Leg Days Can Be Your Cheat Days

Leg day might be challenging and strenuous because you're exercising some of the biggest muscles in your body. Should you then indulge in a substantial cheat meal after your leg workouts? One of the most popular gym advice topics is to mix your leg day with your cheat day if you're trying to grow or shed muscle and/or fat while on a diet. One utilizes more calories on leg day than on any other gym day, which is where this suggestion originates.

How Leg Day Becomes Your Cheat Day?

Numerous studies have shown that because the lower body is made up of vast muscle groups, it requires more energy to get it moving, lifting, and running. The largest muscle in the body, the gluteus maximus, is used in every leg day exercise, including squats, deadlifts, lunges, and running.

Monitoring athletes' metabolism and energy consumption following a series of strenuous resistance exercises showed that athletes' metabolic rates - the amount of energy expended - skyrocketed after 90 minutes of training including compound lifts like the squat and deadlift and continued to do so for several hours after (1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
The Impact of Back Squat and Leg-Press Exercises on Maximal Strength and Speed-Strength Parameters

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This is not to imply that working out your upper body hard won't help you burn the same amount of calories ,but leg day makes your heart and brain work harder. Which makes it arguably also the ideal day to have a cheat meal. To make this even more worthwhile, you could do a few add-ons like engaging in high-intensity exercise on leg day.

Repeated cycling sprints can dramatically reduce muscle glycogen by up to 47%, reveals research. Compared to resistance exercise, sprinting accelerates the utilization of muscle glycogen. A 30-second sprint may deplete muscle glycogen as much as five to six sets of numerous repetitions of a resistance exercise.

What is the Best Time to Have Cheat Meals Post-Leg Workouts?

After a vigorous workout, the body is more responsive to insulin, which aids in digesting a substantial meal to support muscular repair and growth while restoring the glycogen stores that can be depleted via physical exercise wisely.

So when is the body best ready for a cheat meal?

Normally, the optimum window period lasts for around 4-6 hours after the workout. However, it is significantly raised for the first 60 minutes. So, if time permits, try to eat your cheat meal within the first 60 minutes or at the very least during the first 6 hours.

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Researchers advise doing leg workout after at least one or two meals in the day, which means ideally by afternoon or evening. Additionally, aim to drink protein shake right away after workout to put your body to “an anabolic atmosphere” before eating more slowly digestable foods.

An hour or so later, proceed to eat on a large amount of food. Carbohydrates should take precedence during this cheat lunch because your body is particularly responsive to them right after a workout. After a high-fat meal, digestion will likely slow down and carbohydrate replenishment may be limited (2^✔ ✔Trusted Source
SSE #79: Dietary Carbohydrate & Performance of Brief, Intense Exercise

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Workout more on your legs to indulge more on your cheat meals

References:

1. The Impact of Back Squat and Leg-Press Exercises on Maximal Strength and Speed-Strength Parameters - (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26439782/)
2. SSE #79: Dietary Carbohydrate & Performance of Brief, Intense Exercise - (https://www.gssiweb.org/en-ca/article/sse-79-dietary-carbohydrate-performance-of-brief-intense-exercise)

Source-Medindia