Planning gluttony and drunkeness -days off

T

Techo

New Member
OK so maybe the topic I used is a little extreme. For one, I don't believe in getting drunk - just close enough ;-) But my question is how do you guys handle days off from the diet?

Currently I track my calories thru fitday and usually average around 2400 kcal while my maintenance is somewhere above 1800 kcal. I try to avoid planning days on the fly (day before) becuase it can be time consuming and a real pain. So usually I just cycle 3 or 4 days of planned meals... Anyways, then comes Saturday or some other day where I'd like to have a day off. I know that over-over eating one day won't kill me becuase its bascially the total amount of calories in a week - or over a longer period of time then a day... What I've done for days like Sat. is just try to get 1/g/lbs of protein for the day from low cal foods and just hope I don't go over w/my gluttony =P. Well, a couple weeks ago I figured I consumed nearly 7000 calories in that one day alone! Granted that's NOT average since there was both a wedding and a sperate party in the same day, but it still makes me wonder how you guys do it - or even how you handle your day to day calories in diet.

Do you find drinking lots of alcohol and over-over eating once, say, every one to two weeks just isn't worth it for what it does to you (organs and body fat wise)? I find that when I drink alcohol and I drown myself in water, I am MUCH better off the next day. Keeps the dehydration down. I don't want to negate my hard efforts in diet, study and workout. But at the same time, I'm only going to be in my young twenties for so long...

Thoughts anyone? How do you guys do it?
 
I'd just limit your cheat days as you are doing and have a day or so every 2 weeks or a month where you do whatever you want and dont even bother tracking anything. Not only is it good for your body but the psychological benefits are HUGE...
As long as you dont do it often dont sweat how to handle it...just enjoy it and then start right back on your meal plan the next day.
BUT, if you want some advice on how to handle a day of drinking Id take some milk thistle to protect your liver and drink plenty of water before and after.

Of course this advice is coming from someone who has cheated once in 6 months...

KC
 
I didn't cheat for about 5 months last summer. It wasn't to
terribly hard after the first 2 or 3 weeks, but it did seem to drag on and on and on. KC I admire your determination and self control.

I follow a low carb diet most of the time, but I start to crave carbs like crazy so I plan a day off. My maintenance is about 3100 kcal, on an average day I eat about 2400 kcal. I take an off day every 2-3 weeks, on my off day I probably eat around 5000-7000 kcals, mostly tons of carbs.

I started taking this off day in early December last year, since then I have lost about 10 pounds, and brought my BF down to 11% from 13%, I'm happy with that.

If I take the day off more often than every 2-3 weeks i start to gain.


As for the alcohol I almost never drink.



JWJ
 
Be way careful of alcohol. You can drink mixed drinks with water or diet coke, but be prepared to get kicked in the butt. Alcohol is like twice as nasty on low carb diets, and will screw you up royally.

Stretch
 
lol yeah, I'm not exactly drinking for health benefits =P

I saw a recent post here that summed up the negative effects of alcohol and wish I could remember were I saw it... Something to the effect that alcohol:

1) Is a diuretic - less water in body = bad news for the body especially during creatine intake

2) Increases cortisol levels

3) .... + much more?

I'm really sold on the idea when taking these days off to JUST get the minimal amount of protein and don't worry about fat/carb/protein ratios. That way I have plenty of room to eat whatever or at least less worries. I'm surprised more people around here don't "cheat".I guess I went like 4 mo w/out cheating but that got old after a while.

As funny as it sounds, I try to minimalize my cal intake on these days off. Like you said Stretchman, i try to take my drinks w/diet soda. I've also discovered that I sometimes start eating uncontrolably when I drink =). To solve this, I plan to surround myself with celery, cucumbers, and other low cal foods. Like I metioned before, I made the mistake of surrounding myself w/trailmix and ended up consuming nearly 7000 calories =P For now it seems a free day every saturday and drinking every 2-3 weeks will suffice. Plan on seeing me in 2 months complaining about huge fat gains and major muscle loss ;-)
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Techo @ May 09 2004,7:48)]I'm surprised more people around here don't "cheat".
Click to expand...
I agree Techo,

As far as muscle and BF issues I have seen improvement with cheating. And as KC said the psychological reasons are huge.

I don't know if it really is cheating though, I think of cheating as a unplanned, perhaps uncontrolled binge. If you incorporate it as part of your eating plan, and control the rest of your diet so you can incorporate it, I'd like to think I still am on my diet.




JWJ
 
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