Thread: Cheat days...

Originally Posted by robousy

I am cutting and have a pretty good diet that I have patched together from reading these forums that are concomitant with my goals.

I want to ask about cheat days.

I have heard that these are actually good in some way as add to the whole 'confuse your body or it will adapt' paradigm.

Is this the case or should I stick rigorously to my diet for best results.

Thanks.

Well - 'cheat days' are different to re-feeds...

Cheat days are more for a psychological benefit than anything else. You get to 'cut loose' and relax for the day... That is about it. A side effect might be some metabolic effects, but there are better ways to achieve those effects than cheese-cake and cookies!

Whether you want these types of days really depends on the basic things of:
- the 'strictness' with which you want to follow your diet
- your ultimate goal (eg: just lose some fat or get competition cut)

If you don't want them, then there is no real need (as long as you are not developing a disordered form of eating where you CAN'T eat anything other than 'safe' foods - then you are getting into the realms of eating disorders). Also, if you are trying to get REALLY cut, then they are not really a good thing either - especially if you have control issues!


Re-feeds are for a physiological purpose - with these you AIM to kick up your metabolism and help prevent your body from metabolically coming to a stand still... But your requirement for these depends on a few things:
- your body composition
- the calorie deficiency you are at (and the level of your carbs in particular)

The leaner you are, the more likely your body will require 'refeeds'. Similarly, the greater your calorie deficiency (and especially if you are doing very low carbohydrate dieting) then the more likely re-feeds will be necessary. These are not 'cheat days' - but days of 'clean foods' with higher calories (esp higher carbohydrate levels). The aim is to fill your glycogen stores, trigger your fat cells to increase your leptin levels, and release a whole heap of neurochemical in your brain - which help trigger those beneficial metabolic effects that people talk about.

If your BF% is high, or your calorie/carb range is reasonable, then they are not really necessary from this point of view.

You may just want to do a meal if you're cutting rather than a full day.

Thanks for the replies - especially the long one emma-leigh.

Yes, I kind of had the feeling that it was more a psychological booster.
I am not on a low carb diet so probably won't need a refeed day.

I am being strict now as I've been working out and eating well for a year and only just starting to see definition, so I want to accelerate that.

You can always add cheesecake to the end of one meal too.

Originally Posted by JLB001

You can always add cheesecake to the end of one meal too.

Or just skip the meal and eat twice as much cheesecake.