Free Days (as far as I know) were developed by Bill Phillips for Body for Life. A Free day is a pass once a week to not work out and basically eat anything you choose to eat. I think they are great for some people who may only need to lose 10 pounds and tone up. Not sure if its for me. What do you think??

Even though I have more than 10lbs to lose, I am allowing myself a "cheat day" every Sunday. There are a few reasons for this- 1, if I tried to "be good" every day I would quickly become unhappy with my lack of freedom and ditch the entire idea- I've done it in the past. 2, it gives me something to look forward to- a weekly reward. When you're making a change like this some people need to do it on a reward system. And 3, it allows me to make plans to go out to dinner on a Sunday, go to a Superbowl party, go to a movie, etc. and not worry about what I'm going to eat or annoy my friends by not joining them. It probably means I will be slower in reaching my goals but by the same token it means I'm more likely to stick with it.

I like it. But I think you might want to strike a balance depending on how motivated you are to lose weight. If you REALLY want to lose it, a free meal might be better than a free day.

Just an idea...

Phillips argues that a cheat day serves the purpose of convincing your body you aren't starving, but I'm of the opinion that, if you're eating properly, you shouldn't BE starving to begin with. As such, I agree with daveo that a cheat meal is better than a cheat day. It lets you go out to eat with friends, enjoy your favorite meal, etc. without feeling like you've fallen off the proverbial wagon but you don't wind up gorging yourself on moutains of crap for 24 hours only to wake up feeling bloated and miserable the next day.

I had a cheat meal for last Sunday's brekke. 3 eggs WITH YOLK! EGADS, and I felt a little guilty:D

cheat days do more damage for me mentally. Its a reminder that cheating is why I'm 10-15 lbs overweight still when i could easily be 5-10 lbs overweight at this point. I hate it when I have to start a week over at about the same weight because I had a bad weekend.

I try to have a free day and it usually turns into a free meal. The funny thing is, even during what I term a 'free meal' I still eat with much discretion.

I'm gonna try to eat something wholesome like PIZZA this week. Hard to be discretionary with that. ;)

My version of a cheat day is going out on a saturday night with my mates, getting drunk, and order something to eat if it's in someone's house, if it's a pub just lots of drink. This is every 3 week's or something (we all have jobs and cant go out every week).

If I don't go out, I just cook an oven pizza or order something to eat, it keeps you looking forward to it the whole week. If I mess up my diet during the week I wont do it though.

I've never understood the whole "cheat" idea. I am not dieting to cheat myself nor do I consider a candy bar ever few weeks a cheat. In fact, I went into this with the idea that I was not on a diet. I was given good advice that diet is the wrong way to look at it, it's Nutritional Intake. I don't think to myself I "can't" have something. I just know if I do have something non-nutritious it has to be in moderation. I also make sure if I do have something that is considered a "bad" food, it doesn't cause me to jump my caloric intake up that day and it doesn't cause me to go over my Saturated Fat or Sugar limits I set for myself. I am hardly ever close to those limits any how so even if I add a candy bar in one day, it will not throw everything off. As matter of fact, I ate a candy bar yesterday and still lost a half a pound.

I suppose it is all in how you look at it and people view things differently. I can understand how some people might abuse the moderation thing if they do not set specific days they can eat poorly. I just can't see doing it for a whole day, or even a whole meal because it would wreak such havoc on my goals and how I feel physically.

I've never understood the whole "cheat" idea. I am not dieting to cheat myself nor do I consider a candy bar ever few weeks a cheat. In fact, I went into this with the idea that I was not on a diet. I was given good advice that diet is the wrong way to look at it, it's Nutritional Intake. I don't think to myself I "can't" have something. I just know if I do have something non-nutritious it has to be in moderation. I also make sure if I do have something that is considered a "bad" food, it doesn't cause me to jump my caloric intake up that day and it doesn't cause me to go over my Saturated Fat or Sugar limits I set for myself. I am hardly ever close to those limits any how so even if I add a candy bar in one day, it will not throw everything off. As matter of fact, I ate a candy bar yesterday and still lost a half a pound.

I suppose it is all in how you look at it and people view things differently. I can understand how some people might abuse the moderation thing if they do not set specific days they can eat poorly. I just can't see doing it for a whole day, or even a whole meal because it would wreak such havoc on my goals and how I feel physically.
Thats exactly how I feel.

Well to be honest I think part of it was created so people would buy into the program. It seems like most people...like to be in cruise control when embarking on challenges and I think that's what a cheat day is. With that being said I think stringing together days and weeks and months of eating clean will get you to your goal much faster then cheating once a week.

Even Weight Watchers, which has been rated as the best diet out there for years upon years (as far as I know) allows you to have "cheat points" (my mom has lost something like 25-30 pounds on it over 3-4 months). It's just so you don't feel so restricted and frustrated, I think.

I've never understood the whole "cheat" idea.
For me, "cheat meal" is nothing more than a convenient phase that I use to describe a meal that I otherwise would not consider as a part of my normal, healthy diet.

The problem with "cheating" at all:

Once you start, you often can't stop.

What I find happens to myself and others is once you go off your diet, you don't stop. You say "just one more cookie, I've been good all week" but you keep that mentality for too long and now you're back to eating everything.

This of course does not apply to everyone, it is just one of my problems and I have noticed it with some people I know.

Another problem with a "cheat day" is in one day, if you eat anything you want, you can EASILY make up for ALL the dieting you did during the week. Just imagine 3 1000 calorie meals with another 1000-2000 calories in snacks. That's what many people would do on a cheat day, but now you've just offset all your hard work.

I think the key is not to have a cheat day and like other said, maybe just a cheat meal. Give yourself one day a week but definitely not the whole day.

Yeah, I've heard of people who binge eat on those days, and their progress over the entire week is ruined. Doing that every week isn't really going to help. If you want to have a cheat day, you need to do it in control. Basically, have a lot of things in very small amounts, or just have a few of your favorite foods. Or, just don't have one at all. I think a cheat meal is best, but some days, I will go on a ski trip with friends, and I don't want to bring protein shakes and not eat with them. However, the food is so expensive at ski resorts, it's not like I could buy that much food anyway. :P

I have a small bowl of ice cram once a week...I guess it's a cheat. I know my intake, and can adjust for my "cheat".
For some, cheats keep them going. For others don't have the same mind set or control, cheats are a day long binge, and therefore not done in moderation.
I have read articles that agree with the body for life theory, and I have read opposing articles.
I say, know your body....know your limits
J

I was told by someone that you should really only allow yourself only 1 cheat meal per month when you are really trying to loose the pounds. Personally I think once a week is too often. More like once every two weeks sounds better.

For me, I am not allowing myself any cheats until I see some real physical results of my diet. Then after that I will probably stick to a cheat once every couple of weeks or so.

I ate one piece of cake today.. but only because it was the birthday of my father's wife, and they were serving cake... removed some of the sugary decoration.. ah well... life goes on ;)

I think maybe I just have a different outlook on the whole process. It seems to me like in today's society diet=temporary and cheat just kind of seems the wrong way to put it. As I said, I think of eating now more as a nutritional intake. It is not that I will not have on foods that I do not eat one a normal basis. It's just that I count it in to my food intake when I do have it. As I said above, I also make sure it does not throw things off balance to much by making sure it never causes me to go over my maximum caloric intake and a few other limits I set for myself. I know other people have "diets" that work for them. I however am not on a diet, I am in the process of changing my lifestyle. I can't look to the future and imagine myself never having a coke or candy bar. That is why I never went into this thinking I can never have anything to eat, I just have to make sure it is a rare occasion (10-14 days apart) and that I keep it in perspective. Since doing things this way, I have had zero problems with feeling negative about any of the process. If I had gone into this telling myself I could never have a coke, I would have been craving cokes day after day, I have had zero cravings for them. I did drink one 12oz coke the other night when I was working till 10:00 PM but it was planned into the day.

I know different things work great for different people. Looking far into the future I realized this is the only way it would work for me. I don't even have a set goal of what I want my final weight to be. I am afraid I would accomplish that goal and feel as though I did it and would no longer pay attention to what I was eating again and that I might feel I don't need as much exercise anymore. Honestly, I just want to feel good and keep eating healthier than I was for the rest of my life.

Go ahead and eat whatever you want, but try to keep the amounts smaller than you once did. As someone pointed out, you can easily eat all the lost weight back in one day, if you really don't pay any attention to what you're gorging on.

Karatetricker: There's a good way to stop you from eating cookies, candybars and whatnot: simply ensure that you don't have any. If you want to eat them, buy a little. Also, ask the other members of your family to keep whatever they may have in a place where you're not likely to look, so you don't get tempted.

Also, one more thing: Unless you possess great willpower, I find it is much better to go shopping for food when you're not hungry - if you are, you'll (well, I am, anyways) tempted to buy a lot of food, and this, unfortunately, often includes evil stuff like cookies ;)