I have reserved every Sunday as my non-workout day. (Today only being my third one) I have always assumed that it would make sense to keep everything routine except for the not working out part, meaning that I would eat the same as on workout days. On any given workout day my breakfast could consist of oatmeal, kashi, toast, eggs, oj, etc. And for lunch maybe a turkey/tuna sandwich or two, and for dinner maybe more turkey, or steak or some sort of fish. And in between those meals I eat lots of fruit/veggies, natural PB etc. Also on my workout days I have a PWO shake. I was thinking I should just eat the same on Sundays as on any other day, maybe minus the PWO, even though I hear it could be good even on non - workout days. Should this be my cheat meal day as well? I really havent had a true cheat meal since I started my program 3 months ago, so I'm really reluctant to do so. Right now im pretty cut, 5'9 145 pounds, and probably 8 percent body fat. For now I just want to maintain this, I dont want to get any smaller, and I am debating whether or not I should start bulkin' up. So how do you guys set up your meals on non-workout days? Thanks....

It makes sense to me that you'd eat less carbs on the days that you're not lifting weights.

I think you could probably lower you're cals a bit and do mainly pro/fat meals on off days.

This, of course, goes to which school of thought you follow.

One is: On some days it is ok to have a higher calorie intake/lower useage than the lower days, because this in turn stimulates your metabolism into realizing there is not a famine. In addition to this, doing it on a non-workout day will also show the body that it won't be stressed on those days as well (lower burn factor) which is yet another reason not to flick the famine switch. Also, most people don't go totally insane with their cheats, and a couple hundred extra calories on one single day out of a week isn't going to change anything in the long run.

Another one is: every calorie counts. Better to burn it off on a day when your activity is higher and you don't end up storing it instead. better to balance the in vs out on all days to your best advantage. If you end up having your cheat meal on a non-workout day, your body is going to have to store those extra calories, and then you'll just have to work harder on them tomarrow to release them.

The truth probably settles somewhere in the middle. Personally, I'm more in line with the first theory. It's like a running checkbook. You are creating a certain amount of ingoing and outgoing caloric balance, and whether one day is higher than the other 6, over a period of time makes very little difference. I have had cheat meals on exercise days, and non-exercise days and it literally made no difference to my results.

I like having my cheats on my off days, just because it's a sort of "day off" mindset that is easier to seperate from my dedicated days. really, it's only a couple hundred calories. You said you are already pretty cut and you are just maintaining it, so - I guess it's more a matter of Which would YOU prefer?

I agree, if you are only doing 1 rest day/week.

I have had really good results cutting while focussing carbs around workouts. Even on workout days, morings are low calorie-low carb, then I ramp up for my workout, eat a load afterwards, then back to small meals the next day. On off days I keep calories and carbs low.

Since I do strength training about 3 times/week this is not musch carbs over the whole week (30% calories), and I do find I have to eat more carbs on one of my non-strength training days. I basically listen to my body, and this usually happens the day after a harder cardio day. For instance I'll do my morning cardio, then have the opportunity to go for a bike ride. Guess what, the next day (actually mostly the morning) I have carb cravings - so I'll eat, still samll meals, but maye every 1-2 hours untill I feel like I'm back on track.

I perfer to cheat when I feel like I've been calorie deprived, which is exactly when I get the strongest urges (no suprise). So the bottom line is try to listen to your body - eventually it will send you the appropriate signals, although this might not be the case if you are just starting.

On off days I keep calories and carbs low..


Interesting Nedge- how much lower calorie-wise.