Taking a day off from dieting

yup. keeps you sane, too.

I can and do. Every Friday is Nacho Night at my house!! We have a plate of nachos piled high with meat, peppers, onions, salsa and guac and either a beer or a diet pepsi and finish it off, sometimes, with a little chocolate. Oh and a little cheese on there too!! Love it and it keeps me sane for the rest of the week!!

Once a week free-day advocate here. It does work. And there are benefits, metabolic and psychological.

Note, if you happen to look at my food diary, this weekend is a poor example. I'm sort of flying off off the handle this Friday, Sat, Sun, due to various social engagements. This is after several months of discipline. One free day a week is great. More than that is lack of discipline, and I'm NOT recommending that.

I have only been doing this for 2 months and I have taken like 2 cheat days. I do have 1 day a week where I will eat chick fil a or a steak and potatoe with veggie at a steak house but I STILL watch my calories when doing so. I know the sodium is out the window but I drink extra water those days. I don't go crazy either..I have a baked potatoe plain (and ask to hold the salt), only 1 roll without the honey butter and ask for lowfat dressing for my salad. I consider this a lifestyle change not a diet so cheat days I use to challenge myself without really "counting calories" until the end of the day to evaluate my ability to "know" what to eat without having to think to hard about it

I'll restate my motto of the word "cheating" in regards to diet:

I don't consider it cheating when really, it's just a day of increased calorie intake. "Cheating" denotes a negative connotation that usually harbors some sort of guilt. For those who advocate it, like I do, I consider it a "spike" day, where you have a significant amount of calories, guilt-free, for a day in order to keep your metabolism jumping around. Then once that day is done, you spike the discipline back into your diet. Go right back to eating the clean, healthy alternatives with a controlled calorie count. You can even spike your day full of healthy alternatives if you choose. It's just literally more than you would normally take in. If you look at it that way, it doesn't seem as psychologically negative in terms of a weight loss goal.

I do it all the time, and as some have stated, to a degree of lacked discipline, but those days I'm out of town and in buffet mania. If I have the opportunity, I'll work my *kitten* off at the hotel gym if there is one provided in order to put those massive calories I ate to some use. Keep a positive attitude about it, and positive results will show.

"Cheat days" are essential, or "Cheat meals". It's totally a reward for being good all week, and also satiates your mind as well as your cravings

I have about one "free" day a week- I eat what I like (to a point), but STILL log my calories- you'd be shocked at how fast calories can build up, so if you do have a splurge day, still be sure to log in your calories- then if you're having issues with not losing weight as fast as you want, you can look back at the reports and figure out why. I'm still losing 1-2 pounds a week while having a free day- I think it keeps the body guessing.

A cheat day it just too tempting for me. I do a cheat meal every now and then. That makes it easier. If I took a cheat day, I'd eat a whole cake, several bottles of soda and a whole pizza

I have started having a day off a Sunday, i am still losing weight so its working for me

no, much better to be less strict overall, including small amounts of 'treats' you enjoy and making the healthy food you eat really tasty. how often those treats happen would depend on your calorie needs, medical conditions if there are any, your reactions to eating something that's not perfectly on plan, and more. It varies with the individual, and with time, most people can learn to take a more moderate approach to eating healthier. Small peice of what you really want which fits in your calories for the day, while still meeting your macros.

Last week I let myself have a cheat dinner on the Friday which led to me being careless the whole weekend with no tracking. Back to it on the Monday, my weigh in day is on Friday. I lost 2.2lbs. Given it doesn't always happen but I think sometimes you just have to live & for me personally I think if I didn't have my carefree days I'd probably totally go off track. I know it might put me back a week or two getting to my ultimate goal weight but meh! YOLO! :laugh:

I had my first day off in 4 months. And I was probably very close still, I just have no idea how much what I ate was... but it wasn't total overkill at all. Salad, black bean soup, a mini pastry (I just know it was less than 300 calories) and lobster quiche. The quiche is the annoying part but the piece wasn't huge so I estimated at 500 calories. And I did two workouts today (well one walk and one workout).

I think taking a day off is fine, but if you end up eating so much that you're going over by 1000 or something, I don't see how it teaches you good eating habits. I typically just make room in my calories for a small treat.

I've never done cheat days. I do an 80/20 approach all the time instead (80% nutritious, 20% treats). If I'm going to have a higher calorie day I still log it, especially because I'm down to a very small deficit at this point and I could easily blow a week's worth of work in one day. Some things are worth blowing a week's worth of work over, but if I'm going to go way over like that I at least want to know that it was worth it. I have a tendency to just snack my deficit away if I don't log.