"Free" day - what your thoughts on one?

I'm not a big supporter for "free" days. There are so many other things you can do to keep losing weight

Good question!! I would like to know too!!

I know a lot of people have free days but for me personally I can't do it. It leads me back to overeating, splurging, and gaining the weight back... I guess it just depends on what works for you!

I personally am not planning a "free" day. I think it is equivalent to planning to fail. However I also refuse to deprive myself of something I really want. If I want something bad enough I will figure out its calories and do the math as to how much extra work I will need to put in to work it off. If I still want to eat it after knowing all this I will but I'm going to do the work that is necessary.

I think a lot of people can blow a great week with a free day on the weekend which usually means free DAYS!

I do think a cheat meal every now and then helps keep you on track!

Guess you just have to figure out what works for you!

I wouldn't go with a whole free day, more like one reasonable free meal, like every other week, but if I'm having a craving for something I don't deprive myself, for example, if you want a hershey bar for a 100 cal snack, only eat 1/3 of a try size bar.

For me a free day doesn't work cos it brings back all my cravings for sweet, salty, greasy etc. instead of satisfying it and I feel like it all week

My husband is attempting to lose weight also and he has a 'free' meal on Friday nights where he eats pizza/wings and soda. Me personally I can't do that. If I let myself eat unhealthy, I spiral downward and that makes eating unhealthy for the next meal all the more of a danger. I am an 'all or nothing' person. Either I'm 100% eating healthy and exercising - or I'm not. It really is whatever works for you. Some people say that moderation is the only way to go to keep from binging... but I don't binge... but one meal makes the next one difficult to get back on track. Also, if I eat unhealthy, I will not want to run or work out and then when I don't, I don't have anything to hold me accountable to eating well and then I'm all off track. My husband's system works well for him and mine works well for me. Depends on if you think you can handle it without going overboard. Good luck though!!

I don't diet on Fridays. I have adhered to this since beginning my weight loss "journey" in February 2009.

However, there are two conditions to my "cheat" days:

1. I practice self-discipline. If this is an area in which you know you need work, "cheat" days might not be a good idea for you. My mom, for example, tends to go back to overeating if she lets herself relax for a day. You can't allow that to happen.

2. I don't go crazy. If I go out to eat on Friday night, I order what I want and enjoy it -- but I still remain aware of my portions and the messages my body sends me, and I stop when I'm full and box up the rest.

Someone said a free day is "planning to fail". I think that is harsh. I love having a free day on the weekends. I have lost more weight since instituting that. I used to always weigh more on Monday mornings than I did on Friday mornings. When I let myself have flexibility one day (usually Saturday) I've been losing more weight on weekends. Maybe it's the change in calories, I don't know. But whatever works for you.

And by free day I don't mean eating an entire pizza. Nothing like that. For example, I had some drinks and I ate a bowl of mac and cheese.

Best of luck!

There is not one perfect formula that works for everyone... but I CAN tell you my expereinces thus far. I definitely have one cheat meal every week single week, usually on Sunday. Three weeks ago I had lasagne at Olive Garden, two weeks ago I went to Red Robin and ate a burger (didn't finish it), last week I had steak tacos from Ixtapa...... I look forward to the treat all week and it always makes me kick into a higher gear the next day. I can't help but feel that, "Oh no, I just ate way over my caloric needs, I'm not gonna need to work twice as hard to lose weight now." It always motivates me to work even harder for the whole week so the scale will reflect that. The bonus is a day of eating high calories followed by a day of eating low calories like clock work I always break a plateau.

Here is what DIDN'T work. I thought I'd try giving myself a cheat DAY and I consumed 2500 calories through the whole day, which is more than double what I really need (1200). I could start feeling old habits returning and did not like that feeling. I was stuffed the whole day, and told myself "it's my cheat day, it's okay." But the only one I'm cheating is myself. I would experiment with what works for you and like many of us have said, different things work for different people!

After reading some of the other responses, I feel like I should clarify some things.

My diet on Fridays is not completely unlike my diet the rest of the week. I never go above my maintenance calories (for my age, height and activity level, about 2100 calories). And I don't eat unhealthy things I wouldn't usually eat just because, hey, it's my cheat day.

Instead, I just relax. I have a little extra breakfast. I have pasta for dinner, and it's always darn good. I have a small bowl of ice cream. I still get in plenty of fruit and veggies. I still watch what I eat. Otherwise, I would be going against all I've come to believe about a healthy relationship with food.

Oh boy. I am not a big believer in "free days" because when it's truly free (all day, every meal, every snack, anything in any quantity) it can undo so much work that it usually leads clients (in my experience) to get discouraged.

Think about it. You work hard to eat right at a 500 calorie deficit all week, which earns you one pound (3500 calories). You also pushed to exercise, say five times a week @ 300 calories each time, which worked off 1500 calories. So you have an exceptional week and net a deficit of 5000 calories. That's 1.4 pounds (note that every pound lost is usually not 100% fat so 3500 calories doesn't always net one pound ... see this for more info: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/TrainerRobin/view/myth-or-fact-calories-in-versus-calories-out-3500-calories-one-pound-and-should-i-eat-my-exercise-calories-62012).

Depending upon how bad your "free day" is, it's easy for you to completely erase the entire week ... if you eat out, you'll likely not only undo your hard work for the week, but dip into previous week's hard work. And to boot, it's rarely healthy clean food that people splurge on when they take a "free day.

That said, for folks who are at their weight goal, and are working to maintain (and are typically pretty good with their diet and their activity levels), a splurge meal or two won't throw them off too bad because they are working those meals off during the rest of the week.

I get it. Lots of fit people do it and it leads a lot of folks who are working hard to get fit to do it, too. But ... in my experience, it hasn't been a positive thing for most folks who are still striving to achieve a healthy weight.

Just my two bits ...

I'm all for indulding yourself once in a while, but I don't necessarily schedule it, or make it a full day. If I can make it through a weekend and stay on track, all the better. But if I want to go out for beer and wings with friends one night, or have a little dessert once in a while, I try not to beat myself up over it either. (I do, however, make a point to throw in some extra cardio to try to counteract it... lol).

I was on another weightloss support site a while back, and this concept of cheat day was SO polarizing, it was unreal. People who DON'T 'cheat' tended to get all high and mighty (and I have NOT read all the replies in this thread, so please don't anyone thing I'm talking about you, if indeed you got high and mighty in this thread ). Typically the line of thinking that 'non-cheat day' people seemed to have is that we need to learn to indulge ourselves with things other than food. And that's all well and good - FOR THEM. But we all have to realize we all have DIFFERENT lessons to learn here, and what works for one person may cause another person to fall off the wagon and binge.

So for ME, hey, I'm a foodie, I love good food and drink. For ME, the lesson to learn is moderation - enjoying a dinner out with friends and my husband once a week (as opposed to every other night). So in that respect, a little "cheat" is a good thing for me.