Cheat meals

bernimx · Jul 17, 2011

Ok, so I've been dieting for a few weeks now, and I would like to know what kind of cheats worked best for you while dieting.

I'm dieting pretty agressively on very low carbs, and I am just unsure on what approach to use to keep my metabolism running properly.

Skiploads, cheat days, cheat days followed by a fast, just a cheat meal, or no cheat at all...What has worked best for you?

tkav1980 · Jul 17, 2011

If your just looking for something that tasts good you dont need to have an actual cheat meal. you can get the right ratio of Macro's while having foods that taste like they would be cheat meals but arent. I feel like the biggest reason many people go after a cheat meal is because what theyre eating becomes mundane and boring. they crave sweet, or spicy or the texture of pasta or just a different flavor that comes from a food that isnt on their official list of aproved foods that they eat day to day. This IMO is a massive fallacy.

To satisfy these cravings people like to impliment cheat meals. I do not believe this is necissary in any way shape or form. Ill use you as an example/experiment. Please tell me what food it is your wanting to use as a cheat meal and I will show you how to get everything in that food that makes you want it without eating it or having to actually cheat on your diet.

mojolnir · Jul 17, 2011

tkav1980 said:
If your just looking for something that tasts good you dont need to have an actual cheat meal. you can get the right ratio of Macro's while having foods that taste like they would be cheat meals but arent. I feel like the biggest reason many people go after a cheat meal is because what theyre eating becomes mundane and boring. they crave sweet, or spicy or the texture of pasta or just a different flavor that comes from a food that isnt on their official list of aproved foods that they eat day to day. This IMO is a massive fallacy.

To satisfy these cravings people like to impliment cheat meals. I do not believe this is necissary in any way shape or form. Ill use you as an example/experiment. Please tell me what food it is your wanting to use as a cheat meal and I will show you how to get everything in that food that makes you want it without eating it or having to actually cheat on your diet.

How about a big juicy ass burrito?

BigMatt · Jul 17, 2011

Pizza!

Th3darkmarket · Jul 17, 2011

Burritos do it for me. Then a good nap afterwards

LIFTW8S · Jul 17, 2011

Go big or go home. Cheating is necessary. Mine usually is on my day(s) off after a long hard week at work. Normally Saturday night sushi with a fat steak; or a few Italian sausages with grilled onions and peppers.

Moen · Jul 17, 2011

Eat what you want to eat. There really is no point whatsoever in doing a "cheat" while following guidelines, they should call it treat meals or treat days instead. I'm under the impression that some people actually think a Big Mac will make them look better than a taco or whatnot. Enjoy!

tkav1980 · Jul 17, 2011

mojolnir said:
How about a big juicy ass burrito?

This is actually a verry easy one once you realize a few things. First what specific flavors and textures are you craving that a burrito will satisfy?

Juiceboy44 · Jul 18, 2011

xD3A7Hx said:
Go big or go home. Cheating is necessary. Mine usually is on my day(s) off after a long hard week at work. Normally Saturday night sushi with a fat steak; or a few Italian sausages with grilled onions and peppers.

Same here.
A good cheat meal on Saturday with the family keeps me sane.
Its not such a bad thing and next morning Im back to the same rootine again.

jackedrabbit · Jul 18, 2011

If you are prepping, you should have calculated refeeds to prevent going overboard. My prep cheats before were more carb centered and less focused on protein and fats.

If you are low carbing and low calorie, maybe some shit cheats may help. If you are just dieting for the beach, sit down and enjoy a decent meal every 2 weeks or so.

It really depends on your goal but either way, refeeding the body is necessary. I just tell myself that a cheat meal is a normal sized meal, just composed of foods I enjoy. Cheating isn't a green light to binge. That is a sign of an eating disorder.

NoVaDriver · Jul 18, 2011

I personally hate having my social life being destroyed by cutting season, so I'll let myself go to two cheat meals a week, usually while I'm out with friends.

buselmo · Jul 18, 2011

1- your metabolism doesn't slow down when you're dieting. people who ate 50% of their maintenance calories for a year didn't have their metabolism slow down until they hit 4% fat. please refer to the minnesota starvation experiment, where bodybuilding and fitness retards who barely know how to read only picked up "50% of their maintenance calories" from the begining and "noticed a decrease in metabolism" from the end and the dumb asses put one and one together.

2- you only look like you're losing muscle because you're severely depleted and flat. have 4 cheat days in a row and you'll gain 10 lbs and look fat but look twice as big as you were (glycogen overcompensation + severe water retention)

3- if you are low carbing (especially if you're under 50 grams) and you have cheat meals often (containing lots of carbs especially) you will gain muscle while you lose fat. ofcourse, you can do it the retarded way by calling a grilled chicken breast with lettuce, low fat mayo, sandwiched between two slices of white bread a cheat meal because it's not boiled and it doesn't contain super duper healthy green vegetable powder or whatever... but go eat a fucking big mac and 2 or 3 pints of ice cream.

bernimx · Jul 19, 2011

Oh..What i really meant though is having periodic REFEEDS. Since i'm low cals and very low carbs, i'm getting depleted, and i'm trying to find a great way to refeed, once a week or so.

I just hesitate between a high, clean carb day, a big high carb cheat meal, a skipload, etc...

I know cheat meals are more likely for mental sanity. What i'm looking for is what kind of refeeds worked best for you. I'm not sure if I should go the clean or dirty way, and the actual quantity that I should aim for.

cal · Jul 19, 2011

Buselmo

Can you elaborate a bit on number...what is the best ;strategy" for losing bodyfat while gaining muscle...low carb for a few days then carb up a day ...half day just a meal?
As usual your input is valued

Sent from my Dell Streak using Tapatalk

Juiceboy44 · Jul 19, 2011

I think cheat meals not only help psychologically to allow you to last on diets but I also feel like it kickstarts the diet again after a shock of regural food.
Then back to the diet next morning.
Maybe its just in my head though.

Steem · Jul 19, 2011

Chicken Parm with pasta
HotPockets
Ice Cream
Cheese Cake

BeefBrian · Jul 20, 2011

I think a better question would be to ask what kind of REFEED'S do you guys prefer, instead of "cheats". To me this sounds as if you wish to just eat shit b/c you have become tired of the dieting process and want some relief. Skiploading and methods similar to that, work best under severely depleted conditions. Dont expect to do a low-moderate carb diet.. and be able to do huge high-gi carb loads. It just isnt ideal, metabollicaly speaking (for the majority). Hope this helps.

buselmo · Jul 20, 2011

cal said:
Buselmo

Can you elaborate a bit on number...what is the best ;strategy" for losing bodyfat while gaining muscle...low carb for a few days then carb up a day ...half day just a meal?
As usual your input is valued

Sent from my Dell Streak using Tapatalk

i've mentioned this many times before, and it should be clear that it's not a "carb up"... I don't even like to call it a cheat meal anymore. to me it's normal food.
anyway... 3 days low carb, low cal... let's say between 8-10 cals per lb, 1 gr protein per lb bodyweight and the rest is fat (trace carbs mostly)... on the 3rd day at night for your last meal, eat whatever the fuck you want in whatever quantities.
and i'm not talking about OCD bullshit with that "your cheat meals should be the same as your regular meals but more clean carbs", that's just fucking sick and sadistic. it's a means of torture for no good reason. you wanna be hardcore? it's not by eating 40% more sweet potatoes... drop $100 and try having a pizza and ice cream eating competition with your fattest friend and see who can eat the most without exploding... that's fucking hardcore! LOL

anyway... as i said, for example, monday-wednesday, low cal low carb and normal food on wednesday night (as much as you want)... then thursday and friday you eat low cal low carb again... friday night, sat and sun... eat whatever you want in reasonable quantities. no need to focus on protein or shit. just eat what you feel like and eat til you're half full.

you wanna lose fat faster? train harder (more volume, less rest)... hit 10% and can't get lower? drop the wednesday cheat meal and swallow any fat burner you can get your hands on. hit 6% and can't get lower? cancel sunday cheat day and do cardio.

if you don't like dieting on low carbs (why the hell wouldn't you if you can cheat this much? LOL)... and insist on mod-high carb diets... i'd advise you to keep your cals low throughout the week so you can cheat once or twice if you want, and i'd advise you to only eat high GI carbs on your diet days.
YES I SAID HIGH GI CARBS.

also... eating 6 meals a day won't make your metabolism go faster (total bullshit), it's not better, it's OCD behaviour basically, and it's not practical at all... it's just another way to say you're hardcore so people could say "wow, i could never do that!"....
3 is enough
"but i'll get really hungry in between!"... you don't think that's a good thing?

please think about why you'll need high GI carbs, and why 6-8 hrs between meals and staying hungry...

and if you're gonna talk about health? I know that personally, i feel much much much better and my body functions much better when i'm eating 1500-1800 cals of "junk", as opposed to 3000-3500 cals of "clean nutritious bodybuilding food"... 3 weeks i ate egg whites, oats, brown rice, chicken breasts, veggies, whey, olive oil and all that "healthy" crap... i swear I was in so much pain/discomfort... gassy as hell... bloated... no energy... and it was around 2500 cals. the minute i dropped that diet to my own (explained above)... wow!

and just so you know.... i'm waiting for some people to chime in after reading this to back me up... a lot of people tried this and they liked it a lot... one of the competitors told me he actually got into the best shape of his life after following that advice. but hey, if it aint hardcore, it aint bodybuilding... right?

buselmo · Jul 20, 2011

holy shit that was a long post! LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

i'm bored and i'm done with all my work for the day

:headbang:

NPCS FINEST · Jul 20, 2011

buselmo said:
i've mentioned this many times before, and it should be clear that it's not a "carb up"... I don't even like to call it a cheat meal anymore. to me it's normal food.
anyway... 3 days low carb, low cal... let's say between 8-10 cals per lb, 1 gr protein per lb bodyweight and the rest is fat (trace carbs mostly)... on the 3rd day at night for your last meal, eat whatever the fuck you want in whatever quantities.
and i'm not talking about OCD bullshit with that "your cheat meals should be the same as your regular meals but more clean carbs", that's just fucking sick and sadistic. it's a means of torture for no good reason. you wanna be hardcore? it's not by eating 40% more sweet potatoes... drop $100 and try having a pizza and ice cream eating competition with your fattest friend and see who can eat the most without exploding... that's fucking hardcore! LOL

anyway... as i said, for example, monday-wednesday, low cal low carb and normal food on wednesday night (as much as you want)... then thursday and friday you eat low cal low carb again... friday night, sat and sun... eat whatever you want in reasonable quantities. no need to focus on protein or shit. just eat what you feel like and eat til you're half full.

you wanna lose fat faster? train harder (more volume, less rest)... hit 10% and can't get lower? drop the wednesday cheat meal and swallow any fat burner you can get your hands on. hit 6% and can't get lower? cancel sunday cheat day and do cardio.

if you don't like dieting on low carbs (why the hell wouldn't you if you can cheat this much? LOL)... and insist on mod-high carb diets... i'd advise you to keep your cals low throughout the week so you can cheat once or twice if you want, and i'd advise you to only eat high GI carbs on your diet days.
YES I SAID HIGH GI CARBS.

also... eating 6 meals a day won't make your metabolism go faster (total bullshit), it's not better, it's OCD behaviour basically, and it's not practical at all... it's just another way to say you're hardcore so people could say "wow, i could never do that!"....
3 is enough
"but i'll get really hungry in between!"... you don't think that's a good thing?

please think about why you'll need high GI carbs, and why 6-8 hrs between meals and staying hungry...

and if you're gonna talk about health? I know that personally, i feel much much much better and my body functions much better when i'm eating 1500-1800 cals of "junk", as opposed to 3000-3500 cals of "clean nutritious bodybuilding food"... 3 weeks i ate egg whites, oats, brown rice, chicken breasts, veggies, whey, olive oil and all that "healthy" crap... i swear I was in so much pain/discomfort... gassy as hell... bloated... no energy... and it was around 2500 cals. the minute i dropped that diet to my own (explained above)... wow!

and just so you know.... i'm waiting for some people to chime in after reading this to back me up... a lot of people tried this and they liked it a lot... one of the competitors told me he actually got into the best shape of his life after following that advice. but hey, if it aint hardcore, it aint bodybuilding... right?

I'm about to hit the sack bro but is it cool for me to PM you tomorrow some time and talk more about this? I want to start this kinda "dieting" asap..you helped me alot with my chest so I want to give this a shot!