Anyone include a no-count/high calorie day with success?

I'm thinking of sticking to about 1400-1500 calories 6 days a week with 1 day of no counting or restrictions.  I don't plan on binging or anything, but eating the way I'm used to (I'd guess about 2500-3000) calories.  Did this work for anyone?

I stay between 1100-1300 cal a day. When I plateau I take a day or too and eat what I want then right back to counting. It ALWAYS works for me! I've heard one day a week works. It changes things up for your body, and shocks your metabolism. good luck!

bump

Yeah I do the same thing but I count diet and workout hard on weekdays, and "slack off" on the weekends.  I dont eat what ever and I dont not work out.  I just eat healthy when I can and do what ever is comfortable.  Ill go out to eat and drink a few beers with friends and not worry about what Im doing.  I think it works well because it gets cravings out of the way, you still can live a fun and exciting life, and it does boost your metabolism and keep your body guessing so you dont plateau as easily.  Its one of those things where it works well for some but not for all.  It still takes will power to get right back into your counting and dieting when your day or days are over.

Thanks timothy.  I'm going to try this==  I keep starting and stopping and am hoping this will allow me to stay satisfied and not beat myself up so much when I go over my limit.

I inadvertantly do this almost weekly - one day something will happen and throw everything off.   Like today, I just found out that a good friend is having a birthday party.  Just got off work, no time to get something healthy to eat, I'm going to have to deal and probably go over my calories.

But I'm still losing, so I think that if you can stick to one day a week or less, you should be able to eat at maintenance and be fine.  But don't over do it.

I do this at least once sometimes twice a week, not on purpose.  It has really worked for me for a few reasons,

1 I don't feel like i have to be so strict to achieve my goals, so I don't hate the restriction.

2 I am more likely to be good the rest of the time, partly cause I have to "make up" for those days.

I havn't plateaued yet, so i'm not sure if this is the reason or I just havn't lost enough yet.  Would highly recommened it - just to stay happier if nothing else.

 

I also do this 1-2 times a week. I have a binge eating disorder and on the weeks where I have "cheat" days as I like to call them, I almost never binge because I'm not restricting myself. It does actually boost my metabolism as well, there are times where I'm eating my ice cream and thinking "Oh gosh I'm going to gain next time I weigh myself!" and I've lost every time. I think my body is just used to getting 1400 cals a day, so when I cheat it sort of shakes things up. It's also nice that I can have a day to go out with my friends and eat dinner or have a few drinks and basically pretend I'm not counting calories. It will be good for your metabolism and mental health!

I have occasional days when I exceed my daily allotment of calories ... sometimes by just 100, sometimes by as much as 450. I still log what I eat on those days. If possible, I try to "make up" for those calories within the week... if not ... that's ok. I am in this for the long-run.

=^..^=  MOLLY

I completely binged for the first time in 3 months a couple days ago.  I went to Burger King and had a plain Tendercrisp chicken sandwich, a medium fry, AND a 6 peice cheesy tot.  The next morning the scale said I gained 2 & 1/2 pounds :(  Then the next day I had only lost 1/2 of that, so it seems like a solid 2 pounds gained.  I'm really hoping there's a chance that it's still some water weight from all the salt....

the moral of this story is binge, but not on 3 meals worth of salty food all at once.  gr. 

I havn't fallen off the wagon though, I too am finally in this for the long haul :)  So lots of water today and healthy eating...we'll see what the scale says tomorrow!

On labor day my husband and I went to Bennigan's and had burgers. (I know, I know!) It had to be the saltiest burger I ever had not to mention the salted fries. I did have iced tea with Splenda (Lol). I gained 4 lbs from that meal! It had to be the salt. It came back off after about 3 days with lots of water. Never again!

Ooh good I'm glad that same thing happened to you and it came right off!  I'm drinking a lot of water tonight!

I'm trying this too.  In the past everytime I'd try to really stick to a diet I'd give up after only a day or two because I'd be giving up all of my favorites.  So this time I'm allowing for Friday to be my day off.  Some of us from the office go out for Chinese on Fridays for lunch and I really hated to give that up so while I try to choose healthier option  I don't really worry about it much. I still log everything though so that I can try to keep the following week a little lighter or work out more to make up for my overages. Last week I ended up with 2 days that were about 1000 calories over my daily of 2000-2100 but for the week I still lost 5 lbs! 

Good luck!

I basically did this during the summer and I can tell you that it didn't stall my loss at all.. I still do it but I'm not trying to lose. From the beginning of June to the beginning of September I lost around 20 pounds. From Monday-Saturday I'd diet and exercise, but on Sunday I'd just slack off totally. It wasn't intended that way--it's just that every Sunday after church my family goes out to eat and we usually have big breakfasts, and we had quite a few barecues during the summer, all on Sundays. I still watched what I ate but didn't stress if I went a little bit over--I figured I'd just make up for it during the week and it seemed to work [even for a recovering STRICT cc-er :D].