The phrase “Cheat Meal” to us is a dirty one.

That’s because the term “Cheat” carries such negative connotations. It implies doing something wrong, something dishonest.

The dictionary even uses words like “fraud”, “swindle” and “deception” to define the term.

So it’s no wonder there is such a tremendous amount of guilt around the concept of “Cheat Meals”. It’s also no wonder that this feeling is destructive to the success and sustainability of our fitness and fat loss goals.

Does this sound familiar?:

You set a goal. You get highly restrictive with your nutrition, dead set on perfection to make sure you see a huge number come off on the scale in 4 weeks, 6 weeks, 8 weeks. When the number isn’t as huge as you wanted it to be, you crash. You eat and drink everything you can get your hands on, then feel sick, bloated, mired in shame and guilt. After some time going off the rails, you start this cycle all over again

Or maybe this cycle follows a much shorter period of time, like a week. You watch every single bite and sip with tenacity from Monday through Friday (or half of Friday), then throw out all your nutritional principles through the weekend until you go to bed Sunday night feeling bloated, dirty and full of shame.

“Cheat” eating can sabotage a lot of good, hard work and leave you full of guilt, remorse and frustration, but learning how to “cheat”, or as we will refer to it from here on out - “flex” eat the right way, will help you ditch the guilt and support both the short and long term success of your fitness journey.

So before we go into how to do it right, let’s talk about why flex eating can help you create and maintain the body you want.

The Physiology of Flex Eating

The physiological benefits can be summed up in one word: Leptin

Leptin is a hormone secreted by our fat cells that is responsible for maintaining energy balance in the body.

When we have an abundance of Leptin, it sends signals to our brain that there is an abundance of energy in our body. This puts our metabolism to work and helps to engage the body in metabolically expensive actions, like building muscle mass.

On the other hand, when Leptin levels are low (whether because of a calorie deficit or because you are carrying less body fat than before), it communicates to the brain that you are in an energy-deficient state and that it should increase energy intake (hunger) and decrease energy output.

Taking in a larger amount of calories through a flex meal can result in an increase of leptin production as high as 30% for up to 24 hours.

Recent studies also show that flex meals rich in carbohydrates have a much higher response in Leptin production than those that were rich in dietary fat (which showed no significant relationship to Leptin response). This is something to keep in mind when you are considering high fat meals for your flexing.

It’s important to keep in mind that going totally overboard every flex meal or flexing too frequently isn’t going to produce an amount of Leptin that will counterbalance the massive calorie surplus you are likely to incur.

The Psychology of Flex Eating

The psychological benefits of flex eating are likely already apparent to you.

Eating in a calorie-deficit for an extended period of time can be difficult and flex eating can give us a much needed mental break.

A 2016 study found that dieters who occasionally had flex meals as part of their nutrition plan felt better about and stayed more motivated to eat in a calorie deficit for their weight loss goals. It’s worth noting that participants of the study didn’t go overboard and still kept their portions in check during flex eating.

How flex (or cheat) eating is labeled has also been shown to have a psychological effect on success. Another study compared participants who associated eating chocolate cake with “guilt” and those who associated it with “celebration”:

“Participants associating chocolate cake with guilt did not report more positive attitudes or stronger intentions to eat healthy than did those associating chocolate cake with celebration. Instead, they reported lower levels of perceived behavioral control over eating and were less successful at maintaining their weight over an 18 month period.”

Flex eating can offer both a mental break from the challenges of eating in a calorie deficit and help our brains and our mindset understand that food is not “good” or “bad”, but exists an a spectrum of things you should eat more of and things you should eat less.

We are looking for balance

So now we know that flex eating can actually help you on your fitness journey. We also know that a flex/cheat day that is totally off the rails can ruin an entire week’s worth of fat loss.

As we coach with all things, the key here is to find a moderated, nuanced approach - not one that is all-or-nothing.

In order to help you learn how to practice a balanced approach to flex eating, we are going to talk about the most common mistakes and how to avoid them.

Author and Fitness Coach Michael Matthews describes the 5 most common “cheat meal” mistakes as follows:

1) Flexing too frequently.

This one is pretty self-explanatory. We may have good compliance to our nutritional goals, but we may not be practicing them consistently enough to make progress.

Solution: Schedule your Flex Meals to fit within an 80/20 compliance. For example, if you average 3 meals + 1 snack per day, this equals 28 eating events for the week. 20% off of the plan means you have 5 ⅕ meals/snacks to flex with. Plan out which ones and when you will have these flex events. Now this plan leads us into the next mistake….

2) Eating too much in those flex events

This is often caused by a lack of awareness of how many calories are actually in your meals, especially when eating out. Restaurants often add high amounts of butter, oil, cream and sugar to make meals delicious. Tufts University study showed that the average entree in the restaurants studied was 1,200 calories (the average!)

Solution: Set a 150% limit for days that you have Flex Meals and Snacks. For example, if your daily calorie budget for fat loss is 1,800 calories per day, a day with Flex Meals should set a budget that tops out at 2,700 calories. You can even break this down into the individual meal if you have enough data to do so. E.G.- If your normal dinner is 600 calories, then your flex dinner should be 900 calories.

3) “Flex Days” instead of “Flex Meals”

We’ve all done this. One planned flex meal turns into a day or a weekend long blowout. Every meal doesn’t have just entrees, but appetizers, alcohol and dessert. Coach Matthews states, “I have worked with many people and have had them break down many, many “Cheat Days” for me, and when we run the numbers, we’re looking at anywhere from 5,000-8,000 calories in one day as the most common range.”

Solution: Own your choices by logging your flex days/meals. Include everything - your alcohol, your appetizers - all it. This doesn’t have to include every flex day or meal for the rest of your life, but when you are frustrated and feeling like you don’t understand why you’re stuck, this kind of awareness is the antidote.

4) Having too much dietary fat

Not only does dietary fat have more calories than carbohydrates and protein (9 calories per gram of dietary fat compared to 4 calories per gram for carbohydrates and protein), but it requires the least amount of energy to digest of the 3 macronutrients (only 0-3% of calories from fat are burned through digestion compared to 5-10% from carbohydrates and a whooping 20-30% from protein) This is known as the Thermic Effect of Food.

Solution: Balance your fattier meals with veggies and lean protein. This may look like a side of roasted green beans or broccoli to go with your cheeseburger, or a grilled chicken salad to pair with your pizza.

5) Having too much alcohol

We all know liquid calories consumed through alcohol can get away from us really quickly. Did you also know that research shows alcohol (ethanol) impairs both carbohydrate and fat burning, meaning your body will store more of these calories and turn them into body fat. On top of that, we tend to lose our inhibitions when we have a buzz on, making us more likely to overeat and go totally off our flex eating plan.

Solution: Track your booze and drink water. We may sound like a broken record, but we repeat this for a reason - awareness matters. Keep track of your drinking and aim to have 1 glass of water for each alcoholic drink you consume. This will slow you down and keep you feeling more full.

Focusing on getting a little bit better with each of these flex eating mistakes can greatly improve your weekends or other flex days, and keep you on track and motivated for your fitness goals!

Questions to consider:

-On days when you have a flex meal planned, what does your nutrition look like the rest of the day?

-Are your flex meals typically heavier on carbohydrates or fat?

-What emotions do you associate with flex meals or days?