cheat day?

do you guys subscribe to this philosophy?

basically every weekend is my "cheat day"... I do pretty damn well during the week. So, is this a good thing to mix it up a bit, or no?

shut it pancakes

love the new username btw

My "cheat day" Is saturday mornings and I eat a pack of poptarts. I try really hard not to stray from my diet.

But for serious though, and Solly, please feel free to sh1t all over what I say, but cheat days are recommended on most strict diets. Don't have to go overboard but stuff you face with a meal or two of what you want.

I was told to not worry so much about your DAILY macros, but your weekly ones. One day won't mess you up all that much.

Cheat day is a bad thing. You reward yourself for being good, and you get the mentality that things can slide. It is better off that you just stick to your routine and eating habits and dont think of wanting or needing a cheat day. If you crave sweets, just eat one pop-tart in the evening or a small sweet instead of indulging all at once. This is how binge eaters are formed.

Originally Posted by HaloArchive

Cheat day is a bad thing. You reward yourself for being good, and you get the mentality that things can slide. It is better off that you just stick to your routine and eating habits and dont think of wanting or needing a cheat day. If you crave sweets, just eat one pop-tart in the evening or a small sweet instead of indulging all at once. This is how binge eaters are formed.

I agree with you for the most part. In a perfect world we wouldnt "need" cheat days but I love poptarts and id rather sup two poptarts for 3 egg whites and oatmeal for one meal a week and following my eating for the rest of the week perfectly.

Originally Posted by HaloArchive

Cheat day is a bad thing. You reward yourself for being good, and you get the mentality that things can slide. It is better off that you just stick to your routine and eating habits and dont think of wanting or needing a cheat day. If you crave sweets, just eat one pop-tart in the evening or a small sweet instead of indulging all at once. This is how binge eaters are formed.

Fully with you except that part

every day is cheat day when u bulking fuuuuaaa

IIFYM brah

Originally Posted by kushy

IIFYM brah

Depends on a number of things, primarily what you're training for and what your diet normally looks like.

There are ways around "cheat days". Some bodybuilders incorporate "cheat meals", which is simply one meal that isn't as good. Instead of a lean turkey burger on a whole wheat bun with baked sweet potato wedges, they go for the bacon cheeseburger and fries. This is not something they do for a whole day, though. It's one meal that is done very sporadically, not scheduled once a week.
I personally think that you shouldn't give yourself a full day "pass" to eat whatever you want. Instead, one meal would be the compromise. The rest of the day is nutritious/healthy. Doing a whole day can set you back in a number of ways. I ate like crap during the SuperBowl and felt like **** the next day, which was leg day. If I eat like crap on an off day, I can feel it the next day at the gym. I have less energy and my hydration is typically down; but that's just me.

I would suggest that there are ways around "cheat days". Instead of indulging on something really sugary and sweet, make a fruit smoothie or eat a flavored Chobani. If you crave a beef burger, opt for lean 93% or 97% beef instead of the more flavorful but fattier 85%, and just add more spices. Want a cheeseburger? Add some reduced fat cheese. Fries? Baked American fries with pepper, rosemary and garlic instead of salt and oil.
I have a family recipe for pancakes that is excellent (no joke). However, when I make them I alter the recipe to cut out a lot of the sugar, and I make them with stone ground whole wheat flour instead of bleached AP flour. Stuff like that.

I used to subscribe to the "eat everything in sight" mentality for bulking back in the day, but I paid for it by putting on a significant amount of fat. When you are bulking/building, you can get away with more foods than with cutting or maintaining, but you still have to be congnizant of the nutrition you're getting-or not getting-from the food. A supersized #5 with Sprite could equal two normal meals where you're taking in much better quality carbs, a lot more protein, and a fraction of the fat.
Food for thought.

errrrre day............until spring.

I think of it like this... if I spent a whole day eating bad, that's 15% of my week. I'm a big believer in the 80/20 rule for eating healthy, in that if you adhere to a diet 80% of the time you will see results. So by having an entire day dedicated to cheating, you are using up pretty much your entire weeks worth of bad food, leaving you no room.

I do my best to eat healthy whenever possible, with that 20% wiggle room for when I cannot. So instead of "scheduling" bad meals, let them happen naturally (cake at a birthday party, getting drunk for a buddies bday, eating out with coworkers etc).

Also 4 days of the week I eat high protein / high fat (lots of ribeye steaks, cheese, salads with olive oil etc) and low carb so these are the days I get in the delicious tasting food without paying the price of added body fat gain. The 3 workout days are high carb / high protein with low fat, so thats my typical "shape magazine" eating healthy days... lots of chicken, rice, and sweet potatoes etc with nothing added.

For me, eating healthy means natural non processed foods... to most it means avoiding eating fat (especially saturated). There is nothing wrong with saturated fat, its the hydrogenized vegetable oil fats (like canola oil) that turn into unnatural trans fat (deep frying etc).

If you avoid pairing fats and carbs in the same meals / days then you will avoid body fat gain, and still get to eat most of the foods you consider "cheating" items. A cheeseburger is "bad" for you because it combines A) processed carbs from bun with high dietary fat and B) high calories from fat content = more likely you are to be excess calories for the day. If you remove the bun, and make sure you aren't eating excess calories that day over maintenance, there is nothing wrong with it.


Cliffs: IIFYM

That's my 2c