Cheat days while cutting.

[*Bunny*]

just carb up and eat more clean cals for a period to reset your metabolism. Dumping 10,000+ cals of transfat and sugar into a body with a sluggish metabolism has always seemed a bad thing to me

^^ I agree.... and it never usually is gratifying when it's over ... funny how that works

 

[Makavelli]

How high do you consider high carb? (granted their are going to be fluxtuations from person to person).

For most bodybuilders I work with I'll have them eat around 800 grams of carbs for the carb up. I lower their protein and fat that day so the calories don't get out of hand. For figure girls I'll have them eat around 300.

For cheat days I don't care what they eat.

 

[36drew]

Ironically, the mentality is the leaner you get, the less you should cheat. When it is probably quite the opposite.

Hormones can wreak havok. You will have falling test levels, high cortisol. Bring leptin into play here also.

Can you explain the leptin concept a bit more. I have heard of it before but would value an explanation.

 

[dce2956]

I'll jump in on this. Say you start off at 30% bf, you only need a cheat meal every 2 weeks. As you get lower in BF, you can increase the "cheat" meal frequency. Every week, every 5 days, etc. eventually up to cheat days, and so on. The idea is as you get leaner, your body will be more likely to burn muscle in a caloric deficit, thus increasing the need to stay at or around maintenence cals. Also the reason why it's a hell of a lot easier to get from 30% to 20% BF than from 20% to 10%, and VERY hard to get sub-10%.

And on 'cheat' meals or days, I've found that going out to dinner to a nice fancy restaurant keeps me much saner than eating something terrible for me. Just think of how much better that tastes than McDonalds! A great piece of fish or meat prepared by a great chef, possibly with a glass or two of wine really gets me ready for another week of surviving off chicken and veggies.

 

[36drew]

Can you explain the leptin concept a bit more. I have heard of it before but would value an explanation.

Bumping my request.

 

[Lifterforlife]

Bumping my request.

Leptin is an appetite-suppressing hormone, and so it plays a critical role in the balance of bodyweight. (hunger)

It is actually produced by adipose tissue and is important to complex hormonal and metabolic regulation.

So, key here is serum levels(blood levels) of leptin reflect the amount of energy stored in the above mentioned adipose tissue. This relates back to balance of bodyweight by appetite suppressant.

 

[Manu]

I'll jump in on this. Say you start off at 30% bf, you only need a cheat meal every 2 weeks. As you get lower in BF, you can increase the "cheat" meal frequency. Every week, every 5 days, etc. eventually up to cheat days, and so on. The idea is as you get leaner, your body will be more likely to burn muscle in a caloric deficit, thus increasing the need to stay at or around maintenence cals. Also the reason why it's a hell of a lot easier to get from 30% to 20% BF than from 20% to 10%, and VERY hard to get sub-10%.

And on 'cheat' meals or days, I've found that going out to dinner to a nice fancy restaurant keeps me much saner than eating something terrible for me. Just think of how much better that tastes than McDonalds! A great piece of fish or meat prepared by a great chef, possibly with a glass or two of wine really gets me ready for another week of surviving off chicken and veggies.

Good advice

 

[Ghede]

On both a physiological and emotional level REWARD days are of great import. One day a week doth not calorie/carb cycling make however, as you all have stated: three days low, one day mod, two days low, one day high (THAT is your 'reward' day).

If you dont, IT will for you, ya know?

 

[36drew]

On both a physiological and emotional level REWARD days are of great import. One day a week doth not calorie/carb cycling make however, as you all have stated: three days low, one day mod, two days low, one day high (THAT is your 'reward' day).

If you dont, IT will for you, ya know?

I don't think I ever claimed that that constitutes carb cycling.

And I don't really understand what you mean when you say 'if you don't, it will for you'. Care to elaborate?

 

[Ghede]

I don't think I ever claimed that that constitutes carb cycling.

And I don't really understand what you mean when you say 'if you don't, it will for you'. Care to elaborate?

My bad, dont kick, I bruise easy. Old and in the way you know.

... my comment is that if you dont satisfy your urges/needs/passions on a psychological/physiological level, THEY will creep out and disrupt your hard work: in reference to the current topic, you need a Reward Day to satisfy those needs as well as to shore up the very real need to emotionally pat yourself on the back in terms of the rest of the week(s) and all those short terms goals of NOT cheating and keeping clean and on track.