I wanted to share why I think I was successful at losing 55 lbs in the past 15 months. I am 45 years old and I have made MANY attempts at losing weight in the past 25 years of being overweight, only to give up the next hour, day or month. Every time started a new plan, I gave up because I felt deprived and thought I could NEVER enjoy a holiday, a night out or a party again. This time, I stuck to my plan (calorie counting and excersize), but only Sunday thru Friday. Every Saturday, I would allow myself to eat out whatever I wanted. If a party or a holiday get-together fell on a Sunday, then I would use that day as my "FREE" day. I know some may not like this, but honestly, I believe it is why I was able to stick with this new way of life, and its about finding what works for you. I liked the fact that I no longer had to worry about not being able to enjoy myself like everyone else. Its not so hard to stick to things during the week, when you know you will be able to have a little wiggle room on the weekend to enjoy life. I just wanted to share. It just might help someone else too!

This is how I've been doing it for the past few months, but now my weight loss has slowed, and I think my "free day" is the culprit. I've just been going too crazy on those days! I'm now revamping my plan to try and get my weight loss going again, and will be cutting out the free day, or possibly limiting it to once a month, or maybe even just one free meal every couple of weeks.
But congratulations on your success! I'm glad your plan worked for you

Interesting. I wonder how many calories your "regular" days had? I'm able to go out to eat with friends and not be above my calories limits (and I don't eat salad....) I've had a few days here and there where a big meal has pushed me over by 300 or so for the day. Maybe I'm just on a more flexible eating plan that I have yet to have anything to cheat on or be free from.

It's great you've found what works for you!

The only thing that gets me through the week is knowing I can eat more on the weekends. I lost steadily while practicing that, and now I am maintaining. I raised my "weekday" calories to 1500-1800 instead of 1300-1500 and find I eat less on weekends now.

I 100% agree with this and do it myself.

That being said, I have noticed that when going completely crazy, for example, a whole small Old Chicago deep dish pizza, is too much. (last Sat, boy was that freaking good.)

So I would say, you should allow yourself some bending for sanity, within reason, or all you end up doing is spending the rest of the week taking off all the weight from the off day. Repeat that every week and you don't lose much of anything.

That's me though....

Yes, this means a free day, but not going crazy or binging!!! Really, its just whatever I want to eat on Saturday night or a holiday meal. :-) I keep my calories to 1500 or under during the week.

Oh, I will add that I have noticed that if I go completely crazy and binge on that day, I will not lose weight for a while. I think it worked in the beginning when I had more weight on me, but now that I am closer to my goal I can't be that free and just eat all day. It just comes down to getting that one meal that I might be craving, which for me, usually means a cheeseburger, lol. I do miss them every know and then! :-)

I do this as well and it has helped so much! It's nice not feeling like you have to miss out on things (particularly since my meals are mainly low-carb but I love pasta).

The first few free days I had I went a bit crazy but now that I know there's still another one next week, I've toned it down. I'll still have things that I avoid during the week (cake/ice-cream/pasta) but instead of eating 3 slices of cake and 3 scoops of ice cream, I'll pick one or the other or mix and match. Instead of having 2 containers of parmesan and truffle oil fries between my husband and myself, we'll share 1 (although he knows that means I eat 3/4 of it!). Instead of that whole dish of pasta when eating out, I'll have 1/2 to 3/4. Instead of a whole medium (11") thin crust pizza I'll have 1/2.

I may not watch my calories but I do still try and watch my portion sizes. Also it has made me much more picky about my food choices and I'll eat only things that I really want rather than whatever food thought happens to flit through my mind so I can maximise my enjoyment for the day. Perhaps I'd have lost more weight and been at goal already without my free day or I might have given up already. But I enjoy it and it has made my lifestyle so much easier to stick to! My husband is following along with me and he has noticed that he's not feeling deprived at all!

I do something similar as well. I allow myself one 0or sometimes two evenings (rather than a whole day) to do what I want within reason i.e. I go out and party with my girlfriends and have a few drinks (ok, quite a few), or I go out for a meal and can order what I want from the menu although I tend to skip dessert as it's just too much for me these days. The rest of the day I eat healthily and I've found that this works fine and although I don't lose every week, I've lost steadily over the last year. I'm the same age as you too, OP.

I agree it's all about finding what works for you. After a lifetime of failing at strict diets, I've really done it this time and it feels fantastic. I'm going to use the same principles going forward to hopefully maintain this loss for life and not go backwards again.