One day a week of bad eating?

[pullmesideways]

I started off out of shape 5'9' 210 just before Thanksgiving. Now I am 190lbs.

I have done this through a proper diet, weight training and cardio.

6 days a week my Diet is right at 1800 calories and consists of lean proteins (Chicken, tuna, turkey and low fat cottage cheese). I stay away from traditional cheeses, butter, and creams. As for carbs I eat whole grains and no sugar added yogurts.

I also spread out my meals into 6 roughly 300 calories meals which I keep balanced.

I also added veggies and fruits into my diet. Lastly I drink a minimum of 2 liters of water a day and no soda or calorie filled drinks.


However, on Sunday the 7th day I pretty much eat what ever I want (Pizza, Soda, chips etc....) I learned this technique from the Body for Life diet.

As you can read above my results have been strong so far. But, I am not on a diet. I am redefining my lifestyle will the one day of high calories hinder my progress?


To give you some insight into my training. I work out 6 days a week. That consists of 3 days weight training with 30 minutes of cardio on those days and 3 days of cardio for 1 hour.

I burn between 700 - 1000 calories when I work out. I monitor my caloric burn through my HRM.

Maybe the guilt I feel about Sunday's is driving me to post, but if this is something that is cause long term failure I will stop.

As a side note. Monday's are probably my best eating days of the week because I feel so guilty for Sunday's food intake, so a back slide has not been an issue.

 

[malkore]

IMO that's too much. Your goal should be eating right 90% of the time. 6 meals a day, 7 days a week, is 42 meals. 10% of 42 is 4...so you should only cheat 4 meals per week, and that's only cheating on food types, not calorie amounts.

if you choose to eat half a pizza on sunday, at roughly 400 calories per slice, that's 1600 calories, not to mention the other crap you ate that day.

Body for LIFE is weak. Been there, done that, figured out Bill Phillips can distinguish between starchy carbs and veggie carbs...which means he doesn't know his ass from his face. Body for LIFE's purpose is to sell EAS supplements...proven by the fact that if you actually compete in the challenge you MUST provide receipts for the EAS supps you used or you get disqualified.

1800 calories is low even for a cutting diet. you're my height, and doing way more cardio than I ever mess with, and I've had 1.5lbs of fat lost a week eating 2,200 calories.

I think you need to re-evaluate your program.

 

[pullmesideways]

I agree that the whole Body for Life is a scam. I actually don't do any supplements and try to get the things my body needs from eating the right foods.

I appreciate your suggestion that I am eating too much. I agree. I am going to continue to cut back on Sunday's and like you said just replace meals and not gorge. Your math made a lot sense.

I am concerned about increasing my normal caloric intake though because with my eating schedule I rarely feel hungry.

I could increase my calories by eating some cheese with sandwiches and things like that I guess. What do you think would that be enough. Or do I need to increase my portions?

 

[BikeSwimLaugh]

Body for LIFE is weak. Been there, done that

Malkore is correct....along with his having saved the fairy kingdom from the impending doom that was brought about when the dwarf army was under the +4 evil spell cast from the notoriously mean witch, Fatcarba. If not for his +10 magic shield, we'd all be turned into cellulite!

I'm so sorry....couldn't resist


HEY....calories in vs calories out. At the end of the week or even month, look at what you took in and what you put out.....if you expended more then you consumed, you've lost weight. Simple. As. That.

The notion that having one pig-out day can help pysiologically is ABSURD. It won't trick your body into anything, at most it may be psychologically fulfilling if you need that "cheat day" to suck some fat & sugar.....but in my book it just serves to taunt you and could lead to a 2nd day of semi-cheat. Why mess with it.

If you "in it"...your in it hardcore: get it done and dont mess around. Every day it's a battle between what you seek to accomplish and the temptation to endulge in a calorically decadent lifestyle. What would you think of a drug program where cracks heads get to light-up once per week? No. It's a complete lifestyle change, and that doesn't include one day to get jiggy with the frig.

Chillen: NOW!!!!!

 

[tribal1]

I agree that the whole Body for Life is a scam. I actually don't do any supplements and try to get the things my body needs from eating the right foods.

I would not jump into such a conclusion. I looked on the body for life website and they have a suggested diet that says free on Sunday not binge-eat on Sunday. Body for life looks like a manufacturer of supplements just like any other.

I don't believe in supplements but it looks awkward to misread what has been written and then make such a misstatement.

 

[Curtis]

Personally, I believe you'll get a lot more out of just having something every few days that you know you shouldn't eat.

If you have sundays as your junk day, your without a doubt going to want it again on monday. But if you have alittle something on sunday, and then something again on tuesday and then friday. It's breaking it up and would be easier to stick to IMO.

 

[pullmesideways]

I would not jump into such a conclusion. I looked on the body for life website and they have a suggested diet that says free on Sunday not binge-eat on Sunday. Body for life looks like a manufacturer of supplements just like any other.

I don't believe in supplements but it looks awkward to misread what has been written and then make such a misstatement.

Tribal,
"Scam" was probably a poor choice of words. I meant to imply that a large part of BFL is trying to sell you EAS products. That was all. I have actually used the BFL eating plan as the foundation to my weight loss success. Particularly learning about how to find balance and portion size.

 

[BlakeNASMCPT]

my experience

First, I can definately relate to feeling guilty after eating bad, I hate it because it seems like when I see other people eat bad they don't seem to feel guilty at all!!

Second, as you already know everything you eat has calories. One whole day of bad eating can easily erase your calorie deficit and strict dieting the other 6 days. What I find to be successful for myself and my clients is to give yourself a cheat MEAL or two a week. If I know that the wife and I are going to go out to eat that night, I eat very clean throughout the day with very low fat meals/meal replacement bars so that I can go to dinner and eat pretty much whatever I want and still be in a calorie deficit that day.

Hope this helps!

 

[malkore]

Malkore is correct....along with his having saved the fairy kingdom from the impending doom that was brought about when the dwarf army was under the +4 evil spell cast from the notoriously mean witch, Fatcarba. If not for his +10 magic shield, we'd all be turned into cellulite!

I'm so sorry....couldn't resist

are you making fun of my WoW avatar?

to the OP - what is your fat intake like right now, in terms of percentage of daily calories? it should be at least 25%, if not more like 30%.

my guess is you could easily get some calories by upping your fat intake, which might actually be too low right now.

its not fat that makes you fat, but the excessive calories. granted too much fat equals too many calories very quickly (9 cals to a gram of fat vs. just 4cals in a gram of protein or sugar/starch carbohydrate).

you could probably stand to take in more healthy fat...unsaturated fat...specifically poly-unsaturated fat that you'd find in fish oil/salmon or in a pinch flaxseed oil.

natty peanut butter, almond butter, or whole almonds are a way to get mono-unsaturated fat.

you should not need to increase saturated fat. just eat lean cuts of beef instead of hamburger, and don't go overboard on cheese or other whole dairy.

 

[pullmesideways]

to the OP - what is your fat intake like right now, in terms of percentage of daily calories? it should be at least 25%, if not more like 30%.

I just calculated my typical fat intake and it is around 17-18%. Looks like there is a opportunity for me to smartly increase that along with increasing my caloric intake which had been hovering between 1600 - 1850 per day.

Who ever thought eating more could help? The good news is I have already trained my body to enjoy the foods that are good for me. So I just have to ingest some more smart choices.

As I stated earlier today would have been my free day. Well so far so good. I ate my typical breakfast. Egg Whites with a low fat turkey sausage (cooked with a bit of olive oil) with 2 slices of dry whole wheat toast (300 calories total)

For lunch I choose to get a Turkey Sub from Jersey Mike's - it is one of my favorite places I choose to have a pinch of Mayo - all together that was 550 calories. So instead of just eating what ever. I may make some choice I would typically not make during the week but, I am monitoring my intake to around 2500 calories for the day.

Thanks for all your help. If you have further insight or opinions keep them coming.

 

[GT2003]

I will usually allow myself a "free evening". Last night we went to some friends house to hang out and drink a few beers. So, I ate clean all day and then that evening we went out to dinner and drank some beer. Back on the bandwagon again today. I think an entire free day would just be too much. I can't imagine the #of calories I could take in during an entire free day. Experiment to see what works for you. I have found out in the last week that I can eat a lot more than I expected, not be hungry and stay within my calorie goals. Good luck, Greg

 

[ThomasMBBN]

Hello there Pullmesideways, Thomas here.

Quite a few posts on this subject so I will just add another though that may help.

We all know its cal in VS cal out, however, most people have no idea how many calories they burn in a day. that leads to some potential problems in your caloric consumption equation.

I have found, not only with my personla wieght loss, but with my clients as well, most men will be just fine cutting their calories down to 1500-1800 a day. If you are more than 220 lbs you may require up to an additional 300 calories per day.

In direct response to your question, I feel that the "cheat" is completly unecissary and will in most cases undo the hard work you are putting in over the prior week.

What you have been doing is working! I am happy for your success and wish you continued success, just remember if you want something done right occupy your thoughts only with the task at hand, and that means consistancy.

 

[D15BT]

I am kind of in the same boat as him. Although i did not pick up this technique from anyone. While in college i can usually go 2 weeks with a perfect eating/workout regime then either saturday or sunday is a bad day haha, but over the break i found it a little bit harder I was able to keep perfect weeks but it was once a week that i ate bad, if i didnt do this maybe i would just have 3-4 days where id be off by 500 cal or so? maybe not who knows but this works for me at the moment even though i havent lost any weight for about a month . Started at 306 down to 190 and i vary from 185-190 kinda rough but im content right now.

 

[BikeSwimLaugh]

are you making fun of my WoW avatar?

Yeah......I hit that If ya can't joke with the mod, what's the point?

Back in college while I lived in the frat house...over the course of 1 year I managed to gain about 40 pounds. I ate good 1 day per week and ate like crap the other 6. Still got the stomach stretch-marks to prove it!

IMO, eating larger one day doesn't tell the body there's plenty of food coming and to rev-up the metabolism, etc, etc.....I won't result in faster or better weight-loss; it's just more caloires that are stored if not used.