First Successful Cheat Day

Training
1

Hey all,

I’d been struggling with cheat days for years. I wanted to do them so bad but everytime I did, I always ended up looking like garbage for days after. The body I was working for I only got to see one day a week, which as you can imagine made me quite angry. This past weekend I finally figured out how to properly cheat and get my body back by Monday morning. Here’s what I did differently that I am guessing led to the success.

  1. Normally on a cheat day, I would throw it all to the wind and eat as much garbage as possible. Oreos, Chips, and any junk food I could get my hands on. This time I made sure to eat my entire normal diet first. Got all my protein, vitamins etc. and then added food on top. The food I added was Coffee with cream and sugar (I usually drink tea), 6 slices of fresh baked pizza. 2 whole wheat bagels with butter, and two empanadas. Nothing from a bag, nothing processed, all freshly made and bought from the bakery/pizza shop. I think eating unprocessed and getting my normal diet in had something to do with the success.

  2. I used Biotest Brain Candy. I slammed one of these as soon as I got up in the AM on the cheat day as well as the day after.

  3. I performed semi-fasted cardio the day after the cheat after consuming the shot of Brain Candy (Caffeinated version), utilizing the MAG-10 protocol as outlined in the recent Lonnie Lowery article.

  4. I kept it all contained to one day. Typically I’d end up cheating a little friday night, a lot Saturday and a little Sunday. This time, it was all contained to Saturday and Sunday I went back to my regular diet but added in MAG-10 for my semi-fasted incline walking session as outlined in the Lowery article.

Finally, I got the cheat day without throwing it all away and without resorting to fasting.

Just wanted to share!

2

So you ate like shit for 3 days after dieting strictly for some time and were surprised to feel and look like shit afterwards?

But yeah, that is the reason why many diet coaches like Shelby have you eat a cheat meal as the FINAL meal of the day. Ime the best approach actually is to just upscale your fatloss macros while keeping the food sources the same. Sure, most people want to pig out after some time, but the cheat meals are at least for me almost always disappointing on so many levels.

3

And your question was?

4

I’m glad it worked for you, but you might also want to try a “cheat meal” rather than a whole day. Have one meal where you can go to town. Since it is only one meal, you’ll limit the damage but still be able to bust out of your shell. Just a thought.

–Me

5

6

I didn’t really have a question, I just wanted to share what I did with others who might have been experiencing the same problem. And I wasn’t eating like shit for three days previously, just meant i’d have a beer or something Friday and maybe some bread on Sunday in addition to the crazy binge on Saturday. The point is, it worked and my strength continues to increase while I get leaner utilizing the cheat day. When it stops working, I’ll adjust accordingly.

7

What’s your diet like on a normal day?

8

My diet right now is for cutting and is the following Macros. Originally this was 300 calories less when I began, but after 4 weeks I bumped calories up a little. At the end of this week, I will be bumping up calories by around 1000 as I have been eating light for about 8 weeks now.

Calories
2270

Fat
98

Carbs (exclusively from periworkout nutrition and nuts)
80

Protein
238

Here is my meal breakdown

  1. Periworkout nutrition - 1 servings Plazma and MAG-10

  2. Breakfast - 3 whole eggs, 3 strips of bacon, GNC ripped Vitapak, Biotest Superfood

  3. 1/4 cup mixed nuts

  4. 8 oz Chicken Breast

  5. Protein shake 2 scoops protein mixed with natural PB

  6. 8 oz Beef cooked in Smart Balance Oil

I drink two cups of green tea per day and around a gallon of water. I haven’t eaten vegetables for the past 8 weeks because I was doing an experiment, but will reintroduce them and a good deal of carbs next week. Also, the meals aren’t always broken out this way, I make them work for my day. If I need to have 5 of these meals and then nothing for 6 hours due to work I will, I haven’t noticed any difference in when or how I eat everything.

9

[quote]terryleahyjr wrote:
My diet right now is for cutting and is the following Macros. Originally this was 300 calories less when I began, but after 4 weeks I bumped calories up a little. At the end of this week, I will be bumping up calories by around 1000 as I have been eating light for about 8 weeks now.

Calories
2270

Fat
98

Carbs (exclusively from periworkout nutrition and nuts)
80

Protein
238

Here is my meal breakdown

  1. Periworkout nutrition - 1 servings Plazma and MAG-10

  2. Breakfast - 3 whole eggs, 3 strips of bacon, GNC ripped Vitapak, Biotest Superfood

  3. 1/4 cup mixed nuts

  4. 8 oz Chicken Breast

  5. Protein shake 2 scoops protein mixed with natural PB

  6. 8 oz Beef cooked in Smart Balance Oil

I drink two cups of green tea per day and around a gallon of water. I haven’t eaten vegetables for the past 8 weeks because I was doing an experiment, but will reintroduce them and a good deal of carbs next week. Also, the meals aren’t always broken out this way, I make them work for my day. If I need to have 5 of these meals and then nothing for 6 hours due to work I will, I haven’t noticed any difference in when or how I eat everything.[/quote]
No wonder you go crazy on your cheat day(s). It looks like you are trying to get your body into starvation mode. With over 900 kcal of your 2200 coming from protein, you aren’t really giving your body food to readily use as energy. With that being said your liver is probably working overtime doing gluconeogenesis because all that protein won’t be used for building muscle if your body is having to use it for fuel instead.

10

[quote]terryleahyjr wrote:
I haven’t eaten vegetables for the past 8 weeks because I was doing an experiment, but will reintroduce them and a good deal of carbs next week.[/quote]

What was the experiment? What were the results?

11

[quote]LoRez wrote:

[quote]terryleahyjr wrote:
I haven’t eaten vegetables for the past 8 weeks because I was doing an experiment, but will reintroduce them and a good deal of carbs next week.[/quote]

What was the experiment? What were the results?[/quote]

Were you trying to get all your essential vitamins and minerals from offal and bone broth?

–Me

12

[quote]kravi wrote:

[quote]LoRez wrote:

[quote]terryleahyjr wrote:
I haven’t eaten vegetables for the past 8 weeks because I was doing an experiment, but will reintroduce them and a good deal of carbs next week.[/quote]

What was the experiment? What were the results?[/quote]

Were you trying to get all your essential vitamins and minerals from offal and bone broth?

–Me[/quote]
Given that he didn’t list those in his daily nutrition I think he was more just trying to see if he could do further metabolic damage to his body.

13

I set a simple goal 8 weeks ago. Cut fat using the lowest intensity workouts I could and on the easiest/cheapest diet I could including bacon and red meat every day. For me, I always lose money on vegetables. I just never end up eating the whole bag of spinach or head of broccoli and have to throw it out.

Financially speaking, it would cost me less money just to consume Superfood daily (and get more vitamins/minerals) than to continue buying green veggies and not use them. So I decided to just not eat any vegetables during my cut. Would I do this long term, of course not, but I was just curious and I definitely felt better using the supps than when I’d just green vegetable it. But, not having vegetables did not inhibit my fat loss.

The low intensity workouts were 4 days a week for the first 4 weeks then 5 days a week for the last 4. They started with 5x5 using Bench, Deadlift, Squat and Pull Ups. During the last 4 weeks I introduced the Seated shoulder press. After that it was just 3-4 more secondary exercises performed at either 4X 6-8 3X 8-10 and 3X 10-12 with about a minute rest between them. I used 2-2.5 min rest between the 5x5. I did an ab exercise each day in a 3X 10-12 rep scheme.

After the workouts I did light jogging for 30 minutes. I started at 4.5 MPH and topped out at 5.5 MPH. I never sweat or worked hard during this. I did NOT do any HIIT or sprint work.

End of the day here’s what happened over the 8 weeks.

Lost a total of 11lbs. It was fairly steady too, I plateaued for a week around week 4 and then again week 7.

Bodyfat reduced about 4% (eyeballed) going from no abs at all probably around (15-16%) and ending around fairly defined abs but definitely not sub 8%.

Muscle Gained - My chest has always been a major weakness. For the first time, I built noticeable muscle on my chest. During the first 6 weeks I noticed general muscle growth. During the last 2 weeks, not major growth, but did notice my muscles were way denser and harder. This was not my goal at all, just a bonus. I was just trying to hold onto the muscle I had, not increase at all. The main goal was fat loss.

Strength Increased - All lifts increased. Bench, Deads, Squats, Military Press and Pull Ups included.

Flexibility Increased - Not that important just something I noticed.

Say what you will, but end of the day I had success doing this. Would I do it long term? Nope. But it helped my reduce body fat which was the goal. Now I am going to keep the workouts fairly the same but change the jog to some incline walking and increase my calories by about 1000 and focus on building some more muscle before I cut again, this time using HIIT and a less restrictive calorie approach.

Probably not the best way to do it, but I am leaner and more muscular now than I have ever been before and that’s all that matters.

Successful Experiment.

14

[quote]terryleahyjr wrote:
I set a simple goal 8 weeks ago. Cut fat using the lowest intensity workouts I could and on the easiest/cheapest diet I could including bacon and red meat every day. For me, I always lose money on vegetables. I just never end up eating the whole bag of spinach or head of broccoli and have to throw it out.

Financially speaking, it would cost me less money just to consume Superfood daily (and get more vitamins/minerals) than to continue buying green veggies and not use them. So I decided to just not eat any vegetables during my cut. Would I do this long term, of course not, but I was just curious and I definitely felt better using the supps than when I’d just green vegetable it. But, not having vegetables did not inhibit my fat loss.

The low intensity workouts were 4 days a week for the first 4 weeks then 5 days a week for the last 4. They started with 5x5 using Bench, Deadlift, Squat and Pull Ups. During the last 4 weeks I introduced the Seated shoulder press. After that it was just 3-4 sets of secondary/teriary exercises performed at either 4X 6-8 3X 8-10 and 3X 10-12 with about a minute rest between them. I used 2-2.5 min rest between the 5x5. I did an ab exercise each day in a 3X 10-12 rep scheme.

After the workouts I did light jogging for 30 minutes. I started at 4.5 MPH and topped out at 5.5 MPH. I never sweat or worked hard during this. I did NOT do any HIIT or sprint work.

End of the day here’s what happened over the 8 weeks.

Lost a total of 11lbs. It was fairly steady too, I plateaued for a week around week 4 and then again week 7.

Bodyfat reduced about 4% (eyeballed) going from no abs at all probably around (15-16%) and ending around fairly defined abs but definitely not sub 8%.

Muscle Gained - My chest has always been a major weakness. For the first time, I built noticeable muscle on my chest. During the first 6 weeks I noticed general muscle growth. During the last 2 weeks, not major growth, but did notice my muscles were way denser and harder. This was not my goal at all, just a bonus. I was just trying to hold onto the muscle I had, not increase at all. The main goal was fat loss.

Strength Increased - All lifts increased. Bench, Deads, Squats, Military Press and Pull Ups included.

Flexibility Increased - Not that important just something I noticed.

Say what you will, but end of the day I had success doing this. Would I do it long term? Nope. But it helped my reduce body fat which was the goal. Now I am going to keep the workouts fairly the same but change the jog to some incline walking and increase my calories by about 1000 and focus on building some more muscle before I cut again, this time using HIIT and a less restrictive calorie approach.

Probably not the best way to do it, but I am leaner and more muscular now than I have ever been before and that’s all that matters.

Successful Experiment.
[/quote]
Do you have before and after pics?

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Before - I know…I should I have been in the same spot but oh well these are from a trip in December.

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Another.

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And now. Sorry, its a cell phone picture so it’s small.

18

You look slightly more tanned, and are flexing. Other than that, can’t tell a difference.

19

You don’t have to. I can tell, and I have the data.

20

[quote]terryleahyjr wrote:
Now I am going to keep the workouts fairly the same but change the jog to some incline walking and increase my calories by about 1000 and focus on building some more muscle before I cut again,
[/quote]

You mentioned adding 1000 calories to your diet twice … The first time I thought you meant “100” - because you do realize that essentially doubling your calories overnight after an 8 week restriction will be a disaster, right?