my cheat meal this evening ! ( not good ) !!!

[hillbill78]

just had to give in, how much you recon this lot will set me back on a cuttin diet ?
1 large pizza
1 portion wedges
1 cheeseburger
1 piece fried chicken
can of coke
all within 2 hours.
i dont feel bad about having it, and i wont eat and s**t again for at least 2-3 weeks.
been v.strict last 3 weeks so just had one bad evening but feel i have my craving out the way. would that set me back that much ??
cheers

[gbrice75]

Well, I have a few thoughts. Firstly, this really wasn't a cheat meal, it was an all out binge. That's ALOT of food! The important question is - was this planned? Not necessarily the food choices, but the cheat itself? How long have you been cutting? 3 weeks? That's not a good enough time to be already having cheat meals, especially one like this, IMHO. What are your stats?

Eating like this can set you back quite a bit. Think about it: Let's say you're cutting and after calorie restriction and cardio, you're at a 500 calorie deficit behind your TDEE. In 2 weeks, you've burned 7000 calories. In 3 weeks, you've burned 10,500. What you've listed above is EASILY close to 10K calories. That's nearly 3 weeks of your efforts?

Now, i've simplified it quite a bit and it doesn't work exactly like that, but i'm trying to make a point. Binging like this can easily negate a good week or 2 of proper dieting. Get your diet on track for a decent amount of time, 2-3 months before planning cheats IMO. Get your body into a 'fat burning mode'. Then start planning a small cheat meal, no more than once a week - and it can't be like the above. Pick one of those things - have a few slices of pizza, or have a cheeseburger, etc - not all of this. If you really want to be hardcore, Just have a large high carb meal like pasta with meat sauce or something like that, and plan it around an intense workout such as leg day.

Hope this helps

[jimmyinkedup]

You HAVE to look at it like this. Its one meal...your one meal away from being back on track. Just make sure you do....

[cmdace18]

You HAVE to look at it like this. Its one meal...your one meal away from being back on track. Just make sure you do....

well i disagree. that's not one meal. that's like 10 meals of calories. if you have 6 meals a day for 7 days, that's 42 meals. he basically had 25% of his weekly meals in 2 hours. i 100% with what gbrice said.

its happened to me in the past, and the mindset jimmy said is true, just look at it as "one meal", but don't do that again. and it seems that you will do that again in 2-3 weeks based upon the comments above. you won't hit your goals going down that path. sorry for the harsh reality.

why waste all that hard work in the gym, in the AM early doing cardio, fighting off temptation for 2 hours? next time plan it. only get pizza by the slice and buy 2, not the whole pie, etc.

[gbrice75]

I want to clarify what I said above - I don't mean to say that you've completely derailed your diet and you should be freaking out. Not at all. I agree with Jimmy in saying just get back on track, and move on.

What I DO want to reiterate is if you're eating like this every 2-3 weeks, you are being very counter productive to your goals.

[bigslick7878]

An entire large pizza is ridiculous, although I can't see how you are getting 10k out of that maybe 5k...still bad.

If I "cheat" it is usually with 2 maybe 3 slices at most. That is about a 1000 calories right there.

[gbrice75]

An entire large pizza is ridiculous, although I can't see how you are getting 10k out of that maybe 5k...still bad.

If I "cheat" it is usually with 2 maybe 3 slices at most. That is about a 1000 calories right there.

Did you read the whole thing? He didn't eat just the pizza, he had a burger, wedges, soda, wings, etc.

[LatissimusaurousRex]

[Sgt. Hartman]

^^^^lmfao

[hillbill78]

haha, just been for a 1 hour run and done 15 minutes abdominals and no longer feel guilt, was a planned cheat meal (massive binge evening) from now on only 1 item every 2 weeks.

[cmdace18]

haha, just been for a 1 hour run and done 15 minutes abdominals and no longer feel guilt, was a planned cheat meal (massive binge evening) from now on only 1 item every 2 weeks.

good man.

[Damienm05]

It's may not quite be 10k cals but it definitely cancelled out at least a week of dieting/cardio, maybe two. If you think an hour of cardio and an ab routine even began to undo the damage, you're nuts. In the future, you need to run the macros for what you eat and then compare your over-eating against your deficit for the week. Whatever the caloric surplus is, in this case I imagine at least 4000, is the damage. That's over a lb. of fat and unless your diet/cardio is really on-point, that's more than you're burning in a week. Why am I being so negatvie? Because I don't want you to this again in two weeks. You say you'll be more careful but you won't, it only gets worse every time. Trust me.

As good a resource as this board is, I'm gonna go as far as to say that most guys would achieve their cutting goals a lot faster without it. Why? Because all these stupid cheat meal threads have beginners thinking it's okay, dare I say beneficial. It's not. Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Atkins, etc. - these programs/resources are tried and true for many people and they don't involve cheating. Bodybuilding may require a more in-depth nutrition plan, but like these programs, should not involve binge eating. A planned re-feed is one thing, but you don't need one. You're eating a balanced diet as is. Don't have another cheat meal in 2 weeks. Have one when you've achieved your goal. If that's too tall of an order, you'll have to accept spending a year trying to lose 4% BF when I've done it in a month. Sorry.

Glad to see you're back on the wagon at least.

[Flier]

Wait a minute.

If he had 10,000 cals in one sitting. There is no way his body will "absorb" those 10,000 cals. Most of it went to waste.
Lets say he MUST eat that crap. It will be much better to have it all in one sitting, rather than spread out, 1000 cals per day for 10 days, giving the body the opportunity to absorb every cal.

So to say he just set himself back 1-2 weeks would be wrong.

Let´s say my body can only absorb 1000 cals in one sitting, just like I can only absorb 50 gr protein i one sitting. Then what does it matter if I engulf 20,000 cals in one sitting? The body does not have the capacity to absorb.

Am I right?

[FireGuy]

From a calorie standpoint this is a bad choice and yes, and Damien pointed out, keep doing this every 2-3 weeks and a year from now you will be wondering why you are not making progress. What is worse about this is just the lack of discipline and focus. You do not earn a binge meal from 3 weeks of clean eating. If you have this mindset you are just setting yourself up for failure. It's really very simple, if it doesnt help you reach your goal, dont do it. This not only didnt help you reach your goal it likely canceled out much of the hard work you already put in.

[Damienm05]

No First Timer, spreading out the food would actually be much better. Your belief is opposite to what science substantiates. When consumed all at one time, the body is less efficient in terms of processing the nutrients for fuel/recovery - which only means a higher propensity for fat storage. Does this make sense?

If you're unable to spend all the cash in your pocket on one huge purhase, that doesn't mean you won't be left with loose change. Better to manage it properly throughout the day and at least be able to provide the cashier with exact change.

OP - once again, I'm just trying to show there's no mitigating factor here. Worst case scenario - you lost 7-10 days. You still have 7-10 that counted. Get in 60 more.

[Flier]

No First Timer, spreading out the food would actually be much better. Your belief is opposite to what science substantiates. When consumed all at one time, the body is less efficient in terms of processing the nutrients for fuel/recovery - which only means a higher propensity for fat storage. Does this make sense?

If you're unable to spend all the cash in your pocket on one huge purhase, that doesn't mean you won't be left with loose change. Better to manage it properly throughout the day and at least be able to provide the cashier with exact change.

OP - once again, I'm just trying to show there's no mitigating factor here. Worst case scenario - you lost 7-10 days. You still have 7-10 that counted. Get in 60 more.

Hmm..I guess that makes sense.

And...now I also see the advantage of using a credit card.

[jimmyinkedup]

Some really good points all the way around in this thread. My post eluded to the mental outlook you must have AFTER this occured. You have to look at it like your one meal away from being back on track and do it accordingly. Interestingly enough this is a priciple I learned on my very first structured eating plan - the zone diet. This is the second time in one week i refered to it after being here a few years and prob never doing so previously. The emphasis in that plan was if you go off track you are only 1 meal away from being back in the "zone". This helped me a lot initially when i did go off course a few times and prevents the "f- it i already blew it" mindset.
Everything posted in this thread is true . You cant do it regualrly and expect to get away with it on any level. You do need more discipline to succeed in your goals. Strive to progress , learn from your mistake , and never do it again. If for some stupid reason you do ...revert to the mindset of you are one meal away from being back on track. Dont let that mindset become a justification for stupid behavior...but it WILL save you from going off course long term and serve to get you back on track.
It takes time to acclimate to this lifestyle - what is sometimes a cheat meal to me now would often be percieved as healthy by normal standards. Sometimes it is a cheat - period , end of story. As you progress after time..your perception of a "cheat meal" will surely change.
Anyway best of luck....

[FireGuy]

Further elaboration, this is probably the biggest obstacle I see in people failing to reach their goals. It's the small "setbacks" that occur on a regular basis. Many people have a great mechanism for justifying the reasons for having them. Your body does not like to use stored body fat as an energy source, it needs to be manipulated to do so. Getting your body into this mode takes work and when you do things that take it out of this mode (all out binge meals of crap) it takes the body out of rythm. I think of it as a marathon runner who gets knocked down during a race, the setback seems small but getting back in stride takes a ton of effort.

If you are trying to go from 16%-10% this meal has no place in your diet, ever. Now, once you reach 10% and if your goal is to maintain 10% you would be ok doing this every once in awhile. Maintenance doesnt take nearly the work that acheivement does.

[Damienm05]

2 really good posts above that everyone should see.

I agree with FG 100% that these cheats are the biggest setback. When I critique diets, I look to optimize by excluding all on incorrect foods based on the goal, even healthy foods like skim milk, honey, fruit, parsnips, carrots, etc. However, it would be better to keep these foods for sanity's sake if it helps you avoid binges every once in a while. Point is, even a crappy, misguided, lenient cutting diet is far better than a great one with a cheat meal every other week in the long run.

[bigslick7878]

I can only imagine how many grams of fat came in that little binge. Probably 200 or close to it. That is like 18-20 clean meals....all at once.

[Flier]

I can only imagine how many grams of fat came in that little binge. Probably 200 or close to it. That is like 18-20 clean meals....all at once.

So...let´s say it was 200 gr. of Fat.

Are u guys saying the body has the capacity and probably did absorb all the 200 gr fat?

As we know, this is not the case with protein. If we eat 200 gr, the body can only absorb 40-50 gr.

[grumpee]

WHy ? If your going to do something do it right or not at all. I feel guilty if I take a bite of pizza or eat a little to many carbs

[Damienm05]

So...let´s say it was 200 gr. of Fat.

Are u guys saying the body has the capacity and probably did absorb all the 200 gr fat?

As we know, this is not the case with protein. If we eat 200 gr, the body can only absorb 40-50 gr.

Yes, that's what I'm saying. If anything, there's a far higher propensity for storing as fat due to the fact the nutrients arent spaced out and centered around activities.

With regard to protein, it's a parroted myth that I too subscribed to until recently n