Are cheat/spike days a mistake? Scared to try it
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I do cheat days or spike days from time to time but I'm not a big fan of doing it for a whole day. I like to give myself a cheat meal. It actually makes me plan the rest of the day pretty careful so the cheat meal doesn't impact me as bad plus it makes it easier the next day to get back into the swing of things.
Try a window free for all!!!! I eat from 8-12 and stuff about 4000 calories in there. Of course thats what I cal my reefeed windows asI crush the gym in the AM and then just eat and drink and watch footballllllllllll!
Who would have thought. CHEATERS WIN!0 -
Spike Day's are nothing but a huge positive, BUT I do believe that everyone is different and it's your choice if you want to do it or not. Your not wrong if you don't, it just makes things a heck of a lot easier.
It's not so much your body adjusting to a calorie number ex 1,200. What happens is that whenever you have a calorie deficit, and the studies done are 7 days of calorie restriction, the hormone leptin drops. When leptin drops cravings go up, in fact there was a definite correlation between the amount of leptin that is reduced and the amount of hunger, and of course the metabolism starts to slow. Personally I believe it takes sometime, weeks or months before the metabolism decline is totally detrimental, there's no proof, but for me personally I could diet for 4-6 weeks before I would usually hit that plateau. I think the hunger and cravings that begin increasing at 7 days is the biggest problem. It makes it difficult to stay on a diet when your fighting your brain.
This is where "spiking" really helps, as it just takes 12 hours of eating a surplus to bring leptin levels back up.
I feel this change happen to me every week. I Spike on Friday's, by Thursday of every week I feel the cravings coming on strong. Then I Spike and I literally don't care what I eat the next few days. Then as the week goes on I feel them come back right before I Spike again.
Also, what's needed is a small surplus, nothing overly crazy. If you burned 2,500 calories a day, 2,501 would be enough, I just aim a bit higher to make sure I'm over so I use 2X(BMR) so at the most you would store 1,000 calories that is always distributed to your glycogen stores first, before any fat is actually stored.
Just remember, you definitely gain a few pounds after Spiking, it's simply because our body stores 3 grams of water with each gram of glycogen in your muscles. You burn that off in the next couple of days when you go back to calorie deficits.
I've been doing this 8+ years.
You're half right. Leptin does control appetite, but it does not control metabolic rate. A cheat meal may be good for you mentally, and may help reduce craving, but it won't do anything for metabolism.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15534430
http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/82/12/4149.abstract
I was stuck at 180 for like 2.5 months. I through down a spike day and steadily lost 5 lbs 5 wks in a row.
My man Russell has some real solid experience with this. Little dinks and dunks of sites won't sway him. Some solid experience and results might though. Share0 -
I was stuck at 180 for like 2.5 months. I through down a spike day and steadily lost 5 lbs 5 wks in a row.
My man Russell has some real solid experience with this. Little dinks and dunks of sites won't sway him. Some solid experience and results might though. Share
And the results of n=1 studies don't sway me.0 -
I was stuck at 180 for like 2.5 months. I through down a spike day and steadily lost 5 lbs 5 wks in a row.
My man Russell has some real solid experience with this. Little dinks and dunks of sites won't sway him. Some solid experience and results might though. Share
And the results of n=1 studies don't sway me.
Reslts are Results
you have yours
he has his
I have mine
Many studies in the 80's have been proven wrong....90s 2000 and such. Look at meal frequency. I did that ish for yrs!0 -
It may be controversial as far as how much leptin can affect metabolism. Extra calories will temporarily increase metabolic rate because you have to metabolize each calorie.
Does it increase metabolism beyond base BMR? There's been studies that show both. What it does do is temporarily stop a declining metabolism from dieting. For me that is enough.0 -
I was stuck at 180 for like 2.5 months. I through down a spike day and steadily lost 5 lbs 5 wks in a row.
My man Russell has some real solid experience with this. Little dinks and dunks of sites won't sway him. Some solid experience and results might though. Share
5 lbs per week for 5 weeks, or, 5 pounds in 5 weeks (1lb/week?)0 -
I never do a whole cheat day because you really can wreck your whole week in one day! but i also never want to feel deprived i feel thats when people fall off the wagon the most. I would do a "date night" with my husbadn and one day a week we eat a bad dinner weither its eating out and getting pizza or mexican or we cook a non healthy meal such as fried chicken etc. and we have a bad snack (usualy its an entire bag of chips LOL) but before my wedding i lost 40 lbs in 4 months so it worked for me, i was also working out 6 days a week and followed my healthy eating to a T the rest of the days of the week.0
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I never do a whole cheat day because you really can wreck your whole week in one day! but i also never want to feel deprived i feel thats when people fall off the wagon the most. I would do a "date night" with my husbadn and one day a week we eat a bad dinner weither its eating out and getting pizza or mexican or we cook a non healthy meal such as fried chicken etc. and we have a bad snack (usualy its an entire bag of chips LOL) but before my wedding i lost 40 lbs in 4 months so it worked for me, i was also working out 6 days a week and followed my healthy eating to a T the rest of the days of the week.
Sure, you probably could wreck your whole week in one day - if you are cutting 500 cals per day from your BMR to lose 1lb/week, then on "spike day" you decide to go nutty, you could theoretically eat all those cals back in one day - it would be 3 or 4 really really bad meals, but I'm sure its possible.0 -
ive done them most every week the whole time, sometimes going WAY overboard.. seems its ok, you get 1 mulligan a week (one night off, food/booze, go crazy)0
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The way to have a spike day is to manage your calories over a week, so that your deficit for the week stays where you want it.
My weekly loss goal is half a pound (1750 weekly deficit). The way I manage my calories is to eat 6 days as if at a 1 lb weekly loss goal (500 daily deficit x 6 = 3000) PLUS all exercise calories), and then 1 day a week, my rest day, I eat appx. 1250 extra calories. This works out to be a weekly deficit of 3000 - 1250 = 1750 calories. Half a pound.
Works like a charm and refuels my body on rest day for the hard workout week ahead.
blessings.0 -
The way to have a spike day is to manage your calories over a week, so that your deficit for the week stays where you want it.
My weekly loss goal is half a pound (1750 weekly deficit). The way I manage my calories is to eat 6 days as if at a 1 lb weekly loss goal (500 daily deficit x 6 = 3000) PLUS all exercise calories), and then 1 day a week, my rest day, I eat appx. 1250 extra calories. This works out to be a weekly deficit of 3000 - 1250 = 1750 calories. Half a pound.
Works like a charm and refuels my body on rest day for the hard workout week ahead.
blessings.
OK - so - in order to maintain your deficit, your "spike day" could be managed by eating even less the day before and perhaps the day after - so you are borrowing from other days to fuel your spike day - and how is this different to the body than just eating the same 1200 cals per day? (or whatever your goal is?)0 -
Bumping to read later.0
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The way to have a spike day is to manage your calories over a week, so that your deficit for the week stays where you want it.
My weekly loss goal is half a pound (1750 weekly deficit). The way I manage my calories is to eat 6 days as if at a 1 lb weekly loss goal (500 daily deficit x 6 = 3000) PLUS all exercise calories), and then 1 day a week, my rest day, I eat appx. 1250 extra calories. This works out to be a weekly deficit of 3000 - 1250 = 1750 calories. Half a pound.
Works like a charm and refuels my body on rest day for the hard workout week ahead.
blessings.
OK - so - in order to maintain your deficit, your "spike day" could be managed by eating even less the day before and perhaps the day after - so you are borrowing from other days to fuel your spike day - and how is this different to the body than just eating the same 1200 cals per day? (or whatever your goal is?)
It's because calorie deficits cause leptin to decline and a surplus raises it back up.
Week to week it's very similar, but the person who is having weeks straight of calorie deficits is going to have their leptin levels decrease dramatically. The person having spike days is going to reboot their system every week. It makes maintaining weight-loss a 100 times easier.0 -
I don't plan my cheat days because I don't want an excuse to go overboard. However, I do have cheat days sometimes, just because I like them. Mine just sort of happen when I want to go to dinner or the movies and not worry about counting calories. I find that even though I'll immediately gain weight after a cheat day I usually end up netting a loss within the next week or so. I think they are a great idea.0
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The way to have a spike day is to manage your calories over a week, so that your deficit for the week stays where you want it.
My weekly loss goal is half a pound (1750 weekly deficit). The way I manage my calories is to eat 6 days as if at a 1 lb weekly loss goal (500 daily deficit x 6 = 3000) PLUS all exercise calories), and then 1 day a week, my rest day, I eat appx. 1250 extra calories. This works out to be a weekly deficit of 3000 - 1250 = 1750 calories. Half a pound.
Works like a charm and refuels my body on rest day for the hard workout week ahead.
blessings.
OK - so - in order to maintain your deficit, your "spike day" could be managed by eating even less the day before and perhaps the day after - so you are borrowing from other days to fuel your spike day - and how is this different to the body than just eating the same 1200 cals per day? (or whatever your goal is?)
It's because calorie deficits cause leptin to decline and a surplus raises it back up.
Week to week it's very similar, but the person who is having weeks straight of calorie deficits is going to have their leptin levels decrease dramatically. The person having spike days is going to reboot their system every week. It makes maintaining weight-loss a 100 times easier.
I'm curious - Is this more for lifting or for weight loss/fitness in general? I'm also not sure of the lingo. I'm reading it like follow the program six days, have a 'cheat day' on the seventh. Then follow that with an amped up workout, which would be the S"pike day." Do I have that right?
Sorry. Uneducated and looking to be educated. :blushing:0 -
The way to have a spike day is to manage your calories over a week, so that your deficit for the week stays where you want it.
My weekly loss goal is half a pound (1750 weekly deficit). The way I manage my calories is to eat 6 days as if at a 1 lb weekly loss goal (500 daily deficit x 6 = 3000) PLUS all exercise calories), and then 1 day a week, my rest day, I eat appx. 1250 extra calories. This works out to be a weekly deficit of 3000 - 1250 = 1750 calories. Half a pound.
Works like a charm and refuels my body on rest day for the hard workout week ahead.
blessings.
I like this! :flowerforyou:0 -
The way to have a spike day is to manage your calories over a week, so that your deficit for the week stays where you want it.
My weekly loss goal is half a pound (1750 weekly deficit). The way I manage my calories is to eat 6 days as if at a 1 lb weekly loss goal (500 daily deficit x 6 = 3000) PLUS all exercise calories), and then 1 day a week, my rest day, I eat appx. 1250 extra calories. This works out to be a weekly deficit of 3000 - 1250 = 1750 calories. Half a pound.
Works like a charm and refuels my body on rest day for the hard workout week ahead.
blessings.
OK - so - in order to maintain your deficit, your "spike day" could be managed by eating even less the day before and perhaps the day after - so you are borrowing from other days to fuel your spike day - and how is this different to the body than just eating the same 1200 cals per day? (or whatever your goal is?)
It's because calorie deficits cause leptin to decline and a surplus raises it back up.
Week to week it's very similar, but the person who is having weeks straight of calorie deficits is going to have their leptin levels decrease dramatically. The person having spike days is going to reboot their system every week. It makes maintaining weight-loss a 100 times easier.
How much of a "surplus" is necessary, and, do you have to have the total cals for the week balance in the end? (as I mentioned in my previous post - if you decide to eat at maintenance on your spike day, do you then make up for it before and/or after the day of your spike?0 -
I have a cheat day once a week. Not so much the whole day just a meal. Usually supper. I still workout that day but just enjoy whatever I was craving that week for supper. I found that it kept me from falling off the wagon during the week if I can tell myself that i only have to wait and I get to have it on that day. I lost 90 pounds and have kept it off for 3 years and am now ready to shake off the last 15 I have left and I have started my cheat days again so that I don't feel like I am being punished instead of doing something positive for my life.0
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The way to have a spike day is to manage your calories over a week, so that your deficit for the week stays where you want it.
My weekly loss goal is half a pound (1750 weekly deficit). The way I manage my calories is to eat 6 days as if at a 1 lb weekly loss goal (500 daily deficit x 6 = 3000) PLUS all exercise calories), and then 1 day a week, my rest day, I eat appx. 1250 extra calories. This works out to be a weekly deficit of 3000 - 1250 = 1750 calories. Half a pound.
Works like a charm and refuels my body on rest day for the hard workout week ahead.
blessings.
OK - so - in order to maintain your deficit, your "spike day" could be managed by eating even less the day before and perhaps the day after - so you are borrowing from other days to fuel your spike day - and how is this different to the body than just eating the same 1200 cals per day? (or whatever your goal is?)
Well it's different than eating the same every day bc you're not eating the same every day. :laugh:
You can manage it anyway you want to manage it. The question was about spike days. If you eat the same every day you're not spiking. I personally, do not eat less the day before or after, bc I am working out those days and I need fuel.
If, however, you ate at a 250 deficit 6 days and then ate + 1350 on spike day, you net 0 defiicit, so maintenance.
I work out 6 days and eat all my exercise cals, so I get anywhere from 1800 - 2200 each of the 6 days. On my rest day, I would about die if I only had 1280 to eat, so I like to spike that day. Works for me.
blessings.0 -
The way to have a spike day is to manage your calories over a week, so that your deficit for the week stays where you want it.
My weekly loss goal is half a pound (1750 weekly deficit). The way I manage my calories is to eat 6 days as if at a 1 lb weekly loss goal (500 daily deficit x 6 = 3000) PLUS all exercise calories), and then 1 day a week, my rest day, I eat appx. 1250 extra calories. This works out to be a weekly deficit of 3000 - 1250 = 1750 calories. Half a pound.
Works like a charm and refuels my body on rest day for the hard workout week ahead.
blessings.
OK - so - in order to maintain your deficit, your "spike day" could be managed by eating even less the day before and perhaps the day after - so you are borrowing from other days to fuel your spike day - and how is this different to the body than just eating the same 1200 cals per day? (or whatever your goal is?)
It's because calorie deficits cause leptin to decline and a surplus raises it back up.
Week to week it's very similar, but the person who is having weeks straight of calorie deficits is going to have their leptin levels decrease dramatically. The person having spike days is going to reboot their system every week. It makes maintaining weight-loss a 100 times easier.
I'm curious - Is this more for lifting or for weight loss/fitness in general? I'm also not sure of the lingo. I'm reading it like follow the program six days, have a 'cheat day' on the seventh. Then follow that with an amped up workout, which would be the S"pike day." Do I have that right?
Sorry. Uneducated and looking to be educated. :blushing:
not exactly. the way I'm managing mine is by going for a weekly net deficit for half a pound loss, managed by eating daily as if for a FULL pound loss, then eating the remaining on rest day. I am setting up a "false" full pound loss goal, and then eating half of it on spike day for an end result of my true half-pound loss goal. If you ate your full deficit on spike day, you would maintain,0
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