3 MUSTS on Cheat Days so You Don’t Gain Weight

We all have our cheat days and when we do, sometimes it can be hard to enjoy them if we are thinking about how it’s going to affect all of the hard work that we put in during the week. But there is a way to have cheat meals and not gain weight. With three simple steps, you can have your cheat meal and not worry about a few extra calories.

Here are some Guidelines to Follow:

1. Drink a ton of water
2. Make sure you still get your protein in before anything else
3. Cheat on your most intense training day

Drinking more water when having a cheat meal is important for two reasons. One is that depending on the cheat meal, you could be consuming an excess of salt that you are not used to and water will help flush that out. A second reason is that hunger is sometimes really just thirst, and being over hungry when consuming the cheat meal that can lead to excess indulging. Have a glass of water or two leading up to your cheat meal. This will help you better gage how hungry you are when eating it and stop you sooner than if you felt starved.

The easiest way to remember how much you will need, will be to drink half of your body weight in ounces per day. Then have more if you feel thirsty. Things like training and salt intake will effect how much water you need.

Always have your protein first. When you plan to add a cheat meal to your day, never use it to replace your protein somewhere else. Protein is important to your muscle recovery and feeling satiated. Again, being overly hungry when consuming junk food is a terrible idea, and can lead to over indulging. Make sure you get all your protein in for the day and then put your junk food cheat into the spot of a carbohydrate and fat.

When having your cheat meal, make sure that you plan for it on a day that you training is super intense. Maybe your do HIIT Max Monday, Wednesday and Friday so it would be one of those days. For our Morellifit Coaches, these days are often leg days. That allows your body to use up these excess calories and you consume the cheat meal on a day that your metabolism is revved up.

Then lastly after following these rules, we want you to #earnyourcheat. You have work up to your cheat meal by doing all this so you don’t feel guilty when eating it, and you don’t feel guilty afterwards. Meal planning for your week allows you to fit in your cheats in a way that works. It’s ok to cheat and it’s going to build resiliency. You’ll probably feel bad afterwards and think to yourself that you don’t want to do that for a while anyways. What happens then is that you’re less likely to cheat if you feel the bad effects of a bad meal. That will help you wait and have a cheat meal for a while.