Food: to Cheat or Not to Cheat?!

Do you ever feel like punching yourself in the stomach when you get food cravings?

Please don’t be so hard on yourself. It is natural to crave foods which are illegal to our diets. Illegal as in something we have eliminated to reach our goals. Yet no one is perfect. I am not perfect, you are not perfect (hate to break it to you) and our food consumption is certainly not perfect. Why? Because we are HUMAN not aliens. A calorie bomb meal is GOOD and this post will explain why. But first…

Why do you get cravings? Leptin. Leptin is known as the “hunger hormone” sounds interesting huh?…no surprise then that it regulates our hunger. High levels of leptin=inhibits hunger. Low levels of leptin=accelerates hunger and therefore when you are dieting your leptin levels will typically be low. This will send a “starvation alarm” to the brain..beep..beep!! In other words you my friend are experiencing cravings.

Two types of potential food plans there is actually two types of food plans which you may or may not be following. Plan A known as a ‘Flexible dieter”. Peeps on this plan count their macros or aim to consume a certain amount of calories a day. Plan B is known as an “old school dieter” someone who has say 3/5/6 meals a day built of protein and veg.

Influence on cravings Inevitably Plan A peeps will experience less food cravings because their food intake allows for more flexibility and balance. In comparison Plan B peeps will experience more food cravings as their diet is stricter and leptin levels will be lower. Really which route you have opted for will depend on your individual goals.

Dropping the calorie bomb I’m arguing “to cheat” you can and you should. Why girl? In some cases there is a risk that obsessing over food intake can lead to eating disorders. This is honestly why I don’t count macros. I think you should allow at least one cheat meal to give yourself a MENTAL BREAK and not feel guilty. Also, to be a bit more scientific, dropping a calorie bomb will bring your leptin levels UP and this will spike UP your metabolism, accelerating fat burn. Everyone is different but you might see a plateau in your weight loss goals, be losing too much weight or you might just be feeling totally insane..your workouts might just be feeling a bit dead. Therefore at all three points it would be wise to consider a cheat meal. Personally I take a cheat meal on the 7^th day of the week, it helps me to remain focused on my food intake and to keep Satan away.

That’s a Nandos cheat meal off my list..cheeky.

So to sum up; it is OK to cheat in life sometimes we can still be angelic 😉

Please feel free to let me know your thoughts below, what posts do you want to see in the future? xox