Eric Roberts ran a 9-week experiment eating a 2,500 calorie daily deficit while allowing one higher-calorie meal each Saturday. He lost 25 lb despite scale spikes of 2-5 lb after cheat days, which he attributes to water retention from carbs and sodium, not fat gain. The strategy used calorie cycling: eating 100-200 kcal under target six days, then 3,100 kcal on Saturday.
I had one cheat meal a week, every week for 9 weeks straight while I was on a calorie deficit and the results were interesting to say the least. But before I show you the final result, let me tell you exactly what I did. Set out on a goal to lose body fat by being in a calorie deficit. So my daily calorie deficit that I was shooting for was 2,500 calories per day. Or you could also look at this as 17,500 calories per week, and we'll talk about why that's important in a second. Now within this calorie deficit, I knew that one time per week I wanted to have a cheat meal, or really this was just a meal that was going to be higher in calories. It was some food that I was going to enjoy because I love food and I love eating food, if you can relate to that. So here's exactly what I did during the week to set that up. Knowing that Saturday I was going to have a day where I was likely going to go over my calorie limit, here's what I did. Instead of eating the same amount of calories every single day, I did something called calorie cycling, where the other 6 days out of the week I just ate 100 to 200 less calories on those days So that I could eat more calories on Saturday. This way I could eat 600 more calories— that was supposed to be a star, I don't know how I did that— I could eat 600 more calories on Saturday and still stay within my calorie deficit for the week. And you might ask me, Eric, how do you do that if you go over your calorie number? Well, remember, our weekly calories, my weekly calories that I was shooting for was 17,500 per week. And so just instead of doing 2,500 times 7, I just did 2,400 times 6 plus 3,100, and that still got me to the same weekly calories that I was eating if I were to eat 2,500 per day. Now I do want to say, notice how the other days of the week I slightly pulled back my calories. I didn't go from eating 2,500 per day to 1,200 per day and just have an absolute binge fest on Saturday. Slightly pulled back, because if you do try to eat 1,200 calories throughout the week and just absolutely go crazy on one day, number one, you're going to develop a very unhealthy relationship with food, and number two, it's just not going to be sustainable. So I just slightly pulled back each day to have a bit more on Saturday to have a higher calorie day. So that's what I did during the week. But let's talk about exactly what I did on Saturday where again, I knew it was going to be not only a higher calorie day, but also I knew I probably wasn't going to be able to track it perfectly because when you're going out to eat, you can't really track perfectly. You can do the best of your ability, but I knew I wasn't going to be perfect with my tracking. So here's what I did during the day on Saturday. I ate less calories during the day, but not in the way that most people try to do this. Most people try to either eat as little calories as possible or they do this thing where they fast until the nighttime when they know they're going to have a higher calorie meal. I wouldn't do that if I were you because I didn't do that because what happens is that backfires more times than not. If you're eating nothing or fasting during the day, by the time you get to the nighttime, you're starving. You have no regard for human life and you're not going to practice any sort of moderation and way overshoot your calories for that day. So what I did was, yes, I ate a bit less calories during the day to kind of like save calories for the nighttime, but I still made sure to eat a lot of lean protein sources and I made sure to eat a lot of veggies And fruit for that day. So what this could look like is, let's say for example at breakfast, if I'm normally having, you know, whole eggs and oatmeal and peanut butter and those sort of things, maybe for breakfast instead I did an egg and egg white omelet with spinach and peppers instead. That would make sure I'm getting a lot of food. I can still eat a lot of egg whites and eggs and veggies. But without having a lot of calories. And let's say, for example, later in the day, if I was to normally have, you know, a sub or a sandwich or, or, or, you know, potatoes and meat, maybe I would have a high volume salad instead with a lot of veggies, a lot of green leafy veggies, and I would throw some lean protein on top. This way I can still get food and I don't have to go into the nighttime starving. That way it won't backfire on me. I can still be full and satisfied but still save calories for the dinner that night. Then with all this combined, I did eat a higher calorie quote-unquote cheat meal for dinner on Saturday night. And so between saving calories during the week and saving calories during the day on Saturday, this whole cheat meal that most people say they have It wasn't really a cheat meal for me at all because I was still actually staying within my plan and staying within my overall calories for the week. So now that you know exactly what I did, let's talk about the results I was able to see with doing this style of quote-unquote cheat meal. So don't get me wrong, first and foremost, after the day when I had a cheat meal or a meal that was higher in calories, my scale would spike up and it would spike up anywhere between 2 to 5 pounds at times. Now let me make this very clear. When this scale spiked up, remember, because I was still within my overall weekly calorie deficit, this scale spiking up the next morning, it was not due to fat gain and instead it was due to eating more carbohydrates, which store more water weight. Eating more foods higher in sodium, which stores more water weight, and again, eating just more food in general in my stomach. 3,100 calories versus 2,400 calories is just more food in your person that makes you weigh more. So after these meals, sometimes I would have a scale spike up, but here's the thing, you don't just go by, oh, your scale spiked up, so you ruined all your progress. Even with this, I was able to lose 25 pounds in these 9 weeks, and that's with my scale spiking up some days. And you can see the before and after progress pictures. I'll put them side by side here. This just goes to show you, number one, you can enjoy your favorite foods and still lose body fat. Number two, you can enjoy a day or two with higher calorie foods and meals and still lose body fat. And number 3, as long as you stay with it and stay consistent, you will continue to lose body fat even when your scale spikes up. And if you need to know what your calorie deficit number is, there will be a free calorie deficit calculator in the link in the description of this video. I really hope it helped, and we'll chat next time.
