I had a few cheat meals and "sugar" this weekend. I put on 2.5 pounds but what I was telling my wife is it will come right off so I'm not freaking out about it. As John said, "easy come easy go."

Mick

I had a few cheat meals and "sugar" this weekend. I put on 2.5 pounds but what I was telling my wife is it will come right off so I'm not freaking out about it. As John said, "easy come easy go."

Mick

I totally agree, Mick...

And in addition, cheat meals are essential for me about every two weeks or so...they SO get me motivated for a new week of workouts :db:

Yea. I just hope by having a cheat mel or two we are not puuting the junk into our body that we avoided all week. ???

Yea. I just hope by having a cheat mel or two we are not puuting the junk into our body that we avoided all week. ???

Well I think thats the point of the cheat meal...As long as we're good the rest of the week, we should be all set with a cheat...In fact, I heard the shock to our thyroid with the extra caloric intake actually keeps everything in check...

Eat what you want on a cheat meal.

The idea behind a cheat meal, as I see it... is that we're a.) "topping off" fuel stores and b.) keeping the metabolism confused by a sudden infusion of calories and nutrients not otherwise processed in a clean bodybuilding diet.

Bottom line is, a clean week of eating and exercising lowers glycogen stores in the muscles. By eating a cheat meal, you're topping off glycogen stores. You're also keeping the thyroid on its toes. And you're allowing yourself a reward for your week of clean eating.

For clarity's sake, by my definition, a cheat day is the day you'll eat your cheat meal and one cheat snack. Anything you want for a meal, and later on, anything you want for a snack. You eat clean the rest of the day otherwise. I usually have a small snack in the afternoon instead of a full meal so I'm good and hungry come time to have the cheat meal.

That's how I try to reward myself for a clean weak of exercise and eating. This is, of course, assuming you've truly been good all week long...

The term "cheat meal" is not really a great term for it - it implies that "cheat meals" are transgressions, and they aren't. "Cheat meals" are a smart thing to add to pretty much any food strategy.

It would probably be better to call them "Recovery Meals," because you use them to recover muscle glycogen after a week of keeping your levels low and to get your metabolism to recover to the levels it was at before you started cutting down your food intake and upping your exercise.

But the term is very much entrenched and isn't likely to change.

And you're always going to weigh at least an extra pound or two after a good cheat meal because of all the water you retain when you restore your glycogen. It's just scale weight, not fat, and nothing to worry about. It'll go away soon enough.

On Saturday, I had pizza for my cheat meal. It was fantastic.

For my cheat snack later, I had some Oreos for the first time in over two years. They. Were. Glorious. :lol:

[QUOTE=PeteBDawg]The term "cheat meal" is not really a great term for it - it implies that "cheat meals" are transgressions, and they aren't. "Cheat meals" are a smart thing to add to pretty much any food strategy.

It would probably be better to call them "Recovery Meals," because you use them to recover muscle glycogen after a week of keeping your levels low and to get your metabolism to recover to the levels it was at before you started cutting down your food intake and upping your exercise.

But the term is very much entrenched and isn't likely to change.

And you're always going to weigh at least an extra pound or two after a good cheat meal because of all the water you retain when you restore your glycogen. It's just scale weight, not fat, and nothing to worry about. It'll go away soon en

I replied to this and then it looks like what someone else posted is my reply... :confused:

Here's my thoughts...My concern has always been, that we eat clean all week and then blow it by putting the same junk we avoided all week into our body.

And you're always going to weigh at least an extra pound or two after a good cheat meal because of all the water you retain when you restore your glycogen. It's just scale weight, not fat, and nothing to worry about. It'll go away soon enough.

I had a huge cheat meal on Saturday. Chinese food. I had 2 full plates and a small plate with some little munchy things to top me off. Then I had a slice of cheese cake and half of my wife's slice since she didn't finish hers. I was stuffed to the gills. I was in pain.

This morning I woke up and weighed myself afterwards and I am still 161 rock solid. Exactly where I left off on Saturday morning. In fact, it might even be closer to the 160 mark.

I fully expected to have packed on a couple of pounds from that one. I'm not sure why I didn't.

Here's my thoughts...My concern has always been, that we eat clean all week and then blow it by putting the same junk we avoided all week into our body.

You're missing the point and overthinking this. Pause for for a minute and apply a little common sense.

You're not "blowing it" by eating a cheat meal. My average caloric intake jumps from 1,900 calories a day to anywhere between 3,000 to 4,000 on a cheat day. This is not damaging to your program. You may store a tiny bit of the excess calories as fat, but what's actually happening is your body is using the excess calories to create and store muscle glycogen and repair itself. You also retain water if your cheat meal is higher in sodium. You weigh more after a cheat day because you've got more glycogen in the muscles and more water in your body. In all likelihood, you probably have stored very little of your cheat meal/snack as fat.

Try this: move one of your resistance training workouts to the morning after you have a cheat meal/day. I guarantee that you will feel stronger, perform better and have a thoroughly enjoyable workout as a result.

For example, I cut down to 8% BF this summer went from 155 to 141lbs in 2.5-3 months. I ate about 2000 cals/day except for on my "cheat days" where I ate 3-4k. You dont need to go crazy and have like 6k calories. Now that would be silly, but "cheats" are a great mental tool too. I like my new lifestyle but knowing I can have a treat once a week makes me not crave things. Plus, working out a lot and lifting with raise your metabolism over all. I use to eat about 2.5kish or so calories a day to maintain my 155 lbs, but now my maitence is about 3.1-3.2k at 143lbs (Im a lot more active but still). To do a little math...

Lets say your mait is around 2750/day... so in a week you need

2750*7=19250 calors

Now lets say you eat 1800/day plus your hit 3.5k on your cheat day:

1800*6 + 3500=14300

Total deficit= 19250-14300=4950

Lbs=4950/3500= 1.4lbs /week lost

Obviously these numbers we throw around arent an exact science but are a decent estimate. There might be times were your weight doesn't go down that fast but your BF is still dropping. It gets a lot easier once small progress gets noticable then you stopping worrying about the scale (well mostly).