cutting and cheat meals??

[wnt2bBeast]

Have a question for the diet gurus..What is the deal with cheat days or cheat meals? I have been trying to bring my BF down for the past 16 weeks..things have been going relatively well. Im very strict with my diet i write down everything i eat cals/pro/carb/fats everyday every meal!!Occasionally i will give myself 1 meal to eat whatever i want pizza, chinese, mcd's..I havent had one in 3 weeks but last nite i ordered some general tso's ate almost the whole thing plus the egg roll!! I ate this in addition to all my protein but less carbs and fat than normal.this morning woke up did my cardio plus had my bfast and i seem more vascular as well as defined?? I am still quite a ways away from my goal of 6-8%, currently around 13-15 i think?? Just looking for some rationale on this phenomena lol, maybe its all psychological!! thanks

 

[wnt2bBeast]

no opinions or similar experiences?

 

[JKurz1]

And two days later, when the sodium kicks in, did you notice a blur in the definition? Always used to happen to me.....thats why I've totally eliminated the "cheating" game........

 

[bran987]

1 cheat meal every 3 weeks? knock yourself out in my opinion.. jkurz.. the sodium will dissipate when returning to a normal diet over the next few days.. no?

 

[wnt2bBeast]

And two days later, when the sodium kicks in, did you notice a blur in the definition? Always used to happen to me.....thats why I've totally eliminated the "cheating" game........

No never seems to happen its now monday and no change for the worse!!

 

[JKurz1]

1 cheat meal every 3 weeks? knock yourself out in my opinion.. jkurz.. the sodium will dissipate when returning to a normal diet over the next few days.. no?

SUre it does..........just makes for a really long day.........

 

[Shame247]

The problem with cheat meals is that it's like opening the door just a CRACK and that junkfood basically kicking the door down and swamping you LOL..

Take me for instance: I made up my mind last Sunday to start dieting again...I went through the whole week perfectly then came the weekend. I was going fishing with my dad on Saturday so I said "ah what the hell I'll eat a couple bacon egg & cheese sandwiches with him in the morning as a cheat"....well that morning-only cheat turned into "damn it's 2pm on the boat and there's a box of cheese nips"....THEN that evening I'd been eating junk all afternoon so I said "fuck it I'll just eat a pizza tonight"....THEN THAT TURNED INTO SUNDAY and "Oh fuck it I'll just start over again Monday"

LOL....get the point?

So now I'm stuck back where I started from, starting over today (Monday) and feeling guilty and fat as shit. So basically the moral of the story is: Cheat meal is ok once in a while.....but you better have the will power to back it up.

 

[wnt2bBeast]

The problem with cheat meals is that it's like opening the door just a CRACK and that junkfood basically kicking the door down and swamping you LOL..

Take me for instance: I made up my mind last Sunday to start dieting again...I went through the whole week perfectly then came the weekend. I was going fishing with my dad on Saturday so I said "ah what the hell I'll eat a couple bacon egg & cheese sandwiches with him in the morning as a cheat"....well that morning-only cheat turned into "damn it's 2pm on the boat and there's a box of cheese nips"....THEN that evening I'd been eating junk all afternoon so I said "fuck it I'll just eat a pizza tonight"....THEN THAT TURNED INTO SUNDAY and "Oh fuck it I'll just start over again Monday"

LOL....get the point?

So now I'm stuck back where I started from, starting over today (Monday) and feeling guilty and fat as shit. So basically the moral of the story is: Cheat meal is ok once in a while.....but you better have the will power to back it up.

thats the thing its subjective..I eat just about the same thing everyday..I am very strict i have been dieting for 16 weeks now and while i may have a cheat "meal" it never turns into a day of binge eating..If i have pizza i will eat 2 slices but i will make sure that my other 5 or 6 meals are perfect

 

[Shame247]

See I don't have the will power for that lol....Which is why I'm better off not even looking at the junkfood and going 3-4 months straight without a cheat meal b/c once I get a TASTE of something, I'm like a coke-fiend lol....

 

[MrMakaveli]

You'll want to cheat when doing long term dieting, espeically more than you currently are. Rationale is, during long term dieting leptin drops. When this happens your basically metabolically fucked and muscle loss will increase, fat loss will stall and you'll get EXTREME cravings.

Basically on a cheat day when you flood the body with food one day a week or so, you basically burn off a TON of those calories throgh heat/leptin increasing and you'll store most of it in your muscles (ala CKD refeed) so it's really quite a good thing

 

[JKurz1]

You'll want to cheat when doing long term dieting, espeically more than you currently are. Rationale is, during long term dieting leptin drops. When this happens your basically metabolically fucked and muscle loss will increase, fat loss will stall and you'll get EXTREME cravings.

Basically on a cheat day when you flood the body with food one day a week or so, you basically burn off a TON of those calories throgh heat/leptin increasing and you'll store most of it in your muscles (ala CKD refeed) so it's really quite a good thing

Disagree.......big time............no need to use CHEAT foods for a re-feed or splurge...just bump the carbs and protein and shockj the system with an abundance of CLEAN foods........same result, less stress....

 

[wnt2bBeast]

I like your thinking MrMakaveli..Keeping it clean isnt neceassarily going to be better for you Jkurz..Remember dropping fat has to do with calories and the amount you take in..so even if you load yourself up with 500 grams of carbs from oatmeal you're still going to be taking in excess cals..I think when dieting long term cheat "meals" are a good thing..Also helps in keeping T3 levels high rather than suppressing them..

 

[wnt2bBeast]

See I don't have the will power for that lol....Which is why I'm better off not even looking at the junkfood and going 3-4 months straight without a cheat meal b/c once I get a TASTE of something, I'm like a coke-fiend lol....

Bro i hear ya, it does take discipline..I was not always so strict and would easily stray off course..What helped me was to stop thinking about what foods taste good (pizza burgers etc) and instead i thought about food as muscle..Im only putting this in my mouth to look better get bigger and stronger, not because it taste good..After awhile i became so programmed it doesnt bother me when my family orders pizza and im eating egg whites..stick with it you can do it

 

[JKurz1]

I like your thinking MrMakaveli..Keeping it clean isnt neceassarily going to be better for you Jkurz..Remember dropping fat has to do with calories and the amount you take in..so even if you load yourself up with 500 grams of carbs from oatmeal you're still going to be taking in excess cals..I think when dieting long term cheat "meals" are a good thing..Also helps in keeping T3 levels high rather than suppressing them..

Sure you would like to his response better.......it's what you wanted to hear.....just in my case and many of the guys I know, the results are so much better when I stay away from the junk..........I think of cheating as 1 step forward, but 2 back...........where mine might be 2 steps forward and one back....too each his own bro...do whatever works and keeps you sane.......dieting is hard enough as it is, without having to worry even more about how to CHEAT!

 

[wnt2bBeast]

Sure you would like to his response better.......it's what you wanted to hear.....just in my case and many of the guys I know, the results are so much better when I stay away from the junk..........I think of cheating as 1 step forward, but 2 back...........where mine might be 2 steps forward and one back....too each his own bro...do whatever works and keeps you sane.......dieting is hard enough as it is, without having to worry even more about how to CHEAT!

Actually i like when people present a different point of view, it leads to new ideas..So i appreciate your post just as much as Maka's even if we're not on the same side lol..I agree dieting sucks..I really wanna do this once then just lift and bulk and not let my BF go above 10-12%. Just do some cutting before each summer..going from 12 to 8 is a lot easier than having to go from 20ish to 8..

 

[MrMakaveli]

Disagree.......big time............no need to use CHEAT foods for a re-feed or splurge...just bump the carbs and protein and shockj the system with an abundance of CLEAN foods........same result, less stress....

But what's the point? In 24 hours knowing the body will burn most of what you eat through heat, assuming the use of R-ALA which should be a given, why would you keep eating clean? Cheat days are just as much about mental satisfaction as fixing leptin imho.

To each his own however, I've been having one all out cheat day since I started with swole and I really notice zero difference between eating pizza all day and rice+chicken besdies slight bloat which is more or less meaningless for a day.

 

[juve]

taste IS transient.
'nothing tastes as good as lean feels' - up to you to harness your power and attain your goals, or not

 

[Shame247]

Bro i hear ya, it does take discipline..I was not always so strict and would easily stray off course..What helped me was to stop thinking about what foods taste good (pizza burgers etc) and instead i thought about food as muscle..Im only putting this in my mouth to look better get bigger and stronger, not because it taste good..After awhile i became so programmed it doesnt bother me when my family orders pizza and im eating egg whites..stick with it you can do it

See that's the thing about cheat foods...it's not that they taste SOOO great, it's that it's a MENTAL THING....Honestly, how many of us have cheated on our diet and then after we ate it thought "that wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be"....

I think the BIGGEST mental hurdle is getting over thinking of junkfood as a "reward" or "comfort"....ie "I am dieting right now but at the end of the week I'm gonna have a big ol cake!"...or "I deserve this peice of cake"....or whatever.

If I could turn my thought process around I'd be set. The only time I REALLY did this was back in the year 2000....I went about a month with zero junkfood and it was like breaking a barrier or bad habit....once that barrier was broken, I could drive by fastfood places and just turn my nose up and think how disgusting those places are.

 

[wnt2bBeast]

Willpower my man..How bad you want it? The mind is a powerful weapon