84 MD musculardevelopment.com July 2019
Sorry to keep harping on the good old days, but it really wasn’t that long ago that the term “cheat meal” didn’t
even exist. Cheat meal? When you’re on a diet? Sounds like you just caved in and blew your diet to me! As more and
more people got into fi tness and particularly the competitive side of it, the coaching industry grew exponentially.
Most competitors in the old days had strong athletic backgrounds in sports like football or wrestling. They were
used to working hard, being uncomfortable, and in the case of my sport in high school, wrestling, even starving and
dehydrating to make weight. It wasn’t until this new crop came along that we saw people who wanted to look great
and get all the att ention and accolades that come along with an ultra-lean body, but they didn’t want to put the work
in and they certainly didn’t want to suff er one bit, ever. Coaches took advantage of their laziness and proff ered a slew
of fat-burning drugs like clenbuterol, T4, and even DNP to take some of the eff ort out of dieting. They also endeared
themselves to their prep clients by rewarding them for a week of strict dieting with all-out food binges called cheat
meals. I’ve known more than a few of this new generation of competitors who base their selection on which coach to hire on whether they are
known to give clients cheat meals, and how oft en! Before you rip me a new hole, I do understand that refeeds (a meal or several meals with
larger portions of clean food) and cheat meals can serve a real purpose to kickstart the metabolism aft er long phases of very low calories. But
like any tool, it can be used, and it can also be abused. Cheat meals should be employed only if and when they are needed to keep the fat-loss
process moving forward. Simply having a scheduled cheat meal every week or even more oft en as a reward for sticking to your diet constitutes
abuse of the tactic and makes you a lazy fuck with no discipline in my book.You need to educate
yourself on what
clean eating really
is. A dozen Chicken
McNuggets from
McDonald’s and a
chicken breast might
contain the same
amount of protein,
but one has a ton of
fat and salt that will
keep you further and
further away from
a clear six-pack and
veins on your quads.
- You Feel
Entitled
to Cheat
Meals