How To Cheat Your Way Lean
Feb 18, 2025
Read time: 4 minutes
The High Performance Journal - February 18th, 2025
A few newsletters ago, I shared some lessons I learned from getting my abs back. One thing I forgot to mention was that I cheated my way to my best shape.
Everyone thinks they have to have "perfect" diets to get lean, but what most people don't realize is that this mentality can screw with them in the long term.
Cheating on your diet can be a detriment when done the wrong way or a benefit if you do it the right way. So in today's article, I'm going to give you a guide on why and how to cheat on your diet to achieve a great lifestyle and results that you can sustain for life.
How To Cheat Your Way Lean
Cheating On Your Diet? Are You Out Of Your Mind?
According to my wife, yes, sometimes I can be a bit crazy. Hairbrained even.
But I assure you that I'm not recommending this because I'm a full-blown hedonist or because I'm trying to rationalize my ice cream-eating behaviors.
There are actual science-based mental and physical benefits to cheating on your diet.
Eating a strategic cheat meal can give us a mental break, provide metabolic flexibility, and maintain leptin sensitivity, which are all factors in sustaining fat loss.
The 5 Major Benefits Of Cheating On Your Diet
1. Taking A Mental Break From Dieting
Let's get real. Eating healthy all the time can be hard, especially on our minds.
Having a planned cheat meal can give us a break from the rigidity of dieting, acting as a sort of reward. Studies show that people who plan for cheat meals are better at following their diets. They feel less tired of eating healthy and are less likely to give up.
2. Crush Food Cravings
Sometimes when we're told we can't eat certain foods, we tend to want them even more.
A recent study demonstrated that participants incorporating weekly cheat meals had fewer intense food cravings compared to control groups.
3. Prevent Diet Fatigue
Having planned "cheat meals" gives your brain a break.
During these meals, you don't have to worry about what you're eating, giving your brain a rest so you can eat healthier later.
Functional MRI studies show decreased activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex—a region associated with willpower exertion—during cheat meal periods, suggesting genuine neural recovery from your diet.
4. Hunger Hormone Reset
Leptin is your fullness hormone.
When you diet for way too long, your body makes less leptin. Low leptin makes you hungrier and can slow down your metabolism.
A planned cheat meal (with lots of carbs) can give leptin a quick boost for about a day, tricking your body into thinking that it's not starving.
5. Metabolism Protection
Your thyroid controls how fast your body burns calories, and studies show cheat meals can help your thyroid gland work better.
Dieting too hard for too long can lower thyroid hormones (like T3), slowing down your metabolism.
Eating more carbs during a cheat meal raises T3 by 12-18%, keeping your calorie-burning engine running.
The 10 Commandments To Eating Cheat Meals For Best Results
#1 - Always hit your protein goal: Get at least .8 to 1 gram per pound for the day.
#2 - Remember it's a cheat meal. Not a cheat day: Keep this confined to one meal and then get back on your diet plan immediately.
#3 - Give up the "all or nothing" mentality: One meal will not ruin your progress unless you use it as an excuse to say f*** it and continue onwards.
#4 - Avoid foods that cause addiction: If you can't stop yourself from eating certain foods, don't eat them.
#5 - Avoid going supersized: Don't do the all-you-can-eat buffet. This is about eating a meal you would normally avoid while dieting, not being a glutton.
#6 - Plan ahead: Be intentional with your cheat meals. Great times for cheat meals are post-workout, evening, and social occasions.
#7 - Track these into a food tracker: Factor it into your calorie tracker, especially when trying to get lean.
#8 - Get a workout in: Working out before a cheat meal increases insulin sensitivity and boosts metabolism.
#9 - Aim for a macro split roughly around 65/25/10: Get 65% of calories from complex carbs, 25% from protein, and 10% from fats. This has been shown to be the optimal macro split for turning cheat meals into a cheat code.
#10 - Prepare for a bump in your weight: You'll experience glycogen increases and water retention for 2 to 4 days after the cheat meal.
The Danger of Doing Cheat Meals (Don't Skip This Part)
As with all things, there are no free lunches (pun intended).
For clients who work with us, we tend to employ this strategy much later into their programs because the most important aspect of getting lean is adopting healthy eating behaviors.
Avoid letting cheat meals trigger you to completely abandon your goals. A cheat meal can turn into a cheat week and into a cheat month if you're not careful.
This is also not a hall pass to eat whatever you want. Yes, we want to get rid of the notion that there are "good" foods and "bad" foods, but there needs to be a semblance of responsibility.
Cheat meals are a slippery slope and can lead to disordered eating behaviors. This is why it's best to set boundaries and know how to implement them correctly.
Lastly, if nutrition were karate (or, in my case, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu), this would be a black belt move.
You need to work up the skills to get here, and doing so as a white belt who has no control of their eating behavior just won't cut it.
So tread lightly and do the hard work of developing healthy eating habits in the beginning.
Your Diet Doesn't Have to Be Perfect to Get in Shape
The other day, my family was on a flight traveling back to Canada.
It was an overnight flight, and they had snacks on the plane that I wouldn't normally eat. So I ate them.
I took those indulgences as a "cheat meal" and when I got back to the North, I reverted back to my old ways of eating and, in a couple of days, I saw my weight come back down to my normal average.
The biggest benefit "cheat meals" have given me is the absence of thinking dieting is an all-or-nothing game.
This brings less stress into my life and has allowed me to get my body back in a more sustainable way.
If you follow the rules, develop great eating habits, and give yourself some grace, it might benefit you too.
Onwards and upwards. 🚀
- Dan
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