The Cold Hard Truth About Cheat Meals

This might come as a shock, but despite walking around with a flat stomach year round…

I’ve always been a bit of a “fat kid” at heart.

You can ask any of my family members or relatives…

When I come home for Thanksgiving or Christmas, I put even the most hardcore competitive eaters to shame 😂

And given my love of food, one of the questions I get asked a lot is my stance on cheat meals…

Specifically, whether or not YOU should be indulging in them.

Well, I’m gonna make this one short and not-so-sweet…

Cause you’re probably not gonna like what I have to say on this topic.

Look, I’ll start off with some good news - you don’t have to live like a monk.

Like I said, I indulge in the occasional cheat meal.

In fact, some of the healthiest, most optimized people I know indulge in occasional cheat meals.

And I think for MOST people, eating this way shouldn’t be a problem.

The operative word is OCCASIONAL.

Because while I’m firmly in the “don’t live like a monk” camp, I’m also firmly NOT in the “if it fits your macros camp/just count your calories bro” camp either.

The VAST majority of the food you consume should be whole, natural, single ingredient foods:

🥩 Grass fed beef

🐟 Wild caught fish

🍇 Fresh fruits and vegetables

🍚 Plain white rice

You know the drill.

Furthermore, when you are indulging in these meals, there are measures and strategies you MUST take to minimize the damage (Jay Campbell and I go into ALL these strategies in our 30 Days 2 Shredz Masterclass).

Now, to get a little more granular on this, here’s what I recommend for most people:

If you are:

✅ Under 15 percent body fat

✅ Do NOT have a history of long, uncontrolled binges

✅ Are training consistently and implementing these damage control strategies

Then yes, you can have a few cheat meals a month.

If, however, you are:

❌ Over 15% body fat

❌ Prone to multi-day binges

❌ Haven’t got a lot of the lifestyle interventions dialed in yet

OR

❌ You’re in the midst of a dedicated fat loss phase

Then you REALLY shouldn’t be messing around with cheat meals.

Get your lifestyle under control (or get through your fat loss phase) and then start adding them in.

In closing, here’s some food for thought…

Remember how I said I’m a fat kid at heart?

Well, that’s still true…but much less than I used to be.

Because ever since I started working with these “Golden Age Agents” like tirzepatide and Calocurb (the “natural GLP-1 booster” Jay and I discovered a few months ago), things have chained dramatically.

I simply do not crave the same unhealthy foods I used to.

And I DEFINITELY don’t crave them in the same quantities I used to either.

And the reason is simple - these agents have had a reprogramming effect on my biology.

My gut microbiome, the reward circuitry in my brain - all of it has been rewired and remodeled.

And while I’m still not (and never will be) a monk, my default has ABSOLUTELY been reset for smaller, healthier cheat meals.

Best,

Hunter Williams