once a week cheat day

Question
Hi Phil,

I am a competitive bodybuilder, following a 6 day on 1 day off diet. Meaning Mon to Sat i eat very clean, low carb, high protein and moderate fat. I have been doing this for 3 years now and achieved great gains and have placed at several shows at a national level.

My Question is on my off day, i eat a very large amount of calories approx 5 times as many as a normal day,so upwards of 11000 calories. Now assuming my bmr is approx 2500 to 3000 cal a day. I am wondering what happens to the excess 8000 calories. I defiantly do not but on 2.3 pounds a week of fat,as i stay around 10% bf in the offseason. I have always just thought if my body is burning fat 6 days a week then 1 day a week it would not be effective enough at storing fat to store the excess calories.

I train 5 days per week with 30min cardio 4 days a week.

Cheers

Chris

Answer
Chris I have done this at times with huge success as well when I was in a stint where I stayed in the high single to 10% range for a year and half to two years. While a one single cheat day is NOT enough to raise your metabolism for the long term like some have hypothesized (it takes time days weeks of over or undereating to have a long term effect on the metabolism) it will raise your metabolism in the short term. I am betting you sweat a LOT when you do this from the increased total intake and carbohydrate intake. You refill those glycogen levels and I am betting have your best workouts of the week the day or two post refeed. So No you dont create 2.5 lbs of fat sure you may create a small bit but most is simply burnt up and what isnt is excreted. Your hitting the body with a HUGE excess of food its not used to  it wont burn it all.

I personaly fouind this method great for staying very lean but not o great for real impressive gains in strenght or mass. That takes a longer term approach of bigger eating every day of the week. I would say if you are taking this method make wour two hardest trainign sessions the day prior to this refeed and the day after if possible to take advantage of botht he healing aspect of food and then the added energy you have from the over eating

 For more info you should join our free discussion forum, you will get lots of great advice and discussion there www.teamstaley.com start a training log. We can help with training, diet and then give advice on supplementation

Phil
www.staleytraining.com

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