Ever look fatter despite perfect nutrition, or shredded despite cheating?

[Zima]

Ever try eating *absolutely* clean only to find yourself not looking much better? For about a week and a half, my only cheating involved 2 glasses of red wine(over the entire week and a half). Aside from that - ultra clean. For me, that's a step up from maybe 4 glasses of wine a week, and one restaurant meal - which is also always very clean. Chicken, broccoli, and brown rice, for example. The only concern is the marinade they may have used for the chicken and things of that nature. In other words, I always eat very clean - this one week and a half was just a bit more extreme than usual in order to get closer to reaching a new level.

For the fitness nerds - 70g fat, 150g protein, 130-150g carbs on all except heavy lifting days(only 2x a week currently). 300 on those two days. All of that comes from only quality sources. This is all tracked *exactly* using fitday. I'm a 150lb male with 9-10% body fat(estimated by pictures) and good muscle mass for my size. Working towards 6-7%.

I remember at other times, I was unclear as to what my exact macros were for the day(aside from a definite calorie surplus), had a big dinner at a restaurant, a few beers, and woke up the next day looking shredded.

Do these things ever happen to anyone else? How do you account for that?

My theory is perhaps my glycogen stores were depleted from the low carbs several days in a row - but then I should just look less muscular, but still very slim, right? That doesn't always seem to be the case, though. Today, for example, not only do my muscles look a bit deflated, but I look like I might even be carrying more fat than a week ago! As for looking shredded after a big meal and some beers(3-4 max, I don't drink much) - I suppose it could have something to do with water weight as well - perhaps dehydration caused by the beer?

These are things I feel are important to understand if one is to reach a body fat level far below that which their body would normally want - most human bodies aren't meant to look extremely shredded and you have to know what's going on in order to outsmart your genetics. The problem is, when hard work doesn't seem to yield results, but cheating DOES, it can be very demotivating. You would think that in my case, maybe 4-6 weeks of extremely clean eating would put me at a bodybuilder/fitness model level, but when I get started and see no progress, it's hard to maintain that extreme level.