Ben Greenfield breaks down three times cheat meals actually work: right after exercise when your body absorbs nutrients better, as a reward for something big like finishing a triathlon, or scheduled weekly on a set night to stick to your diet the rest of the week.
Hello, this is Ben from BenGreenfieldFitness.com and today I'm eating a cheat meal. Now, if you look at the meal over here that my lovely wife is consuming, she has a spinach pita and some watermelon. My children have lean chicken, watermelon, and a little bit of cottage cheese.
This one, who appears to be the same child, but is in fact a different child, is also eating watermelon, chicken, and cottage cheese. But dad has a big fat plate of nachos. And what I wanted to talk to you about a little bit today is when a cheat meal actually fits. And there's three times when you would want to eat a meal like these. Mmm, Wonderful nachos. Wonderful nachos full of lard and sour cream.
Cheese, salt fried goodiness. Number one would be after you exercise. That's a time when it's okay to eat a cheat meal. Your body is very sensitive in terms of its response to insulin, which is that hormone that when you do eat a big meal, can kind of tend to make you fat. Now, the second time that you could eat a cheat meal is after you've accomplished something that you're really proud of, especially from a physical performance standpoint. Yesterday I did a triathlon. So today one of the rewards to myself is getting to eat this cheat meal, which is, in fact, an extension of several other cheat meals I had yesterday. Now, the third time that you could eat a cheat meal is to have a regularly scheduled cheat meal that you have as part of your diet plan. Friday or Saturday night would be examples of good times to have cheat meals. And what these do is they allow you to stay sane the rest of the week and eat healthy the rest of the week because you got that one chance to eat exactly what you wanted. So to summarize cheat meals directly after an exercise session would be okay in moderation. Cheat meals after you've accomplished something really significant to reward yourself, especially if that significant thing you've accomplished is related to physical activity, are also a good time. And then the third time you would have a cheat meal is as a regularly scheduled part of your diet to keep you on track and keep you sane. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get back to my nachos.
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