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  • Need help planning cheat day...

    Discussion in 'Diet & Nutrition' started by parnassto, Aug 2, 2012.

    1. parnassto

      parnassto Well-Known Member

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      Hey guys,

      I began my decision to finally "cut" consistently on Monday. Stats newly 20, 5'10", roughly 17% bf, weighed in at 169.6 lbs.

      My goals for the week were to a) do at least 20 min cardio 4x/wk, lift 3x/wk, diet around 2,100 cals 6 days/wk, and hit my macro minimums.

      As far as macros are concerned, I rounded some but calculated minimums about 170p/43f/rest (258) c

      Thing is, I'm a college student. Final month and a half of summer vacation, and I plan on cutting until mid-sept (classes begin Sept. 24 I believe). Thus, I'm constantly invited to parties, concerts, places to hang, etc. This week, I was invited to go out to dinner once, and made a great decision by ordering the shrimp salad without sauce or cheese... pretty much 8 pieces of jumbo shrimp and lettuce. I realized that I wanted to live a little once a week, and have a "cheat" day... not a binge day, but a day where I could eat sensibly, probably 2000+ above maintenance, leniently consuming 4-4.5k cals.... Now, I actually work at my local gym and work from 11:30-3:30... and I'm planning on getting my work out in at around 9. Original plan was to "cheat" Saturday by going out to dinner, hitting up a burger challenge, and maybe going to a friend's house and having a few drinks. Today, though, my sister told me she wanted to go specifically with me to iHop on either Saturday or Sunday. Put me in a conundrum. Now, I figured since my cheat "day" really won't begin until 3:30 on Saturday, why not push hanging out with my friend for Sunday afternoon, and dinner with my sister Sunday night, since iHop is 24-hour anyway? Or would an entire weekend cheat hurt me? Posting diet as of Monday, and a rough guess of tomorrow, but I haven't added in what I may consume throughout the day completely.

      Also, cardio this week was:
      Tues- 31 min, 2 mi. (treadmill) + bball
      Wed- 32 min, 2.5 mi (treadmill)
      Thu- 32 min, 3 mi (treadmill)

      Long story short... since this is a tl;dr post, what would be your best plan of attack to minimize damage/maximize my enjoyment. Last thing I want is for my fitness lifestyle/habits to consume my social life even more
       
    2. crormaSoila18

      crormaSoila18 Well-Known Member

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      Need help planning cheat day...

      What is your TDEE?

      If your eating 2000+ over maint one day that could cancel out a week of dieting for some people.
       
    3. masoven4u

      masoven4u Well-Known Member

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      Need help planning cheat day...

      Just think of all the foods you want to eat. You don't REALLY have to do a cheat day. But if it will make you feel good go ahead.

      I'd suggest pizza, icecream, chinese buffet, old country buffet, chinese food, old country food, fried chicken.

      Also I suggest eating all the food you want to eat that don't have accessable nutrition lables. I know I get rustled when I want to eat something but don't know the nutrition facts for it; often times resulting in me not eating it.

      Also, you can't really undo months of progress in one sitting, or even one weekend. So let yourself go and dont sweat it.

      And lol. "Thus, I'm constantly invited to parties, concerts, places to hang, etc." I'm same age as you and I only have like two friends. And they don't even invite me places. Feelsbatman.

      Edit: Once the cheating is said and done, I suggest that you do not try to compensate for it in any way. Just get back on your regular diet and keep with it.
       
    4. suighja

      suighja Well-Known Member

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      Need help planning cheat day...

      TBH bro, giving too much thought to your cheat days and getting so worked up about it can be in itself recipe for disaster.

      The best way to approach it is to save your cheat meals for something that is really worth it to you and just enjoy it. Stretching it out across an entire day or even a weekend sounds like too much to me if you are putting this much time and effort into your training and diet the rest of the time.

      Limiting yourself to one food you really like can also help as people are more inclined to eat more if theres more variety present. This means, if you like icecream- get a tub of your favourite and eat til your done. Dont get it and some oreos, and the peanut butter, and whipped cream, and mnms and all that chit and go crazy.

      It also depends on how strict you are trying to cut- if I want to cut badly enough, most of the time I don't even feel like cheating.
       
    5. akabiceps

      akabiceps Well-Known Member

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      Need help planning cheat day...

      Lol I knew I should've included this. A little over 2,600. Thus in a 500 deficit
       
    6. Korporalegq

      Korporalegq Well-Known Member

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      Need help planning cheat day...

      Alright well, if you go 2000 over maint you've cancelled out half a week of dieting, instead of having a cheat day why not just fit different foods you are craving into your macros in moderation?
       
    7. Bigsterm

      Bigsterm Well-Known Member

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      Need help planning cheat day...

      Hahahaha. Well, it's not like my phone's off the hook, but I'd say daily I get texts. In fact, as I was writing this: "You wanna buy some weed brownies with us for Saturday?" Consider yourself lucky you have two friends- imo it's hard to say no haha. Repped, that was funny. As of now I'm thinking I'm cheating Sunday, my friend wants me to try this 4 lb. burger challenge, I absolutely want to, and as of now I'm not even free until 3:30 pm Saturday at the earliest so I might as well save it. Repped for comic relief & great info.
       
    8. masoven4u

      masoven4u Well-Known Member

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      Need help planning cheat day...

      That's what I've been doing, essentially, but it's more for the social aspect and much less about the food. I.e. going out and having a good time on a Saturday night with some good friends, or spending more quality time with family members over a hearty meal. There's value in that imo that goes beyond fitness, you know? Trade-off is my fitness goals, but I'll figure it out. Thanks. Will rep.
       
    9. Raleoxilevz

      Raleoxilevz Well-Known Member

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      Need help planning cheat day...

      I came off a 14 week cut earlier this year. I allowed myself 1 cheat meal a week where there were no boundaries. I ate what I wanted until I didn't want anymore. There were 2 or 3 Weeks where I had 2 or 3 cheat meals and I saw no negative impact. I lost weight consistently every week.

      This thought that you can undo Weeks or months of training with a cheat meal or two is ludicrous in my experience. Some people might react differently than others but personally, I would just end up taking a huge dump the next day, and didn't see any negative effects.

      So don't be afraid to experiment. If two cheat meals halt your progress, than don't do it anymore. But its likely that you can get away with more than you think. If you have a setback, treat it as a learning experience and move on. Don't try and correct it by trying to run 15 miles or something crazy like that. Good luck OP
       
    10. fa2nzg

      fa2nzg Well-Known Member

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      Need help planning cheat day...

      "Because a cheat day is just once a week and as long as he eats clean foods the rest of the week cheat day calories won't matter. It's only if he eats those same dirty foods everyday that he will get fat, even if done in moderation"
      Said the bro at the gym who claims 12% body fat yet has b!tch tits.
       

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