‘Twas the night before Monday, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a-
– what, what?!
Never mind.
Megan’s still up, and she’s trying to scoff the contents of the junk food cupboard before her new diet begins tomorrow. Yep, today we’ll be talking about the phenomenon known as “last supper syndrome”.
What Is “Last Supper Syndrome”, And Why Does It Happen?
If you feel guilty about eating loads of junk food the day before you start a new diet, don’t.
It’s actually a very common behaviour. (1)
It’s a natural response to impending change, it’s done out of the mental frustration we feel at no longer being able to eat our favourite things as a result of our often snap decisions (e.g. “That’s it! No more chocolate from Monday”!).
This causes us to crave one last night of freedom. Oh, and what a night! We’ll ravage through the cupboards and gorge on anything remotely connected to junk food, like a bear filling his belly for the long hard months of winter. (2)
That’s because food (particularly junk food) tickles our brain’s reward centres, making us feel all warm and happy inside – even if only for a few moments – and the mere thought of suddenly going without our favourite treats fucking terrifies us, despite the fact that deep down we have decided that we’d like to lose a bunch of weight. The body would prompt a similar response if we decided to give up alcohol, coffee, or sex.
It’s Okay Until It’s Not Okay
Like I said, this is a normal response to an impending weight loss diet.
However, if you’re experiencing these days of “last supper syndrome” every weekend, this is when it can become a serious problem.
Because not only will it hold back your results (you’re overriding a week of hard work with one massive blow-out), but it can also lead to an unhealthy relationship with food and possibly even an eating disorder. (3)
Holy flaps.
Unfortunately, throughout my 22 years as a personal trainer I’ve met countless individuals who say they feel “stuck” in the cycle I just described above, and it’s not a healthy place to be.
- They feel down about their weight
- They decide to go on a diet
- The diet starts on Monday and feels hard
- By Saturday they’ve crashed off it and binged
- They feel even more down about their weight
- The cycle starts again
Sound familiar?
The worst part about this cycle is that after a few months of it you feel like you’ve been dieting for ages but you’re actually heavier than when you started.
So listen up: if this behaviour is common it this tells me you’re continuously attempting stupid fucking diets.
Over 50% of people who are eventually diagnosed with eating disorders start out in the “plan > diet > binge” cycle I explained above, so we need drop these overly restrictive crash diets like a bad habit if we are to succeed.
That means no more “cabbage soup diet”, and no more “juice detoxes”, and no more “500 calories per day” bullshit!
We now have decades of peer-reviewed research (the “gold standard” of data) to show that you don’t need to do an extreme diet in order to lose weight.
It’s our own feelings of frustration and panic which makes us do that.
Instead, we now know that there’s nothing stopping you from enjoying any of your favourite foods while still seeing great weight loss results provided you are able to control your total calorie intake, but in order to do this we must learn how to develop a new set of nutritional rules. (4, 5, 6)
We do that by removing the usual stigmas which surround food (e.g. no more lists of “good” and “bad”, or “healthy” and “naughty”), and then focusing on the numbers game – because that’s all your nutrition really is! (7)
This is nutrition model otherwise known as flexible dieting, and it’s a strategy which many of my clients (and I) started using way back in the mid-2000s after growing tired of the endless struggle of restrictive so-called “clean eating” bodybuilding diet plans. You can read more about that here, and I recommend giving that a go if you feel like you’re stuck in the “last supper syndrome” cycle I described above.
References:
- Ogden J., et al. Cognitive changes to preloading in restrained and unrestrained eaters as measured by the Stroop task. Int J Eat Disord (1993).
- Bryan C. J., et al. Harnessing adolescent values to motivate healthier eating. PNAS (2016).
- Binge eating disorder. NEDA (2019).
- Berry D. An emerging model of behavior change in women maintaining weight loss. Nurs Sci Q (2004).
- Spreckley M., et al. Perspectives into the experience of successful, substantial long-term weight-loss maintenance: a systematic review. Int J Qual Stud Health Well-being (2021).
- Smith C. F., et al. Flexible vs. Rigid dieting strategies: relationship with adverse behavioral outcomes. Appetite (1999).
- Stewart T. M., et al. Rigid vs. flexible dieting: association with eating disorder symptoms in nonobese women. Appetite (2002).