scheduled cheat meal/day per week ok while reverse dieting?

Kimblesnbits
Kimblesnbits Posts: 321 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I know cheat meals once a week are good for the cutting/dieting phase since it boosts your metabolism and all that. However, I'm SLOWLY increasing my calories about 30-60 a week to reach my maximum without gaining much fat and was wondering if having a splurge meal/day once a week (for my mentality) will kind of screw up the whole process of reverse dieting. Has anyone else done the whole "reverse diet" thing? And if you have any tips or advice that would be greatly appreciated! Thanks all!

Replies

  • frodoschmodo
    frodoschmodo Posts: 9 Member
    First off, cheat meals actually aren't good for your metabolism. Your metabolism will not change no matter how much or little you eat unless you get to really, really low body fat %. That said, 'cheat meals' ARE great for boosting morale every once in a while, although I wouldn't do one every week.

    To answer your main question though, if you're setting your goal at say, 1300 and then you splurge and bring your weekly average up to 1360, then set next weeks goal at 1360, have a cheat meal that brings that week's average to 1420, and repeat all over again, it kinda messes with the schedule becuase you're not sticking to the goals you set.

    What I did for cheat meals was eat a little lower than my goal all week so I 'saved up' calories to eat a buttload on Sunday, or I's have my cheat meal on Monday and make up for it the rest of the week, so my average for the week was still on-target.

    Really, all that matters is what works for you. As long as your weekly average isn't higher than your TDEE/ maintenance calories you won't gain.

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