Diet-free days

Annie42019

I have been on maintenance for over a year after losing 75 pounds. Since being on maintenance I do have two meals per month ( every other Saturday night ) where I eat whatever I want, no calorie counting. This has worked very well for me.

PAFC84

aliaa209 wrote: »

All your answers and responses were very insightful and encouraging.
I'm following an intermittent fasting diet, with adherence to my calorie limit. And it helped me to contain my craves and hunger big time. But, during the lockdown it's become really hard to stay on track. I keep thinking about eating all my non-fasting hours. Also, my family have the greatest choices in food There's always a Cinnabon roll available or a mighty burger sandwich in hand.
I love the calorie-based diet that it helps me eat anything I want, but still with limits and after doing my math. But, sometimes, I just wish to go BANANAS
I really loved the calorie bank idea :like: ... I always eat below my calorie limit. And maybe I should exercise more, and add more calories to my bank account. and have a diet-free day every 2 weeks or 3 weeks, instead!

Just a thought but could this be lockdown related I.e not going out, seeing people, talking to people as much as you were prior to lockdown has resulted in you feeling more ‘down’?

gallicinvasion

In maintenance since October 2019. I have turned into a weekly banker. I eat 100 calories below maintenance 5 days per week, and then have 500 extra calories for one of my weekend days (usually Sunday). I’ll use them to add an indulgent dessert or restaurant meal. Everything is tracked (Estimated when I can’t weigh things).

I still practice what I guess I’ll call “responsible restauranting.” Unless it’s my birthday or a similar very special holiday where I track but don’t stick to my calorie target, I still pre-log the rest of my day (including an evening treat, for psychological comfort 😂) and get an estimate of how many calories I have to play with for the restaurant meal. Even if it’s more indulgent, I will still look at the menu beforehand, decide what I want to spend my calories on, and pre-log an estimate (editing after the meal for better accuracy based on what I consumed). I usually don’t drink alcohol at these meals because I’d rather be able to finish everything on my plate and enjoy the food itself. I also don’t shy away from asking for changes (salad instead of a starchy side that I’m not thrilled with, for example, or sauce on the side) if it will make me more satisfied. I usually don’t have appetizers or bread before the meal or dessert afterwards, again, because I’d rather get one delicious plate of food and fully enjoy it.

It took a BIG shift in mindset. For my childhood, we only went to restaurants during yearly vacations, so it was like a highly-coveted experience. Into adulthood, I could go whenever I wanted, but I always have gone all-out and eaten all the richest most delicious things in huge quantities because my kid-brain was still there going “this is rare! This is special! Get EVERYTHING because you don’t know the next time you’ll be able to do this!”

While losing weight in 2018, I really had to work on this. Had to change my view of restaurants to be more about the experience of enjoying time with loved ones, with the food being a fun addition rather than the main focus. Had to get over my fear of not having food in front of me at all times. Had to tell myself that these foods are always available, and I can have them whenever I want, just not all at once, and that i would feel wonderful if I chose one really exciting meal and fully enjoyed it, without all the bells and whistles of the basket of chips and the mediocre dessert that doesn’t really add to my joy in the experience.

Anyway, all this is to say, I don’t have diet-free days. I have days where I get a bigger Indulgent meal, that still gets tracked and fits into my weekly calories. It took me a while to get here, but i like this mindset 1000x better than how I saw it in the past.

LukesGreenMilk

Agreed that a diet free day every week is fine. Maybe try not to eat 5,000 calories. But the whole point of maintenance is that you don't have to be as strict as you do while running a deficit, so there's usually room for it. YMMV, but it sure works good for me! Physically and socially.