A lot of activity gets posted to Alexander Cortes' Facebook page. Some posts are expository, many are entertaining, and all are informative in some way.
One of his most recent posts offers definitions for several very popular dieting terms:
Cheat Meals VS ReFeeds VS Free Meals Vs Spike Days/Shit Loading
These are just simple and fast definitions I use with clients at Mountain Dog, and their origins I've gotten from John (duh), Trevor , Scott Abel, and the spike day/shit day/Skip loading ala Ken Skip Hill. My wording of them is adapted from what I send clients
Keep in mind, this is all most relative to bodybuilding style dieting and individuals. If that's not you, leave it be. Moderation is not the game here at all
1. Cheat meal — this is a meal in which calories are generally controlled to no more than double the meal being replaced. These are used more for mental relief and some metabolic flexibility in allowing dirty eating in a controlled fashion.
2. Refeed — used during intense fat loss phases often further along in a diet. This is a more specially planned higher calorie meal that may or may not be "dirty" and is utilized to elevate metabolism and either replenish glycogen and/or avail metabolic slowdown from weeks spent eating way below maintenance because we want abz and cutz and veinz.
3. Free meal — used in mass diets or maintenance mode. Meals in which calories are matched approximately to the meal being replaced, and are allowed 1-2 weekly as relaxation from "clean eating" without degrading into filthy eating .
-Alternatively called "have a life" meal at times in which following the diet is simply impractical and "shit happens"
4. Spike Days — I only use these during cyclical diets, something I learned through the research and work of Scott Abel and Ken Skip Hill. These are essentially periods of time (versus meals) which may extend into a day, during which calories are massively ingested through XXX eating as I call it (because it makes me laugh and foodgasms, so there). I've set these anywhere from 2hr windows to all day affairs depending on the individual. This is a super compensation method, and ensures metabolism won't be crawling at any point while chewing through lettuces and chicken breast the other 6 days go the week. You also get a nice food coma and skin splitting pump the days after
These are the definitions I use with clients, they work well, highly probable they are similar to what other people do. They are not instructions, and are applied on a client to client basis. Do with them as you will
Header image via flickr.com, Tambako the Jaguar