You recently looked in the mirror and you weren’t happy with what you saw. Summer is coming in a few short months, and you want to shed some winter flab. You decide to go on a low carb diet, and you start consistently going to the gym. The first week is incredible!! You are already down 5 lbs!! Getting to your goal weight will be a breeze. Still going strong, you make it through week two. You check the scale, and you’re down 3 lbs. Not quite as good as the first week, but you’ll take it. By week three, you are starting to get a little cranky on your low carb diet, but you tough it out. To your disappointment, this was the most difficult week yet, and you only managed to lose 1 lb! You decide that you need to be stricter, and you cut your calories down a bit more and add an extra day of exercise to your routine. What the hell?? The end of the week comes, and you are the same weight as the week before! What could have possibly gone wrong? You were doing so well.

This cycle happens to most people who follow a strict diet. If you increase your exercise days, you are just going to burn muscle. You are already starving, so eating fewer calories is out of the question. So, what do you do? Most people would give up on the diet, but not you! Not after reading this anyway.

Now is the perfect time to eat a meal loaded with carbohydrates and calories! While most people would believe that doing this will have negative effects on your fat loss goals, the complete opposite is actually true. When you are on a strict low carb diet, it slows down your metabolic rate. This makes it much more difficult to burn fat. A low carb diet also depletes your body of glycogen. Your muscles need glycogen to exercise at maximum performance. Glycogen also gives you muscle a nice, tight appearance. Carbohydrates are also our main energy source. When we have depleted our carbs for too long, our energy levels decrease, and this drastically decreases the amount of performance we can put into our workouts. Less intense workouts equals less calories burned. Last, a meal loaded with calories and carbohydrates is a mental reward. Psychologically, when you are dieting, your brain needs to know that it will get rewarded from time to time for a job well done. Yes, your brain needs that constant reassurance.

So, when is the correct time to throw in a cheat meal consisting of high calories and carbs? 1. When you have stopped losing weight. 2. When you are going throughout the day feeling dazed and confused due to lack of carbs. 3. When you just mentally need one or else you know you will stop following your diet. After this meal, your body should feel completely replenished. Your metabolism will elevate through the roof, your muscle glycogen will be restored, your energy levels will be higher than ever, and it will give you a psychological edge while continuing to diet.

Caution: You can eat absolutely any type of carbs you like during this cheat meal, but if you are the type who has trouble stopping after you’ve started eating something unhealthy, it’s best to make healthy carb choices. Some of these healthy carb choices would be brown rice, sweet potatoes, oatmeal, and wheat pasta. Don’t feel guilty about this cheat meal, and get right back on track with your diet directly after this meal. If done correctly, you will be smooth sailing to your weight loss goal.

-Tom