I am a natural bodybuilder from Stuttgart, Germany and I red an article about cheating on your page. I cheat every second sunday and what I like to eat on this day is a family sized pizza. The rest of the two weeks I eat almost clean and right now a maximum of 2500 calories a day. I started at 107kg and reached 97 to 98 by now. I look lean and my abs are visible and separated. Do you think that I should overthink this cheat meal? Maybe I am not gaining that much weight, but I know that this pizza is about 6 to 7000 calories. I just use to eat something small before and after this meal. Afterwards I just come back to my 2500 calories a day and I think that I will cut about 100 calories again in a week or so.
Do you think that I can go on with this approach? How big is the influence of a caloric intake of over 7.000 to 10.000 if the next two weeks are just about 2.500? Does everything become a fat storage?
I admire anyone who eats clean and sticks to a deficit for 13 days straight. Well done. You are doing noting wrong. I did the same some years back as part of Berardi’s Get Shredded diet, and had wonderful results. My two cents worth is that, like any diet, you eventually experience diminishing returns. The more fat you lose, and the greater adaptations you make, going 13 days low calorie can start to impact on lean mass and recovery. This is when more frequent feeds are beneficial, e.g. every 5 days having a carb-rich meal rather than overt cheat (although in moderation is fine especially for your mental state!).
You are losing fat, getting leaner, and are asking us if the approach is working ?? I would say yes, it is.
No one here will be able to answer how long this plan will work, but its clearly working now. Stick with it until it doesnt work, then lower the calories on your non-cheat days 100-200 and the fat will come off again. OR, increase your cardio a bit (my preferred method over decreasing calories) and the same will happen.
If you are trying to get incredibly lean you will likely have to employ both strategies.
