What is the "bad food" limit

[kdent]

I eat healthy, and really have no complaints in this subject, but i have a question that i've always wondered. You never know if you backslide, when to say to yourself "this is the limit, any more over this and i'm hurting my progress".

Is there such a thing as "Bad Food" limit? What i mean by this. If i'm on a cut and I ate pretty clean throughout the week, ran and did everything by the book but totally blow it on the weekends, I mean spaghetti red, burgers, ect...will that void all my healthy eating for that week and any progress I would have made? Is it perfectly ok to eat 1-2 bad things per day, per week? Every 2 weeks, none at all? ect...What is that limit? Part 2 of this is what foods are the limit. If you can eat bad 1 day out of the 7 let's say, what would be the meal/s that would be pushing the envelope? I know this is a tough question and may not have an answer. But i'd love to see opinions on this.

[priority]

the answer can vary depending on the stage you are at in a cut. For example if your a few weeks out from a show then i would say no cheat meals are allowed. If your not aiming for that then i would say one cheat meal of anything is allowed. It does depend on your bf% though aswell. If your lower bf% then you could maybe have a cheat day(but not a stupid one).
For the one cheat meal a week imo i would allow anything what so ever. Just do it for the taste.
iF your guna have a cheat day then be sensible. I base cheat meals around protein content always! E.g burgers, meat pizza etc.
Or you could just increase carb consumption, for example low fat ice cream, candy etc.

You can cheat smart, if you dont i would say you are definatley going in the opposite direction to drop body fat.

[NickSP]

There's really no way to answer this, it's so variable. It depends on the person and the diet. The important thing is where's your diet in the first place...if you're at like a 500 calorie deficit and you eat a snickers bar...that's not really going to ruin your physique. If it's something significant enough to put you into a surplus then yeah that hinders your progress for the day. You really should be trying to keep as clean as possible each day, and then maybe one day a week can be a cheat day. You can do that in different ways. You can either pick something like decide you can eat junk food at 2 meals that day. Or finish your normal meal, and then you're allowed to eat anything until you're full. I remember either vinny or evan saying they designated like a 2 or 3 hour period where they could do anything, after that it was back to normal. Or hell it doesn't even have to be so technical, just try to keep clean as long as you can and once in a while have a cheat meal.

[InkdMuscle]

the answer can vary depending on the stage you are at in a cut. For example if your a few weeks out from a show then i would say no cheat meals are allowed. If your not aiming for that then i would say one cheat meal of anything is allowed. It does depend on your bf% though aswell. If your lower bf% then you could maybe have a cheat day(but not a stupid one).
For the one cheat meal a week imo i would allow anything what so ever. Just do it for the taste.
iF your guna have a cheat day then be sensible. I base cheat meals around protein content always! E.g burgers, meat pizza etc.
Or you could just increase carb consumption, for example low fat ice cream, candy etc.

You can cheat smart, if you dont i would say you are definatley going in the opposite direction to drop body fat.

I agree. IMO it all has to depend on your goals. My goals are to just become freakisly large. So no stage presance is really in my near future. SO a cheat meal a week is okay with me But like the post above i base it off protein. Like burgers, meat lovers pizza, chicken burrito that sorta stuff. So it all boils down to your goals.

[sanga]

Agreed there is no hard and fast answer nto this.

I go with a cheat meal on Saturday and Sunday, just one chest meal a day, if this started to hinder my cut I`d drop one of them, if needed I`d drop both.

I don`t agree with complete cheat days just a meal on a certain day, now there is an exception to that and thats when bulking or when you are super skinny with the metabolism of a greyhound then there are no rules.

[kdent]

thanks guys. good input. i knew it was a tough question and most likely not just 1 answer, but wanted to know none the less. I'm blessed (i guess we'll call it that). My digestive system will not let me eat anything but natural and healthy without me paying for it big time, so eating healthy is mandatory all the time. I was just wondering for those who may not have that (we'll say luxury) and want bad foods, if there was a limit they could keep in mind. thanks again!!!!

[vgiordano]

It is tough ending that "cheat" period and going back to normal :(

[train.eat.supp.sleep]

haha yea it is hard....mine always gets extended lol but its ok im one of those pretty skin kids that can eat anything just about..but i still try to eat clean

[dyskee]

i am trying to gain lbm and decrease bf and 2 or sometimes 3 times a week i go out get a quarter pounder or a double bigmac or some fajitas but i always eat it as my post workout meal i feel this way they can't be stored as fat since ur body needs a massive amount of cals post workout imo. and iam seeing my abs everyweek more defined but if i feel iam starting to get heavy i cut this for a week or 2 and do some more cardio and its over

[thenothingthatis]

For me my everyday diet is 85%-90% clean. That's the only way I can maintain my sanity. Usually that 10% means that in one of my meals I'll add in something a bit unclean. But I always time it. For example, during my postworkout meal, I'll eat one donut along with my whey and banana. Everything else is clean. If I'm really cutting, my diet is more or less 100% clean, except for a cheat meal every week. That cheat meal can either be 2 donuts post workout, or 4 buffalo wings (with whole wheat flour as coating mind you!) that I cook myself; this adds about 300 calories to my usual calorie intake. I just think to myself that this cheat meal is like a refeed or some sort of calorie cycling that helps rev up my metabolism, shocking my body into losing calories again. But that's me lol.