free day

I think it's alright and have never seen a problem with it; however, I know some people who cannot stop once they start. It depends on you!

The Power Of A “Free” Day To Help You Lose Weight
By Curtis Penner • Oct 9th, 2007 • Category: Nutrition
http://befitandstrong.com/the-power-of-a-free-day/

Achieving long-term weight loss success is impossible if you feel that you are being deprived of something. It would be unrealistic to believe or even expect that you’re never going to eat some of your favorite treats ever again. To succeed on a long-term basis you need to have some flexibility. So I recommend scheduling a “free” day into your week.

I was first introduced to the idea of a free day about seven years ago when I picked up a book called Body For Life by Bill Phillips at the airport.

Very simply, a free day is your chance to eat whatever you have been craving throughout the week, such as pizza, fried chicken, a big greasy cheeseburger, pie or chocolate.

The free day allows you to…

* Enjoy special occasions without worry about peer pressure.
* Get through “moments of weakness” knowing your free meal is just around the corner.
* Enjoy eating your favorite foods without feeling guilty.

Can You Really Eat Junk Food and Lose Weight?

Not only does a free day provide some relief from cravings but it also may help improve fat burning. When you eat fewer calories than your body needs, your body responds by slowing down all metabolic functions. This is why cutting calories too severely rarely works to lose fat effectively.

If you reduce your food intake too drastically, the body protects itself by breaking down muscle for fuel as well as holding onto stored fat. So even though you’re losing weight, a large portion of that lost weight is muscle not fat. Occasionally over-feeding yourself with a free day sends a signal to your body that there is no need to hang onto those fat stores.

Also, implementing a free day into your diet helps keep leptin levels up. Leptin is a hormone that helps regulate your metabolism. When dieting, leptin levels can drop dramatically, slowing your metabolic rate. Overfeeding your body helps raise leptin levels, keeping your metabolism humming along.
Free Day Guidelines

The free day concept can be a saving grace for some people or it can be the undoing of others. To help keep things under control, follow these guidelines:

Schedule it into your week. This is an important point. When you schedule your free day, you have something to look forward to. So when you are standing in line at the grocery store staring down your favorite chocolate bar, you can say, “I’ve only got two days until my free day. I can wait.”

By eating so-called junk food only when scheduled, it breaks any emotional connection you may have to food. If I choose to eat my free day on Saturday, then I’m eating because that’s when I choose to eat - not because I’m bored, stressed or lonely.

Being able to indulge yourself in a free day depends on the rest of your eating habits. If you are consistently nibbling scraps from your kids’ plates or if you are unable to say no to those free donuts at company meetings then you must be prepared to accept the consequence of not being able to enjoy a free day. Don’t delude yourself by thinking you can sneak treats throughout the week, have a free day and still see the results you want.

When it’s done, it’s done. When your free day has come and gone, it’s time to get back to business - the business of burning fat. For some people, one free day can lead to a quick fall off the wagon. You need to enjoy your free day and then get back to preparing and eating healthy meals and snacks. It comes down to control. You control what you eat, not the other way around.

Drink water. When I first started having a free day, I neglected to drink enough water throughout the day. After all, water would only take up valuable real estate in my gut, right?

But I soon learned that without enough water, your digestive system is put at a serious disadvantage. Your body needs water to properly move the food through your digestive system. Without enough water, you’ll feel bloated and possibly become constipated.

And drinking water prevents you from ingesting too many calories by making you feel fuller than you really are.

Eat only when hungry. The temptation during a free day is to look at it as an eat-a-thon where you get up and immediately start eating and don’t stop until you pass-out beside the toilet. Ideally, you should stick to your eating schedule, only your meals will be from foods you normally wouldn’t eat throughout the week.

If you feel stuffed from dinner when the time comes for your evening snack, don’t eat just for the sake of eating. Give yourself some extra time and wait to eat until you feel hungry again.

Exercise. Even though Joel Marion says in his book, The Cheat To Lose Diet, you don’t need to exercise while enjoying a free day and still lose weight, I believe incorporating exercise into your weight loss program is important if you want to partake in a day of gluttony.

Exercising - particularly strength training - will help make sure you burn off some of the extra calories you’ll be ingesting, plus it helps your body deal with all of the incoming sugar.
What To Do If You’re Not Losing Weight

You may find that eating whatever you want for one entire day may not allow you to reach your fitness and weight loss goals. If this is the case, don’t panic.

Instead of an entire day, you may need to dial it back a little. First, try making your main meals “free”. If after a couple of weeks you find you’re still not getting the results you want, cut it back to two meals.

If two cheat meals still proves too much, then you may need to increase the intensity of your exercise sessions or start exercising if you’re not already.

It may take some time to find exactly what works for you, but with some trial and error, you’ll find it.

Maybe not a free DAY, maybe just a free treat. I am usually able to fit my treats into my calorie plan no problem. Sometimes it just means eating carefully for the rest of the day. But hey, everybody needs a treat now and then :drinker:

Hey there! I just read something about that the other day in one of my magazines. They encourage you to have a treat when you feel like it; just not a whole lot of it. The premise is that if you deny yourself something you're craving you're more likely to crater and give in...

I do have a "free" day. Not really completely crazy free, but you know, a few hundred calories over is ok, and maybe a little more fat (maybe a wendies burger. mmmmmmmm). I also try to take a day off every week from exercising. Gives my muscles a chance to recover and makes me realize how much better I feel at the end of the day when I DO work out. I'm raring to go by the end of my free day.