Module 52: My Controversial Stance On Cheat Days
Here's the "raw" truth: If you want to sell a crap-ton of diet books -- the cheat day is your best friend.
But if you're looking to actually lose a crap-ton of body fat? The cheat day is your worst enemy.
This is actually a pretty controversial standpoint. After all, most of those "fitness gurus" pimp the "cheat day" concept pretty hard.
Me? I think you should skip your cheat day. Here's why...
Maybe you've heard me talk about this fact before: If you run a marathon -- 26.2 miles, you'll burn roughly 2,600 calories. On a true no-holds barred cheat day, you can easily pound down 5,000, 7,000 maybe even 10,000 calories in a day.
Simple math should show you that cheat days simply don't work.
So does mean you can never stray from a diet in your quest to get lean?
No. I've got a method you can use that will let you cheat and still get lean. Here is is:
Rule #1: No such thing as a cheat "day." Just a cheat "meals".
Like I said, if you've got a healthy appetite (like me), you can easily consume 5,000 calories or more during a single cheat day. For that reason, I tell people to restrict your cheat meals to a few hours -- not a full day.
Rule #2: Keep track of calories.
Want to eat cheesecake, pizza, and doughnuts on your cheat meal? Go right ahead. But you can't eat unlimited amounts. A full cheesecake can pack as many as 5,000 calories. So for that reason, I tell most people to keep your cheat meals to 2,500 - 3,000 calories.
Which brings us to...
Rule #3: You don't need a cheat meal this week
Unless you're already at 10% bodyfat or less, you don't need a cheat meal every week. I recommend a cheat meal every OTHER week until you get down to 10% body fat. Once you get down to 10% body fat or less and -- assuming you want to keep getting leaner -- at that point it makes sense to drop down to having one cheat meal every week.
There you have it -- my 3 controversial rules for using cheat meals to get lean.
Matt Marshall, certified personal trainer and founder of Fitness Under Oath
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