Had a cheat day and I look leaner?

[uhit]

Hey all. I've been following a low carb diet and eating 300 cals below maint for the past 2 weeks and have had my first cheat/refeed yesterday where I went 500 cals surplus and about 150ish more grams of carbs.

I woke up this Morning and rather than being flat and only seeing my abs when tense, I looked fuller and somewhat visible abs.

What gives? I thought cheat days were meant to be there for sanity purposes. Can't think of any other reason to have one

[Khazima]

The main reason to have a 'cheat' or refeed day, is to do exactly that, refeed the muscles and fill them with glycogen again, hence why you look fuller.

[uhit]

The main reason to have a 'cheat' or refeed day, is to do exactly that, refeed the muscles and fill them with glycogen again, hence why you look fuller.

Noted. But is the caloric surplus haphazard toward my goal of losing body fat? Or is it better to do the 'if it fit your macros' approach and eat junk and stay within the caloric range.

[Docd187123]

Noted. But is the caloric surplus haphazard toward my goal of losing body fat? Or is it better to do the 'if it fit your macros' approach and eat junk and stay within the caloric range.

One day of overeating isnt going to affect your weight loss goals and in fact can be beneficial as Khazima stated.

[Khazima]

Noted. But is the caloric surplus haphazard toward my goal of losing body fat? Or is it better to do the 'if it fit your macros' approach and eat junk and stay within the caloric range.

I follow flexible dieting but the bulk of my food is 'bro' foods, but if i feel like something nice and i have calories left i'll eat it.

As for cutting though if you want to have a refeed day and go over your calories then you can adjust your calories every other day to set your total weekly deficit to whatever it needs to be (3500 for 1lb).