Thoughts on having one high calorie day...

arotella

I found this info on a forum (quoting a blog from Shay Sorrels ) and I really think this would prevent me from hitting another plateau and losing motivation… plus I think I did some serious damage to my metabolism since last year. What are your thoughts on having one high calorie day? Has anyone tried this? Also, does anyone know if Jillian Michaels encouraged the Biggest Loser contestants to eat their exercise calories back?


“On the biggest loser ranch we had set calories to intake and a calorie burn goal every day… except one. We always had a “high calorie” & Rest day. Now what “high calorie” meant on the ranch was that you can eat up to double your daily calories for one day- but with ONLY healthy, clean food and leisure activity was encouraged. So on those days we had steak or we had a cereal that was higher in calories, we had frozen yogurt or we used butter in cooking. It did not mean all out war path eating and it did not mean hitting your closest drive thru. Having the high calorie days is supposed to keep your body guessing (homeostasis hates this) and keep you from going into “storage mode”. This is very different from having a cheat day or having a “treat”. It was not a reward. It was a part of the process.”

Acg67

IMO 1 high cal day prob has more psychological benefits then physiological benefits for the avg. dieter. The whole keep your body guessing is a bunch of broscience and that below quote makes it sound like you can't eat steak, butter, cereal, fast food on a daily basis during your diet, which you can

rockerbabyy

i actually just finished my high cal day. went to red robin and had some onion rings with campfire sauce and ranch, and their seafood platter.
it actually put me about 100 calories over my net for the week, so ill be doing some step aerobics here in a minute to zero that out.

i dont know that it keeps my body guessing or any of that, but i find it very helpful to keep myself on track throughout the week if i know i can have whatever i want on sunday. most of the time what i think is a craving is gone by the time sunday rolls around anyway. i dont always do high cal on sundays, but its nice to know i have that set aside if we happen to eat out. i do include chocolate or chips or pizza or whatever in my normal days, but i try to eat as healthy as possible 90% of the time.

brittanyjeanxo

Homeostasis really has nothing to do with calories--as long as you're still under your WEEKLY goal, it really won't matter. It does make your cells work faster and harder to metabolize the excess fat, protein, etc., but medically speaking it wouldn't really do anything for your over all metabolism. I think it does have good psychological benefits though, so I'm not exactly knocking it.