effects of ONE CHEAT DAY?

[MonStar1023]

I wanted some EXPERT opinions on cheat days... as many of you know I am following the Serious Growth program which (Variant 2) calls for working out six days a week, two times a day. Each bodypart is being trained 3 times per week, very very hard. After training HARD Sunday-Friday, when my rest day on Saturday comes along I almost have to cheat all day long from eating clean.

I end up stuffing my face like for 6-10 hours until I cant put down another ounce of sugar/fattening food. Its almost like it holds me off for the next 6 days of working out twice a day eating clean. Its psychologically gratifying to eat all of this shitty food it almost ALWAYS puts me in a GREAT mood (my girlfriend will attest for this) and just makes the 6 days of eating clean and training hard much more desirable.

Anyway I am in the process of obviously getting some great gains in lean mass with the Serious Growth program but also to cut some fat. I am carrying probably 20-25 lbs. of extra bodyfat mostly in my stomach etc. And I really want to lose that and I think that I will be able to (only more gradually) with a cheat day per week. Obviously I would probably achieve faster fat-loss without a binge-day, but I just cant help myself. The bottom line is, with how much training I am doing, how detrimental is a cheat day?

 

[SSAlexSS]

I wanted some EXPERT opinions on cheat days... as many of you know I am following the Serious Growth program which (Variant 2) calls for working out six days a week, two times a day. Each bodypart is being trained 3 times per week, very very hard. After training HARD Sunday-Friday, when my rest day on Saturday comes along I almost have to cheat all day long from eating clean.

I end up stuffing my face like for 6-10 hours until I cant put down another ounce of sugar/fattening food. Its almost like it holds me off for the next 6 days of working out twice a day eating clean. Its psychologically gratifying to eat all of this shitty food it almost ALWAYS puts me in a GREAT mood (my girlfriend will attest for this) and just makes the 6 days of eating clean and training hard much more desirable.

Anyway I am in the process of obviously getting some great gains in lean mass with the Serious Growth program but also to cut some fat. I am carrying probably 20-25 lbs. of extra bodyfat mostly in my stomach etc. And I really want to lose that and I think that I will be able to (only more gradually) with a cheat day per week. Obviously I would probably achieve faster fat-loss without a binge-day, but I just cant help myself. The bottom line is, with how much training I am doing, how detrimental is a cheat day?

Cheat days are horrible! If you can avoid them, AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS!

The problem of cheat days are "snowng effect" . Basicly small cheat turns into large cheat over the time.


For example you have this super de duper squat day. One day you feel ill or sick or plain lazy. So you slack and decide to do leg pressess instead. One squat day turned into weakly leg day would not hurt you. But you will "see" that cheating ain't so horrible. So you start missing more and more days.
And finally you start loosing muscle.....

So don't cheat! I cheat day can go a looong way...

 

[MonStar1023]

SSAlexSS whatsup dude? That happened with me a few months back I would cheat one day or whatever and that day would lead on to two days, and then three, then four then a weeks worth of nothing but stuffing my goddamn face with fattening foods. Trust me I know how it is or whatever. Well I gotta get going but I am past that immature cheating I cheat ONE day a week just to set off my cravings and I am fine.

 

[Dr. E]

If you have a fast metabolism, then there really is no such thing as a cheat day because your body will process whatever you give it very quickly.

The Doc

 

[Robboe]

are you seriously training like that?

Have you seen any growth what-so-ever?

I highly doubt it, and i doubt you'll see any real progress...

 

[MonStar1023]

Whatsup Robboe yeah defintely man I have seen some gains so far but the real gains dont come until after the 3rd week from what I understand. I hear after 3 weeks when you lower the volume down you totally explode muscle wise. If your interested check out my thead 'Serious Growth Training Journal' under Training.. and I have posted the last two weeks how things have gone etc. Or for the exact program email me and Ill send ya a copy bro. Its all about controlled overtraining and then lowering the volume down and you blow up< Peace.

 

[Abbaddon]

Now it all depends upon what your talking about. If you run low carbs all week with a high protein intake you should have one day of high carbs a week to keep your metabolism from dropping. You can actually get a lot of professional bodybuilders diets through various magazine sites that suggest this in their shredding diet. Now if you are going for growth you should be consuming a lot of calories with a lot of protein(anywere from 1.5 to 2 grams per pound) and around 3 to 4 grams of carbs per pound of bodyweight. I know in my bulking phase I eat around 4000-5000 cal a day but I make sure it is all good carbs low in sugar. I do 30 min of cardio a day at least, and you must insure your protein intake. Just my opinion

 

[cheeta]

DUDE

you are wasting all your hard work in the gym by taking part in a " CHEAT DAY ". Instead of having a cheat day, just have one meal, where you eat what you want. Eat until you are satsified but not killing your stomach. After that cheat meal for the rest of the day eat sensibly for the rest of the day. Stuffing your face for the whole day is def not a good idea. On my laxed days i consider eating extra carbs as my cheating. Aloha

 

[Robboe]

If you're bulking then EVERYDAY is a cheat day!....

 

[MonStar1023]

FUCK CHEAT DAYS

Cheat days FUCK UP all progress that you make I cheated the last 1.5 days and I probably gained 10 lbs. of pure FAT!