Skwigg
Home | About Me | What I Eat | Workouts | Photos | Stuff to Read | Store | Blog | Contact Me
Free Day

If you're doing the Body for Life program, you're allowed to eat anything you want one day a week. There has always been a raging debate about this free day. Just how "free" should you be? The answer probably depends on your goals, personality, and metabolism. I'm wishy-washy on my goals, have a goofball personality, and a fast metabolism. So, I eat absolutely anything I want and as much as I want on free day. Now, if someone were a detail oriented, goal setting, control freak with a lot of weight to lose and a slow metabolism, they might not be able to do any such thing. They might be better off planning a couple of free meals or eating only what they really want and only in moderation.

Some people (and I like this idea) go back and forth between taking a full free day one week, and maybe one or two free meals the next - like dinner and a movie on Friday night and a pancake breakfast on Sunday. How "free" you are would depend on your results and your state of mind that week.

Nobody should feel guilty about needing a full, crazy free day in order to stay on the program. That's what it takes for a lot of people, and free days do tend to moderate themselves over time. Everybody grosses themselves out the first couple of weeks, but you quickly learn how much you can get away with in order to feel good and still see results. After weeks of planning, cooking, packing, and stuffing meals into yourself like clockwork, sometimes it's a relief NOT to eat. Sometimes I barely get in 1,000 calories. Mostly it's madness though. :-)

Here was a free day I wrote down in 2003:

a bowl of Wheaties with All-Bran and raisins
1 piece whole wheat toast with peanut butter
handful of Nacho cheese Doritos
an entire sleeve of Ritz crackers
1 Hostess Ho-Ho
Quarter Pounder with cheese
medium french fries
Oreo McFlurry
2 Wild Berry Pop Tarts
the head of a chocolate Easter bunny
handful of peanut M&Ms
1 Red Baron pizza pocket
2 Cadbury Eggs
1 oz sharp cheddar
a bowl of pistachio ice cream

My full free days, especially in the early days, always tended to be in the 4,500 to 5,000 calorie range. Here's another one with calorie totals. This was Halloween and I couldn't stay out of the candy:

4 chocolate chip cookies                 238
2 Twizzlers                                     60
1 scoop of Designer Protein             90
3 cups Kraft macaroni & cheese       930
4 Kit Kat minis                                240
4 cups oil popped popcorn               164
1 pint Ben & Jerry's                         1200
4 Twizzlers                                      120
10 Ritz crackers                              216
4 Butterfinger minis                          400
4 corn tortillas                                 198
3.5 oz 90% lean ground beef             250
2 oz sharp cheddar                          228
2 Tbsp light sour cream                    30
3 Kit Kat minis                                 240
1 mini Milk Dud                                40

Total 4,644 calories

People have asked if that makes me sick. :-) No, it normally doesn't even make me uncomfortably full. The only side effect is that I get hot afterward, blazing hot. I can literally feel the metabolic furnace kicking on.
 
It is conceivable that you could wreck a 2 pound loss for the week with one good free day, but it would take some effort. There are 3,500 calories in a pound, plus you're going to burn 1,500 calories or more just functioning throughout the day. So to totally eliminate a 2 pound calorie deficit in one day you would need to eat something like 8,500 calories, a feat that even I have not accomplished with my notorious free days. :-) That's, that's... seven pints of Ben & Jerry's!
 
Here's the thing though, if you're NOT creating a big calorie deficit during the week, there's no margin for mega-splurging, none at all. One big free day or (gasp!) free weekend will totally undo any progress you've made. If through diet and exercise, you've managed to lose only one pound during the week (3,500 calories) and then you eat 4,700 calories worth of garlic bread and fettuccini alfredo. Well, um, nothing much happens. You break even or gain a little.

Never attempt to measure progress or assess damage the morning after free day. It's easy to gain 4-5 pounds of water in one day if you overload on carbs and sodium. It's just water though, and it will leave almost as quickly as it showed up. If you want to avoid the bloating trauma, don't get on the scale again until the next week. If you're doing Body for Life, the best time to weigh yourself is first thing in the morning on free day before you've had anything to eat or drink. That way you'll always have a full week of clean eating behind you.

I ate 4,000+ calories every free day in my first challenge and went from a size 12 to a size 6 and later a size 4. I don't necessarily recommend that approach for everyone but it was perfect for me. I thought I'd put it all out there to entertain and relieve everyone who's dying inside over the four cookies they ate. :-)

Click here to e-mail me.