“Why do all the diets coming out now recommend a “free day” when you can eat anything you want, even junk food? Doesn’t this defeat the whole purpose of dieting all week?”
The value of the Free Day is two-fold.
1. Knowing that you only have to hang in there for six days and can then eat everything you were craving helps you keep your head in the game. It helps you to stay positive about what you’re doing. When you’re sitting down to your fourth meal of chicken breast and steamed vegetables and really starting to get down about it, you can tell yourself “On Saturday, I’m going to have a large, stuffed-crust pizza with extra cheese and extra pepperoni.” Not only can you tell yourself this, but you know that you really can do it if you want to and feel absolutely no guilt when you do. Knowing you have to eat chicken and vegetables until you lose 60 pounds is too depressing to consider but knowing that you just have to hang in there until Saturday creates a light at the end of a much shorter tunnel.
2. When we diet, we cut calories. Many of us even go below the recommended 1200 calories per day. Staying below that threshold caloric intake for an extended period of time causes our bodies to automatically switch into survival mode. Our metabolism and digestive system slow down to make the most of every calorie consumed. Then they take every calorie and convert it to fat for what is perceived as the coming famine. (This is how people who appear to be skinny can still be all jiggly and have 40-50% of their body be made up of fat.) By incorporating one free day every week, we’re effectively telling the body that there is no famine and everything is fine. This keeps the metabolism running at optimum levels and keeps the calories that we are eating going toward keeping our muscles fueled instead of storing them as fat.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Clause!
You can diet for six days every week, pig out on the seventh day and still lose weight. In fact, this is the very best way to diet.