What's Up With "Free Eating Day"?

jsuh1993 wrote: »

I heard people talking about giving 1~2 days of the week to just let go and eat whatever you want. Of course, tough cal counting during other days. What is the purpose to this? And what function does it serve? Wouldn't it just undo everything from the week?

I gave it a week a try, but ended up consuming 3500 in one day. Could have eaten more, but I am not sure how spreading out 3500 cal throughout the week would help..

It depends. I'll use an example with my stats:
My TDEE (how much my body burns per day including calories burned exercising) is around 2,000 calories according to my Fitbit. If I ate 2,000 calories each day, I would theoretically maintain my weight (plus or minus a few pounds that is water/food/constipation weight).

Let's say I look at my calories from a weekly view instead of a daily view. Each week, I would burn about 14,000 calories. If I ate 14,000 calories within the week, I would maintain my weight. While looking at it from a weekly view, I have the freedom of eating more or less than the 2000 calories I burn per day, as long as I roughly average out to my 14,000 weekly TDEE. This means that, for instance, I can eat 1,500 calories Monday through Friday (5 days a week), and use the extra 500 daily calorie deficit to eat 3,250 calories both Saturday and Sunday.

Of course, I would gain weight if I started eating more than my 14,000 weekly TDEE. Let's say I ate 1,2000 calories Monday-Friday and then ate 6,000 calories both on Saturday and Sunday. My weekly calorie intake would be 18,000 calories, and I would therefore gain approximately 1.15lbs a week.

The big thing with those "free days" is that they assume that you've been eating significantly fewer calories in the days leading up to it (many programs that use it might tell you to consume 1,200 calories 5 days a week and then you can eat "whatever you want" the other 2 days). 5:2 intermittent fasting works this way, where you have 5 days eating a higher calorie amount (often to your TDEE if you're shooting for weight loss) and 2 days where you're eating significantly less (often 700-900 calories -this is what creates your calorie deficit).

Psychologically, many people find that having those 1-2 "cheat days" to be helpful in sticking to their calorie goals during the week, while other people find that they would much rather eat the same calorie goal every day. Personally, I don't do "cheat days", but that is because I know that once I start "cheating", it will be difficult for me to "get back onto the calorie deficit wagon". I'd much rather fit those "cheat day" treats into my everyday diet.

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I have my free eating day every week, so I eat under during the week and eat whatever on Saturdays. It only works if you ensure you have enough calories banked. I roughly count on my calories to ensure I do not go mad, but I rarely do. Instead I find myself rarely going over my banked allowance and rarely under by much. Cheat day as more relaxed yes and keeps me under control as I know I can have what I fancy on my "day off" within reason of course.

Eating is just as much about being mentally prepared as about what you put on your plate. If you struggle to lose weight because you struggle with bingeing/overeating/portion control or whatever you call it, having a cheat day isn't doing yourself any favors. Until you learn how to control your eating, giving yourself permission to go hog wild (no pun intended) is just going to undo all the control you showed during the week.

JanetYellen wrote: »

I have an entry every saturday called:
Carry Over - Unused Calories From Past Week
(member submitted, 0 confirmations) -300
So, any calories I save a day, go there and I can drink my whiskey on saturday nights without guilt. I'm only drinking once a week now and proud.

I do something like this, only with food and I don't actually keep that much of a track on how many I save up. I just say to myself that it's fine if I go a hundred calories or less over today because I was really low a day or two ago. It all averages out, week by week.

I don't do cheat days or free eating days. I just work whatever I want to have into my calorie goal for the day, and if necessary for the week. If I know I'm going out for dinner and drinks, I keep my breakfast and lunch calories a bit lower than normal to accommodate the extra calories I'm having later. But as for treats and eating what I want - I do this every day. I just use portion control to make sure I'm staying within my calories while still eating the things I enjoy. Cheat days have never worked for me in the past, they always started a downward spiral.

I have been in a program for four years that includes a Free Day. Generally I eat around 1700-1900 calories a day and burn around 2,000-2,500 depending on what I'm doing. I generally maintain my weight around 183 lb. I'm 6' tall. My Free Day is Saturday. I eat whatever I want but ONLY if I have been RELIGIOUS about eating good all week. Otherwise I don't get a Free Day. The effect is psychological in two ways:

1. Whenever you are tempted to cheat during the week, just tell yourself if I hold out until Free Day, I can eat a truckload of this stuff. Usually that can keep you on your diet. Mental toughness thing.
2. When you get to Free Day and you order a truckload of whatever it was you were tempted by (in my case it's barbecued ribs, but for most people it's sweets, etc.) the anticipation has been so great all week that the food never lives up to expectation. So you're sitting there, eating your ribs/ice cream/twinkies/whatever thinking "Hm. This isn't all that great. Why was I willing to throw everything away for this?" Free Day helps break the psychological shackles certain foods have over you.

I see Free Day abused a lot. People that don't stick to their diet take their Free Day anyway. It doesn't work like that. Plus, if you give in to temptation, you don't get Free Day. So when all your buddies are pounding down the brewskies, you volunteer to be the DD cuz you don't get none. IF you are strong enough to manage your diet. A free day won't hurt you. Plus it's kind of a food blitz that passes through your body. You will have a carb hangover, though (even if you don't drink alcohol - the carbs just hit bottom the next day). That's why I do Free Day on Saturday because I don't work out on Sunday. By Monday I'm right as rain and my temptations have been exorcised.

It works for some people, helps them not to binge during the week and gives them something to look forward to but I think it kind of defeats the purpose tbh. If it was once every couple of months then I'd totally get it but once a week seems like a cop out to me.

I'm in the camp of "fit the foods I like in on a regular basis so that I don't have to have a special named day to enjoy them". I find postponing eating the things I enjoy to a certain day so that I can gorge myself on the regular, counter productive to what I'm trying to adopt - healthy, sustainable eating habits for the rest of my life. That includes having things like wine and chocolate pretty much every day, other calorie dense foods whenever I can work them into my day or week. There are definitely days (holidays, special events) where I really indulge and end up going over my calories, but I wouldn't call those cheat days or free days. They aren't planned for on a weekly basis with the sole purpose of indulging - they are just special days that happen to involve a lot more food than usual.

As someone who is small in stature and size, yes. It will completely undo an entire weeks worth of deficit for me very easily if i just eat whatever i want for 1 weekend meal, let alone an entire day.

Instead i eat foods i enjoy in small amount all week so i don't feel deprived or the need to go all out on a "cheat" day.