How eles thinks cheat meals are necessary? I heard(dunno if it true or not) but if you alwaysss eat heahly food your whole life your body might get use to that food and that would be bad.

I hate the word "Cheat Meal". And, no they are not necessary, but this depends on one's view on this subject coupled with their diet and passion toward their goals. Eating healthy is just that trying to eat healthy, and whats so bad with the body getting used to this?

I hold true to the 95-5 concept, though I can go without "cheating" for months on end, its more mind --over--bodily wants and/or desires....this is the bottom line. But a "functional" "cheat meal" once in a while within a diet isnt gonna hurt.

Depends on your concept of "cheat meals" and "eating right."

Someone once told me at Taco Bell, they sometimes eat tacos there with lettuce because it's "eating right, since it has lettuce in it" and eating something without is a "cheat meal."

As for "cheat meals," I too hate the term since it vaguely defines what a "cheat meal" is. Even "healthy food" has a vague definition to it that sometimes confuse a potential person. For example, most people define eating "healthy" as eating salad only, whereas anything that falls outside that area is "unhealthy." If you don't believe me that people define "salad" as the only healthy food, then I dare you to go into a cafeteria / restaurant some place and look at what people are eating. You'll see most people who are health concerned eat salads. I have no idea why.

As for if cheat meals are necessary, no it's not. By you saying "healthy food," I assume you mean eating natural food that you can find out in the wild (but you buy them at the store since who has time to go out and hunt/gather all these things). There is absolutely nothing wrong with eating natural food your whole life. It's what nature intended us to eat and it is man's desires that defy the laws of nature.

To be honest though, I sometimes eat "cheat meals," but I make sure that it has all I want in it before I eat it.

whoever thought up the idea that eating a cheat meal once in a while is a good thing because it can keep your body from "adapting" to healthy foods is clueless.

the effects of eating a unhealthy meal once in a while is negligable.
yet
eating an unhealthy meal once in a while is doing NOTHING good for you(physically anyway).

eat as little junk as mentally possible.
if that means never eating junk again, it would be too soon.

I have been trying to change how I think about this, I have recently dicided my lifestyle needed an overhaul, so I will share my thoughts on the topic of "cheat meals" with you. I think that that term is detrimental to me, it implies that by living healthy I am in some way depriving myself of something better. Deprivation=Bad in most minds, including my own. Instead I have decided to use the viewpoint of living healthy, I think Chillen mentioned his 95/5% concept, same idea, 95% of the time you need to be eating the way you should and enjoying it. Instead of focusing on abstinence, I am focusing on the good in eating healthy. When I chose to eat out, I am not cheating, I am enjoying life in moderation, knowing that this is the exception and not the rule. I know this is all mental, but that is alot of the game. You are what you think. There is certainly nothing wrong with your body being used to healthy food.

I totally agree with the "moderation" theory. Indeed, in today's world, it seems like excessive is the way of life. I mean look at how many people are in debt that can't be paid off their whole life. All people can find that the best things in life are free, and the best free thing you can get is moderation. By enjoying things in moderation, you can gain the best of everything without forcing yourself into excess. I too have problems living in this "excessive" world as I fell in the same hole as a lot of other people out there. Lucky for me, I have a supportive home structure (and I'm fairly young so there's still hope and time), so I believe I can live in moderation without going all out crazy with having everything out there.

With that said, most people view food as their enemy. Food is life and without it no one can live. I think the key thing people miss out on is moderation. Even if you want to enjoy all the great food out there, you can do so if you control your intake instead of going out and excessively buy all the great things you want to eat. I think self control and understanding that it is ok to enjoy yourself, but do so in moderation and you will be fine.

Absolutely correct, it is mostly a mental puzzle and applying the pieces outward and inward correctly. This gets under estimated.

yea.
it is hard to go out with friends and family to resturaunts to celebrate or have fun because most places are unhealthy.
salads are probably some of the healthiest foods to buy there, dallen. thats why people eat salads a lot at restraunts.

the point of eating healthy is so that you can fulfill your goals, live long and be happy.
if you eat out and enjoy life, that is great in moderation.

nicely put dallen.

When one is eating the same exact macros each week your thryoid may want to go somewhat dormant after that consistencey hence the "cheat meal" theory.

I believe if you feel your progress is stalling you can consume slightly more calories, "cheat meal", during ONE MEAL per week which will help prevent this as well as hel you keep some sanity. The problem with cheat meals is that people tend to gorge themselves possibly jeapordizing progress.

TESTOSTERONE NATION - The Cheat to Lose Diet

For a mental reason (dependent upon the person of course), I support cheat meals (and making healthy alternative choices to satisfy sweetness cravings)as some people need this crutch to hang onto as they adjust their thinking to embrace healthier foods--but only to a point.

What's dangerous is when people start to justify it to themselves because they know they are overdoing it but it's so good to have an excuse to make it sound practical (i.e. the metabolism raising idea) or when they don't look long term and really feel they'll live the rest of their life from one free meal to the next.

Ultimately, you will want to take your lifestyle to the point where you don't need a free meal because you are in balance and enjoy the foods you eat, and can simply choose to be flexible at times when you desire it. I think one needs to have a plan in place like making healthy alternative choices of bad foods like: Oatmeal raisin cookies--replace the refined flour, refined sugar with whole wheat flour and (Splenda), or Natural Peanut Butter cookies doing the same replacement idea), and now you have a GOOD healthy choice due to the replacement of the bad ingredients.

One has to MASTER their self when it comes to this and ween themselves off of the bad foods, but I firmly believe that if in days, weeks, and in months, if the person is 95% correct, there is no way its gonna effect them, especially when 1% of the 5% includes self made replacement of ingredients that would normally be bad to psychologically satisfy the sweetness craving.

Breaking weight loss plateaus, can come through manipulating calories and it seems (other than exercise factors), this is the strongest stimulant effecting the metabolism and----not meal frequency.

It was mreik that said eating a cheat meal "This helps confuse your body and prevent adaptation, plus it helps to keep you eating healthy." in weight lifting 101 guild.

Adapting to what?

If you talking the amount of calories and eating a tad over what you need, yes, I agree this can be beneficial and prevent the body from adapting to a deficit low in calories.

The manipulation of calories can prevent bodily adaption, not just eating something you shouldnt (unless this item or series of items causes the overage in calories, then this would be the same thing I just mentioned.).

Eating a cheat meal "in itself" will not prevent bodily adaption if one remains in the same number of calories as in the past or remains in deficit with this cheat meal.

One could say for example: I ate a "cheat meal" (clean or unclean), and this meal "caused" the surplus in calories, and in this sense this would attempt to prevent a bodily adaption because your providing an amount of calories the body normally isnt accustomed to when comparing your recent history of deficit dieting.


A cheat meal can refer to unclean foods or a cheat meal could mean the meal that caused a small surplus in calories.

He may be referring to something like this.

+rep for trying to learn

Completely agree with Chillen's last post. It isn't the content of a 'cheat meal' that prevents adaptation, its the increase in calories. This can also be achieved by increasing your intake of healthy foods instead.

Personally, I will still be 'cheating' once a week (if anyone can come up with an alternative phrase, I would welcome it ) mainly as a reward to myself for sticking to my goals all week. It doesn't work for everyone but, I like having that one meal a week to look forward to. Maybe it will mean that I have to wait a little longer to achieve my goals and maybe it won't but, it will certainly help keep me sane!

Chillen, I don't suppose you have a link for the recipe for nat peantu butter cookies? They sound lovely!!