Dealing w/ post cheat day

[JJW265]

Hey guys, I couldnt exactly find a thread like this, but maybe i didnt look hard enough so spare me.. Im not looking for advice here, all im proposing is to see how everyone goes about their cheat days and possibly bounce off of eachother with different ideas that we can apply for ourselves. whether you make it an all out binge and dont care or are a little bit more sensible such as fasting before and/or after, im just curious to see how the members on my favorite forum go about these days ... for me I tend to like fasting the entire day, doing cardio before my cheat, then having a pretty massive meal and fasting the following day. Lets see what all you guys have to say now

 

[Swolbraham]

i don't compensate at all. i have my meal, don't go crazy and move on with life


its a meal lol,no need to punish yourself

 

[bolt10]

That sounds extremely unhealthy. If you are depriving yourself (excessive fasting) to overindulge (binge), I highly suggest thinking if you should continue that. Find a more flexible approach with moderation to enjoy life and get out of a negative cycle.

I personally just keep mine to nothing crazy and don't even really think about it or how to "counter" it.

 

[EMPIREMIND]

I would agree as well. You are kind of throwing your whole system off doing that.

 

[scoooter]

So it reads like you starve yourself first then perform cardio with no fuel to further create a caloric deficit all so you can eat a lot...I've never done anything like this.

A cheat day for me is if there is some bad food choices such as pizza + Chinese food + some sweets...yeah I feel guilty, only for a minuet.

 

[hvactech]

My cheats are usually ice cream, donuts, etc.. they simply act as a refeed on carb up days and are bsckloaded

 

[grinnell27]

I generally just have a stupid large evening meal, rest of the day is just like any other... It's a cheat meal for me, not a day. Unless it is a special occasion, birthday etc.

Normal meal would be-

Pizza, garlic bread, chocolate/sweets, icecream and a cake.

That's a standard meal.

Estimated at around- 5000-6000cal.

Next day I just start dieting as normal again, regular routine.

 

[GNO]

Full out cheat days can get out of hand especially if your total daily caloric intake is 2000 or lower.

I keep it to one meal.

But, as stated one massive meal in one day is not a great idea. At least get in a couple more meals (maybe smaller than normal if you're really worried) in addition to the cheat meal.

The key is enjoy life.

 

[HIT4ME]

I keep it to one meal, do what I want, and look forward to it the entire week. I am on a PSMF right now anyway, so I'm already eating very little. I will eat what I want, take the hit and move on. You have to keep in mind that this is an ongoing process and takes time. If you are trying to get to X weight by Y day, then the cheat meal can be devastating. But if you are just trying to get by X weight and realize that even when you get their, you will have new struggles, it becomes an ongoing process and a cheat meal, even at 3,000 calories, won't set you back as much as you think. A cheat meal is a psychological break, it provides MANY benefits. Is it worth having 1 bad meal if it keeps you in check for 3-4 meals/day for the next 6 days? I think the 18-24 good meals will have a much larger impact than the one bad meal. There is no "making up for it".

Fasting because you ate something and punishing yourself is just a less effective approach to the same goal that eating and then throwing up will accomplish. Be careful.

 

[The Solution]

i don't compensate at all. i have my meal, don't go crazy and move on with life


its a meal lol,no need to punish yourself

Exactly
One meal should not set you back, if it is your eating way too much or taking it to the extreme
Replace one meal with a meal of your desire in reasonable amounts/limits.

Some people like to have a time limit (say 45-1 hour) and then move forward. Just replace one of your normal meals or your largest meal of the day with your cheat meal (not day). a day would be disaster for some who have a never ending appetite, or if given the green light will go APE on food.

I just get right on the diet the next day by hitting my macros to a T while enjoying a meal once a week.

0 point in fasting an entire day, not any beneficial for muscle protein synthesis and seems like a Binge/restriction cycle which may be very unhealthy.

 

[AntM1564]

I would have a single meal and limit the time limit, as The Solution stated. Give this article a read.

https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/cheat-meal-manifesto

 

[islandiron]

When Im not dieting for a comp, I eat clean all week. Then on weekend if I want couple slices of pizza I have it. Still dont eat after 7pm except for a Whey n water and my bcaas. Sunday is a good cheat day...then monday morning back eating nutritional meals that fuel and build. Do this and after 6 weeks you will really notice your body composition change.Fasting and binging is the worst thing, throws your body right out of whack jack.

 

[The Solution]

When Im not dieting for a comp, I eat clean all week. Then on weekend if I want couple slices of pizza I have it. Still dont eat after 7pm except for a Whey n water and my bcaas. Sunday is a good cheat day...then monday morning back eating nutritional meals that fuel and build. Do this and after 6 weeks you will really notice your body composition change.

why do you take BCAA's with whey which is already loaded with BCAA's? and why do you cutoff at X hour (7)?
The human body is always working. there is no relevance if you stop eating at 7 pm.

 

[islandiron]

why do you take BCAA's with whey which is already loaded with BCAA's? and why do you cutoff at X hour (7)?
The human body is always working. there is no relevance if you stop eating at 7 pm.

Ha, the human body is always working! Omg Solution dont you think after almost 30 years as a competetive BB I dont know that? I take my Bcaas 3 times a day now for longer than you been alive. Do I really know the real level of aminos in my GNC whey? Thats why there called supplements,, there used for supplementation, that way I know im getting lots. Looks like by your avatar you are a competetor as well, my next show is in 16 days. Will post a pic. One of the best things I ever did for my bf% was after 7pm only ingesting water, whey multi vite and aminos. When I wake up next day its creatine and eggs and my body soaks it in. This is what I like to do,, not for everyone, but for sure not irrelevent.

 

[HIT4ME]

When the Solution asked that - I was in agreement with him. When Islandiron responded, I was in agreement with him.

I am always glad to hear people questioning the logic of "don't eat at night" - this idea NEVER made sense to me. It is just dogma. It's crazy that people think eating after some magical hour is going to make much of any difference, and the science actually has evidence that eating a big breakfast is not good for you either - but everyone thinks eating a big breakfast and not eating after X at night is the way to do it.

Islandiron's response, however, shows that what he is really doing has less to do with the time of the day and more to do with an intermittent fasting type setup, which I think can be beneficial.

And both of you have more success and experience than me, so maybe what I say is irrelevant.

 

[The Solution]

When the Solution asked that - I was in agreement with him. When Islandiron responded, I was in agreement with him.

I am always glad to hear people questioning the logic of "don't eat at night" - this idea NEVER made sense to me. It is just dogma. It's crazy that people think eating after some magical hour is going to make much of any difference, and the science actually has evidence that eating a big breakfast is not good for you either - but everyone thinks eating a big breakfast and not eating after X at night is the way to do it.

Islandiron's response, however, shows that what he is really doing has less to do with the time of the day and more to do with an intermittent fasting type setup, which I think can be beneficial.

And both of you have more success and experience than me, so maybe what I say is irrelevant.

Agree with you on the dogma of eating at night.
because there is research out there to show that eating more at night (Carbs) can help with seretonin levels + increased sleep
or greater fatloss:

http://forum.reactivetrainingsystems.com/content.php?108-The-Biorhythm-Diet

"By ingesting high-carb meals in the morning, the same “metabolic inflexibility” occurred, and the metabolism is fixed towards glucose oxidation instead of fat oxidation. This also increases fat storage from meals eaten during the day, and higher-fat meals eaten in the evening in particular.
-- By ingesting high-carb meals in the evening, you get a bump in the natural leptin signal (occurring 3-6hrs after going to sleep), essentially increasing fat burning through the night and the rest of the following day.

-- Insulin sensitivity is higher in all cells early in the day, including fat cells, but decreases towards the afternoon and evening, thus partitioning carbs ingested at this time more efficiently into muscle vs. fat. This is obviously further improved by training the muscle that day.

-- Eating carbs will increase the feel-good neurotransmitter serotonin and make you sleepy. What better time to have your carbs than a couple of hours before bedtime so you can fall into a deeper, higher-quality sleep"


http://www.leangains.com/2011/06/is-late-night-eating-better-for-fat.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3508745
Minimal changes of hormonal circadian rhythms were documented suggesting that the hypothalamus-hypophysis network is scarcely affected by meal timing. Weight loss did not vary in both short- and long-term protocol.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1550038
While it's interesting to note that lipid oxidation (fat burning) was consistently higher in the PM-group, the duration of the study (15 days) was very shor

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9040548
In this study participants alternated between two 6-week phases of the same diet of which 70% of the daily caloric intake was eaten in the morning or evening respectively. Larger morning meals caused greater weight loss compared to evening meals, but the extra weight lost was in the form of muscle mass. Overall, the larger evening meals preserved muscle mass better and resulted in a greater loss in body fat percentage.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17483007
It might be worth noting that nitrogen loss, which is a rough marker for muscle loss, was not affected by eating time or meal frequency; there was no difference between the 5-meal phase or the 22-hour fasting phases with one AM/PM-meal.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21475137
Both groups lost weight and saw improvements on several health markers, but group B lost more weight (-11 kg vs -9 kg), body fat (-7% vs -5%), stayed fuller and more satiety, and improved their hormonal profile more than group A:

But what I found most interesting, at least for those of us who want to maintain low body fat, was that the carb-rich dinner increased average leptin levels compared to the standard diet:

Our experimental diet might manipulate daily leptin secretion, leading to higher relative concentrations throughout the day. We propose that this modification of hormone secretion helped participants experience greater satiety during waking hours, enhance diet maintenance over time and have better anthropometric outcomes.

 

[islandiron]

Agree with you on the dogma of eating at night.
because there is research out there to show that eating more at night (Carbs) can help with seretonin levels + increased sleep
or greater fatloss:

http://forum.reactivetrainingsystems.com/content.php?108-The-Biorhythm-Diet

"By ingesting high-carb meals in the morning, the same "metabolic inflexibility" occurred, and the metabolism is fixed towards glucose oxidation instead of fat oxidation. This also increases fat storage from meals eaten during the day, and higher-fat meals eaten in the evening in particular.
-- By ingesting high-carb meals in the evening, you get a bump in the natural leptin signal (occurring 3-6hrs after going to sleep), essentially increasing fat burning through the night and the rest of the following day.

-- Insulin sensitivity is higher in all cells early in the day, including fat cells, but decreases towards the afternoon and evening, thus partitioning carbs ingested at this time more efficiently into muscle vs. fat. This is obviously further improved by training the muscle that day.

-- Eating carbs will increase the feel-good neurotransmitter serotonin and make you sleepy. What better time to have your carbs than a couple of hours before bedtime so you can fall into a deeper, higher-quality sleep"

http://www.leangains.com/2011/06/is-late-night-eating-better-for-fat.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3508745
Minimal changes of hormonal circadian rhythms were documented suggesting that the hypothalamus-hypophysis network is scarcely affected by meal timing. Weight loss did not vary in both short- and long-term protocol.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1550038
While it's interesting to note that lipid oxidation (fat burning) was consistently higher in the PM-group, the duration of the study (15 days) was very shor

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9040548
In this study participants alternated between two 6-week phases of the same diet of which 70% of the daily caloric intake was eaten in the morning or evening respectively. Larger morning meals caused greater weight loss compared to evening meals, but the extra weight lost was in the form of muscle mass. Overall, the larger evening meals preserved muscle mass better and resulted in a greater loss in body fat percentage.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17483007
It might be worth noting that nitrogen loss, which is a rough marker for muscle loss, was not affected by eating time or meal frequency; there was no difference between the 5-meal phase or the 22-hour fasting phases with one AM/PM-meal.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21475137
Both groups lost weight and saw improvements on several health markers, but group B lost more weight (-11 kg vs -9 kg), body fat (-7% vs -5%), stayed fuller and more satiety, and improved their hormonal profile more than group A:

But what I found most interesting, at least for those of us who want to maintain low body fat, was that the carb-rich dinner increased average leptin levels compared to the standard diet:

Our experimental diet might manipulate daily leptin secretion, leading to higher relative concentrations throughout the day. We propose that this modification of hormone secretion helped participants experience greater satiety during waking hours, enhance diet maintenance over time and have better anthropometric outcomes.

That was a great read! Very valid scientific points made for sure. I dont mess with my seretonin levels much any more in regards to sleep help. Im one of the lucky ones who sleep 6-7 hours soundly everynite. My body runs best on high quality protein, moderate carbs, and low fat. Its cuz I have been on same nutritional regime and training cycle for a long long time. I have bros who eat big carb meals 2 hours before bed and thrive on it. BB is such a personal journey that I believe it takes YEARS of trial and error to really discover the optimum combo for your physiolocical make up. Thanks Solution!

 

[B5150]

Some people take all of the fun out of, well, just about everything...

 

[islandiron]

When the Solution asked that - I was in agreement with him. When Islandiron responded, I was in agreement with him.

I am always glad to hear people questioning the logic of "don't eat at night" - this idea NEVER made sense to me. It is just dogma. It's crazy that people think eating after some magical hour is going to make much of any difference, and the science actually has evidence that eating a big breakfast is not good for you either - but everyone thinks eating a big breakfast and not eating after X at night is the way to do it.

Islandiron's response, however, shows that what he is really doing has less to do with the time of the day and more to do with an intermittent fasting type setup, which I think can be beneficial.

And both of you have more success and experience than me, so maybe what I say is irrelevant.

Thanks Hit! Thats right when you said intermittent, but its not really a fast, which I consider to be only if it lasts 18-24 hours. Thiis is just putting my body in certain metabolic state from 7pm till 7am where it is basically digesting my protein, vitamins and aminos, till I awake lean, well rested and craving more protein and carbs, which I consume every 2-3 hours till 7pm or 6 some days. Then do it again and again for YEARS! I posted a pic from last summer, its in the pic section on this site. You be the judge if my formula works.For me that is.

 

[Nvr2bReplaced]

Basic detox methods, psyllum husk fiber, lemon water through out the day, which is something I do daily anyways so I guess I don't do anything special, have your high calorie day, and move on! Great post in here!

 

[hvactech]

My detox method - nothing.... works like a charm

 

[Chrisehyoung]

I compensate for my cheat meal by eating clean 6 1/2 days a week. When I have some wings and beers or pizza and ice cream on a Saturday night I don't feel guilty at all. When i'm in a cut I find that I can go all week and not lose anything but i'll have a cheat meal and two days later i've dropped some weight. Every. Damn. Time.

 

[AntM1564]

I compensate for my cheat meal by eating clean 6 1/2 days a week. When I have some wings and beers or pizza and ice cream on a Saturday night I don't feel guilty at all. When i'm in a cut I find that I can go all week and not lose anything but i'll have a cheat meal and two days later i've dropped some weight. Every. Damn. Time.

Best way to do it in my opinion. Limit yourself to one meal a week and to make sure it is one meal, limit yourself to 45-60 minutes. That should include cooking, cleaning, eating, etc. Or if you go out, ordering and what not.