KaraCooks
New member
I posted this in response to a question someone asked in their diary and I've gotten a ton of PMs about it. So I thought I'd repost it with some further info, in case it can help someone.
I plan a "free day" into my plan every week. Most of the time my free day is Sunday because it's the day I cook, bake, watch the ball game with snacks, etc.
My free day is not a "free for all" ... it's a day when I can have things that I wouldn't normally eat and not worry about calories (too much). It allows me to have a restaurant meal, to bake something fun, to indulge my love of cooking, to have snacks with the ball game ... or whatever I want to do that week. It doesn't mean that I binge and it doesn't mean that I don't keep a rough track of what I'm eating. I just don't count as strictly as I do the rest of the week and I don't freak out about extra calories.
For example, last Sunday I had breakfast as usual (260 calories), a 5 guys burger and half an order of fries for lunch (800 calories), and 2 hot dogs with tortilla chips and salsa and watermelon for dinner (1100 calories).
I didn't go nutso and consume 5000 calories. My total for the day came in at 2160. I rounded up just in case I overlooked something and estimate that I had around 2500 calories for the day. Now, my maintenance calories at my current weight are 2436, so really all I did was eat maintenance and not pay attention to my macros. Eating 2500 calories for one day doesn't negate my overall deficit. If I'd eaten 3500 calories, it would have reduced that deficit by a little and maybe I'd only have lost 1.2 lbs instead of 1.5 lbs.
Now here's the kicker. On Sunday morning I weighed 174.1. On Monday morning (after my free day) I weighed 180.6. Did I gain 6.5 lbs of fat from my free day? No. I ate a crapton of salt, though - chips and hot dogs and burgers and fries. So I retained water like crazy.
This morning? I'm at 173.8. 2 days of drinking a lot of water to flush my system and eating "normally" (at 1600 calories) and I'm fine.
This Sunday I'm going to a favorite pub of mine and have their mac n cheese (which is really creamy and filled with ham chunks and comes in around 1100 calories a serving). Then I'll eat dinner as usual (probably grilled fish). I figure my day will be around 2500 calories again, but I won't freak if I go over.
Next Sunday I won't have a free day because a group from my office is going bowling on Friday, so I'll move my free day to Friday so I can enjoy some margaritas and nachos with the group while I bowl.
Sure there have been days where I've really splurged and eaten 3000 or more calories, but they're very rare. I can't eat the volume of food that I used to - and certainly not the volume of junk food. Too much junk food makes me sick now.
Also, note that having a free day doesn't mean I ignore the rest of my health either. I still got up Sunday morning and did the yoga class at my gym. I still drank a gallon of water (actually a little more). I still decided that it was more important to me to have chips with dinner than to have ice cream after dinner so I made a choice, rather than having both (although if I'd decided to have both, I'd have had a reasonable serving of each and not freaked about it).
----
Having explained all of that, I will say that YES ... this slows my weight loss some. If I ate 100% on plan 24/7/365, I would lose weight faster. Except that if I thought I could never have another hot dog or another 5Guys burger or another serving of mac n cheese, I'd quit dieting and give up and then I wouldn't lose weight at all.
For me, my free day gives me something to look forward to, it keeps me on plan the rest of the week, and it balances me. I don't feel deprived because I'm forbidding myself favorite foods forever. And during the week if I crave something, I can often break the craving by telling myself I'll have it on Sunday. And usually by the time Sunday comes around, I don't really want it any more.
Over the long haul, it *is* the difference between losing 1.5 lbs a week and 2.0 lbs a week ... and for me, I'm ok with that. Because for me this is a lifestyle, not a diet.
And, what's really funny, is that some weeks when I'm really on target with my calories and macros and I work out really well ... I'll lose even more weight by having had a "break" from restricting calories. I honestly can't tell you why it works - but it does.
I don't recommend a free day for everyone, but it does work for me. And I much prefer it to the concept of a "cheat" - a word that I hate, because after all, who would you be cheating except yourself.
I plan a "free day" into my plan every week. Most of the time my free day is Sunday because it's the day I cook, bake, watch the ball game with snacks, etc.
My free day is not a "free for all" ... it's a day when I can have things that I wouldn't normally eat and not worry about calories (too much). It allows me to have a restaurant meal, to bake something fun, to indulge my love of cooking, to have snacks with the ball game ... or whatever I want to do that week. It doesn't mean that I binge and it doesn't mean that I don't keep a rough track of what I'm eating. I just don't count as strictly as I do the rest of the week and I don't freak out about extra calories.
For example, last Sunday I had breakfast as usual (260 calories), a 5 guys burger and half an order of fries for lunch (800 calories), and 2 hot dogs with tortilla chips and salsa and watermelon for dinner (1100 calories).
I didn't go nutso and consume 5000 calories. My total for the day came in at 2160. I rounded up just in case I overlooked something and estimate that I had around 2500 calories for the day. Now, my maintenance calories at my current weight are 2436, so really all I did was eat maintenance and not pay attention to my macros. Eating 2500 calories for one day doesn't negate my overall deficit. If I'd eaten 3500 calories, it would have reduced that deficit by a little and maybe I'd only have lost 1.2 lbs instead of 1.5 lbs.
Now here's the kicker. On Sunday morning I weighed 174.1. On Monday morning (after my free day) I weighed 180.6. Did I gain 6.5 lbs of fat from my free day? No. I ate a crapton of salt, though - chips and hot dogs and burgers and fries. So I retained water like crazy.
This morning? I'm at 173.8. 2 days of drinking a lot of water to flush my system and eating "normally" (at 1600 calories) and I'm fine.
This Sunday I'm going to a favorite pub of mine and have their mac n cheese (which is really creamy and filled with ham chunks and comes in around 1100 calories a serving). Then I'll eat dinner as usual (probably grilled fish). I figure my day will be around 2500 calories again, but I won't freak if I go over.
Next Sunday I won't have a free day because a group from my office is going bowling on Friday, so I'll move my free day to Friday so I can enjoy some margaritas and nachos with the group while I bowl.
Sure there have been days where I've really splurged and eaten 3000 or more calories, but they're very rare. I can't eat the volume of food that I used to - and certainly not the volume of junk food. Too much junk food makes me sick now.
Also, note that having a free day doesn't mean I ignore the rest of my health either. I still got up Sunday morning and did the yoga class at my gym. I still drank a gallon of water (actually a little more). I still decided that it was more important to me to have chips with dinner than to have ice cream after dinner so I made a choice, rather than having both (although if I'd decided to have both, I'd have had a reasonable serving of each and not freaked about it).
----
Having explained all of that, I will say that YES ... this slows my weight loss some. If I ate 100% on plan 24/7/365, I would lose weight faster. Except that if I thought I could never have another hot dog or another 5Guys burger or another serving of mac n cheese, I'd quit dieting and give up and then I wouldn't lose weight at all.
For me, my free day gives me something to look forward to, it keeps me on plan the rest of the week, and it balances me. I don't feel deprived because I'm forbidding myself favorite foods forever. And during the week if I crave something, I can often break the craving by telling myself I'll have it on Sunday. And usually by the time Sunday comes around, I don't really want it any more.
Over the long haul, it *is* the difference between losing 1.5 lbs a week and 2.0 lbs a week ... and for me, I'm ok with that. Because for me this is a lifestyle, not a diet.
And, what's really funny, is that some weeks when I'm really on target with my calories and macros and I work out really well ... I'll lose even more weight by having had a "break" from restricting calories. I honestly can't tell you why it works - but it does.
I don't recommend a free day for everyone, but it does work for me. And I much prefer it to the concept of a "cheat" - a word that I hate, because after all, who would you be cheating except yourself.
