SS 185 – To Cheat Meal Or Not

Grant and Heavey discuss a common topic in the diet space – using cheat meals. Do they really work and help you lose weight? Or do they just end up messing your diet? Also, find out the 3 major events of the year where weight gain is at its peak. Can you guess what they are?

 

[01:55] Tick-Borne Allergy

 

Grant reveals this tick-borne allergy in humans called Alpha-gal allergy, where it makes you allergic to any type of red meat. In fact, this has something to do with a very rare type of carbohydrate called the alpha-gal molecule. This molecule is found in all mammals except for monkeys, apes, and humans.

 

Back in 2002 when it was discovered for the first time, they only found a couple of people across the world afflicted with this . Now, they’ve had incidences of it everywhere around the world. The emergence of the allergy around the world shows that many ticks are able to cause this problem.

 

[06:24] How the Alpha-gal Allergy Works

 

It has been found that the tick has been feeding on different mammals and so all of the other mammals have this molecule. This means they have to have remnants of it in their sucker. When ticks bite humans, the alpha-gal enters the bloodstream, which is something foreign to the human body so our body doesn’t know how to deal with it.

 

As a result, the immune response freaks out because it’s in our blood. Anytime we have it again, our body kicks off this immune system response. If you don’t have the tick bite and the alpha-gal isn’t getting into your bloodstream, and you just eat the meat, you won’t have that immune response because it stays protected in your digestive system.

 

[10:55] Question from Joey

 

Onward  to the main topic, Grant and Heavey shed some light on a question coming from one of their listeners. Joey asks about whether cheat meals are a good thing. Having read all the stuff about how one cheat meal a week can be a great mental refresher while you’re on a strict eating plan.

 

He goes on to say, “But what if you’re a person that says no? If I’m going to eat clean, I’m in 100%. I don’t need a refresher. This was my approach when I lost a lot of weight. But when I did more research, I found some stuff that talked about how it was actually better to throw a cheat meal in once a week while eating clean because it will keep your body guessing and keep your metabolism from dipping. Is there real science behind that or is it more of a mental break type of thing?”

 

[12:15] 3 Events Where Most Weight Gain Can Happen

 

Grant decided to sign up with Evidence-Based Athlete (EBA). It’s actually company that Heavey owns where he does coaching, nutrition, and lab work. Anyway, Grant wasn’t going to do it unless he was going to give a commitment to follow through, and he finally decided to.

 

In a conversation about his diet, Heavey explained that most people don’t gain weight because of their diet. They gain weight because of the holidays. In fact, Heavey explains there’s a lot of research behind annual weight gain in a lot of countries. In America particularly, you can see how people fall off through the spring and summer as people are getting prepared for the beach. However, you can also see there are three really big spikes in the weight gain chart. One of them happens right after Thanksgiving, the other one right at Christmas, and the third on New Year’s. The compounding effect of those three weekends spread over the course of years that leads to the weight problem most people have.

 

It’s typically not just the ongoing diet but most weight gain happens in these short periods of time. Continue doing that year after year and pretty soon, you will already weigh 40 pounds more and you feel more crappy. This then illustrates how damaging cheat meals can be.

 

Joey mentioned he had great success in his diet and if you’re like Joey who’s also having great success in your diet then don’t turn around and look the other way. If you’re killing it then keep doing it.

 

[15:26] The Concept of Carb Cycling

 

Grant adds about the books he read such as The Primal Diet and The 4-Hour Body which actually promote the idea of a “cheat day.” It’s like this notion of “recarbing” where if you’re eating super clean and really low carbs, you may want to juice yourself back up.

 

Heavey explains this approach is known as “carb cycling” where there are a set of circumstances where it could make sense. If you’re on a super low-carb diet, you can create problems or exacerbate them.

 

However, a lot of times, the benefit gets blown out of proportion. There are also circumstances when people are doing high intensity activities and can benefit from carbohydrates. In fact, going low-carb for this population can be problematic for them. Generally though, if you’re feeling good on the diet and it’s working, then just keep doing what you’re doing.

 

[17:15] Unrestricted Binging: Be Careful With This!

 

Some people are like Joey where they put their head down and get things done. If they commit to doing something, they’re all in. But many other people don’t work the same way.

 

There are other people who are committed to doing it the whole week, but they have one day off that week to go crazy. Heavey explains how this could be a problem. Unrestricted binging even on just a single meal can easily undo a week of very diligent, hard work dieting.

 

If you’re going to overeat. Heavey suggests eating 100% protein-based meal is the best way to go. There’s research that shows that overeating protein can still be a bit protective for fat gain. That said, this can do damage. For instance, bodybuilders go on one week of cheating after the show. But even a day or two of cheating, you could already see these guys getting plump. It’s not just the rehydration but also because they’re gorging themselves.

 

So it’s 100% possible to undo a week’s worth of work in a single cheat meal.

 

[20:30] Undoing a Week’s Worth of Meal in a Single Meal

 

Heavey emphasizes how this idea is something people should really consider since this is what “undoes” so many people’s diets. They get super frustrated with this that they see no results that it ultimately causes them to give up on their diet. It frustrates people and forces them to give up and think they can’t lose weight when they’re just cheating themselves out of the results they should have had, which they undid with just one single meal. Grant reaffirms what Heavey has said, having had experienced it himself, especially if you always have something going on- be that attending social events like birthdays and parties or traveling a lot. Again, it’s these special occasions that could happen very frequently that can really be the problem here since it undoes your hard work during the weeks (which is exactly what Grant is dealing with.)

 

[23:05] Awareness is Key

 

It’s all about having some awareness around this. It doesn’t mean that cheat meals can’t be factored into your diet. But the problem with diet and cheat days, as Heavey explains, is that it encourages this “binging cycle” for people. It encourages an unhealthy relationship with food because people want to take the most restrictive and extreme approach to diet that they can think of. By the time the weekend rolls around, they’ve had all this pent up emotional baggage, thinking they’ve had a rough week so they need or deserve to reward themselves.

 

[24:30] A Mindset Shift from Restriction and Exclusion to Inclusion

 

A lot of times, people think they can’t have junk food as a part of a healthy diet or as part of losing weight. Heavey 100% rejects the notion that you can’t have occasional treats as a part of your fat loss or weight program. If you’re consumed by these intense cravings and the urge to binge all the time, there’s just that fundamental issue with your approach. There could be a misalignment between what you’re doing and what you’re trying to accomplish.

 

What Heavey tries to do with his clients is transition them from a mindset of restriction and exclusion to one of inclusion. They focus on things they should be adding to the diet instead of the things they need to be removing from their diet. It’s that simple mindset shift that ends up getting people to be more compliant with the diet.

 

Instead of looking at all the junk food somebody might have in their food log and working on cutting it out, try adding things that they might need to add to their diet like fiber for example, This super simple mindset change for people is super powerful.

 

[26:40] Are Cheat Days Yay or Nay?

 

Heavey points out again that people pick too extreme of a diet to adhere to. He has no problem with people trying to lose weight and they eat whatever treat they like. If they want a donut once in a while, they find a way to make that work within the context of their day.

 

[29:05] The Mental Aspect

 

At the end of the day, it’s really about picking a diet that’s too tough to follow. If you can find an approach where you can stick to that 100 calorie deficit and be able to do that for a year or two, you’re going to be much better off than if did the super buttoned up diet for two weeks and then went on a wild rage of eating crap.

 

[30:49] Why Are You Even Doing This?

 

When Grant decided to get back in the gym and work hard, he also cut out drinking during the week. He was able to maintain this for 2.5-3 months. But he saw he was still gaining weight and got demotivated.

 

Heavey explains how this has become like a double edged sword where you think the cheat day is giving you psychological relief but it’s also undoing your diet, which is most likely going to mess with you psychologically shortly thereafter.

 

Are you using cheat days in your diet? We’d be happy to know why. And also, how do you spend those cheat days? Have you successfully used them over a long period of time?

 

Links:

The Primal Diet by Mark Sisson

The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss