Have a Day Off Your Diet

I love this idea! I am actually planning to implement it, once I reach my weight loss goal. I realize that I need to be more careful about what I eat to maintain my weight, but I do not want to feel deprived. As described in the article, I feel the one day will prevent me from feeling deprived, so I can eat very healthy the rest of the week.

I have decided to turn it into three free meals over the weekend (one breakfast, one lunch, one dinner). I just want the flexibility, in the event I want to have dinner with friends at a restaurant Saturday night and breakfast with my parents Sunday morning.

Now, I don't see this as an opportunity to go overboard at a buffet or something like that. I don't necessarily even want to eat restaurant-sized portions. I just want a taste of the foods I've enjoyed all my life and at my old weight (360 pounds). Some sushi would be great!

In principle this is a good idea, but it does rather depend on the mentality of the individual and the rules you set around this 'day off'. I used to let my hair down on a Saturday but be very strict the rest of the time. The result was a once-weekly binge, arguably worse than an occasional binge. I would eat a huge evening meal, then load up on as much dessert as I could without actually perforating my intestines, often involving repeat visits to the local store. So for me personally, having a healthy diet all the time and accepting that I never eat 'naughty' things, is the best approach. Then again, calories are not my concern - it's the healthiness of the food - which perhaps makes permanent adherence easier than for those who are actually restricting calories.

I'm a Weight Watchers Loser and got to goal within 6 months, seeing encouraging losses every week. It averaged out to 1.5lbs per week at the end of the 6 months. I'm maintaining well.

EVERY Tuesday I saw a loss, and every Tuesday I relaxed for the evening, proud of myself, and had a bit of a treat for dinner. I never craved desert, but would get a takeaway or eat a big steak or something similar, and a snack of something I had been craving all week but denied myself, along with a glass or two of wine. It was balanced out because on my weigh day I had an exceedingly sensible breakfast and lunch and weighed in at 6pm. So the damage of my "binge" was almost cancelled out by the light day. It worked very well, and indulging in those treats kept me going all week. No loss, no treat!

Once again, Diet Blog totally misses the most important reason for "cheating" on your diet.

Scheduled cheats are part of all respectable diet plans whether it be Tom Venuto's Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle, or Lyle McDonald's Rapid Fat-loss Handbook.

When a person is in a caloric deficit, the metabolism begins to slow down. The body starts producing less of certain hormones like Leptin. When your hormones are telling your body that you're not getting enough food it's reluctant to burn body fat.

A scheduled cheat day, especially one heavy in complex carbohydrates, helps restart the metabolism and boosts the production of Leptin and ghrelin, and a variety of other hormones that tell your body that you are in a fed state, and that it's okay to go ahead and burn up fat.

How Diet Blog can TOTALLY miss this when discussing cheat meals/days is TOTALLY beyond me. I would really like to know how I seem to know more about proper dieting than so called experts do.

Generelly speaking, it seems that only the first reason is physiological, while the others are psychological. As Barry already mentioned, this "cheating" is a common part in diet plans.
Again, I think it is a personal matter. From my experiences, I cannot recommend such a "skip day". However, I only look on the results (maintaining or losing weight) and not on the psychological reasons.
If you do cheat on your diet, I guess it is also important how much you cheat, i.e. how much chocolate / cake / whatever can you put in without destroying all your diet efforts.

This is exactly the sort of thing that Bill Phillips outlines in his "Body for Life" plan ( www.bodyforlife.com ). I followed his program - including the "days off" - and lost 50 pounds in 12 weeks (the duration of the program), and another 30 pounds in the following 6 months following the habits i developed during the 12-week program. I went from 240 lbs down to 160 lbs in under a year (and compete in triathlons now!)

Folks, you HAVE to have the days off (and be sure you strictly follow healthy habits the REST of the week)! Sure, the first few weeks you might binge like crazy, but after a couple of food hangovers you (1) figure out what your body can handle, and (2) start to lose the desire for all that junk food.

I think these types of days are an absolute necessity for someone looking to stay on track in a nutrition program. This goes double if your program is really strict.

Isn't this the complete opposite of the fasting fad? So which is it? Fast or enjoy a day of free eating?

I tend to eat pretty much the same way every day, so I don't usually do a "cheat" day or an "off" day. I do take one day off per week from working out, so on those days, I burn fewer calories and it helps jumpstart my metabolism. I think it's incredibly important to let yourself have a break every week, both for your body and your mind. If you feel like you're a prisoner to a diet and that you'll never be able to eat your old favorite foods again, you're more likely to just give up on eating healthy entirely.

For me personally, I've sort of lost the taste for my old favorite junk foods...they just don't taste as good to me anymore. But what I choose to do is to let myself indulge in one treat per day so I don't feel deprived. It works for me; I never feel deprived enough to binge.

this is true esp. if you employ a high carb refeed day but be careful you can take down 1200-1500 cals in a sitting or should i say sitting at a buffet easy....
www.blackfitnessblog.com

I too am a Weight Watcher and I weigh in on Saturday mornings. Afterward, I go out for lunch with friends and I eat whatever suits my fancy that day.

So far, since April, I am down 40 pounds! :)

I think that it is absolutely necessary that we take the occasional day/meal off. The majority of our intake should be "good stuff", but the people who seem to never stick with an eating plan are the ones who don't allow themselves to cheat a little.

Deserts and Sweets rock! We just need to make them less of a norm and more of a treat...

That's that whole idea!

Dr. Ben

By having one day a week when you eat more, you'll keep your body guessing: it won't adjust to your lower calorie intake.

Is there any scientific basis for this assertion?

I'm in two minds about this. I understand the science and psychological benefits of this having read up on cheat meals and cheat days plenty of times before.

However, I'm a strong believer in making lifestyle changes instead of subscribing to that dieting mindset. If you want your new lifestyle to include chocolate, pizza etc, that's fine but don't make a big song and dance out of it and consume it all on one day. Have a moderate amount here and there or better yet, make a healthy version yourself; that way "treats" are not really a big deal.

The only thing I do that comes close to this is to have something that is having a "treat" once a month but I have to make it myself from whole/unrefined ingredients. In theory, I could have pancakes, fries, burgers, cakes, pizza etc but it's all clean. In reality, I do not crave such things and I've found healthy versions that can be had daily (if I wanted to do that) anyway.

I came up with the "once a month" idea at the start of my weight loss for psychological reasons but quickly found I didn't really need it.

You have to really know yourself mentally and you have to be very honest in order to "have a day off". Don't take one if you know deep down that you could not handle it.

This works well for me and has helped me shed over 65 pounds, how anyone can go without "free days" is beyond me. I don't like the title "cheat day" because I don't see it as cheating, I see it is more like enhancing any weight loss program. I do the same with exercise, I never lift weight or cadio on weekends. I do about an hour of walking and maybe a little yoga only on the weekends.

How about a cheat 1/2 day on Wednesday and a weekend cheat day ?? That way I can not go so long waiting on a Tommies burger!

Umm...although the article didn't get into specific hormones, it DID say that the reason for the cheat day was to keep your metabolism from acting like you are in a famine. Maybe you should read it again.

I think I'd rather just not go on a diet to start with! it's interesting though that young children are still able to regulate their intake day to day depending on their energy needs...but by adulthood, we seem to have forgotten how to do that.

@barry

"By having one day a week when you eat more, you'll keep your body guessing: it won't adjust to your lower calorie intake"

i think that even if the content of the first § didn't mention it, the last sentence quite sums up in a shortcut your point. please keep in mind that this blog only sums up information, it's up to the reader to read more in other blogs.
so far I think its very sensible and warns us against bad habits.
everyone here has a great time reading this blog, don't ruin it,
don't read it if you don't like it.

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I do not think this is a particularly good idea. In my opinion this strategy reinforces the diet-binge mentality. This is not healthy.

Besides, most people follow this behavior subconsciously and end up gaining weight in the long term. A study came out a few weeks ago showing people tend to eat more and ultimately gain weight on weekends, even while losing weight during the week:

http://summertomato.blogspot.com/search/label/weekends

An alternative to taking a day off per week is the concept of eating healthy 90% of the time, leaving 10% of your meals to be "cheat" meals. For example, if you eat 6 meals a day 7 days per week, it would equal 42 meals. 10% of that would be about 4 cheat meals. Doing it this way allows you to choose any 4 meals during the week to eat what you want without feeling quilty and makes socialising a bit easier.

But I agree, one needs to have a break from your diet once in a while.

Hi guys! This is my first entry for diet blog. My friend is a personal trainer and he told me that I should go wild and eat as much as I like once a week. BUT after that you gotta wait at least 7 days till the next cheat day!

Also, I'm going to try this diet pill I've been reading up on. Its called Solo Slim. I really really hope it works cuz I exercise already, but with normal eating and exercise I haven't dropped a pound. I really hope Solo Slim is all that people say it is.

It makes sense to give your body a break once in a while, however, I still would not stuff myself up or eat a ton of ice cream. I would not exceed daily calorie needs. After all, we are supposed to create a habit of healthy eating. Breaking with a huge feast will not make that happen.

every dieter can have such date
take this tip from one of my patients !!
" When you have a bad day, pick yourself up and move on. There is absolutely no gain in beating yourself up about it. If you do, a bad day turns into a bad week... "
Just that
a day off is just day off

Thank You diet blog

http://123-weightloss.blogspot.com

It sounds somewhat like calorie cycling. Basically, some days you do better than others. Sometimes you want to eat a lot and you're very hungry one day, and the next not so much. It's a great way of keeping your body moving forward, especially if you plateau. Weight Watchers gives you 35 extra points a week and frankly I don't think the encourage enough people to use them mainly because, I believe, they don't want people knowing it's a good idea to use them every week which will help you lose weight faster. If you lose weight faster, you hit your goal and then you don't pay anymore. Being as it is a business, that would basically be like telling you how to stop using their service quicker. Where's the business in that? :)

I've been doing this kind of thing since I first started plateauing, mainly because I have an opportunity for more exercise on the weekend, and I've found over the last 10 weeks that when I eat more (usually saturdays) I actually start losing weight again... I can hold the same weight all week and then *pow!* a bunch drops off when I eat more... could be that the extra food is actually clearing out my guts IYKWIM. And the weight does stay off. I've lost over 8 kilos in about 11 weeks. I'm using iShape on the iphone to help me achieve my goals.

I lost 40 pounds 5 years ago by eating 1500 - 1800 calories Mon thru Friday, and Sunday.

It took 4 months to lose the weight.

I fitness walked for at least one hour 6 days a week.

Saturdays were my Eat Anything Day.

I did not binge but I ate whatever I felt like eating.

I still follow a Eat Anything Day on Saturdays and I have not gained the weight back.

I do have some rules for Eat Anything Day.
If I am craving cake, the most I allow myself to eat is two pieces. Most of the time I only eat one serving.
I do not buy a whole cake or any other sweet to take home.

I continue to fitness walk at least 5 days a week and my average daily calories are 1800 - 2000.

I came up with this plan because I was always gaining and losing the same 20 pounds on the other traditonal diets.

I do like sweets once in a while so I had to come up with a way to lose and not gain the weight back but still be able to enjoy the food that I like or crave once in a while.

It's a great idea to take a day off your diet, but keep in mind that when you change the way you eat, it's not really a 'Diet' anymore it's just a way of life. Many times when you take the day off some people will over do it and eat too much food, and other times after you eat you don't feel good. It's like taking a day off and putting water in your car instead of gasoline to save some money.

I've been doing this for years and it works for me. After I reached my goal of 135 pounds in 2003, I had a hard time with maintenance. I would gain and lose..you know the drill.
Now I stay on my diet, about 1300 calories Sunday through Thursday. On Friday I eat a low cal breakfast and lunch and then have whatever I want for dinner. No dessert or snacking, just a big dinner.
Saturday is cheat day. I eat whatever I want. I stopped weighing myself, (scale shock) and only get weighed twice a year at the doctors office. My clothes always fit, that is my guide. I always weigh between 134-137. This works for me. On the cheat day, I eat pancakes, fast food, basic junk stuff. I do workout daily though.

I already do this, and it works!

I can attest to this: the "day off" principle works. It worked for me with the day off diet.

I started a diet about two weeks ago and have lost about 7 pounds so far. My friend told me to do this cheat one day a week thing and I was concerned that if I did I would start craving junk again. I am going to try this today and see how it works. I'll let you know next week.

its scientificaly proven, a day off is the best way to maintain the daily eating habit because there is nothing called a diet, its an eating habit that we have to follow all our life or else when a diet is over we go back to our previous weight,its called the yo-yo effect

is waiting 2 weeks too long before a day off