I know some of you are calorie cyclers/zig/zaggers. I don't do that--I eat right around 1300 calories a day. And it isn't too tough for me to stick to that.

BUT.

I can only do it if I let myself have one "free" day per month. I look forward to that day, and it is my one time I can really let myself loose. I'm talking, a wake up, have doughnuts for breakfast, a burger for lunch, and lots of pizza for dinner kind of day. I go all out.

I know that one day is very unhealthy, but I'm such an all-or-nothing person that it's way easier for me to do things this way than say "okay, I will let myself have 2 slices of pizza per week" or something like that. I am a natural born binger, and so I have to let myself have one binge day every month or two!

Anyone else like this? How bad is this for my body? Yeah, I still lose weight, but am I going to give myself a heart attack?

I think just calling it a "binge" day is pretty unhealthy. I allow myself one "treat" meal a week but even during that meal I make good choices and stick to my "nevers" (no fast food, no packaged baked goods, no fried food, no cream based pasta sauce). It is a chance for me to eat my "sometimes" (sometimes red wine, sometimes full fat cheese, sometimes chocolate dessert).

Everybody has to come up with their own plan, I just don't think accepting that you are "born to binge" is a very healthy idea. 1300 calories is pretty restrictive, once you take one bite of the quick energy your body craves during times of deprivation (fat/sugar) maybe you binge because your body insists on fueling itself for famine.

How about giving yourself a binge day once a month, you allow yourself a 'NO Rules Meal' once a month. Pick a day and then pick a meal and then go out to a restaurant of your choice and pick an entree without thiinking about your diet and then have dessert. Then continue with healthy eating for the rest of the day. If this meal is dinner, make sure your breakfast and lunch are still part of your diet.
This way you are treating yourself without taking in a HUGE number of calories. If you think about it, this meal will prolly not be more than 3,000 calories, which still is a lot for a meal, but a whole day of bingeing can set your back way more than that.

Personally, I think your binge day would make me sick. Having a higher calorie meal once in a while is not bad. Making yourself sick by purposely gorging on high fat, high sugar foods sounds like a bad way to maintain your lifestyle.

I would recommend making it so your diet is something that you can maintain for the rest of your life. When I first started allowing myself treat meals, I admit that I ate more than I should've. Now I eat better portions, not because I'm on a diet, but because that is how I want to eat for the rest of my life.

I'm with nelie - I just can't eat that stuff! I LOVE poutine (fries, cheese curds, and gravy), but I literally eat it twice a year because it always gives me a stomach ache, and if I eat it in the afternoon, I probably won't eat dinner 'cause I've got this big ball of starch and grease sitting in my stomach. I do think that if you give in to binges without setting limits for yourself on those days that it'd be far too easy to slide back into eating that way more and more regularly. Give yourself treats, but focus on putting healthy food in your body, rather than looking forward to the days you load up with junk.

Hubby and I are calorie counters and we watch a number of other things. One of the reasons we chose calorie counting is so we don't have to totally deny ourselves of those little yummy's along the way. So what we do is every other week we plan a meal that would be a bit indulgance in other words a bit our of our calorie range , but always doing it smart itis only 1 meal NOT an entire day, I too am an all or nothing kind of gal and that is why I do the calorie counting. Maybe if you did once a month or every other week a treat , but make it only 1 and make it a senisble without over doing it.
Take Care.

My 1st reaction after reading your post was " How can she eat that and not be sick? " Unless your normal 1300 calories are coming from smaller portions of this stuff on a regular basis. As "clean" as my eating has become, eating refined sugar or high doses of fat absolutely makes me miserable. Its an excellent detourant!

I have to agree with you , I forgot to mention that hubby and I have to make choices that don't upset our stomachs.

I think it's the mentality that you spend weeks looking forward to that one day where you can let loose and "enjoy yourself" and eat whatever you want that's the most unhealthy thing. It all just sounds way too food-obsessed, you know? I think that change will only be lasting and possible when food becomes less of a focus, and the way you're living right now, it's the golden ring - what you're passing time to get to. In my opinion, that mindset is what is ultimately going to do the most damage - it's a slippery slope, and all too easily that "free day" every 4 weeks might come every 2, or every week, etc.

It's not easy to re-evaluate your relationship with food, I know (believe me!!). But when you're ready to do it, it changes a lot about how you think about things - is pizza really such a "treat", when it's loaded with grease and salt and nothing good for you? Is that cheap, crappy food REALLY something to look forward to and anticipate? You may not have a heart attack anytime soon, but all that saturated and trans fat IS going into your body - I think it would be naive to assume it won't ever catch up with you. I'm not perfect - never have been, never will, and I do understand how hard this can be....but I just reached a point where was unwilling to continue to eat in a way that I now KNOW is harmful to me.

The other thing is - how do you feel afterwards? This is a very important question to ask yourself. If you feel anything, anything at all, other than "great!", then I think you have the answers you need

I give myself 1 cheat meal a week i did so good with it the first time i dieted and lost almost 100 lbs im doing it again and i look forward to it so i say what ever works for "YOU" just my 2 cents

1 cheat meal is one thing .... but a whole day is another. You are right each person has a way of doing things that are right for them but when you are waiting expectantly for that day to be the whole day of eating whatever you want , I think it could border on an eating issue andnot just a "treat".
And this is only one woman's opinion.

Hi everyone, I'm a calorie counter too!

I have experience with the cheat meal/day concept also, but I agree with the other poster who said it REALLY does depend on what works for YOU. Your goal is success, so if eating 'all out' on one day a month is something you can maintain, and lose weight, be healthy, happy, etc. Then do that. BUT, I agree with other comments as well.

I think the brain is SO powerful. To spend so much thinking time dreaming about cheat day, I wonder what the fallout would be from that. Just something to think about.

I have done the body for life plan, a couple of yrs ago, took me a little more than a year I guess to lose about 60 pounds. That plan is very strict eating for 6 days, 1 day totally eat-what-you-want. Well, some people would be reasonable about that and eat 'whatever' without going overboard. Not for me, it was license to PIG out. So, it worked, over time, but slooooow.

This time around, I'm counting calories, and I am allowing 1 cheat meal per week, logged into my calorie counter, and not going overboard. The first week or 2 I was realllllly looking forward to the cheat meal. Last 2 weeks, because I know I can just eat something on cheat meal day.. the burning desire is less. I religiously keep it to one meal, one day only though. If i go off and modify, that's where I always find trouble.

Good luck to you and remember, do whatever YOU are happy with that will work. Advice is great, but everyone's body/mind is very different when it comes to weight loss.



~ Angie

Yeah, I will admit I have a pretty messed up relationship with food. No one in my family is overweight; we all have pretty good metabolisms. Growing up, my meals would look like this: Pop tarts for breakfast, those lunchable pizzas for lunch, plus I'd buy some dessert from the snack bar, then heaps of tacos or whatever my mom made for dinner. We NEVER ate healthily. My mom/sister still NEVER do.

I gained weight last year when I started working in the office 60 hours a week and sitting in 15 hours of college classes and not going to the gym. Then I decided to go on a diet, but it would always be "the next day." So the day before I'd decide to start a diet, I would eat like a complete freaking maniac. I don't even want to think about how many calories I would consume in a day. I wouldn't be surprised if it were 15,000. Then, I'd get up the next day, and decide that the first of the month really wasn't the best day to start a diet, so I'd put it off another day. And on it went for a whole semester. Thank goodness I only gained 15 pounds.

Now it's a matter of losing it. It's tough for me to make a total lifestyle change when I know that my mom and my sister can be beanpoles and eat eleventy million calories a day, and that truthfully, I can, too, as long as I get my butt in the gym. But what you guys have said is what I need to hear--it's time to stop thinking about the weight and commit to being healthy. Thanks, ladies.

Marykate..

If you find it really restrictive feeling and that causes you to binge (that's what they call pigging out!)... why don't you tell yourself to just relax, and realize it is YOU that is in charge, not the food. If you want something, have it. Just eat much LESS of it. Start there. Like, if you say " I feel like pigging on donuts!!!" just get a small donut, eat half. Throw out the rest. Or, if you crave a hamburger, get the smallest one they sell.
It's all in the mind, the " I can't have so I want" syndrome. I have it too.

Re the comment you made about everyone else being able to eat all they want. Yeah, i've been dealing with that angry issue for a long time. been angry at my friends for eating like crap for a long time and pulling it off, still looking like movie stars. But you know what, just because someone is THIN does not mean that these foods are not affecting them. They may not be putting on weight, but their cholesterol may be high, bp may be high, etc. and one day it may not be able to be controlled any longer. I hope your family decides that you are a good influence and maybe they'll start adding some more healthy foods to their diet. That stuff you mentioned (the packaged this and that) has soooooo many chemicals and sodium, I wish they were not even allowed to sell that stuff, especially to kids.

I have 2 or 3 cheat DAYS a month and always lose at least 6 lbs per month but usually 8. I usually keep calories on those days around 2500-3000. The rest of the month I eat anywhere from 1100 to 1600 per day and work out for 30 mins. It keeps me happier. I don't think once a month is bad at all. I kind of thought everyone had whole cheat days..