cheating on a diet

hello all. i was just wondering something…i have been dieting for about a year now and lost some pretty good weight. My question though is for you die hards out there…i diet very hard during the week and then on the weekends take a few days to eat what ever i want…so far this has worked out ok…any other people do this at all if so with what results…and what effect does cheating have on my whole dieting kick…thanx

See T-mag article called “Damage Control” by Berardi. (Use Search Engine over there or previous issues or FAQ.)

I carb up on saturday…

but i do have 1 cheat meal on that day also…
fast food, resturant,pizza…etc

It depends on how far away from your body’s ideal “bodyfat setpoint” you are. The closer you are too or above that weight your body would maintain were you not dieting, not exercising, etc. the less a cheat meal or cheat day will help you out but it shouldn’t hurt too much. The further down you are underneath your setpoint the more often you actually NEED to incorporate days or hours of high calorie, especially carbohydrate, consumption. By elevating insulin and glucose levels you also elevate leptin levels, which basically act as a bodyfat regulator. So although high fat cheat meals won’t do much or anything other than make you fat…high glycemic carbohydrate cheat meals will tend to upregulate your metabolic rate, replenish glycogen, and even though you might add a little fat this will be more than made up for by the increase in metabolism.