How much does eating poorly once in a while set you back?

[CFH]

Ok, I'm certain I already know the answer to this question, but I wanted to ask you guys anyways.

I've been going to the gym 5 - 6 days a week for a month and a half. 5 days a week, I do about an hour of intense cardio and as of a week ago I have twice a week added about a 45 min session of weight training. I'm not really trying to bulk up or anything, I'd just like to lose some weight and improve my health and endurance to a high level. I have also dramatically improved my diet and I now eat quite healthy the majority of the time.

Now for the meat of this post, on Saturday nights I have been allowing myself to cheat on my healthy eating. I usually drink some beer or liquor and I don't eat as well as I do the other days of the week. I'll usually have some fries at the bar, some chips, and a brioche and stuff like that.

Now my question is, how much is this hurting all the hard work I have put in throughout the rest of the week? I'm thinking of reducing my "cheat days" as I think of them to one or two days a month, is that better or should I just try to avoid them altogether? I must admit, I do like to drink about once every week or two, but I'll severely curtail that if I must.

Thanks for the help.

[AdamGB]

I think they're fine... I'm awful... I have a good diet but I'll have the odd treat too.

If you cut them out entirely you'll just end up getting sick and either not being able to stick to your diet or binging on teh foods you've craved but not been able to have.

[JazMerkin]

At the end of the day, as long as you're not planning to be a professional athlete it's fine. It's good to have that routine, but you have to enjoy life as well. I keep a fairly good fitness routine (although I've been slacking the past week & feel crap) but it's also important to balance that by eating stuff I enjoy & having the odd drink

[Drago]

i eat healthy mon - fri

friday night i have a take out sum whisky & a few beers then generally eat shite all weekend

works for me, if i cut out all the crap i dont notice any difference physically

[Bomp]

I think they're fine... I'm awful... I have a good diet but I'll have the odd treat too.

If you cut them out entirely you'll just end up getting sick and either not being able to stick to your diet or binging on teh foods you've craved but not been able to have.

I'm the same, whenever I've tried to cut em out completely I end up going nuts and binging after a month. But like one of the others said, dependfs what your goals are, I find after a drinking binge I'm useless at training the next day, I try to make that day a rest day, but even then the day after I'm sluggish. kind of like 2 steps forward and 1 back every week.

[AdamGB]

I rarely drink, if at all... I haven't touched a drop in about 9-10 months and the last time I had a proper drinking session would be about a year and a half ago.

it's not awful in moderation but you should never train the day afterwards mate, loads of nastys in it so the last thing you want to be doing is pumping it around your blood/into your muscle tissue by training, plus you're likely dehydrated (that's basically what a hang over is)

Best bet after drinking - drink a lot of fluids eat healthy foods and get some fruit in for the antioxidents and water to try and help your liver get rid of the junk.

[Bomp]

Great advice Adam. Hopefully I'll be competing this autumn, I'll be cutting the drinking out completely by then.

[Youngblood]

CFH, I eat pretty damn healthy, but allow one day a week for utter shit eating and basically unmoral behavior(). I think we are setting ourselves up for failure to fight food and drink temptation 24/7 and ultimately don't allow for it. I'm sure I am repeating what others have said previously, but I know it tends to work for me.

2 weeks before a fight I clamp down and cut that fun day/night out, but more than make up for it when it's over. While there is no genuine rewarding gain without sacrifice, imo, not allowing for some of our self-indulgencies along the way is a fools errand. Management of it I believe is the key.

[wesrman]

Im all for cheat MEALS, and they wont hurt your health too bad, but the problem is that in order to lose fat (or weight) you need to be in a calorie defecit. So if you are eating less calories than you burn all week, then over eating too much on the weekend you can severely hurt your rate of fat loss. Obv this depends on how much you're eating and burning etc.

You might think about having cheat meals instead of cheat days, which is what i do.

If you're really serious about losing weight you should track everything that you eat and find out your BMR + the number of cals ur burning during workouts and adjust accordingly. You might also consider eating most of your carbs around your workouts so u have energy, but dont store them as fat as easily.

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