Design a cheat day!

First of all, I'll say that I never use the terms 'cheat meal' or 'cheat day'. I tend to eat pretty flexibly while staying close enough to my target daily calories and macros (if anything I tend to go a little over on protein and a little under on carbs). Reading people's food choices in the 'tastiest carbs' thread got me thinking about how different a cheat day would look like for everyone.

So here's the premise - design s cheat day on MFP (or whatever calorie tracker you use) and report your total calories and macros for the day. The rules are:

1. Be realistic - don't enter in more food than you would/could want to eat.
2. Limit alcohol and cost - the idea is that this would be a fairly normal weekend day for you, so no beer festivals or fancy restaurants, unless that's the kind of thing you usually do.
3. Eat as many or as few meals as you like.

Then look at how your cheat day compares to a normal day of eating where you're trying to hit a calorie target (and macro targets if that's what you do).

Here's mine:

BREAKFAST
Smashed Avo on toasted sourdough with smoked salmon
Iced latte with whole milk and no sugar
737 calories (C - 66, F - 41, P - 31)

MORNING TEA
Warm apple pie with vanilla ice cream
Black tea with no sugar
677 calories (C - 91, F - 39, P - 8)

LUNCH
Cheeseburger (something like a Double Double) and fries
Diet Coke (yes, this is what I would realistically choose, even on a cheat day)
1160 calories (C - 105, F - 64, P - 44)

MID AFTERNOON
Black coffee, no sugar or sweetener
0 calories

DINNER
Spaghetti Carbonara (traditional) with a light salad with vinaigrette on the side.
Glass of wine
1036 calories (C - 116, F - 31, P - 42)

Total (My current MFP targets in brackets)
3561 calories (3060)
C - 378 (383)
F - 175 (102)
P - 125 (153)

I think this is a pretty accurate reflection of how I would eat if I didn't give a thought to calories and macros. I was tempted to add in some tiramisu after dinner, but I probably wouldn't if I'd already had something sweet (apple pie) earlier in the day. Maybe add in a high- calorie IPA or a strong Belgian beer in the evening, but that's it. As you can see, I love my high fat foods and don't tend to go OTT with carbs.


from Bodybuilding.com Forums - Nutrition https://ift.tt/3bHVJLv

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