1) You Suck at Math
It might sound odd, but I've seen people embark on a fat loss regimen only to get fatter in the process. How is that possible? I mean, training should help you lose fat, not gain it. The simple fact is that most people grossly overestimate how many calories they're burning during their workout, and they use that as a justification to overeat.
"I just lifted weights for 45 minutes and did 30 minutes of cardio, so I can eat that Big Mac without harm."
Well, I've got news for you: You might've burned 400 calories during your workout, but the Big Mac provides over 800. If the Clearasil king behind the counter convinces you to have fries with that, you're over a thousand. Do that over the long run and don't be surprised if you're piling on fat despite training.
It's true that preceding a bad meal with an intense workout will reduce its negative impact. Training increases insulin sensitivity, which will somewhat decrease the amount of nutrients stored as fat. But it won't prevent all of the damage.The mentality of "having the right to eat bad foods because I worked out" is downright unhealthy ;even if your workouts were able to prevent fat gain, the negative health effects from eating crappy food still remain. An unhealthy body will always have a harder time gaining muscle and losing fat. A cheat meal, or even a cheat day, can be beneficial psychologically. However, even on a planned cheat, it's better to minimize the ingestion of crappy food. Eating junk like pastries, candy, cookies, or fast food once a week will make it harder to stay on the plan because you'll constantly be reminded of how good it tastes.
2) The Flat Tire Phenomenon
Your diet is going great. You've been solid for close to two weeks, and the results are starting to show. However, you're beginning to get cravings for donuts and cakes and cakes made out of donuts.
You do your best to maintain your composure, but you give in and eat two Krispy Kream donuts. You choked. The ball was dropped.
So, how do you react? Do you go back on your diet as soon as possible?
No! You continue to stuff your face with everything that doesn't fight back.
After all, since you've blown your diet, you might as well go hog wild and start again tomorrow on solid ground. Big mistake!
If you got a flat tire, would you go spike the three others with your trusty pocket knife?
Well, continuing to pile on the junk after one cheat is about as smart as flattening all your tires.
While I never encourage to give into temptation, a small, isolated culinary incident won't completely ruin your efforts. At worst, it'll put you back a day or two, but if you turn that one nutritional lapse into an all-out feast, you're going to put a huge dent in your progress.
After such a binge, it'll take you around two days just to get back into an optimal fat burning mode. I have not even address the potential fat gain from the binge itself. A big food fest can set you back one or even two weeks!
Unplanned cheats are like a flat tire: You don't want them, but they might happen (even to the strongest of wills). Just limit the damage by going right back to your regular plan.
3) Misapplying Dietary Digressions
I'll start off by explaining the differences between the three types of dietary digressions: cheating, loading, and re feeding.
Cheating means eating a meal (or several) consisting of foods that are outside the realm of what's acceptable on your diet, and the centerpiece is usually sugary junk. You have planned and unplanned cheats. I touched on the later earlier (eating some crap on a day you're not supposed to); these should be avoided as much as possible. Planned cheats refer to giving yourself a moment in the week where you can eat the bad food you've been craving. This moment is always on a given day and comes at the conclusion of a week of solid dieting.
Loading, like cheating, means eating a meal (or several) consisting of foods that aren't a part of your daily plan. Contrary to cheating, though, loading uses clean, high-carbohydrate foods like yams, potatoes, rice, whole-wheat pasta, fruits, etc. On a loading day, you want to refill muscle glycogen, so your daily intake of carbs will fall between 200 and 600 grams depending on your size and goals.
Re-feeds still consist of increasing your food intake for a day, but you do so by respecting your regular diet. You simply eat more of the foods that you normally ingest. A small amount of clean carbs (15 to 20 grams per meal) is also acceptable.
Now that we understand the difference between these three, let's explore the logic behind dietary digression days.
Such days serve 3 main purposes:
1) To prevent the ill effects of dieting, mainly metabolic slowdown and rebound binging.
Calorie and carbohydrate restrictions decrease the release of the hormone called Leptin. Leptin is important because it sends a message to the body that it's well-fed, so the body can keep up its metabolic rate. If less leptin is produced, the body will likely think it's starving, and it'll react to the situation by slowing your metabolism and increasing hunger.
As leptin drops, the risk of dietary failure increases.
It's been shown that increasing food intake drastically, even for a short period of time, will prevent the drop in leptin that occurs when dieting. This is especially important in the later stages.
Unless you use a stupidly high energy deficit when dieting, your leptin levels aren't likely to drop significantly during the first few weeks. It's only after you've lost a significant amount of fat, or have been of the diet for several weeks, that it'll become necessary to prevent the underproduction of leptin.
2) To reload glycogen stores.
Glycogen (the carbohydrates stored in the muscles and liver) is the primary fuel source for intense physical work. When your glycogen stores are low, you won't be able to train as hard as when you're fully loaded.
The main purpose of weight training when dieting is to preserve (or even gain) muscle mass. If you can't train with sufficient intensity, it'll be difficult to prevent muscle loss. For that reason, it's a good idea to periodically give the body a shot of carbohydrates to keep glycogen stores at least somewhat full. The body is capable of producing glucose, and by extension glycogen, from amino acids via a process called gluconeogenesis.
This may lead to muscle loss if the caloric deficit is too great, so a weekly carbohydrate load can be a good way to prevent the catabolism of muscle to produce glucose.
3) To give yourself a psychological break.
One of the toughest aspects of dieting isn't so much the deprivation; it's knowing you won't be able to satisfy cravings for weeks.
A lot of people stop their diet in the first few weeks because they can't see themselves being deprived of the foods they love for such a long period. For these people, having a small, planned once-a-week indulgence can help them maintain the diet over the long run.
This is a double-edged sword. While it can provide you with some much needed mental relief, it can also increase the frequency and intensity of your cravings.
If you can get through the first few weeks without eating any "forbidden" foods,
the cravings for them will fade,but if you constantly remind yourself of how good these physique wreckers taste, you'll always have to fight craving attacks.
It can help if you're able to shut the door for the whole week once the cheat is over, but if you can't, it'll ruin your efforts and make your life miserable. The body has absolutely no physical need to eat junk; It's only our psychological side that's a slave to this.
If you are going to stray form your nutritional path, these are my recommendations:
Opt for clean alternatives.
You don't need to load or re-feed every week.
Go with the minimum amount needed to do the job. (Remember the flat tire analogy?)
4) Getting Screwed by Hidden Calories
This is the Achilles' heel of disciplined dieters. You may have all the will and dedication needed to succeed, but if some of the foods you're eating contain more than you bargained for, you're screwed.Some examples of these hidden nutrients are "no sugar added" and "low-impact carb" products, drinks, and even protein bars.
The no-sugar added denomination can lead us to believe that these products are low in calories and carbs. Some dieters even see them as "free foods."
"No sugar added" simply means that they didn't add any sugar to the recipe. They can still be high in carbs, and they're generally much higher in fat than their regular counterparts.
These, like the "low-impact carb" club, can also be based on sugar alcohols like maltitol, glycerol, mannitol, and sorbitol. Due to a legal loophole, companies are able to present products loaded with sugar alcohols as good for dieting because of their "low-impact carbs."
The most overlooked source of excess calories is drinks. While technically not hidden, when you read the label, it's easy to see that most juices, soft drinks, energy drinks, and the like are loaded with sugar. A lot of people don't realize how many calories they pour into their head each day. When you're improving your body composition, limit yourself to water, black coffee,and tea.
Don't forget that the closer a food is to its natural state, the less likely it is to have hidden calories and nutrients.
5) Doing Too Much Too Soon
Body transformation is an emotional issue. We desperately want that killer body, and we want it yesterday. Our desire for fast results will often lead to bad decisions, including doing too much too soon. In most cases, those who have the greatest success are those who can stay on the program for the long run. Not only do they have a greater success rate, but they're more likely to maintain their progress than those who sought and attained fast results.
The body is built for survival, not to look like a fitness model. When you starve and overwork yourself, your body will adjust itself so that this amount of deprivation becomes normal. At that point, usually around week six, your fat loss will stop. When progress stops, you need to increase the stimulus by expending more energy or diminishing your energy intake. The problem is that if you're already doing as much activity as you can handle, and barely eating enough food to stay in working order, there's nowhere to go. You can't train more without risking an injury or chronic fatigue, and you can't eat less without suffering severe muscle loss or going mental.
Basically, by trying to progress too much too soon, you kill your chances of long-term success.
The best approach is to do just enough for an optimal weekly fat loss. As progress slows down, gradually increase your activity level first. When you need a second shot of renewed progress, decrease your food intake.
A lot of people ask how they can maintain their physique when their body transformation is finished. Really, you shouldn't have to do anything special.Those who ask are likely those who deprived and overworked themselves and don't see themselves maintaining that regimen over the long run. Those who take the smart approach can actually maintain their body transformation lifestyle simply by keeping up their regimen while being a bit more flexible.
Do It Right This Time!
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