How to Cheat Your Cheat Meals: Eat, Drink and Keep Your Weight Loss

"How do I burn Fat? Can I have a cheat Meal and no put on weight?"
Two of the most common first questions ask me, and the answer.... Yes; to an extent ;))

The key advice to remember is this: "Your body doesn't want to store fat, it's fighting it's hardest not too, but has been forced to." 

This is important because many people look at their weight gain like prison. They see fat around their waist as 'punishment' for being 'bad' (not exercising, not eating cleanly etc).

Let's flip the script and look at it like logically and understand that your body is forced into storing fat because despite it's best efforts to either eliminate, burn or metabolize it, for some reason it simply can't. 
Main Two Reasons:

• Hormonal Imbalance
  
• Digestive Problems
  

So, if we can help our body's process and eliminate, or metabolize our food and fat, then hey presto, aren't we all happy campers!!

Let's take our cheat meal scenario and see how we can limit any binge drinking or gorging implications. Just remember, alcohol is different to most drugs in the sense that it can be metabolized (just like your food). 

To cheat our cheat meal, we must:

• Boost our metabolism to help burn off alcohol, sugar, and fats from our food and drinks
  
• Support and restore our digestive system to help eliminate the excessive food we don't want to store

Here's THE BEST tricks to use to avoid the beer belly:

1. Take a multivitamin at least an hour before heading out. I see it as insurance to say to my digestive system, okay buddy I want you to have access to everything you need before this big (messy...) night - it also freaks guys out at your 9pm first visit to the gents with fluorescent stream illuminating the bathroom ;)
   
2. Do five minutes of quick exercise - 30 squats, push ups and sit ups will do it. This will diminish your blood glycogen levels allowing some of your first cheat intake to be stored in your blood as a replenishment.
   
3. Eat a high protein dinner. Alcohol contains sugar, and lots of it. Let's at least try to keep your macro ratio's in check with a high protein / low carb dinner (pasta and risotto with booze on top is a recipe for a beer belly - carbs on alcohol on sugar... YUCK!)
   
4. Get on the soda water. It's not just the alcohol fattening you up, it's the sugar. Coke mixers, beer, wine; take the alcohol out and you're still slamming home over 6 teaspoons of sugar per glass... I don't care how fit or healthy you are, this is an insulin killer and no one's stomach can eliminate (excrete) this sugar efficiently... Soda water has no sugar and will hopefully lead to you drinking less due to the stronger taste.
   
5. Drink water. Yeah yeah heard this before. Don't care, drink water throughout the night!
   
6. Walk home. Walk at least the last few blocks if catching a cab, it will help again burn some crap off and hopefully leave you feeling a little better ;)
   

BOOM TIME - Here are some sneaky ones back at home - and will help avoid a hangover!:

1. Have a multivitamin with a green smoothie (I use a green powder supplement for ease). Include fresh lemon and a FIBER supplement. This will help restore / strengthen your guts to help process (eliminate) some of the crap you've just eaten (was that a pun?)
   
2. AHHH WOOOOW: Take a cold shower. Your drunk, your feeling terrible; take a cold shower. It will freshen you up, and more importantly boost your metabolism. The cold will give you a thermogenic boost whereby, simply put, your body tends to want to use fat cells (brown fat cells) as a fuel for body heat!
   
3. Drink plenty of water (remember we're boosting your metabolism here so keep up the good liquid stuff)
   
4. Breakfast:
   
5. Low GI Berry smoothie with another multivitamin and fiber mix (easy to digest and packed with vitamins and minerals).
   
6. Still feeling seedy - have a swim (see the cold shower note above)... You'll be starving afterwards, thats' your metabolism charging! We like that ;)
   

There it is. Follow as many points above as you can, and YES incorporate some in to your day to day life because obviously the benefits will still be there without the drunken gluttony! 

Please share and spread the love,

Sam Struthers
Personal Trainer
Strength & Conditioning Coach
www.facebook.com/BounceFitnessSydney