Cheat meals/days are good and all but I still think they should be somewhat restrictive… no trans fats, no excessive HFCS (pop)
Here is one of my refeeds.
15 Hour Refeed
3 Pepperidge Farm Bagels
4 Low Fat Waffles
2 Cups Breyers Fat Free Ice Cream
10 Fat Free Brownies
1 Blueberry Muffin
1 Handful Starburst Jelly Beans
1 Handful Mike and Ike
5 Twizzlers
4 Philadelphia Pretzel Factory Soft Pretzels
2 Gatorades
5 Cups Captain Crunch
2 Low Fat Cinnamon Poptarts
6 Breadsticks
1 Large Fat Free Frozen Yogurt Sundae w/butterfinger
1 Serving Whole Grain Oatmeal
7,442 Calories
1,562g Carbs
142.2g Protein
58.2g Fat
I finally had a cheat meal last friday after 8 weeks of dieting. Absolutely destroyed an asian buffet, my waist measured 3" bigger from the food bloat haha, had to be at least 3 pounds of food. The next morning I weighed exactly the same as I did the morning of the cheat so I guess I can say it all went to good use. I’d feel guilty as hell doing an entire cheat day though. One splurge every 6 weeks or so does it for me.
[quote]waylanderxx wrote:
I finally had a cheat meal last friday after 8 weeks of dieting. Absolutely destroyed an asian buffet, my waist measured 3" bigger from the food bloat haha, had to be at least 3 pounds of food. The next morning I weighed exactly the same as I did the morning of the cheat so I guess I can say it all went to good use. I’d feel guilty as hell doing an entire cheat day though. One splurge every 6 weeks or so does it for me.[/quote]
Yeah I see what you are saying about a whole cheat day, you just have to not be an idiot about it. That means only 3-4 meals, don’t stuff yourself so you can’t breathe, and absolutely no snacking on other stuff in-between… i.e. no chips, donuts, etc. Thib recommends low-protein/cheat days when trying to gain mass every week or so, and I know Poliquin recommends, for those who don’t do well on carbs, do 4-5 days basically no carbs (just low GI fruit, lots of greens and peri-workout stuff) and then do a whole cheat day after those 4-5 days. Obviously it just depends on the person.
How do you guys handle drinking any form of liquid? i know that if I go to drink ANYTHING after some cheat I bloat like a blimp and it hurts! i’m thinking about not consuming much if any liquid. Well unless you count the melted ice-cream at the bottom of the container 
i dont have any ideas, but breading this thread is making me really hungry. i wish i could fly out to Chi-town and get me one of those pizzas to eat in 1 sitting.
Bump.
Cheat day on Saturday, pretty excited. However after reading Shelby’s e-book called ‘Simple Guide to Very Low Carb Diets’, especially his refeed part, I have decided that at the BF percentage I am at (14-15%), only my 2 last meals on Saturday will be cheat days. I’m still fine with that, haha! I have some Girl Scout cookies in the basement that I’m gonna hammer away at Saturday night, woot.
[quote]PB Andy wrote:
[quote]Bricknyce wrote:
I hope people are using cheat days wisely, and differentiating the need for a refeed versus a cheat day–IF any of these are warranted–because I’ve seen quite a few people doing refeeds and entire cheat days just because they went on MODERATELY restrictive diet for a few days or a week.
PB: What kind of setup are you on diet wise? [/quote]
Here is what I am doing diet-wise as I am in a fat loss phase that ends in 3 weeks (6 weeks total):
Weeks 1-3 is a priming phase, i.e. very limited carbs (lots of green veggies however), no cheat meals, etc. I would MAYBE have some oats in the morning (1/2 cup), and utilize minimal Finibars/SWF during my workouts. I would use low GI fruits sparingly (mainly apples and berries) in the morning, and throw in 1/2 a sweet potato or some beans here and there. High fish oil/good fats, high protein.
So yesterday was my first cheat day in 3 weeks. Now for the remainder of the fat loss phase, it is basically the same thing, except my cheat day is once every week. The carbs remain pretty much the same otherwise… some fruit in the morning, maybe some oats, limited carbs peri-workout, and the rest of P+F.
I should note that I am having 3-4 cheat meals in that cheat day, and NONE of them am I stuffing myself. Basically it is a caloric/carb splurge but I don’t go crazy.
I know you are an R.D., what do you think?[/quote]
Are you doing the Cheat to Lose Diet by any chance? I did that last summer and I loved it.
[quote]Rocky2 wrote:
[quote]PB Andy wrote:
[quote]Bricknyce wrote:
I hope people are using cheat days wisely, and differentiating the need for a refeed versus a cheat day–IF any of these are warranted–because I’ve seen quite a few people doing refeeds and entire cheat days just because they went on MODERATELY restrictive diet for a few days or a week.
PB: What kind of setup are you on diet wise? [/quote]
Here is what I am doing diet-wise as I am in a fat loss phase that ends in 3 weeks (6 weeks total):
Weeks 1-3 is a priming phase, i.e. very limited carbs (lots of green veggies however), no cheat meals, etc. I would MAYBE have some oats in the morning (1/2 cup), and utilize minimal Finibars/SWF during my workouts. I would use low GI fruits sparingly (mainly apples and berries) in the morning, and throw in 1/2 a sweet potato or some beans here and there. High fish oil/good fats, high protein.
So yesterday was my first cheat day in 3 weeks. Now for the remainder of the fat loss phase, it is basically the same thing, except my cheat day is once every week. The carbs remain pretty much the same otherwise… some fruit in the morning, maybe some oats, limited carbs peri-workout, and the rest of P+F.
I should note that I am having 3-4 cheat meals in that cheat day, and NONE of them am I stuffing myself. Basically it is a caloric/carb splurge but I don’t go crazy.
I know you are an R.D., what do you think?[/quote]
Are you doing the Cheat to Lose Diet by any chance? I did that last summer and I loved it.
[/quote]
If that’s the same as Cheat Your Way Thin by Joel Marion, then yeah. It is very effective and I like the science behind it, however I don’t agree with the maintenance part during a fat loss phase (using high GI carbs, etc). I think the maintenance/core phase or whatever they are called, would be good for general mass/strength lifting lifting (it’s basically carb cycling IMO). However I don’t really use high GI carbs unless it’s during peri-workout, or if it’s a cheat meal.
[quote]MODOK wrote:
[quote]Alex The Great wrote:
Here is one of my refeeds.
15 Hour Refeed
3 Pepperidge Farm Bagels
4 Low Fat Waffles
2 Cups Breyers Fat Free Ice Cream
10 Fat Free Brownies
1 Blueberry Muffin
1 Handful Starburst Jelly Beans
1 Handful Mike and Ike
5 Twizzlers
4 Philadelphia Pretzel Factory Soft Pretzels
2 Gatorades
5 Cups Captain Crunch
2 Low Fat Cinnamon Poptarts
6 Breadsticks
1 Large Fat Free Frozen Yogurt Sundae w/butterfinger
1 Serving Whole Grain Oatmeal
7,442 Calories
1,562g Carbs
142.2g Protein
58.2g Fat[/quote]
Damn, thats 7500 calories? I’d break a fucking calculator with one of my cheats when I’m cutting then. I’d guess I’ve broken the 20k mark on numrous occasions if what you listed in 7500.
When I really get crazy I’ll wake up at 1201 on saturday morning, throw on some pajama pants, and head to Kroger. I usually get a couple frozen pizzas, a couple of those frozen chimichanga popper boxes, two or 3 boxes of cereal (count chocula, Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch), a box of donuts or debbies or some shit, a big container of ice cream, and a few candy bars. I usually eat all the frozen shit, half the donuts, and a box of the cereal before I pass out that night. When I wake up, I eat the rest of the shit over the next couple of hours except the ice cream. I’ll eat that the rest of the day, and finish it off after I go out to dinner that night for whatever I want to eat, usually a big plate of mexican dive food or a supreme pizza with a couple of pitchers of beer.
You are right, the pumps after something like that are other worldly, the bloat is incredible, and I feel like absolute dog shit until wednesday when I tart getting hungry again and the cycle repeats. I’ve started trying to stop this crazy stuff though… its too hard on sunday to sit on the can all day long every sunday dumping out all that garbage.
[/quote]
Lol you sound like me when i used to be really crazy with it. First thing at 6am I’d walk my fat inner child to the nearest grocery store and pick up a dozen donuts and a BOX of mixed candy to start the day. ALL of it was gone by noon. The rest of the day was filled with a mess things but I do remember making chunky PB, nutella, white bread sandwiches downed with chocolate milk. They reminded me of Reese’s.
EDIT: Forgot to add the two pints of Ben & Jerry since they were always on sale for 2/$5. Yes, I still remember…
Wow, I thought my cheat days when I was getting ready for a bodybuilding show was pretty horrible, but I never got up to 7,000 kcals. That’s beastly…I approve.
My favorite cheap meal when prepping for contest was when I was with my g/f Katya. She worked at a Lyon’s restaurant so she’d have the cook fix me a huge chicken or double cheeseburger, proabably stacked up about 6" high with the meat and veggies on a toasted whole wheat bun, then six chicken tenders with bbq sauce, and if I was still hungry a bowl of split pea soup.
Then it was back to the grind. That definately seemed to work for my diet at the time though. I came in far leaner than previous years competing and I had a cheat day every Saturday. Kept my head pretty level for training knowing that I could splurge on something like that.
v/r
Gremlin
I started refeeding again because my training demands it. Yesterday I did a 6 hour refeed consisting of
Box of LF Waffles
2/3 Quart of Ice cream
Syrup
Package of LF Graham Crackers
1/2 Jar Fluff
Box of Dots
2 FF Philly Soft Pretzels
1/2 Box Golden Grahams
4 LF Cinnamon Pop tarts
1 LF Pack of Coffee Cakes
Calories: 5,840
Fat: 35.5
Carbs: 1,319
Protein: 130
(These are just the refeed totals. Not including the my breakfast or my last meal before bed)
I went up 6 pounds from my pre-refeed weight to my before bed weight. Was down 3 pounds the next morning. Im hoping to baseline tomorrow morning which will leave me at 1 and 1/2 days to baseline in which I will increase the amount of carbs that I take in.
[quote]MODOK wrote:
[quote]Alex The Great wrote:
Here is one of my refeeds.
15 Hour Refeed
3 Pepperidge Farm Bagels
4 Low Fat Waffles
2 Cups Breyers Fat Free Ice Cream
10 Fat Free Brownies
1 Blueberry Muffin
1 Handful Starburst Jelly Beans
1 Handful Mike and Ike
5 Twizzlers
4 Philadelphia Pretzel Factory Soft Pretzels
2 Gatorades
5 Cups Captain Crunch
2 Low Fat Cinnamon Poptarts
6 Breadsticks
1 Large Fat Free Frozen Yogurt Sundae w/butterfinger
1 Serving Whole Grain Oatmeal
7,442 Calories
1,562g Carbs
142.2g Protein
58.2g Fat[/quote]
Damn, thats 7500 calories? I’d break a fucking calculator with one of my cheats when I’m cutting then. I’d guess I’ve broken the 20k mark on numrous occasions if what you listed in 7500.
When I really get crazy I’ll wake up at 1201 on saturday morning, throw on some pajama pants, and head to Kroger. I usually get a couple frozen pizzas, a couple of those frozen chimichanga popper boxes, two or 3 boxes of cereal (count chocula, Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch), a box of donuts or debbies or some shit, a big container of ice cream, and a few candy bars.
I usually eat all the frozen shit, half the donuts, and a box of the cereal before I pass out that night. When I wake up, I eat the rest of the shit over the next couple of hours except the ice cream. I’ll eat that the rest of the day, and finish it off after I go out to dinner that night for whatever I want to eat, usually a big plate of mexican dive food or a supreme pizza with a couple of pitchers of beer.
You are right, the pumps after something like that are other worldly, the bloat is incredible, and I feel like absolute dog shit until wednesday when I tart getting hungry again and the cycle repeats. I’ve started trying to stop this crazy stuff though… its too hard on sunday to sit on the can all day long every sunday dumping out all that garbage.
[/quote]
My body reacts really well to carbs, but I know what you mean in terms of feeling like shit after eating all of that food. I use to down so much that I would be pacing up and down on the back deck holding back from puking, but I have learned since then.
I don’t really consider it a cheat because it is a part of the diet. I guess you can call it that because I get to eat all the foods that I miss out on during the week as long as it is low in fat and high in carbs. Which is great because I have such a sweet tooth. I also dont drink much water during the refeed as well so that helps to keep the bloat down. Less water means more room for carbs haha.
Also I feel that the GDA’s I use help out a a lot as well. I baseline much quicker with them. At the bare minimum I try to follow a 10-1 rule. In order for me to eat something on my refeeds it must have at least 10g of carbs to 1g of fat.
Alex and MODOK thats an awesome amount of food you guys can eat, i couldn’t eat half of that in one day i just wouldn’t be able to fit it in my stomach.
Brick, or anyone who has done a strict keto for that matter,
How often should someone schedule a cheat day? I’ve been doing a strict keto (3 meat meals + small amounts of cheese, no veggies and 2 whey shakes+flax) for 13 days now…
I was thinking of scheduling one for day 15, but wondering if I shouldn’t bother and just keep going. Perhaps go 4 weeks straight no carb ups.
I’m floating around 20% bodyfat.
At 20% body fat, you shouldn’t have a cheat day, you should have just one cheat meal. Since you are at the 2 weeks mark and your body is primed for burning fat, I’d say have your cheat meal, at night, tomorrow. Four weeks without ANY carbs is too much. In fact I’m not really a fan of straight keto diets. I like more tempered ones, where you include low GI fruits in the morning (just a cup or so), and then some SWF for your workouts, and that’s it. And unlimited green veggies. Unless you are prepping for a BB contest, you shouldn’t really stop eating green veggies. Obviously it’s not that much more carbs than a keto diet, but IMO it’s more effective and there’s less chance of losing muscle.
Additionally, I’d say stick with one cheat meal a week until you are at around 15% body fat. Once you are at that stage, up your cheat meals to two consecutive cheat meals a week, i.e. your two last meals on a Saturday are cheat meals. Something like that.
[quote]Kerley wrote:
[quote]Seize wrote:
My best ever cheat meal consisted of a full rack of BBQ beef ribs, 1 large salad, a bowl of clam chowder and 2 large blueberry muffins, each topped with a nice chunk of butter on top! [/quote]
I’ve never involved salad in a cheat meal.[/quote]
If you are talking about lettuce, I concur. BUT I must insist that there are appropriate cheat salads. Potato salad for example.
[quote]PB Andy wrote:
At 20% body fat, you shouldn’t have a cheat day, you should have just one cheat meal. Since you are at the 2 weeks mark and your body is primed for burning fat, I’d say have your cheat meal, at night, tomorrow. Four weeks without ANY carbs is too much. In fact I’m not really a fan of straight keto diets. I like more tempered ones, where you include low GI fruits in the morning (just a cup or so), and then some SWF for your workouts, and that’s it. And unlimited green veggies. Unless you are prepping for a BB contest, you shouldn’t really stop eating green veggies. Obviously it’s not that much more carbs than a keto diet, but IMO it’s more effective and there’s less chance of losing muscle.
Additionally, I’d say stick with one cheat meal a week until you are at around 15% body fat. Once you are at that stage, up your cheat meals to two consecutive cheat meals a week, i.e. your two last meals on a Saturday are cheat meals. Something like that.[/quote]
Ok. But how did you come to the conclusion that 4 weeks without ANY carbs is too much? My strength levels haven’t really dropped, isn’t that the best way to gauge if you are losing muscle?
[quote]therajraj wrote:
[quote]PB Andy wrote:
At 20% body fat, you shouldn’t have a cheat day, you should have just one cheat meal. Since you are at the 2 weeks mark and your body is primed for burning fat, I’d say have your cheat meal, at night, tomorrow. Four weeks without ANY carbs is too much. In fact I’m not really a fan of straight keto diets. I like more tempered ones, where you include low GI fruits in the morning (just a cup or so), and then some SWF for your workouts, and that’s it. And unlimited green veggies. Unless you are prepping for a BB contest, you shouldn’t really stop eating green veggies. Obviously it’s not that much more carbs than a keto diet, but IMO it’s more effective and there’s less chance of losing muscle.
Additionally, I’d say stick with one cheat meal a week until you are at around 15% body fat. Once you are at that stage, up your cheat meals to two consecutive cheat meals a week, i.e. your two last meals on a Saturday are cheat meals. Something like that.[/quote]
Ok. But how did you come to the conclusion that 4 weeks without ANY carbs is too much? My strength levels haven’t really dropped, isn’t that the best way to gauge if you are losing muscle? [/quote]
Actually I was speaking more from personal experience. Everyone’s different. However I’d say 3-4 weeks of trace carbs is the upper limit for most people.
[quote]PB Andy wrote:
At 20% body fat, you shouldn’t have a cheat day, you should have just one cheat meal. Since you are at the 2 weeks mark and your body is primed for burning fat, I’d say have your cheat meal, at night, tomorrow. Four weeks without ANY carbs is too much. In fact I’m not really a fan of straight keto diets. I like more tempered ones, where you include low GI fruits in the morning (just a cup or so), and then some SWF for your workouts, and that’s it. And unlimited green veggies. Unless you are prepping for a BB contest, you shouldn’t really stop eating green veggies. Obviously it’s not that much more carbs than a keto diet, but IMO it’s more effective and there’s less chance of losing muscle.
Additionally, I’d say stick with one cheat meal a week until you are at around 15% body fat. Once you are at that stage, up your cheat meals to two consecutive cheat meals a week, i.e. your two last meals on a Saturday are cheat meals. Something like that.[/quote]
I agree with this. I went Paleo for 4 months, meaning no carbs at all except for fruit and veggies, and while I lost weight, it killed my gains, as my muscles pretty much had no fuel. Now, I am not trying to lose weight at all, so I’ve brought carbs back in(quinoa, oats, wild rice) and feel ten times better.
I think the best path is to eat 2-3 carb meals pre-workout on your intense training days and then taper off as the day goes on, then on your non training days or light days, limit your carb intake a little more, trying not to have any carbs into the late afternoon and evening.