The Splurge Meal and What You Need to Know

The Splurge Meal can save you when you are in the dreaded "diet mode." I find that many people need to be on top of their game all through the week and allow themselves a single meal where they don't count points, cals, macros, or anything else. They need the mental break and their lifestyle has committments like weddings and parties.

The splurge meal has rules. You have 60 minutes from start to finish to eat whatever you want. The key is that when that meal is over, IT IS OVER!  This ensures you get right back on program and aren’t allowed a full day’s worth of craziness. The first couple of times it is difficult because you tend to go whole hog and eat a little too much. After that, you learn that no one will take your splurge meal away and you can eat reasonably feeling confident that the meal will happen again next week. It’s just a nice way to allow yourself that mental break each week from following your normal, healthy lifestyle.

Taken from an article by Dr. John Berardi, the following info is good to consider if a splurge or cheat meal is right for you:

"Cheat or Splurge Meals are right for some people and wrong for others. Cheat meals eaten once per week or once every two weeks are fine, depending on your goals or your body-fat percentage. The leaner you are, the more often you can cheat. But don't force it. Calling the binge session a "splurge meal" and using it as an excuse to eat a bunch of junk food is not the way to get to your goals.

From what I've seen, the following always holds true. If you're honestly overeating large amounts of good foods on a regular basis, you'll certainly be getting all the good calories you need to grow. And you won't be hungry for crappy food. In fact, one way I assess whether my clients are eating enough good bodybuilding food each week is whether they are craving cheat foods. If so, they need more calories through the week. Scientifically, this makes sense since chronic overfeeding causes the brain to realease satiety hormones and these hormones signals tell the brain's hunger centers to "shut up and sit down."

Splurge meal frequency and/or size should be minimized when over 15-20% body fat. Basically, the bigger you are, the more likely that any excess food will be shuttled toward body-fat storage rather than muscle tissue. So, if you're overweight, minimize your over eating.

Don't have cheat days or meals while you're trying to lose weight. I know, I know, you've always heard talk about "stoking the metabolic fire" or some nonsense like that, but simply put, that's bunk. First, psychologically, it's very difficult to stay disciplined after a cheat meal. After weeks of dieting, the taste buds, which have all but given up hope, are stirred back to life. Each time you cheat on the diet, it's more difficult to stay strict when next you're being tested by the devil on your shoulder. "Come on you know you want a slice of pizza. Remember, you didn't get fat after your cheat meal on Sunday. This one time will be fine, too."

And physiologically, there's no sound reason to have a cheat meal. One meal will not upregulate your sluggish dieter's metabolism, despite what you've heard. Sure, the metabolic rate gets upregulated for a few short hours after the big meal, but no way will this thermogenesis account for the large caloric load you'll be dumping into the gut at once.

So my final answer is that it's okay for some people to "believe in" the splurge meal. Others however, should categorize the splurge meal right up there with the Loch Ness Monster and Big Foot."

I think this advice is solid. If you are early in your journey you need to worry more about establishing good habits, reframing what your indulgent foods are, desensitizing your taste buds to sugars and salt, and staying focused. Splurge meals can possibly be too much temptation for you. If you are the kind of person who goes nuts if they don't get to have some of the foods they enjoy, then you need to build some splurges into your week. Figure out what will work better for you. It's like quitting smoking: are you a cold turkey person or a nicotine patch kind of girl? 

As I have gone through my journey I have found my splurge meals get better and better and I take them when I need them. Sometimes I need two or three small splurges a week, sometimes it's one big one a week, and other times it's weeks before I take one.