Say I were to sit down and eat 5,000 calories of cake (or any type of sweets) in one sitting…how damaging is that on the body?
Does it pose a huge health risk? (Consider this for someone who eats clean 80% of the time, and practices OMAD, and decides to splurge once a month, or every few weeks)…
Can such “damage” have any type of irreversible effect on blood sugar, blood pressure, kidneys, etc.
I would love some science-backed answers!
(this question is more for curiosity, and not necessarily for a splurge)
Stephanie Buttermore (a youtuber who also holds a doctorate) had a query as to how her cheat meals were affecting her. She did some scans pre and post a cheat meal - I think she tracked her body fat and blood sugar for a period of 10 days.
Attaching that video below:
Edit: Personally - I too do OMAD. For me high caloric sugary and ultra processed foods throw my system completely off. After my last cheat meal on Jan 12th, I had a headache for 3 days. Haven’t eaten processed sugary foods since then.
Without having researched this specifically myself, I know that whenever I have a big cheat day that’s carb heavy I feel like absolute dog crap the next day. I literally feel hungover and occasionally have migraines. I don’t think this is common with most people, I think this effect in me is neurological because I have a Chiari malformation. However, if you’re strict carnivore for a while and cheat you’re likely going to feel it.
I’ve never look the science behind it. But, few anegdotes (not exactly healtwise), hadza tribesman eat 20k cal of honey in one sitting, Mark Bell lifting coach claims hes body quickly reverts back to ketosis after sugary cheats.
So,I guess the body is capable of handling such a feat, if you’re relatively healthy.
Another anecdote I’m sorry to say but I do something like this every three weeks on a Friday night (I smoke cannabis once every three weeks) but it’s like 6000 cals of high fat protein, sugar and other carbs and doesnt seem to affect my health negatively.
What has surprised me though is the next week or so I’m almost always way higher in calories (I track everything). I do OMAD and sometimes one 48 hour fast a week and never manage to do a 48 hour the week following and always seem to have higher daily calories that week. This is from tracking over 6 months I looked back and noticed the trend. It’s not a big deal cause I’m still in a deficit like I want just much less of one than other weeks.
Not sure if this is a lingering effect from a single cannabis use or else maybe the effects of eating more than double my TDEE in the course of a few hours?
Refined sugar is basically a toxin so it’ll never be good consuming much of it at all. Best being avoided. Also the sugar will cause withdrawal symptoms and you’ll pay for that in perceived “hunger pains” when you get back on your fast. I don’t think it’s worth it at all unless it’s in moderation.
In my opnion, from what I have read, this is not that damaging. It is more about what you do the rest of the month. One day of feasting isn’t going to hurt you excessively, but what are you doing the rest of the month to make up for it?
All that carbo loading is going to give you some massive sugar cravings afterwards. Can you resist or will your average food consumption go up because of that one day?