cheat days

juanveron45

I was wondering what most of ye think of having a cheat day or a freeday which its called in bodyforlife if you 6 other days are clean eating and you are training hard the other 6 days also?

ali.c

Honestly i try to follow the 90% rule, so if i eat 6 meals a day I can have 2 cheat meals a week. its a mixed bag really and it comes down to what works best for you. Some people find an all or nothing approach works well for them, but i personally find a more balanced approached works best for me. All out cheat days i find mess with my head and end up not being all that enjoyable.
Another thing to note is that your idea of cheat eating changes as you develop good eating habits. For a while i considered bk, mcd, chippers etc to be cheat meals, now its homemade pasta or sharing an indian, or having a roast potatoes. Oh and i no longer consider them cheats as such, rather treat meals. So a meal when i am still pay attention to the quality of the food but where i am not concerned with the overall nutrional break down of it.
You know yourself best so you need to decide whats appropriate for you.

A lot of the battle with eating well is in the head, so whatever you decide it should be something that will help you keep your head in the game!!

Newaglish

While i'm sure it varies from person to person, I wouldn't think a set "cheat day" is the best idea.

Say if I set aside Sunday for cheating. I wake up in the morning and have a fry, big lunch, chocolates, sweets, coke, maybe a takeaway for dinner.

What if I wake up and i'm not too hungry? Do I have the fry anyway? Maybe I'd fancy some porridge instead? But no, must have the fry because Sunday only comes around once a week!

What i'm trying to say is, it may seem like a necessary release at the start of your diet, but as your tastes change and you grow accustomed to healther food, you'll find that you won't want to eat that kind of stuff. But if you force yourself to do it every week, it'll be very hard to break that routine.

Plus, I personally need a cold turkey approach - if I have a takeaway on Sunday, I need one Monday, Tuesday, etc. I just prefer to stop altogether and save it for when I'm too drunk to care what I eat!

Hanley

Newaglish wrote:

While i'm sure it varies from person to person, I wouldn't think a set "cheat day" is the best idea.

Say if I set aside Sunday for cheating. I wake up in the morning and have a fry, big lunch, chocolates, sweets, coke, maybe a takeaway for dinner.

What if I wake up and i'm not too hungry? Do I have the fry anyway? Maybe I'd fancy some porridge instead? But no, must have the fry because Sunday only comes around once a week!

What i'm trying to say is, it may seem like a necessary release at the start of your diet, but as your tastes change and you grow accustomed to healther food, you'll find that you won't want to eat that kind of stuff. But if you force yourself to do it every week, it'll be very hard to break that routine.

Plus, I personally need a cold turkey approach - if I have a takeaway on Sunday, I need one Monday, Tuesday, etc. I just prefer to stop altogether and save it for when I'm too drunk to care what I eat!

Good post.

The whole concept of a "planned" cheat is a bad one in my books (notable exceptions such as carb ups for people on severly restricted diets withstanding).

If you think you already need a cheat day before starting then you're just setting yourself up for failure. It's not like you're NEVER gonna be able to have chocolate or pizza again, you jsut can't have it today. And if you make it thru today you can have some tomorrow. Then tomorrow comes around and you tell yourself you can't have any today, but you can have some tomorrow. If you look at it like that and try to fight each day as a single battle you'll be ok.

nesf

Hanley wrote:

The whole concept of a "planned" cheat is a bad one in my books (notable exceptions such as carb ups for people on severly restricted diets withstanding).

Out of curiosity, what about days that are just "different" to your normal routine. For instance a day you have to spend travelling and are stuck on trains for 6 or 7 hours and stuff like that. Not so much a cheat day as a break from routine day if you know what I mean.

juanveron45

I disagree with everyone here because if you don't have a designated day to eat want you want then you might sneak eat your favorite junk foods which will lead to guilt and eventually going on a complete binge for a few days

Also the thing about the cheat day is that initially they may start out as feasts but as you continue to eat well the other 6 days , eating junk starts to become not fun anymore with the upset stomachs and energy drain, its kind of like aversion therapy .

Also you don't have to force feed yourself anything on this day, if you want it, have it if you dont, dont.

Also this plan isn't for a certain amount of time its a lifestyle, you don't come off and go on it,its not a typical bodybuilding cut plan.

Lastly if you take someone thats been eating crap 7 days a week and not exercising and then put them on a plan where they exercise 6 days a week and eat well 6 days a week but have one day to themselves thats a major improvement and theres no doubt that they will make progress and its makes a fitness and diet a hell of alot easier to stick to.

juanveron45

also nesf, about days that are different. you have to plan theres always meal replacement bars and shakes.Not as good as real food no but better than going off your plan .

But the thing is your cheat day or freeday doesnt have to be the same day every week either, just say your freeday is usually sunday but you mess up on thursday just make sure the following sunday is a good day.get me

juanveron45

to Newaglish, I agree with what your saying ,that is why I prefer to call it a freeday as oposed to a cheat day .your free to be yourself and eat healthy or eat junk its up to you and your right eventually your taste buds for junk will go down so your better off starting off eating what you want on this day and if its junk ,eventually getting sick of it.Instead of using will power at the very start and then feeling guilty if you mess up.

Brown_Eyed_Girl

When I started out on my healthy eating trip I allowed myself a take away every Friday night and I looked on it as something to look forward to and at times it stopped me from cheating which is a good thing, but I have to say that over the last 6 - 8 months I have found that my cheat meal (take away) is just getting smaller and smaller because I am just not able for full portions anymore so I would say 'go with it' and see how it goes.

I think that if you really seriously go with the healthy eating and allow yourself a cheat day, you will get to the stage where you will just feel awful if you eat **** all day, so through natural progression you will get down to a cheat meal or two a week.

On another note, what do you people think of a day on VERY low cals after perhaps a cheat day ................... is it a bad thing ?

ali.c

as i said earlier its about figuring out what works for you. I would find it more difficult to keep my ass on track after a full day off but thats just me. Experiment and find out what works for you and go with that.

@brown eyed girl, nothing wrong with cylcing cals etc, it keeps your body on its toes but i think its a little to close to binging purging cycle for my liking. Though that s just my opinion!

Leon11

Brown_Eyed_Girl wrote:

On another note, what do you people think of a day on VERY low cals after perhaps a cheat day ................... is it a bad thing ?

Yes. Eat the same way you would eat every "normal" day

Hanley

juanveron45 wrote:

to Newaglish, I agree with what your saying ,that is why I prefer to call it a freeday as oposed to a cheat day .your free to be yourself and eat healthy or eat junk its up to you and your right eventually your taste buds for junk will go down so your better off starting off eating what you want on this day and if its junk ,eventually getting sick of it.Instead of using will power at the very start and then feeling guilty if you mess up.

Not being argumentative, but what are you basing this off??


In all your posts you seem to have this clear cut idea of how you're doing it is the ONLY way to do it. Alot of us have already walked the road you plan on trekking and it may surprise you to learn that we've picked up some tips and stuff that you can't learn about by just reading. You have to experience it.

Hanley

Ya know dude I don't want to come across badly so le me explain...

I read alot about training too. I thought I knew alot, but recently as I've gotten stronger, bigger etc I've done a complete 180 and realise I don't know that much at all.

You can't teach someone to squat from reading about it. You can't say do this, and do that without knowing how it feels. Without knowing how the other person feels when they're doing it ya know?

Similary it's hard to acturately describe what someone's going thru when they change their lifestyle around to manage their weight. Sure you can read other ppls exp but it's just not the same as doing it yourself.

I'm not saying everything you've read and learned thus far is useless, just that you'll need to be aware that it's a highly personalised thing and doing it yourself will probably be different than what you read about.

MA

Would agree with Hanley. Ive been in the fitness industry for about 10 years and man the amount of stuff you hear that contradicts what you previously heard is unreal.
The best way to learn things is to talk to experts, get as much info of them as you can and build your knowledge base so you can make up your own mind and test things out to see whats right (for you) whats wrong, what works what doesn’t.

One thing I have learned is you need to know basic technique from there you do the exercise the way that mostly benefits you and to the point you feel and see it working. We are all built different and all live different lifestyles.

Theres no point telling someone to stick to a certain diet etc, because they live in a different environment to what I do. Also were all made different some pple need sugar, some don’t, some have a sweet or savoury tooth – don’t fight this, just work with it. ..eg. find sweet things that aint going to cause to much harm!

maxi-twist

Hanley wrote:

Not being argumentative, but what are you basing this off??

I got that with chipper chips (used to enjoy them),ate healthy for about 6 months then went to the chipper and i couldnt eat the chips as i could just taste the grease on them.I still find them disgusting.

nesf

MA wrote:

Theres no point telling someone to stick to a certain diet etc, because they live in a different environment to what I do. Also were all made different some pple need sugar, some don’t, some have a sweet or savoury tooth – don’t fight this, just work with it. ..eg. find sweet things that aint going to cause to much harm!

I couldn't agree with the above more, and I'd extend it to cover most advice about life in general. One size fits all advice rarely works outside of the most general cases.

juanveron45

hey nesf some people do have sweet or savoury tastes but these are usually unhealthy addictions to both salt and sugar, the template for healthy eating is the same for everyone its just takes a bit of discipline to turn these carvings into more healthy ones

ali.c

juanveron45 wrote:

hey nesf some people do have sweet or savoury tastes but these are usually unhealthy addictions to both salt and sugar, the template for healthy eating is the same for everyone its just takes a bit of discipline to turn these carvings into more healthy ones

The template for healthy eating is just that a template. There are loads of different approaches and they work well for some people but not all people. I have only being eating well for about 2 months, before that i knew what i was meant to eating i just didnt know how to apply it to my life. In the last 2 months i have learnt alot from experience, how i work and what foods work best for me. Sure i messed up and had some bad days along the way but so long as i learned something from it it was a good day. Sure discipline is important but so is listening to your body and how it responds. The are two types of knowlege, 1 comes from learning reading and listening and the other comes from application of that knowledge. Failure to eat well is not necessarily about lack of discipline and it can be a great learning experience and in the long run can be more benifical in developing a healthy lifestyle than eating perfectly!

nesf

juanveron45 wrote:

hey nesf some people do have sweet or savoury tastes but these are usually unhealthy addictions to both salt and sugar, the template for healthy eating is the same for everyone its just takes a bit of discipline to turn these carvings into more healthy ones

See, in my opinion, you are far more likely to be successful on a diet if you can take your already present tastes in food and work them around healthier options. Your tastes for sweet or savoury foods will generally have been there since you were a kid, if you can work around them rather than have to break them then it's a good thing and will make things more likely to be maintained in the long run (imho).

That and, savoury cravings aren't necessarily salt cravings tbh.

juanveron45

MA wrote:

Theres no point telling someone to stick to a certain diet etc, because they live in a different environment to what I do. Also were all made different some pple need sugar, some don’t, some have a sweet or savoury tooth – don’t fight this, just work with it. ..eg. find sweet things that aint going to cause to much harm!

Ok nesf I challenge you to give 2 daily plans an example of 2 different healthy diets one geared towards people with sweet tastes and one geared towards savoury

nesf

juanveron45 wrote:

Ok nesf I challenge you to give 2 daily plans an example of 2 different healthy diets one geared towards people with sweet tastes and one geared towards savoury

What has that got to do with someone fitting a diet around their own individual tastes? I think you're missing my point here.

juanveron45

well every meal should have protein and carbs

and you should eat 6 meals a day

I just find it very hard for someone with a sweet taste to be able to do this

FunkZ

It's called restraining yourself, will power, you need this to lose weight.

nesf

juanveron45 wrote:

well every meal should have protein and carbs

Not necessarily. You don't need carbs at every meal.

juanveron45 wrote:

and you should eat 6 meals a day

True from what I've seen/read.

juanveron45 wrote:

I just find it very hard for someone with a sweet taste to be able to do this

Well, have some sliced banana with your porridge, a bit of fruit as your second meal in the day etc. Diet soft drinks in moderation. There are ways around these things from I can see, and really it all comes down to what you are trying to achieve. There is a huge difference between someone trying to lose weight when they're heavily overweight and someone trying to cut from 10% to 8% body fat (i.e. in the latter case they'd need to be far more strict to see any results versus the former where you can make progress with relatively small changes). Really, when I say that one size fits all doesn't work what I'm saying is that there are a multitude of factors that you need to take into account along with what your goals are.

maxi-twist

Sorry, but someone has to say this.

Judging by your previous posts your just beating around the bush,you've made so many excuses about having a sweet taste and how that affects your diet, nesf is just trying to help.What you really need to do is get your act together and try a diet,even if u fail now (i assure you that we've all failed in our fair share of dieting) you can still retry.Thats whats gotten me from the 27% bodyfat that i was before coming near this forum to the 9-10% that i am now.

You can have your cheat day,yes but make sure that 90% of the time your eating cleanly and healthily,if you do this and listen to the good advice you recieve here then you are guaranteed to loose the fat,im living proof of that. It takes a fair bit of willpower and commitment but the results are truely astonishing.

tribulus

maxi-twist wrote:

Sorry, but someone has to say this.

Judging by your previous posts your just beating around the bush,you've made so many excuses about having a sweet taste and how that affects your diet, nesf is just trying to help.What you really need to do is get your act together and try a diet,even if u fail now (i assure you that we've all failed in our fair share of dieting) you can still retry.Thats whats gotten me from the 27% bodyfat that i was before coming near this forum to the 9-10% that i am now.

You can have your cheat day,yes but make sure that 90% of the time your eating cleanly and healthily,if you do this and listen to the good advice you recieve here then you are guaranteed to loose the fat,im living proof of that. It takes a fair bit of willpower and commitment but the results are truely astonishing.

Excellent post.

OP I admire that you're trying to change your lifestyle for the better but you really need to stop over analysing and thinking about these little things.

Just start, today, by eating less and getting more exercise, stop making excuses. The other things you can deal with in time. The way you're going it seems like it will take a few months to finally finish this elaborate plan while with the whole time it took you could have already lost an appreciable amount of fat and changed your eating habits significantly.

juanveron45

I never said I had a sweet tooth

nesf

juanveron45 wrote:

I never said I had a sweet tooth

I think they misinterpreted this sentence which is a little ambiguous:

juanveron45 wrote:

I just find it very hard for someone with a sweet taste to be able to do this

juanveron45

Im just trying to make a point that if someone goes from eating crap 7 days a week and not exercising and then eats healthy 6 days a week and starts exercising but has one day a week to themselves it makes it a hell of alot easier to stick to than 100% cold turkey.This is why I actually hate the word cheat day, I prefer calling it freeday because your free to do what you want eat healthy or eat junk and eventually if you do eat junk, you might get sick of it and start eating more healthy on your freeday.

Also if one is restricting cals its important to have refeed days because dieting restricts the production of a hormone called leptin which gives a signal to the body to eat(hunger) having a good feed once a week will restore leptin levels and calm hunger.which proves its not just will power but theres actually a physiological thing going on here

And these refeeds don't have to healthy foods either because

A.you cant suffer nutritionally from one day of bad eating if 6 days are on track

B.High glycemic carbs are best for restoring leptin levels and these types of carbs are in high amounts in junk food

maxi-twist

Then do it!Start sooner rather than later.

Hanley

juanveron45 wrote:

Im just trying to make a point that if someone goes from eating crap 7 days a week and not exercising and then eats healthy 6 days a week and starts exercising but has one day a week to themselves it makes it a hell of alot easier to stick to than 100% cold turkey.This is why I actually hate the word cheat day, I prefer calling it freeday because your free to do what you want eat healthy or eat junk and eventually if you do eat junk, you might get sick of it and start eating more healthy on your freeday.

Also if one is restricting cals its important to have refeed days because dieting restricts the production of a hormone called leptin which gives a signal to the body to eat(hunger) having a good feed once a week will restore leptin levels and calm hunger.which proves its not just will power but theres actually a physiological thing going on here

And these refeeds don't have to healthy foods either because

A.you cant suffer nutritionally from one day of bad eating if 6 days are on track

B.High glycemic carbs are best for restoring leptin levels and these types of carbs are in high amounts in junk food

Ok, you go do it since you know it all already.

Calling it a "freeday" is probably only so you don't feel guilty about cheating on your new diet anyway.

Good luck with it.

Monty_123

Hanley wrote:

Ok, you go do it since you know it all already.

Calling it a "freeday" is probably only so you don't feel guilty about cheating on your new diet anyway.

Good luck with it.

Here Here

Kinetic^

Cheat days are generally taken by people who have been on severe cuts and iirc it's generally every 6-8 weeks.

Having a cheat day every week would seriously hinder a person's progress.

Have 1 or 2 cheat meals a week and you'll be fine.

Dragan

For me, cheat "days" or "meals" need to be earned. I have had the pleasure of working out with many people on this board. I have never not been impressed by the level of work, intensity and sheer ****ing effort they bring to their workouts. G'em, T-ha, JSB, Kenny, Hanley, Tribulus, JayRoc, Sleepy, Wasabi, Seraphinx, Dragula, Kwalsh and many, many more.

Often times after these gut busting sessions we have hit up Eddie Rockets or somewhere similar and enjoyed some bovine fun, some fries….hell, maybe even an oreo malt or 10. Each and everyone person earned that meal. And that’s the difference.

Many people workout, but not that many do it consistently, with good effort making a bad day and huge effort making a good one. The simple fact is that not everyone is at a place where they can do that, where each and every workout is genuinely making a difference. If your going to the gym and your not seeing the changes you want to see then the simple fact is your workouts are not tough enough and your diet is not good enough.

You earn your "cheat meals".

Make sure your doing that.

Sleepy

Dragan wrote:

For me, cheat "days" or "meals" need to be earned. I have had the pleasure of working out with many people on this board. I have never not been impressed by the level of work, intensity and sheer ****ing effort they bring to their workouts. G'em, T-ha, JSB, Kenny, Hanley, Tribulus, JayRoc, Sleepy, Wasabi, Seraphinx, Dragula, Kwalsh and many, many more.

I am so proud to be included in that list it's pathetic.

juanveron45, it's been said to you already on this thread by far more experienced people than me and people who have made massive changes to their physiques but maybe hearing this from another n00b who's still got a long way to go might help.

My diet's far from perfect. I probably cheat 4/5 meals a weak, miss some morning/afternoon snacks, use the white bread when there's no brown etc. The fact is, at the level of the game I'm at (4 months in the gym, haven't been in anything approaching good shape since I was 18 and even then I've never been fit) it really doesn't matter all that much.

I hate to use a marketing slogan from a company I don't buy anything from but Nike have the entire fitness thing figured in theirs: just do it. Lift heavy, move faster, try to be like the craziest bastard in your gym and on the days you end up a pathetic wheezing heap on the ground: laugh. You've just got more out of your session than all those people looking at you with a little fear in their eyes.

No one who matters cares about the number on the side of your dumbbells, the speed of your treadmill or the minutiaie of your training program. They'll judge you by how wet your t-shirt is, how you'll grind out the 'last' rep and then go for another, how thoroughly knackered you are as you wobble off the training floor and the big **** eating grin you'll be wearing at the end of it.

PeakOutput

Sleepy wrote:

No one who matters cares about the number on the side of your dumbbells, the speed of your treadmill or the minutiaie of your training program. They'll judge you by how wet your t-shirt is, how you'll grind out the 'last' rep and then go for another, how thoroughly knackered you are as you wobble off the training floor and the big **** eating grin you'll be wearing at the end of it.

im putting that on a poster and selling them for 20euro each ill give you a cut

also im so inspired im gonna go up howth hill twice today..........well maybe

Hanley

Dragan wrote:

For me, cheat "days" or "meals" need to be earned. I have had the pleasure of working out with many people on this board. I have never not been impressed by the level of work, intensity and sheer ****ing effort they bring to their workouts. G'em, T-ha, JSB, Kenny, Hanley, Tribulus, JayRoc, Sleepy, Wasabi, Seraphinx, Dragula, Kwalsh and many, many more.

Often times after these gut busting sessions we have hit up Eddie Rockets or somewhere similar and enjoyed some bovine fun, some fries….hell, maybe even an oreo malt or 10. Each and everyone person earned that meal. And that’s the difference.

Many people workout, but not that many do it consistently, with good effort making a bad day and huge effort making a good one. The simple fact is that not everyone is at a place where they can do that, where each and every workout is genuinely making a difference. If your going to the gym and your not seeing the changes you want to see then the simple fact is your workouts are not tough enough and your diet is not good enough.

You earn your "cheat meals".

Make sure your doing that.

Dude, in fairness, you've trained with me what, once??

I'm going to list out what I ate yesterday for everyone to see. You'll be surprised at how "wrong" I do everything.

MONDAY:

Breakfast: Special K, teaspoon of sugar, mini mars bar and a chicken fillet
Pre workout" 2 scoops Xplode
Post workout: 2 scoops RAM, 1 scoop CellX, 5-7g of glutamine, 5-7g of mono
Lunch: 2 southern fried chciken breasts
Snack: 1/2 tub of ben and jerries and a bowl of buttered popcorn
Dinner: A chciken fillet, youghrat and a chocolate brownie
Pre bed: Pint of milk

SUNDAY:

Breakfast: Rashers, sausages, white toast
Pre workout: 2 xplode
Post workout: 2 scoops RAM, 1 scoop CellX, 5-7g of glutamine, 5-7g of mono
Lunch: Chicken ceaser salad, steak and a chocolate torte
Dinner: Large box of popcorn chicken, 3 hot wings, Large Pepsr (all KFC)
Snack: 2 mini mars bars
Pre bed: Chicken Fillet and a pint of milk


Those are pretty typical days for me. I've been in Eddies twice in the past week, MaccyD's twice also and KFC once.

I don't do the whole cheat meal buzz. People on a severe cut probably need it for their sanity. But the average person in the gym uses their diet as a crutch for not training hard enough.

In the past 2 weeks eating as I listed above, I've added a full inch to my legs 5 inches above my knee, and half an inch at the widest part. My waist has dropped aboout .5 of an inch, skinfold measurements and bodyfat are down too, AND my bodyweight's up 2kg.

How have I managed this?? By breaking my body into a thousand little pieces in the gym. the work only starts when my legs start to shake. Don't EVER underestimate how much you can "get away with" if you're willing to put the effort in under tha bar.

Hell, I used MaccyD's as a re-feed 3 hours before my last powerlfiitng comp where I beat the current teen world champion and set 4 new national records.

Just get the calories in poeple, if you get fat then you need to train harder.

Dragan

Hanley wrote:

Dude, in fairness, you've trained with me what, once??

Doesn't matter. Once is all it takes. If someone doesn't impress you the first time out then chances are that they won't.

That's my opinion anyway.

Kinetic^

Hanley wrote:

Just get the calories in poeple, if you get fat then you need to train harder.

I think you're being a bit frivolous with that statement tbh.

Hanley

Kenny 5 wrote:

I think you're being a bit frivolous with that statement tbh.

Basing that on what?

Kinetic^

Hanley wrote:

Basing that on what?

That telling people to just get the calories in is a bit simplified!!! You don't mention what sort of calories the should be taking.......as in protein, carbs, fats....and what type of each of these they should be taking.

Hanley

Kenny 5 wrote:

That telling people to just get the calories in is a bit simplified!!! You don't mention what sort of calories the should be taking.......as in protein, carbs, fats....and what type of each of these they should be taking.

I expect some form of common sense to be applied by people. Probably foolish of me tho.

When it comes to getting big and strong you need to eat ALOT. If you're training sufficently hard then you'll notice great gains in muscle and size. This isn't a license to stufff your face with a pound of lard.

better?

nesf

Hanley wrote:

Just get the calories in poeple, if you get fat then you need to train harder.

I think the biggest problem with this statement is that the majority of people don't train that hard and are unlikely to, be it either down to them literally not having enough free time or just not being a person who puts in enough effort.

What you say is true in some circumstances, I just wouldn't offer it as advice to most people, including myself.

Hanley

nesf wrote:

I think the biggest problem with this statement is that the majority of people don't train that hard and are unlikely to, be it either down to them literally not having enough free time or just not being a person who puts in enough effort.

What you say is true in some circumstances, I just wouldn't offer it as advice to most people, including myself.

So person A goes to the gym for an hour wanders around the gym and faffs about and makes no progress.

Person B goes to the gym for an hour full of focus and KILLS themself and constantly pushes their personal limits.

Both spent the same amount of time in the gym.

nesf

Hanley wrote:

So person A goes to the gym for an hour wanders around the gym and faffs about and makes no progress.

Person B goes to the gym for an hour full of focus and KILLS themself and constantly pushes their personal limits.

Both spent the same amount of time in the gym.

Agreed, but would you agree that there is a difference in the potential "ceiling" between two people who both put in the work and where one can do 3 hours a week and the other 6? I meant train that hard in the sense of amount of work done in a week rather than amount of work put in per hour, sorry for being ambiguous.

Money Shot

juanveron45 wrote:

Also if one is restricting cals its important to have refeed days because dieting restricts the production of a hormone called leptin which gives a signal to the body to eat(hunger) having a good feed once a week will restore leptin levels and calm hunger.which proves its not just will power but theres actually a physiological thing going on here

And these refeeds don't have to healthy foods either because

A.you cant suffer nutritionally from one day of bad eating if 6 days are on track

B.High glycemic carbs are best for restoring leptin levels and these types of carbs are in high amounts in junk food

I was looking through this thread, and I don't want to come across smart @rsey here, but I fear I might. It's just that on another thread started here by yourself, you posted the below pictures asking people to gauge your body fat levels. That's fine, but you must see why it amuses me when you start dishing out diet and exercise advice to people and arguing your point so passionately with people who have been training and competing for years. How can you have such faith in what you say when you it obviously hasn't worked for you, thus far ?

I'm not getting at you, but it seems that you should be taking advice at this stage and not giving it out. Would you let a hairdresser with unmnageable hair near your head - I think not ???

http://www.bodyforlife-tracker.com/s...id=18261&sid=2

ali.c

Op when are you starting the program or have you started already? You should consider keeping a fitness journal in the sub-forum, tis a great way to keep motivated, and when you read back through it you'll see how far you've come! Good Luck with it anyhow!

rubadub

Money Shot wrote:

Would you let a hairdresser with unmnageable hair near your head - I think not ???

Would you let a morbidly obese person manage the country's health system?
Or let a man who doesnt even have a bank account manage billions of taxpayers money?
I think so

I am down to working out only once or twice a week, when I do "cheat" I will go off and do a few sets squats or bench presses, at least the food will go towards something. I am not as dedicated or have the high goals of many here. I am almost down to the weight I want to be, and am in no rush to get there, probably loosing 1lb of fat per month now, maybe 2lb, getting slowly stronger too.

juanveron45

Hanley wrote:

I'm going to list out what I ate yesterday for everyone to see. You'll be surprised at how "wrong" I do everything.

MONDAY:

Breakfast: Special K, teaspoon of sugar, mini mars bar and a chicken fillet
Pre workout" 2 scoops Xplode
Post workout: 2 scoops RAM, 1 scoop CellX, 5-7g of glutamine, 5-7g of mono
Lunch: 2 southern fried chciken breasts
Snack: 1/2 tub of ben and jerries and a bowl of buttered popcorn
Dinner: A chciken fillet, youghrat and a chocolate brownie
Pre bed: Pint of milk

Hnaley

Even for a bulking diet, that diet is too dirty.sugar and mars bar for breakfast,fried chicken,ben and jerrys,buttered popcorn,chocolate brownie and no essential fats or a veg in sight.And you were saying one cheat day a weekis bad, your having one everyday man

And I agree with the post about cheat days have to be earned well I think I earn them

Currently I am eating 6 small very clean meals 6 days a week , nothing thats goes into my mouth on those 6 days is unauthorised every morsel of food is to help me reach my goal

Also I workout intensely 6 days a week rotating cardio with weights

I have also decided to give up alcohol for 12 weeks even on cheat days, which for me will be a challenge.

Now if Im doing on those things, I think one day a week of eating what I want wont do my progress any harm

Degsy

Eh,have you ever SEEN Hanley?Whatever he's doing he's doing correctly.I wouldnt lecture him on nutrition.

Smellyirishman

I wouldn't be so quick to lecture, Juan. Whatever Hanley is doing, it sure as fcuk is working for him.