" for them. No wonder it’s so easy to give up and fail when trying to lose weight!

Frequency of cheat meals: Once a month or try to avoid it.

3. If your goal is to maintain an ideal figure and lower body fat, it is very necessary to find a long-term diet plan that can be adhered to. On this basis, appropriately arrange one or two cheat meals per week. is acceptable. After all, at this stage we are talking about a method that needs to be adhered to for 60 years. If I tell you that you can't eat ice cream, chocolate, fried chicken, potato chips, and fried dough sticks for 60 years, I'm not going crazy.

Number of cheat meals: once or twice a week.

It can be seen that not all people have the same fixed frequency standard for cheating meals. If the goals are different, then the standard and frequency of cheating meals will be different.

Choose a cheat meal or a cheat day

However, should you choose a cheat meal or an entire cheat day? It depends on your diet, your goals, and what your body is responding to. Cheat meal reactions.

If you have been following a low-carb diet, you will respond better on a high-carb cheat day. High carb here means increasing your total carb intake to 2 grams per pound of body weight or more. Just a high-carb cheat meal isn't enough to keep your metabolism going. Because a high-carb day is more helpful than a cheat meal, you can add some so-called "fat-fasting" foods to this day or add a cheat meal that is completely different from your usual meal.

Generally speaking, in some cases, the longer you lose fat, the more frequent your cheat meals will be. If you're a 10% body fat man or a 20% body fat woman, you might schedule a full cheat day. It just depends on how your body responds to cheat meals. If cheat meals are perfectly fine and help you lose weight better, you can definitely have a more luxurious cheat day, not even just once a week. One cheat day every 4-5 days may be more effective for your fat loss.

However, if cheat meals slow down your fat loss progress or make you gain weight instead, what you should do is: reduce the number or frequency of cheat meals. For example, if a complete cheat day stops your fat loss, start by cutting out 1 to 2 cheat meals, give it more time, and adjust the number and frequency of cheat meals based on the results reflected by your body. If your body fat is above 10% (men) or 20% (women), try a cheat meal a week first to see how your body responds.

If the extra carbohydrate intake helps you maintain or accelerate your fat loss rate, then try increasing the number of cheat meals. It is entirely possible to have a complete cheat day in the end