cheat days

[Angel of death]

good/bad? useless? whats the word on these

[gbrice75]

Depends on the individual and extent of the cheat, but IMO, generally bad.

For people (like myself) with food/eating issues, it's horrible. It promotes poor food behavior (binge eating).... most people are here because they have a hard time controlling their eating. Binging will not help this. Now a planned cheat MEAL is another whole animal all together. On a strict cut, it can be beneficial to get a good caloric boost here and there, for the phychological effect if nothing else.

[JohnnnyBlazzze]

^^^ Agree, I think a cheat meal is more so to keep a person sane after being on a cut and restricting yourself to certain foods for so long. Depending on what the cheat meal consist of it probably doesn't have much healthy choices or solid nutrients, hence cheat.

[HeadAndArm]

I think it's better for the psychological effect of rewarding yourself for a solid week or whatever time frame of eating well. My cheat day is tomorrow looking forward to it haha.

[DangerDave]

on my previous cut I found that a cheat meal completely through me off and slowed down fat loss for a week. It litterally took a week for me to start burning fat after the cheat meals.

[dtex587]

Im the same way with cheats as gbrice said if i have just 1 of something bad i end up having 5 more by the time the day is done where as if i didnt have any it never would of happened.I do think planned cheats have be done though to keep ur sanity.

[--->>405<<---]

im with GB on a planned cheat meal especially while cutting.. if u eat 900cals below tdee for 6 days thats 5400cals worth of deficit created.. if u have a 2000calorie cheat meal its gonna eat into ur weekly deficit.. if i were to have a cheat day id prob consume more like 5000cals consisting of prob 55%carb (the wrong type) 35%fat and 10% protein.. may as well call that week a waste.. IMO..

if running maintenance i may allow a snack sized portion of cheat type food here and there but i also pay close attention to my bf..

[iSwanson]

Depends on the individual and extent of the cheat, but IMO, generally bad.

For people (like myself) with food/eating issues, it's horrible. It promotes poor food behavior (binge eating).... most people are here because they have a hard time controlling their eating. Binging will not help this. Now a planned cheat MEAL is another whole animal all together. On a strict cut, it can be beneficial to get a good caloric boost here and there, for the phychological effect if nothing else.

Completely agree, I've fallen completely out of a diet for a week or two just because of one night of bad eating. Once you taste the food that you love, it's extremely hard for me to refrain from it again. So I generally try to avoid them all together, but if I need something sweet I look for a somewhat healthy alternative, all "natural" strawberry shortcake. Only need a few ingredient and it tastes great.

Strawberries
1 cup OJ
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp sugar sub
some short cakes (I can even eat this without the short cakes)

Put orange juice in pan and bring to a boil add in vanilla and sugar sub, boil until it starts to thicken. cool to room temp. Pour in bowl and add in as many cut strawberries as you want put in frig and cover for 30 minutes. Now either pour over shortcakes or eat it without. Obviously this is nearly nothing but carbs so try to eat something like this earlier in the day instead of later. At least you get some vitamins from this.

[ironbeck]

The weirdest thing happened to me, I proceeded to indulge on my cheat day and everything tasted like shit! salty, processed, greasy and non fulfilling. I have conditioned my body to crave healthy....Its amazing and I think I like it, it will help alot and my cheat days won't consist of anything from a 'box'. I'm talking spaghetti and sauce with some kind of 5cheesy bread, I couldn't and finish eating it.

[Biceppeak]

stay away from the sugary food and you should be good. i see it all the time and i have even fallen victim to it...its like part from the old national lampoons vactions when the girl is eating jelly then all of a sudden she is eating a whole table of jelly and cant stop. i think a good cheat meal is adding some sauce onto your meals or seasoning to some meat. but sometimes that just doesnt cut it and you have to go for the pizza. imo i think having one at the 4 or 6 week mark is always great. just dont have a cheat meal when contest prepping...that is a diet pet peev for me lol

[Angel of death]

on my previous cut I found that a cheat meal completely through me off and slowed down fat loss for a week. It litterally took a week for me to start burning fat after the cheat meals.

100% agree with this I look so much fatter today because I cheated yesterday. never again i don't think

[DeadlyD]

I would go insane not having a little cheat meal once a week, but I make up for it!!

[Ben_66]

good/bad? useless? whats the word on these

Awesome, I was going to actually write a post about this.

For me, when I do have a cheat day/meal is eating beef jerky or a protein bar. If I do cheat I always make sure to have protein.

[jpowell]

so much good info here.

[SexySweetheart]

with out cheat days....

people around me go insane! lol
i do think it depends on the cheat food/duration/time cheating/training sched/...but is mostly a mental thing IMO