My binge set back

[fadetoblack188]

I went away this past weekend and didn't watch what I ate sat and Sunday at all.

By today 3 days later I am back to my weight I was before.

Why are people so afraid to have cheat days , to set them selves back 3 days?

I'll take the 3 days and keep my sanity and enjoy my life and not revolve it around eat right or hitting my macros every second of my life. I eat healthy everyday. Obviously a couple days a month won't hurt.

[dgillead]

I'm not really afraid of having a cheat day, I just honestly don't have the urge that often. It comes around every now and then, but for the most part I actually enjoy the eating healthy/macro aspect of bodybuilding.

But the obvious answer is that's three days where you could have been making progress instead of playing catch up.

[71Avido]

Why are people so afraid to have cheat days , to set them selves back 3 days?

You're lucky...
My last 3000 calorie "cheat day" brought me 8lbs and it took me over a week to lose.
Nearly every weekend without fail I gain 10-12lbs without going over my estimated maintenance calories. It takes a long time for that to come off.
It sucks having one day set back an entire week's worth of work even though everything on here states it is impossible.
Water weight or not, when it takes over a week to come off, it is real enough.
Not everybody behaves the same.

[krete77]

I

Why are people so afraid to have cheat days , to set them selves back 3 days?

n't hurt.

Maybe not everyone has self control like you when they binge? Or maybe they have a different TDEE then you?

[mdmayberry09]

You're lucky...
My last 3000 calorie "cheat day" brought me 8lbs and it took me over a week to lose.
Nearly every weekend without fail I gain 10-12lbs without going over my estimated maintenance calories. It takes a long time for that to come off.
It sucks having one day set back an entire week's worth of work even though everything on here states it is impossible.
Water weight or not, when it takes over a week to come off, it is real enough.
Not everybody behaves the same.

If your binge day is 3000...it's physically impossible to gain 10-12lbs just from that. You'd have to eat like, 20,000 calories in your weekend to gain that every weekend.

[eliseash]

I don't feel the need to "cheat".
Would rather hit my goal 3 days earlier. Or 6 days earlier. Or 9 days earlier. Times however many months.

[gainmusclefast]

i wouldn't call that a binge

[71Avido]

If your binge day is 3000...it's physically impossible to gain 10-12lbs just from that. You'd have to eat like, 20,000 calories in your weekend to gain that every weekend.

Tell that to my scale. Serious.
Like I said, I know it is supposed to be impossible but the result is always the same. Im also aware that it has to be water but when it takes over a week to come off regardless, it may as well be real.

[Skoorbmax]

My maint calories are under 3k and a full on cheat day to me would be 5000 calories, so that's a lot of damage.

[maltanarchy]

A cheat day from something like Chinese can stick a ton of weight on you. I assume you pick up a ton of water weight from all the sodium in the food. A Chinese buffet causes me to pick up several lbs, and that takes about a week to get rid of... clearly water retention.

[Chazster]

Tell that to my scale. Serious.
Like I said, I know it is supposed to be impossible but the result is always the same. Im also aware that it has to be water but when it takes over a week to come off regardless, it may as well be real.

It's called water weight. When you eat unhealthy you are probably consuming lots of extra salt. I am a small guy and can easily add 4 pounds of water weight on the weekend. A couple days of eating healthy and it falls off. You are not setting yourself back really. How many times do people say don't focus on the scale. If you are cutting then there is no reason to be on the scale more than once every 2 weeks. Do it in the morning after bathroom but before eating or drinking and do it BEFORE a cheat day.

[71Avido]

It's called water weight. When you eat unhealthy you are probably consuming lots of extra salt. I am a small guy and can easily add 4 pounds of water weight on the weekend. A couple days of eating healthy and it falls off. You are not setting yourself back really. How many times do people say don't focus on the scale. If you are cutting then there is no reason to be on the scale more than once every 2 weeks. Do it in the morning after bathroom but before eating or drinking and do it BEFORE a cheat day.

You and I agree that it is water weight.
I do not eat junk when I binge anymore I just eat more of what I normally eat. I don't even keep "junk" in the house.
Last week I gained 8lbs from a 20oz steak/w sweet potatoes
All weights are taken upon waking the on the same day of the week. In an effort to stop stressing I stopped tracking weight daily, went to weekly instead. Still driving myself nuts after a week of feeling like you're starving, 0 energy, 0 motivation and just feeling lethargic, to step on the scale and see 0 movement.
I've contacted Alan Aragon about my situation (with more backstory than I care to divulge here) he had to refer me to someone else.

I actually started a thread yesterday I think it was to address the different ways your body could mask true fat loss.
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...#post905987323

[Chazster]

You and I agree that it is water weight.
I do not eat junk when I binge anymore I just eat more of what I normally eat. I don't even keep "junk" in the house.
Last week I gained 8lbs from a 20oz steak/w sweet potatoes
All weights are taken upon waking the on the same day of the week. In an effort tT_T o stop stressing I stopped tracking weight daily, went to weekly instead. Still driving myself nuts after a week of feeling like you're starving, 0 energy, 0 motivation and just feeling lethargic, to step on the scale and see 0 movement.
I've contacted Alan Aragon about my situation (with more backstory than I care to divulge here) he had to refer me to someone else.

I actually started a thread yesterday I think it was to address the different ways your body could mask true fat loss.
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...#post905987323

Do you know about the Woosh effect? Many people including myself experience this. When you lose weight the body doesn't want to shrink the fat cells and so it fills them with water. After a certain amount of time, if it doesn't fill them with fat again them it will release the water and you will notice a somewhat over night loss of maybe a few pounds. My body typically does this over a 2 week period. Yours may do longer. That is why I don't even measure every week.

[DizzySmalls]

I like to fit my cheats into the goal. Some days I just do a 24 hour fast from like 8pm one night to 8pm the next, and then have ~2000 calories to work with and don't concern myself too much with macros.

Yesterday I rocked a medium movie theater popcorn and Edy slow churned. Macros were meh, but calories were good, which is all that really mattes in the end for obese people in the long run

[MaverickZA]

End of May I reached one of my major short term goals. 320lbs down to 195lbs... I decided to take a "break" for a bit.

I binged, didn't track, didn't count cals and ate whatever. Luckily for me I only gained 8lbs in the month that I was on a break. As of Monday, I am refocused and got straight back onto my daily routines to reach my ultimate goal. To be aroun 10-12% bodyfat at the end of 2013. That was my initial long term goal back in 2011.

[Nexus2kx]

I went away this past weekend and didn't watch what I ate sat and Sunday at all.

By today 3 days later I am back to my weight I was before.

Why are people so afraid to have cheat days , to set them selves back 3 days?

I'll take the 3 days and keep my sanity and enjoy my life and not revolve it around eat right or hitting my macros every second of my life. I eat healthy everyday. Obviously a couple days a month won't hurt.

Well that's Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday gone which is 5 days...

I went away for the weekend and am a pound and a bit up, i'll be back soon enough. Although I went to the gym and all my lifts seem to have gone down a bit, i'm sure they'll be back up there next week though, I just prefer to stay on schedule.

[StitchT]

Typically if I've been in an aggressive deficit for 3 weeks(700+ deficit) I can get away with a full blown 1 day binge, upwards of 10-15k calories. Sets me back a couple days, 3 at most and I keep my sanity and have immense enjoyment. Sometimes only sets me back 1 day, I figure that when I'm carb depleted for that long(only getting in roughly 95g carbs per day) my body will make up for it in super-compensation.

[BadBlueTin]

What you are calling a binge was my basically my entire life a month ago.

It is going to take me several months or maybe a year to get down to a healthy size, but once there I'm totally going to have these bad food days. As long as ultimately I get below 20%bf or 16%bf would be really nice, the option to experience indulgent food every once in a while will be something I value. I figure that once I am in shape as long as I remain strict 90% of the time latitude is fine.

But then my goals are probably very different to a lot of you, I'm just doing this for self respect and a sense of well being, I have no desire to enter contests.


[Edited to ask]: Out of interest how low does your bf% need to be to get a 2-pack or 4 pack. (I doubt I'll ever achieve a 6-pack!)

[Chazster]

What you are calling a binge was my basically my entire life a month ago.

It is going to take me several months or maybe a year to get down to a healthy size, but once there I'm totally going to have these bad food days. As long as ultimately I get below 20%bf or 16%bf would be really nice, the option to experience indulgent food every once in a while will be something I value. I figure that once I am in shape as long as I remain strict 90% of the time latitude is fine.

But then my goals are probably very different to a lot of you, I'm just doing this for self respect and a sense of well being, I have no desire to enter contests.


[Edited to ask]: Out of interest how low does your bf% need to be to get a 2-pack or 4 pack. (I doubt I'll ever achieve a 6-pack!)

I would say it depends on the person, their muscle mass,and where they store fat but between 12-15% would be a decent guess for 2-4 pack range.

[BadBlueTin]

I would say it depends on the person, their muscle mass,and where they store fat but between 12-15% would be a decent guess for 2-4 pack range.

Thanks. It looks like 12-15% is a decent target for the more casual BB then.

[StitchT]

What you are calling a binge was my basically my entire life a month ago.

It is going to take me several months or maybe a year to get down to a healthy size, but once there I'm totally going to have these bad food days. As long as ultimately I get below 20%bf or 16%bf would be really nice, the option to experience indulgent food every once in a while will be something I value. I figure that once I am in shape as long as I remain strict 90% of the time latitude is fine.

But then my goals are probably very different to a lot of you, I'm just doing this for self respect and a sense of well being, I have no desire to enter contests.


[Edited to ask]: Out of interest how low does your bf% need to be to get a 2-pack or 4 pack. (I doubt I'll ever achieve a 6-pack!)

Around 15% most can start seeing their 2 or 4 pack, but genetics in how your body stores fat plays a huge role. I can have my 4 pack show pretty well at 17%(rest of my body looks like ****)

dat dere spot reduction methods really helped me out!(not srs)

[Serpentarius]

Im not afraid of cheat days, cheat days are afraid of me.
There is no reason for those who have been at it for awhile, to not indulge once in awhile, you can still have a fun day of having a few beers, a couple extra slices of pizza, and not count calories that day to get a mental break.

No point in being ripped if you are just sitting in a basement playing world of warcraft either, anyone who works hard deserves to do whatever they want and should have some sort of reward system.

[StitchT]

Im not afraid of cheat days, cheat days are afraid of me.
There is no reason for those who have been at it for awhile, to not indulge once in awhile, you can still have a fun day of having a few beers, a couple extra slices of pizza, and not count calories that day to get a mental break.

No point in being ripped if you are just sitting in a basement playing world of warcraft either, anyone who works hard deserves to do whatever they want and should have some sort of reward system.

Few beers? Extra slices?

Not even once... Cheat day = Diabetes and fear of death from stomach pain, srs.

[Skoorbmax]

Typically if I've been in an aggressive deficit for 3 weeks(700+ deficit) I can get away with a full blown 1 day binge, upwards of 10-15k calories. Sets me back a couple days, 3 at most and I keep my sanity and have immense enjoyment. Sometimes only sets me back 1 day, I figure that when I'm carb depleted for that long(only getting in roughly 95g carbs per day) my body will make up for it in super-compensation.

You can really do that many calories in a day? I know the morbidly obese people weighing 800 lbs do calories like that but their stomachs are like garbage bags.

[Smittaye]

I did a 4 day binge --beach trip--and came back 11lbs. heavier. Did i regret it then? nope. Do i regret it meow? Yes...byebye beautiful washboard. Oh well, just back to the grind, get it back in a week or maybe two. Besides my muscles look much fuller now. glycogen depletion ftl.

[StitchT]

You can really do that many calories in a day? I know the morbidly obese people weighing 800 lbs do calories like that but their stomachs are like garbage bags.

Yeah, it's pretty pathetic I know. But mind you my cheat days start very early in the day .

I did a 4 day binge --beach trip--and came back 11lbs. heavier. Did i regret it then? nope. Do i regret it meow? Yes...byebye beautiful washboard. Oh well, just back to the grind, get it back in a week or maybe two. Besides my muscles look much fuller now. glycogen depletion ftl.

THIS. Sucks 'cause I get less than 100g carbs a day so I'm always depleted, brb can't hold a pump, brb look flat all day, brb brb.

[sunsean]

I just recently went on a 3 day binge myself (fri/sat/sun) last weekend, and didn't gain one pound. I think, despite what some would say, that it's a bit more complex than calories in/out - or at least that there are other relevant factors in the equation. While cutting the last few months, I've been killing it running, like 5-6 days/week. I think having an intense w.o. regimen on top of the cut makes a HUGE difference. It keeps your metabolism constantly burning, 24/7. After going from about 16-1800 kcal/day on my cut, I had 3 consecutive days of probably in the 3500-4500 kcal range of unclean food (beer, burgers, chips, fries, cake, etc), and didn't put on an ounce of bf or body weight...keep the metabolism burning and you can get away with a lot more in your diet...it may still come down to kcal in/out, but your physical activity can make the dieting much easier to manage.

[kennyowenss]

I went on like a 2 day binge with friends and was back to normal weight in 2 days, I felt like a fatass though.