Why did I gain muscle & cut fat when eating bad?

Mannin

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I had a tough winter no fault but my own. 5'10" and got up to 190lbs and out of shape. Dropped to 170 since I was 190 in march and been here a couple weeks. I was eating grilled chicken, green beans, asparagus, rice pita, tuna with only some relish added, fish, ect.. pretty much everything healthy and small meals throughout the day, Isopure protein powder, water only ect.

Workouts consist of P90x3 every day + cardio almost every morning and MT class twice a week. Past couple days I had some pizza (two days of thin bbq chicken), ice cream and a glass of soda. Noticeably seem to help? Actually noticed a nice difference compared to the past couple weeks and even feel it. Trust me, I don't plan on sticking to this, but is this good to confuse your body once in awhile?
 
Are you in your late teens or early 20's? If not, "P90x3 every day + cardio almost every morning and MT class twice a week", is actually a lot of exercise. Think about the fire analogy for your metabolism. If your exercising that much and were eating healthy up until the point you splurged, your metabolic fires woulda been raging. What happens when you add a big fat log to an already raging fire? It burns even hotter. Try to reverse the process, i.e. start a fire with the big fat log (junk food), the fire is just going to burn out. This is why a cheat meal is not only ok, it is recommended, especially for people bodybuilding.
 
Thanks for the replies. Makes sense and I'll keep that in mind. I'm not too young, 34.
 
This is why a cheat meal is not only ok, it is recommended, especially for people bodybuilding.

I second this, when I was doing lots of cardio while being in the muay thai amateur circuit, cheats meal would costs me but now ive been doing bodybuilding oriented routines (high volume, frequency) ive been able to get away with junk.
 
I second this, when I was doing lots of cardio while being in the muay thai amateur circuit, cheats meal would costs me but now ive been doing bodybuilding oriented routines (high volume, frequency) ive been able to get away with junk.

Yeah its like a form of bro science that many of us have actually seen play out. Theres definitely something to it though.
 
I had a tough winter no fault but my own. 5'10" and got up to 190lbs and out of shape. Dropped to 170 since I was 190 in march and been here a couple weeks. I was eating grilled chicken, green beans, asparagus, rice pita, tuna with only some relish added, fish, ect.. pretty much everything healthy and small meals throughout the day, Isopure protein powder, water only ect.

Workouts consist of P90x3 every day + cardio almost every morning and MT class twice a week. Past couple days I had some pizza (two days of thin bbq chicken), ice cream and a glass of soda. Noticeably seem to help? Actually noticed a nice difference compared to the past couple weeks and even feel it. Trust me, I don't plan on sticking to this, but is this good to confuse your body once in awhile?

There's nothing paradoxical about what you're describing, and it has nothing to do with confusion. Healthy and small meals a day are basically red herrings; the bottom line is you had very little activity, your metabolic rate was depressed, and I guarantee you were eating above your maintenance calorie no matter how clean you thought you were eating.

Add in a fairly huge amount of activity that is almost entirely catabolic/lipolytic in nature and you're going to be just fine with a few "unclean" foods. Feeling better is concurrent with you being carb depleted from the cut and ingesting a bunch of simple sugars - you're refilling muscle glycogen, cellular energy status ^=perceived energy ^. Probably look better too, since your muscles will appear more full.

Great observations, but there's nothing out of the ordinary going on here.
 
I second this, when I was doing lots of cardio while being in the muay thai amateur circuit, cheats meal would costs me but now ive been doing bodybuilding oriented routines (high volume, frequency) ive been able to get away with junk.

While I don't mind gaining some muscle, I'd rather keep leaning out. How did it cost you so much while you were in Muay Thai and assuming you were keeping lean. What did you notice?
 
While I don't mind gaining some muscle, I'd rather keep leaning out. How did it cost you so much while you were in Muay Thai and assuming you were keeping lean. What did you notice?

Ok,while I'm not exactly sure, first I'm gonna say genetics, diet, training, stress all play a role.

When, doing lots of cardio and very little to no resistance training, though I was at my lightest at the same time being lean, I was always hungry and when I ate "cheats" I would notice myself feeling bloated the next day, and I would not digest them very well and it can take up to a week to get back to normal again.

Now, doing the complete opposite I've gained some muscle mass and am still lean, Im not as hungry, and if I do pig out on cheats here and there (which I'll admit are bad at times) I would get huge pumps, and the next day I'm not bloated. I think this is due to my muscles being in a state of constant recovery and active since I'm doing a lot of weights right now. Surely, the carbs and fats get used up differently as oppose to the high cardio training I was doing

sounds like bro science
 
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I know all of our bodies are different, but for me it seems that I can eat sick healthy for a couple months and drop the garbage weight I had (in this case 20lbs), then I hit a standstill.

Now I feel if I cheat once in awhile, and I'm not saying I go crazy. I'll order a thin crust BBQ chicken pizza instead of a stuffed crust garbage pizza. I'll have some ice cream, but go for a medium sundae with banana and strawberry instead of a 1400cal blizzard. Eat oatmeal raisin cookies instead of chocolate chip... you get what I'm sayin. It seems to be working better. Muscles are filling and I'm toning out. It keeps me full a bit longer and I can do some 16-18hr fasts. I drink water all day and a normal sugar gatorade every other day. Gatorade seems to work better during Muay Tai than water for me.

Guess I'll keep rolling with this until it's a problem. Either way, appreciate all the replies. Love all the input.
 
I know all of our bodies are different, but for me it seems that I can eat sick healthy for a couple months and drop the garbage weight I had (in this case 20lbs), then I hit a standstill.

First reply was correct. You just accidentally performed a successful carbohydrate refeed.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/sclark60.htm

Also look up metabolism and Leptin.

Short version: when eating lots of food your metabolism ramps up to full but the longer you are on a calorie deficit the more your body drops it back down to avoid you starving to death. This is why people can eat a caloric deficit and initially lose a lot of weight and then eventually they will be eating the exact same thing and losing zero weight. The effects get worse the bigger caloric deficit under maintenance you eat and the lower your body fat percentage.

Solution to stalled diet/metabolic slow down are diet breaks, carb cycling diets and carb refeeds. Google these terms.
 
I've consistently noticed the same thing. I think it comes down to getting enough calories, fat and carb. Low fat/cholesterol can suppress test levels - which then affect gains. Training takes more of a toll on the body's systems than people think. I've read somewhere that low carb does the same thing - but can't verify.

I read GSP's training diet online somewhere, and it talked about making allowance for frequent cheat meals due to the high energy expenditure. Might've been on the Precision Nutrition site.

G
 
First reply was correct. You just accidentally performed a successful carbohydrate refeed.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/sclark60.htm

Also look up metabolism and Leptin.

Short version: when eating lots of food your metabolism ramps up to full but the longer you are on a calorie deficit the more your body drops it back down to avoid you starving to death. This is why people can eat a caloric deficit and initially lose a lot of weight and then eventually they will be eating the exact same thing and losing zero weight. The effects get worse the bigger caloric deficit under maintenance you eat and the lower your body fat percentage.

Solution to stalled diet/metabolic slow down are diet breaks, carb cycling diets and carb refeeds. Google these terms.

Will do... appreciate the info.
 
I've consistently noticed the same thing. I think it comes down to getting enough calories, fat and carb. Low fat/cholesterol can suppress test levels - which then affect gains. Training takes more of a toll on the body's systems than people think. I've read somewhere that low carb does the same thing - but can't verify.

I read GSP's training diet online somewhere, and it talked about making allowance for frequent cheat meals due to the high energy expenditure. Might've been on the Precision Nutrition site.

G

Probably, Berardi, was his nutritionist, PN is his site.
 
Personally ive found it easier getting leaner and/digesting junk food with high volume/more frequent weights-low/moderate cardio than high volume cardio - 0/low weight training
 
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