Cheat days/meals

p-nut

Hey i was just wondering what peoples general thoughts on a cheat day or a cheat meal is. Im not too fond of the idea of a cheat day or even an entire meal. The reason is, im trying to bulk up using good quality proteins and carbs etc.
Like my diet is well researched and quite clean, but i am only 17 and find it hard to completely cut out sweets and sometimes fast food. So am i good for the like a bar of choc or a bowl of ice cream or cake a day, and mayb the odd pizza from time to time just to keep me sane or am i best off stickin it out for the few weeks.
sorry if i sound completely obsessed about my diet, its just that im gettin a lot more focused lately,
thanks a mil

g'em

there's aboslutely nothing wrong with cheat meals, as long as they're deserved! Let's say you eat clean meals five times a day seven days a week then there's ample room for 2 cheats a week. That might be a bar of chocolate or a dessert or a pizza or whatever your indulgence of choice is. Cheats have both physiological and psychological benefits.

If you're on a calorie deficit your body will undoubtedly get used to being supplied with lower calories. A cheat will help to shake up your metabolism an force it to work extra hard for a meal, preventing it from getting sluggish. In the grander view of things two meals out of 35 a week will not inhibit progress a huge amount. Plus you can also plan it so that your "cheats" are reasonably healthy ones - if you have a pizza make it thin-crust with lots of vegetables for example.

It's hard to stick to diets too, and by allowing yourself a treat now and again it stops you from feeling like you're missing out on forbidden foods. Soon though the sense of well-being you get from eating good foods regulalry will become a rewrad in itself and you'll find yourself craving crap less and less.

Hanley

If you're looking to bulk then why would you not eat calorie dense food????

Man that's just insane.

g'em

you're on a bulk? oops, missed that bit. Well if that's the case then eat to your heart's content, but if you want to gain muscle as opposed to just crap-loads of flab then eat lots of good food, simple as. Sure you could eat a cheat every day but it's not going to help you gain muscle. Eating lots of good quality foods should be enough to satisfy hunger pangs and such. Craving sweet stuff is kind of nonsense really - lower the sugar in your diet and you won't crave it nearly as much. Get plenty of good fats into you.

brianthebard

Try to find healthier alternatives to what you are craving-make a pizza yourself(its not that hard) with perhaps a wholegrain base (or just not white flour) and use lower fat cheese, etc. Apparently you can take up to five grams of fat off a pizza slice simply by soaking up the excess fat with kitchen paper. If you have ever tried it you will see how much extra there is!

p-nut

aye i am on a bulk, and im trying to eat as much HEALTHY calorie dense food as i can. i know im gonna gain some flab on a proper bulking diet but im just trying to minimise it a little.
when i say cheat meal by the way, i dont mean an entire meal, i mean just like a sweet dessert. i dont crave sweet things at all, i just like to have something after dinner ya kno. and even when i do have something sweet, its still considered quite healthy. ie a chunk of 70% dark chocolate.
thanks for the input tho guys, im all ears:p

g'em

it sounds like you're on the right track. If you want to get big, eat. If you want to get lean big, eat and work out. It'll be very much trial and error for you too - if you find you're putting on too much fat, cut the calories a little. If the weight isn't going on eat more. Keep things nice and simple and track your progress as best you can - you know your body better than any of us will.

rubadub

brianthebard wrote:

-make a pizza yourself(its not that hard) with perhaps a wholegrain base (or just not white flour) and use lower fat cheese, etc.

I do exactly that. I get brown bread mix, mix 100g with 50ml water and roll it out really thin. Then put on pasta sauce and tesco grated "healthy" cheese, it is about 15%fat 34% protein. I bake the base for 5 mins, then the base & sauce for 4mins. Then the cheese on last for 2-3mins. The low fat content means the cheese can burn easily so you only want to melt it.

Dice up a cooked chicken fillet for extra topping.

Hanley

Ah guys c'mon... that's so pedantic. Maybe I'm just lazy, or it could be ignorance, but I think there's A LOT of things more important and more beneficial to your training than worrying about such minor details as "ohh can I have this square of chocolate :S"

p-nut

aye it is, but im seriously obsessed with maintaining a decent diet. so much so that its probably a bad thing. its more of a psychological thing like. no matter how hard i try to relax a little, i still obsess over stupid things.
i went through a horrible phase where i avoided anything with ingredients i didnt recognise, or anything that sounded bad. im over it now to some extent tho, ridiculous as it sounds, haha:rolleyes:

Hanley

OCD much?

p-nut

Hanley wrote:

OCD much?

OCD???

Hanley

Obssesive compulsive disorder. I'm sure everyone has something that could be classed as OCD on a minor level!

p-nut

:ooh ye without a doubt!! serious ocd, but wat can i say, i hav an obsessive personality:D