"free" day advice, please!

I don't have 'free days", I just work goodies into my daily calories. I don't do well with restricting foods or making things off limits or only something to have on a free day. I have chips with my lunch sometimes, I eat dessert often, dark chocolate usually finds it's way to my mouth daily. I'm in this for life, so my eating habits are such that I can sustain them, lose the fat and keep it off.

Free days are what get me into trouble, because I usually undo all of my hard work from the last week.

Maybe have a free meal, instead? Or make sure that your calories are low enough throughout the week that you can afford a free day.

Or, you can do a free day once or twice a month instead of once a week.

Free days need to be per individual. Some people like me can never have a full completely free day. And if you do decide to have a free day it should not be COMPLETELY free as to have anything as much as you want. Be smart about it and try to see what works for you. Always a good idea to have the yummier stuff on workout days. Just how I do it. If I went crazy on a free day it would not be good.

I don't really do free days. I have days in which I consciously choose to eat more or eat less nutritionally advantageous foods. Sometimes I choose to work that off, sometimes I choose to have a smaller deficit for the day, but usually balance over the week. I log everything though, so I know what I'm realistically working with in terms of deficit.

One thing to note - if what you ate contained a lot of sodium, or was less nutritionally dense than what you've been eating previously, then you are merely seeing water retention and bloat. It's really unlikely you ate an excess of 3500+ calories above your total energy spent on that day to have gained real mass back. So don't freak out - it'll come back off pretty quickly if you drink lots of water and eat 'clean' for a couple of days. As an example, I ate 2 meals in restaurants on consecutive days because of odd circumstances - the meals themselves were planned in advance and fit within my calorie budgets for each day and I avoided especially rich/heavy foods and was still up 6 (SIX) lbs when I weighed in the day following the second meal. It was gone within 3 days, but yeesh - that's what sodium can do.

As for what you do - it works differently for everyone, but I've personally found the best success has been with logging everything and no longer thinking in terms of 'free' or 'treat' or 'cheat' days. I eat what I want to eat if I have the room for it. Sometimes that means I don't get what I want in that moment because I don't have room, sometimes I bargain with myself to run an extra mile or whatever, sometimes I build it in later in the week, and sometimes I just eat it and know I'm going to have a smaller deficit. I'd say I have a higher calorie (without comparably higher workout) every 2-3 weeks, but overall, I still hit weekly averages for my deficits. But I'm not cheating, because I'm not on a diet or taking a test or doing something I will quit later. I'm changing my life to enhance my health - which means cutting out a lot of less nutritionally sound choices, lowering calories, improving my food balance and nutritional choices and learning how to enjoy things in moderation.

Thanks, AmyRhubarb! Any positive advice is helpful. There will be days where I will want to eat what I like. Special events, etc.

I'm here for support, not to be put down, so if you have nothing nice to say, please keep it to yourself.

I guess the advice given is not what you wanted to hear; may be you should have a few more "cheat" days.

To support the others: "cheat" days is why I am overweight at 170.0, and trying to reach my goal weight of 140. I work everything into my daily calorie goal.

Most of us on this site have had "free" days for 20+ years. Its the reason we are like we are.

Why do you want more?

Oh, maybe because life has fun events that involve food and pulling out your iPhone to log every bite of a passed appetizer and lovely dinner at a wedding might be a big drag?

It's perfectly possible to achieve a healthy lifestyle without having to log every. single. day. for the rest of your life. I'm proof.

OP: I'd stick with this awhile before straying for now, but 2-3 "free" days a month were ALWAYS part of my plan. While losing, while maintaining. There is a reason I have stuck with this for 1,000+ days, why I was able to lose 130 pounds in 15 months, why I've been able to maintain that loss for a year and a half and counting: I did not make myself miserable. Some people do perfectly well logging every morsel that passes their lips for decades. I'm not one of those people. I log most of the time, and I log diligently. But I also take days off from logging (and I am a consistent exerciser). Rule #1: Don't weigh yourself for several days after a "free" day, at least not if you're prone to water retention like I am; it's only fat gain if you're above your overall maintenance calorie needs. Rule #2: A free day may be a big issue if you are prone to binging, or let it roll over into a free weekend, free week, etc. Rule #3: What works for me might not work for you; find your own way and do what's best for you and still lets you achieve your goals...in short, live the healthiest life you can ENJOY.

I can say this: I am 100% certain that if I had not worked "free" days into my plan, I would not be the weight I am today, with the physical and mental health I enjoy daily. I would have given up.

So, dmenchac, THAT is why some of us want free days.

Have a cheat meal one once a week if you need it.

Early on in the getting healthy journey, your willpower is low. Sometimes you need to reward meal, so you don't go off the handle. Try to make it something not too terrible for you, and not too much over your calorie allowance. Enjoy it, you earned it.

After you get good habits down, you may not feel you need a cheat meal is necessary. Or the cheat meal you used to love, actually tastes like **** and you just didn't know it.

To lessen the effects of the cheat meal, get a good lifting session in before hand. The extra calories will go to building muscle instead of building the waistline.

I don't have 'free days", I just work goodies into my daily calories. I don't do well with restricting foods or making things off limits or only something to have on a free day. I have chips with my lunch sometimes, I eat dessert often, dark chocolate usually finds it's way to my mouth daily. I'm in this for life, so my eating habits are such that I can sustain them, lose the fat and keep it off.

How was this not helpful or putting you down?

I think this is spot on advice. I believe the advice here is to eat at a reasonable deficit everyday and allow yourself the foods you love in moderation. If sodium is a problem because of high blood pressure then you need to avoid high sodium foods all the time or as much as possible.

What I do to work in things that I don't normally eat is plan them around my activity. I have a second job that is physically demanding to when I work there all day I will indulge in donuts and pizza that day but I know I am going to burn at least 2000 by my heart rate monitor.

What finally helped me become successful was getting out of the diet mentality where certain foods were off limits. I still eat everything now that I ate before just in much smaller amounts in I find healthier ways to get it. For example, I use chocolate protein powder to make chocolate milk instead of buying chocolate milk. I eat quest bars instead of candy bars, heck I'm going to start putting a cookie dough quest bar into vanilla ice cream for a desert when I can fit it into my calories. By doing this I don't feel the need to have cheat days.

I have a restaurant meal once a week at which I can eat however much I like. Sometimes even two in one day!

I log each one as 2000 calories, which is probably pretty accurate as to what I can put away at a restaurant. It may seem silly, but logging them that way is really important to me -- I'm not going to blow a restaurant meal on something that isn't amazingly tasty if I know it costs 2000. It makes me really save up and use my restaurant meals for what really brings the most enjoyment to me. It also approximates the real effect it is having on my weight loss -- if I log 2 cheat meals, and then check my weekly totals and notice I am over maintenence, that's really helpful to see. Finally, logging it as 2000 calories is still completely mitagatable by exercise -- I try to burn 800-1000 calories that day (maybe by walking all around London before eating) and do my best to bring the daily calorie count down to maintnence at least.

This is what works for me anyway

The only time I have a "free day" is when I'm on vacation or when it's a holiday and I have a holiday meal. Still, I keep whatever I eat within my calories and I log it. I don't go over calories just because it's a holiday or a vacation. But, definitely, you haven't been at it long enough to be having days where you randomly eat and don't log. That's more for when you get to maintenance.

Ok first... typically when you go overboard once in a while, it's mostly water weight and will go away. Heck I was over my TDEE by 2000 yesterday... it's not even enough to gain a pound, but it will probably show as 4 lbs on the scale (I'm not masochistic and didn't weigh myself this morning). Just water weight from sodium. It won't stay forever.

Second, free days are a recipe for disaster. I could easily eat 6000 calories in a free day, which would totally defeat the purpose. If you have to, make it a free meal. Better, have one high calorie item in that meal, so that you're over by 400 and not 2000. Better yet, eat what you want, but make it fit in your calories every day, learn to make healthier versions of what you're craving etc.

Third, save your cheat meals for special occasions. In the end, if you're going over by 2000 every week end, you'll just sabotage yourself. And whatever you do, log it... it keeps you accountable.

I eat a Double Whopper with bacon and onion rings every 2 weeks I call it my reward, but in that same day I do a ton of exercise and burn like 600 calories so it compensates.

And when I am with family and events I do log everything I eat.

Is not a drag as someone mentioned before.

And everybody on MFP should do it.

Or else when you want to see a progress reports, it will not be real since you will have blank days.

SELF CONTROL is the first thing we need when we are on this.