Off day from diet???

[noobloser]

i know numerous amateur and pro atheletes who have at one time or another done the all out cheat day diet...not sure about the science behind it but these guys ate like a damn pig one day a week and healthy the rest of the time...

one guy in particular was a top ten ranked in the wbc and an amazing boxer...this cat would eat a cartons of ice cream or handfuls of twinkies and mcnuggets in one sitting. The next day he would be in the gym tearing it up and back on the healty path.

i swear by the 90-10 rule...i think some people on this forum exaggerate the effect that a couple crappy meals a week will have on you.

I'm sure whoever you're talking about didn't do it every single week on the same day.

One meal? Fine. Two? Maybe. But a whole day? And handfuls of twinkies? McNuggets?? I guess I just have a hard time seeing the point of intentionally blowing your own diet for crap that doesn't even taste good.

Notice that I said crappy food will have a huge impact if he was cutting by ketosis. If you are eating twinkies at all during the week you're going to take another 3-4 days after that to get your body back into ketosis. You might as well not be dieting at all in that case.

If you aren't in ketosis, I think the biggest risk you have is the mental baggage that goes along with blowing your diet. Most people are barely disciplined to stick to a diet to begin with. Once you start having cheat days, for them, it quickly turns into "I'll get back on the diet, tomorrow." But it turns out that tomorrow there's a pizza party at work. How about the next day? "Well I've already been off it for two days... What's another day, right?"

It's just not the smart thing to do on any level. If you can avoid it, you should.

 

[The Special One]

I think a cheat meal here or there is good if just for sanity purposes. I don't think a cheat day is a good thing though.

Usually just one shitty meal will be enough to throw my body into chaos to the point where I couldn't eat anymore crappy food even if I tried.

For example, I figured with yesterday being easter and all, I would head to Burger King (I eat fast food maybe once a month) and get a double whopper meal for lunch. I wasn't hungry at all really the rest of the day, but that meal was enough to make me not want anything else on that level...if that makes sense.

In sum, have a cheat meal once in a while and then get back to it. Or, if it is going to be more often, keep the portions of the bad food under control (have 6 chicken nuggets instead of 20).

 

[MetaHuman]

does anyone take a off day from ur diet where u eat whatever u want, with in reason no fast food or anything????? iam on my diet at least 6 days and take sundays off, should i just stay on it all the time???

Not on a regular basis for me, meaning that I don't pick a day every week or two to cheat. I will admit to cheating like hell during vacations. And on special days (i.e., my wedding anniversary) I tend to let loose a bit as well -- but mostly because I don't want to hear my wife gripe at me about not relenting during special occasions... she's got a bite to her, let me tell you.

I know there's a school of though out there that advocates regular cheat days to "recharge" one's leptins, but all in all I'm against having them on a regular basis. Some people rely on them because they feel they need to in order to stay on course. But to each their own, I suppose.

 

[Graver]

I'm sure whoever you're talking about didn't do it every single week on the same day.

One meal? Fine. Two? Maybe. But a whole day? And handfuls of twinkies? McNuggets?? I guess I just have a hard time seeing the point of intentionally blowing your own diet for crap that doesn't even taste good.

Notice that I said crappy food will have a huge impact if he was cutting by ketosis. If you are eating twinkies at all during the week you're going to take another 3-4 days after that to get your body back into ketosis. You might as well not be dieting at all in that case.

If you aren't in ketosis, I think the biggest risk you have is the mental baggage that goes along with blowing your diet. Most people are barely disciplined to stick to a diet to begin with. Once you start having cheat days, for them, it quickly turns into "I'll get back on the diet, tomorrow." But it turns out that tomorrow there's a pizza party at work. How about the next day? "Well I've already been off it for two days... What's another day, right?"

It's just not the smart thing to do on any level. If you can avoid it, you should.

Yes, he did do it the same day everyweek. Sunday.

There is actually a diet that involves this kind of one day a week splurging, Men's Health had a feature on it some months ago showcasing a bunch of dudes who lost a ton of weight doing it. I'm not a doctor or nutrionists and am not going to say this diet is a sure thing, though the article did.

As for cutting weight for a fight, the above mentioned boxer cut out cheat days in the later stages of weight cutting...i dont think anyone would suggest any cheat meals when you are cutting weight for a fight. For a long term diet and steady weight reduction, yes, but for short term weight cutting, no.

 

[Tre5sev]

I personally would not recommend designating 1 day out of the week as a "cheat" day. I do feel it is ok to have a cheat meal every now and then but it should be sporadic.

 

[MetaHuman]

Really? You'll have to explain how that works.

Right! He's probably referring to that leptin school of thought I mentioned in my original post. Said school communicates a nebulous message at best.

Didn't the venerable Berardi himself mention that one would have to consume an ungodly amount of food over a period of time longer than merely a day to stimulate appreciable increases in leptin?

 

[TrojanStealth]

Really? You'll have to explain how that works.

Prolonged periods of hypocaloric eating slow down the thyroid's conversion rate and efficiency. A day of hypercaloric eating, especially when heavy in carbs, boosts the body's ability to convert T4 to T3.

From a anecdotal standpoint, from years of bodybuilding, aside from saving sanity, a "cheat day" always left me full (in the muscle bellies, not just the stomach) and boosted strength.

 

[MikeMartial]

Prolonged periods of hypocaloric eating slow down the thyroid's conversion rate and efficiency. A day of hypercaloric eating, especially when heavy in carbs, boosts the body's ability to convert T4 to T3.

This may be true, but it's completely different from adhering to a clean diet and then having one cheat day.

 

[noobloser]

Pretty sure you can have a hypercaloric intake, even one loaded with carbs, without eating a double big mac and fries.

 

[Darksky]

I generally fall off the healthy regime about 2-3 times per week. I figure falling off 3 out of 28 times per week is pretty good. Generally happens to me when I know I do not have training the next day and then BAM... its Guiness and White Castles :[