nutrional "cheat days"

This morning I had a bacon and egg roll and two hash browns from a **** fast food joint. Put a smile on my face for most of the day (that and summer has pretty much landed and all the girls are in short skirts again), so take from that what you will.

 

:deal

 

i cant find the studies right now but i was reading before that cheat days prevent your metabolism from going almost dormant. if you start decreasing your calorie intake your metabolism naturally slows after a certain period of time. like a self preservation thing, so if you can't get food, your body doesn't burn it as quick.

So the cheat meal (meal not day dont stuff yourself for 24 hours) helps keep your metabolism ticking over. this combined with the 6 small meals a day rather than 3 big ones through the week seems to do the trick.

I'll try and find them (pretty sure they got posted on mens health some time ago when i was on those forums) but if nothing else and even if the studies were internet crap made up by some fat student with no clue, it gives me a sense of satisfaction and helps give me something to look forward to through the week.

 

I have a BIG cheat meal, and yes, i find it helpful.

I mean, it's nice to reward yourself after putting your body through the grinder for 5-6 days.

I'll usually take one on a Friday night.

My cheat meal consists of a large pizza, ice cream and a bottle of coke.

Calorie manipulation through food & working out HARD all week = Not as bad as it should be! ;-)

 

At 15 and 140lbs I eat quite lot anyway and when I'm training maintenance seems to be about 3000 calories. I don't really have cheat days because they just leave me feeling down and sluggish but that could just be a mind thing.

 

I think you're referring to "starvation mode" which is an extreme drop in calories in a short amount of time. It's not related to cheat meals.

Cheat meals are more of a psychological thing, you don't have to have them at all. Some people just choose to eat healthy and that's it. Others like to have a cheat meal now and again to stop themselves going insane from eating only healthy foods (usually because they hate the stuff). A cheat meal a week isn't going to have any negative effects on your training unless it's a ridiculously huge cheat meal of around 5000 calories, even then it's not a big deal.

 

I tend to just eat healthy every day, i dont snack, i dont eat crap regularly. I eat good healthy home cooked meals. I (rightly or wrongly) eat 3 meals a day with maybe 1 healthy snack.

I dont have cheat days set out. I believe it just depends on your mentality. I dont like the idea of having a specific day set out to eat **** all in one go. However if i have the odd pizza for tea, or i fancy a couple beers with friends and i havnt drank for weeks then i wouldnt worry about it and still consider myself fairly healthy! I still want a life and dont want my life to be stressing about every bit of food i eat! When i know overall im healthy and fit.

Then again if i was competing (in anything) then it would be t-total and super clean diet! Which iv done before and you do see a massive benefit to the way you feel.

I think youve just got to be honest with yourself and if you are really just having the odd bit of crap , its not great but its not the end of the world either.

 

This describes me almost exactly, except replace beer with wine. And 3 meals with like 4 or 5.

Most of my snacks are fruit or vegetables. My diet is probably pretty high in fat, because I drink a lot of milk. And I don't eat as much fish as I'd like to/should. I really don't stress over the odd day or two when I've eaten less than ideal foods. I genuinely enjoy food, and if I'm eating too much crap my body will let me know and I'll adjust my meals accordingly.

 

exactly and its got to be for the individual what works for us might not work for others. There'll be people out there who read this and think ah kool so i dont have to worry about what im eating so much. However i naturally dont snack on junk , never have. And i know i dont eat ****, that is why i dont think about it. I also train incredibly hard!!

Someone else might consider moderation a pizza one night and indian a couple nights later and fish and chips on the weekend just to top it off and train 3 days a week for 45 mins

has to be to an individual and that individual needs to take responsibility and use common sense