Dieting: Cheat day or cheat meal?

[BigNBloated]

When you guys are dieting do you have a cheat meal during the week or a day where you allow yourself to eat some junk throughout the day? To clear things up ill let you know what I mean, my cheat day today was 18 buffalo wings, 1 ferrero rocherr and some cherry coke. Other than that its been turkey burgers water and protein shake. Im not trying to justify eating the stuff but just getting an idea of what is something reasonable to let myself have withouth crushing my dieting efforts. Not like I ate a pizza and had a 12 pack of coke today.

[big L dawg]

actually if you have been eating clean for over a week pizza might be a good idea to boost your metabolism.I do one cheat meal a week.used to do an entire cheat day but I'm getting older and its harder to keep it of than when i was in my 20's

[DK II]

Definetly cheat meal.

Although sometimes, i just need cheat meals twice a week.

ONe day of junk is hard to cope with for me, but just a cheat meal or a cheat 'snack' doesn't have any effect for me.

[BigNBloated]

Yeah, I the concious works to hard against me when I'm eating junk food. I was ok with the buffalo wings, but the cherry coke I had with it kinda bothered me but i got over it. Thanks for the advice though. Ill be sticking to the 1 cheat meal on sunday ill step it up maybe some more food next time because the buffalo wings really werent that much food.

[MidniteRambo]

Lately, I have been having cheat weeks.  Time to get back to basics.

[DK II]

Lately, I have been having cheat weeks.  Time to get back to basics.

Hahaa, yes, i know that.

Cheat meals get more and more until they become cheat days and then weeks.
Sometimes, you need that.

IN these cases, i suggest stacking a fatburner, lots of caffeine and even more green tea. This way, you can buffer off some of the effect of overeating.

Be sure to go towards eating more lean protein again and add the protein constantly. This way is easiest to get into a proper diet for me.

[MidniteRambo]

Hahaa, yes, i know that.

Cheat meals get more and more until they become cheat days and then weeks.
Sometimes, you need that.

IN these cases, i suggest stacking a fatburner, lots of caffeine and even more green tea. This way, you can buffer off some of the effect of overeating.

Be sure to go towards eating more lean protein again and add the protein constantly. This way is easiest to get into a proper diet for me.

Thanks for the tips which I plan to follow.

My recent failings were compounded by being back east for 10 days of a family funeral.  Italian tradition is to send the family as much food as possible so I consumed tons of pasta, chicken, pizza, cold cuts (and alot of red wine).

[BigNBloated]

Damn, thats a bunch of caffien, most fatburners have a ton of it in it already. I dont think my system would tolerate that. Im gonna be starting liquid redline here soon after using a bottle of thermogain my buddy gave me for free, heard its pretty good stuff. My diet has been really strict lately, lean proteins, dietary fats and almost no carbs, like the term hardgainer, you could say im a hard loser, when i diet carbs have almost got to go completely out the door otherwise I dont make much progress.

[DK II]

Damn, thats a bunch of caffien, most fatburners have a ton of it in it already. I dont think my system would tolerate that. Im gonna be starting liquid redline here soon after using a bottle of thermogain my buddy gave me for free, heard its pretty good stuff. My diet has been really strict lately, lean proteins, dietary fats and almost no carbs, like the term hardgainer, you could say im a hard loser, when i diet carbs have almost got to go completely out the door otherwise I dont make much progress.

Yes, same with me.

If the carbs are the problem, try to have only slow carbs, even post work out. Oatmeal, brown rice, soba noodles are okay.
This is the way i can lose fat.

I don't believe in cutting and bulking, thus my week is normally like this: On training days (i follow the DC principles) i eat carbs (like mentioned above), on none-training days i don't eat carbs.
If i feel i get to fat, i cut some protein on none workoutdays (so overall calories sink a bit) and up healthy fat on training days while cutting some carbs (=providing more calories, giving the body fat so it will not store it).

I do cardio after working out, and i believe in having slow carbs around workouts.

There are two great things for losing fat easier: One is higher thermogenesis through green tea, guarana and L-tyrosin (you could add more caffeine and ephedra, it's one hell of a stack, makes you almost see your fat burning away, haha).

Other one is making you body burn more fat when resting. This can be achieved by lifting really heavy, this doesn't mean to go on to impossible weights, always lift clean and save.  Having high protein makes you build muscle, which leads to more fat burned.

Take your time, plan to look great in june, then you will have the right timetable to lose fat and build some muscles.

[Tier]

Whoa its like the 'fast gainers' group , Id admit im one too. Easy as piss to gain weight so i also stick to low GI with my carbs and have them throughout the earliest meals etc

I have 3 diets that i have each month and cycle back thru for variation of foods and carbs so i dont fall off the cart.

Altho ive pretty much just had a cheat month! 

Month 3 is 50C / 30P / 20F , Month 2 is 40C / 40P / 20F , Month 1 is 30C / 50P / 20F

Month 3 is 12 rep sets , Month 2 is 9 rep sets , Month 1 is 6 rep sets

Month 3 is 45 min interval cardio , Month 2 is 30 min interval cardio , Month 1 is Max-OT 16 min cardio

Bascially I do more 'volume' in the higher carb month and more sprint/strength as the carbs drop to try and keep what ive earned , the less carbs the less volume I can handle.

My diet lingers around 2000 cals per day and i 'cheat' when im out with friends/family , which im trying to learn moderation.

If I fall off the cart too much i have a belt i wear and its at a certain notch where i wouldnt want it to get any bigger , so once my gut starts to hit that notch i know im not heading in the right direction , good wake up call!    As some people just accomadate the problem with larger pants , bigger shirts etc and claim they are 'bulking'    Im natural and a 'fast gainer' so yeah i follow similar patterns to u guys.

[BigNBloated]

Yeah once my jeans began to fit like spandex and i wasnt able to wear some new ones i bought in the fall i decided i needed to lose about 30 lbs or id be crying in another month because it would have been 40 if i kept my "bulking" routine up, lol.

[canadaphiliac]

I do two cheat days, but I don't like junk food all that much to begin with, so it's mostly larger portions, white instead of wheat, or fattier cuts of meat.

[BigNBloated]

Yeah i kind of diet on the fly, and sometimes i dont eat enough food for as big as I am, i about crashed yesterday after cardio. Felt pretty terrible. So today i smashed a decent amount of food to help my body recover.

[tarzapedamonkey]

when i was younge ri used to do cheatday but now its just too much ...a cheat meal is the way to go..for me anyways

if i do a cheatday i eat way too much

[Tier]

when i was younge ri used to do cheatday but now its just too much ...a cheat meal is the way to go..for me anyways

if i do a cheatday i eat way too much

hehe me too , i reckon i could win eating contests!  Used to down 3 stuffed crust pizzas from pizza hutt in one meal 

[triple_pickle]

i have one-two "clean days" every other week or so.  otherwise every day is a cheat day.... 

[tarzapedamonkey]

hehe me too , i reckon i could win eating contests!  Used to down 3 stuffed crust pizzas from pizza hutt in one meal 

thats pretty good ...i use dot do 2 medium pizzas lol but could only do that when starving...or one large and a bucket of haggendaz

[Maxxx Testosterone]

I started dieting in november for a contest april 21st. I lowered my calories and carbs about 15% and eat diet food 6 days a week and I cheat 1 day. And my cheating I mean a day full of crap , chocolate, pizza, hamburgers, spaghetti, chips, cookies ,cakes , fries ect.... and this way i find dieting far way easier on my mind and it give me a boost. For 2-3 days after i got incredible pump in the gym. But at 10 weeks out , I wont cheat anymore ;( dammm

And by the way , this help me not hit plateau , and I keep my mass far better this way.

[BigNBloated]

I started dieting in november for a contest april 21st. I lowered my calories and carbs about 15% and eat diet food 6 days a week and I cheat 1 day. And my cheating I mean a day full of crap , chocolate, pizza, hamburgers, spaghetti, chips, cookies ,cakes , fries ect.... and this way i find dieting far way easier on my mind and it give me a boost. For 2-3 days after i got incredible pump in the gym. But at 10 weeks out , I wont cheat anymore ;( dammm

And by the way , this help me not hit plateau , and I keep my mass far better this way.

You say it helped you not hit a plateau, by that do you mean a fat loss plateau?

[Tier]

im having a cheat meal tonight , hot n spicy kfc , ice cream , choc sauce and mixed chocs and candys 

[Maxxx Testosterone]

Damn today is my last cheat day , after , its gonna be the long and suffering battle .......

[Mike]

If you have a few "OK" meals a week (restauraunt chicken sandwiches, subs, some pizza) then you are less prone to have a huge cheat day.

I used to do no/very low carbs for 5 days and then ramp it up saturday (good carbs) and sunday (bad carbs) and then regular for the week.  It worked but it was just a horrible mind-fuck.  I'd rather spread my joy out, plus I hold a little more size this way.

[smaul]

I'm having a bucket of fried chicken tonight, might share it with the girlfriend.  And thats it for me this week!