Depending on how much weight you have to lose, you must be willing to stay on a diet program long enough to see results. For real fat loss, this could mean 10-12 weeks or even longer. This is an arduous process for both beginners and diet experts; There are no tricks or easy ways to lose body fat other than a low-calorie diet and plenty of exercise. For a sustained low-calorie diet, a cheat meal once a week is a great strategy to help you stick to a program. After a perfect diet for the week, a single meal of whatever you want (with controlled portions) provides the body with a calorie boost and does wonders for your mental game. Low-calorie dieting day in and day out for the entire week can put your body into starvation mode, making it difficult to lose weight. A cheat meal with a lot more calories per ounce/week lets the body know that it’s not starving and that it’s okay to continue losing weight. A cheat meal once a week also helps set a great goal to work towards each week and also helps control food cravings. There is no question as to the effectiveness and rationale behind using cheat meals once a week in your diet program. There’s a little warning about cheat meals once a week…
These are cheat meals that last up to 6 hours. After dieting for a long time, the slimmer you become, the hungrier you are. At some point, it becomes very difficult to have precise control of your apatite in a meal of ‘whatever you want’. Overeating or sometimes just eating the wrong combination of foods can quickly add 6 to 10 pounds. scale weight. Depending on what you ate, this can take up to 4-6 days to clear out, taking your entire work week back to where you were, zero gain. When using the cheat meal strategy once a week in your diet, try to commit to cheat meals (of anything you want) but with very controlled portions. However, even following a strict protocol, you will invariably come across a cheat meal that will make your body burst with weight. If this happens, please read the following paragraphs for tips on how to regain/lose weight faster after a heavy meal. Even if you’re not currently following a strict regimen, this system can work well to cleanse the body after any eating event.
Start your first morning after binge eating with intermittent fasting. Don’t make your first meal until at least 12 noon. If you are used to eating as soon as you get up, don’t do it; wait until at least noon to eat. However, get up several hours earlier and exercise on an empty stomach. Your workout should be sustained cardio plus a light weight session if there’s time. Plan to exercise for at least 1.5-2 hours before your first 12 noon meal. The cardio you do should be double what you normally do. For example, if you normally walk for 30 minutes on the treadmill, you will walk for 1 hour. Then fill the rest of your 2-hour time frame with more cardio, calisthenics, and/or light weight lifting. Weightlifting should use light enough pounds to pump 10 to 20 reps. Do not lift heavy objects and try to hit the muscle. Pick two exercises that you can use to add extra work for lagging body parts and/or strengthen a weakness you have and super follow them for 4-5 sets of 10-20 reps. Finally, plan for one more intense cardio session in the evening (about 6 hours later than the first workout, preferably). Try to fill an hour with as many bodyweight cardio and calisthenics as possible.
Eating the day after a cheat meal should be sparse. A complete fast is not recommended here, but also a great diet strategy; intermittent fasting included is enough. Our goal on this day is to eat very lightly and stimulate by pushing bad food as fast as possible. First reduce the number of meals you eat on this day. If you normally eat only 3 meals, you will only get two. If you normally eat 5, you should have 3 plus a protein drink. Make all your meals high in protein with chicken, turkey, fish, lean red meat, eggs, and/or whey, at least 25-40 grams/protein per meal and corresponding to your lean body mass. Reduce the calories in your meals even more on this day by eating more vegetables than starches. If you only get two meals, eat only vegetables for your carbohydrates. Try to include a raw vegetable in at least one of your meals, for example, a large salad, raw broccoli sprigs, carrot sticks, etc. Also keep fats to a minimum on this day. Fats make your food digest more slowly and we want it to get through. If you are one of those who needs to improve with water consumption, this is the day to do it. You want to drink as much water as possible the day after a cheat meal to help flush out toxins and sugars and help speed up digestion. Do not drink any other drinks other than coffee and water on this day.
The next day (2 days after the cheat meal), you will return to your program as if nothing had happened. Following this eating/training plan should get you back on track on or before Wednesday (if your cheat meal was on Saturday). Results will vary depending on how much damage has occurred to the cheat food. Best results will be found when cheat food is kept in moderation in the first place. It should also be noted that this program has not been tested on different topics and may only work well for the author regardless of how it is presented to present the technology and concepts. At the time of this writing, the author was also doing 10+ hours of cardio a week (cumulative), lifting weights 3-4 times a week for 1.5+ hour sessions, and following a nutrition program of precision bodybuilding seven days a week. If he’s not in this shape, there’s no telling how well this system will work for you. If you are not used to the amount of training described above, the program should be tailored to your individual needs and should not be attempted without first consulting your doctor to ensure you are healthy enough to do so.