A few years ago, I was in a fat loss phase, trying to get lean for the summer. One day, I came across a forum thread with a dumbass title in the lines of “Why you should have cheat days.”

I clicked on it, read through and was convinced that, while dieting down, I should (nay, must) include cheat days two to three times per month to ‘propel’ fat-burning and improve diet adherence.

(A part of me knew that it wasn’t the case, but my hedonistic side told me to shut up and enjoy the moment. I reasoned that one day of overeating couldn’t do any harm.)

Then, on Friday after work, I hit up the local grocery store, picked up all the crap I could lay my eyes on with the intent of having my first cheat day on the following Saturday. I was so excited; I could barely fall asleep that night. I felt like a kid before Christmas.

Next morning, got up bright and early, and began my ‘reward day.’ As expected, I ate so much food that I had to lie down on three or four different occasions. I didn’t count the calories, but I reckon it was in the 10,000-15,000 range.

I had a few more cheat days during that cut before realizing that they completely negated my fat loss efforts. I knew it from the start; I just didn’t want to believe it.

Before we get into it, a full disclosure is due:

I’ve never written and published a review on this blog before. I’ve always seen it as sleazy marketing for some reason. When I began putting together this review, I looked like this:

Bulking is sort of a controversial topic.

There are endless opinions on it:

"Dirty bulking FTW!"

"Slow and steady wins the race!"

"As a natural lifter, you shouldn't even be bulking! You'll just get fat!"

...

And the like. Needless to say, there's no shortage of opinions. But who is right and who is wrong?

Today, we'll take a deep dive into bulking and at the different options to determine which is best and how to do it effectively, step-by-step.