Are cheat days a meme, or is there some actual hormonal benefit

The benefits are mostly psychological. It's more apt to have a cheat MEAL (netting you to maintenance calories for the day) since days are literally regress

Almonds and beans are good for u m8

>>39107241
Using cheat days as an excuse to pig out is little more than degenerate. Cheat days are for ensuring you hit appropriate macros/micros for physical/mental health. If you're on a cut you're often deficient on at least a few levels.
It's also in general good for fighting cravings and giving yourself something to look forward to.
Assume you have a deficiency of 500 calories daily and two cheat days weekly where you can eat 800 calories above the set deficiency.
2500-600=1900. Still a reasonable calorie loss per week.

cheat meals/days is bullshit because you can 'cheat' any day as long as you hit your macros and micros. Whether that's with kale and chicken or big macs doesn't fucking matter.

>>39107241
They help me grow man tits.

I have bigger pecs than my GF and shes a b-cup.

I think it's accepted that you cannot reverse the hormone changes that occur during weight loss by having 1-day cheats.

You can, however, put on maybe half a pound of fat and up to 15lbs in water weight (depending on how hardcore your cheat days are) by having a cheat day.

Like the other guy said, it's mostly psychological.

And that does have some empirical support.

Planned "cheats" prevent unanticipated binges by providing a light at the end of the tunnel. By planning you also can control just how far you're going to overeat, which minimizes rebound weight gain.

You could even go as far to carb deplete + lactic acid train the days & train on the day of the refeed.

This will improve calorie partitioning, increasing the likelihood excess calories will be diverted to refill glycogen stores instead of being stored as fat.

Overall I'd say a cheat meal every 2ish weeks sounds fine.

>>39107379
DESU cheat meals are just a hinderance, 6 weeks in on my current cut and have yet to do it. How? Do a slow cut, you won't have cravings and you actually retain your strength and mass better.

>>39108285

Actually, contrary to popular opinion, the most up to date research is showing short-term aggressive cuts (i.e. 1k deficit) are the best for overall fat loss and muscle sparing.

With slow long cuts causing more muscle loss at the end of the diet.

But, if you're able to cut long periods of time without a cheat thats great.

Personally, I do not have the patience for it and will cut hard. I can't stand seeing tiny changes when I know I could be going harder and getting better results.

On that dream bulk of peace. Will I get diabetes if I eat a pint of B&Js right now? Pls no bully

>>39108317
How short we talking here?

>>39108343

Here's a summary of one of the papers that are otherwise behind paywalls.

http://suppversity.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/750kcalday-deficit-approach-to-cutting.html

In this paper it was 350 k/cal deficit vs 750 k/cal deficit over a period of 4 weeks.

>>39107241
Cheat days are mental. Carb refeeds on the other hand do offer benefits like up regulating leptin

>>39108317
That makes absolutely no sense. Lower deficit with workouts would preserve muscle mass as your body isn't as aggressively attempting to use energy and reducing muscle as a result. More so as it easier to meet any macros, you have more energy. I'm gonna need to see the sources.

Cheat Days was a term bodybuilders used after they finished a show. A Carb Up (with healthy sources) is done occasionally on deep cutting to replenish glycogen stores and to lift a little stronger.

The way popular culture uses Cheat Days is bullshit pseudoscience. Getting off track of your nutrition for one day won't kill your gains in the grand scheme of things... but let's not pretend that it doesn't set you back a little.

If you want to fuck a dude in the ass every other Tuesday, cool. But don't say "It's not gay, it's a Cheat Fuck!".

For me it's a mental thing.

Enjoying food is one of life's many pleasures, so fuck it, maybe once a week, I'll have chicken nuggets with some mac n' cheese.

>>39107241
they are nice from a psychological point of view, I would never recommend a full cheat day tho, more like a cheat meal, that way you can still sorta hit your deficit if you dont overdue your meal

>>39108500
Read up on lyle mcdonalds take on it.
"Cheats" have more then a little validity.