3 Reasons Cheating on Your Diet May Help You

Cookies, pizza, muffins – they all taste great, but if you are anything like me, you probably can’t eat them. Those who read The Hacked Mind know I advocate a Paleo-style diet that is lower in carbohydrates, higher in protein and fat, and contains no processed foods (other than 85% dark chocolate).

But what about having a cheat day / meal?

Despite what some experts say, you should not cheat on your diet to reduce mental anguish or satisfy your compulses and urges. Not only is it easier to go 100% rather than 99%, but it is also more sustainable for creating long term discipline and changes. If you are a slave to a cheat day because you need the junk food, don’t do it.

[NOTE: Also, if you have any questions about cheating, please ask. Not everybody should be doing this and even for me, this is an experiment and a rare one.]

The Science of Cheating

All of that being said, there is a place for cheat day / meals in your diet. Depending on your goals, cheating with the right types of foods can help you to actually become healthier. That’s right, sometimes cookies and pizza are going to burn fat, build muscle, and make you stronger for the next time around.

Non-insulin translocation of tGLUT

One of the caveats of cheat meals (for me) is heavy resistance training. After lifting heavy weights and exhausting skeletal muscle (by using all the glycogen), you actually have far more efficient glucose storage in your body.

The non-insulin translocation of tGLUT basically means that your muscles are prepared to accept sugar before insulin is present. This feature of our physiology allows your body to use the carbs from your cheat day and direct them to muscle growth rather than fat growth. Keep in mind, this works best with resistance training and low carb on other days.

High vs. Low glycemic carbohydrates and hGH

Cheat meals typically have a higher glycemic response, which can be useful depending on your goals. Considering I am insulin sensitive due to my Paleo-style diet, a single high glycemic response will not be so unhealthy. Those who are trying to control blood sugar or have diabetes would not necessarily benefit from this.

By having high glycemic carbohydrates mostly in the form of simple sugars, the corresponding insulin spike does not last very long. This works well for increasing muscle gains because insulin and human growth hormone (hGH) do not coincide well together. Maintaining short bursts of elevated insulin help get the advantages of glucose storage, but it also promotes more hGH secretion to help repair and re-grow.

Leptin hormone reset

It may seem counterintuitive, but you can actually use a cheat meal / day to lose a lot of fat. Leptin is a hormone released by fat cells, which tells your body that it can burn more fat. It informs higher thyroid hormones (T3/T4), which can promote fat loss. When you start to plateau with fat loss, it is typically because your body thinks you do not have much fat to burn. With a low carbohydrate diet, the body is really not aware that you could still burn fat and be healthy.

By spiking your insulin and consuming far more calories, you will be tricking your body into thinking it can release more leptin. The leptin will help you to burn fat for 3 – 5 days after the cheat meal in addition to the positive hormonal changes from the resistance training. (image courtesy of “Carb Nite” by DH Kiefer)

Supplementation During Cheats

When cheating, it is common to consume far too many calories, grams of fat and carbs. There are a few ways to mitigate the risks to ensure less fat gain as a result. These are some of the supplements I use in order to do so – note, when I say supplements I do not mean something out of a bottle; just consciousness to include these in higher amounts.

Fiber – we have all heard about how important it is to eat fiber, but there are more benefits than you know. By consuming enough fiber during a cheat day, you can bind up to 20% of the calories. For my cheat day (see below) that comes out to about 1000 calories. You may take a pill if you would like, but also consider a large salad of arugula, spinach with broccoli, zucchini, onion, and bell-pepper stir-fry. Then add some sauerkraut!

Caffeine – there are plenty of pitfalls of caffeine in large doses, but in small amounts it can be useful. Caffeine is particularly useful before resistance training to enhance performance, but it also accelerates the rate in which your body replenishes glycogen storage. When you are cheating after resistance training it is hard enough for calories to go to fat, but with caffeine you make your body even more efficient.

Water – this is a simple one. Your body is going to need more water when consuming more calories. If you are trying to increase the absorption of glycogen in your muscles, increasing water (and therefore free flowing blood volume) is going to help. I typically drink 3 liters a day – cheat day, go for more. (But don’t let it interrupt your sleep!)

Omega-3 – at the cellular level, omega-3 fatty acids are imperative for improving the efficiency of your cheat days. With stiff fatty acids, cell membranes cannot properly allow nutrients to enter. Typical American/Western diets do not contain enough omega-3 fatty acids. I take some fish oil pills to make sure my cells accept what is needed to grow strong rather than fat.

Your Brain While Cheating

Something detrimental about the cheat days and insulin spikes is going to be the impact it has on your brain. Brain activity after cheating with simple carbohydrates is one area where drawbacks abound. However, a better understanding of acute vs. chronic stress (as it pertains to the brain) can help mitigate this cost.

Dopamine – if you typically have a rather bland / basic diet, the increased sugar is going to offer you a lot of pleasure. This pleasure comes in the form of excessive dopamine spikes in your brain. Whereas people who eat these types of foods often will not always deal with such effects, those who are sticking to a Paleo-style diet will not be used to the abundance of sugar.

This is definitely not good in the short term; productivity and concentration will wane throughout the day that you cheat. However, in the long term it probably will not have a serious affect on your brain. The real danger is a constant bombardment of excessive sugar (even if it is less, daily) rather than a single big blow. Humans can handle an acute stress better than chronic stressors (provided there is ample recovery time).

Glucose rush – the simple and high glycemic carbohydrates provide a large quantity of glucose directly to your brain very quickly. Whereas carbs in the form of brown rice, sweet potatoes etc. will provide glucose over time, pizza and sweet cheats are going to send an instant rush. This might make you hyper for a while, but prepare yourself for the inevitable crash.

If you want to time your cheat meal towards the end of your day, this will not be much of a problem. In fact, you will probably get sleepy, go to bed, and that is where some of the magic happens. Slow carbs would keep insulin levels high as you sleep, which would prevent hGH secretion as discussed earlier. Instead, you get the “best” of both worlds.

It isn’t as fun as you think, I will not lie. It is counterintuitive, but for those who maintain decent diets, eating this type of food might feel a bit strange. Mentally, you may feel downright bad. That is why it might be a good idea to use your cheat meal / day on the weekend and relax. After all, if you are trying to build muscle, you need as much naturally occurring anabolic hormones that you can get!

My Cheating Goals

For me, cheating on my diet is structured around building more muscle mass and reducing my body fat percentage. At 175 pounds and around 12-14% body fat, there is some room for improvement. However, after over a year eating a Paleo-style diet with little / no dairy and no sweet treats of any kind, this is most likely going to be more painful than enjoyable.

Either way, I will consider the cheat meal to be a “hormetic stressor”. As my trainer Keith Norris advocates, your body needs a curve ball every once in a while. It adapts to the input so mix it up and make it stronger. It seems counterintuitive that cheating for a day might help me, but it is an experiment. This is the first time in a year and I doubt it will happen again more than once before 2013 is over.

Some people feel as though a single weekly cheat meal / day is necessary to see all of the benefits explained above, but that is not how I prefer to do things. At the end of the day, you need to determine whether it is even worth it for you. If you are cheating because you want some instant gratification, you are going to find it harder to get back to a higher state of consciousness and achieve long-term goals.

Cheat Specifics

For those who are interested, here are some of my cheat specifics.

Typically, I consume between 1800 – 2200 calories a day. That includes 175 g + of protein, about 50 g of usable carbohydrates or less, and the rest in fat. I also fast 16 hours a day and eat for 8 hours (typically only two meals).

My cheat meal was probably around 5500 calories with well over 200 g of protein, 520 g of carbohydrates, and nearly 250 g of fat. The sad thing is, my meals on the cheat day were not considerably different from normal meals (keep in mind, these were cheat foods. In addition I had a chicken stir fry with tons of fibrous veggies without much fat):

1 x 10 inch mushroom pizza (handmade / good quality ingredients)
3 x large chocolate cookies
1 x blueberry Danish
1 x blueberry pie piece
1 x quart of 2% milk
½ x quart of Trentino 85% Venezuelan chocolate ice cream

The reason for these? Most of them have a lot of simple carbohydrates that are accepted directly into the muscle through the processes described above. The pizza and milk have a lot of dairy protein and the pizza also has a decent portion of starch.

This could be overkill, I don’t know. Whether cheating is a good idea is going to depend on your goals and your current health. Good luck!