Be aware of the impact
To lose weight at a moderate rate, one pound to one pound a week, you need to create a caloric deficit of approximately 3,500 calories a week (check with your nutritionist for your specific number). That means you have to eat 500 fewer calories each day, or consume 250 fewer calories and burn an extra 250 calories with exercise. This means that if you adjust your energy balance perfectly during the week but let go on the weekend, it is very likely that you will not end the weekend with a caloric deficit high enough to lose weight. What’s more, the opposite could happen to you.
However, if you are very careful with your calorie count, you could create a regimen that allows you to have a very high caloric deficit, that gives you a “cushion” to enjoy extra calories on the weekend and still achieve that deficit of 3,500. calories per week. It is very difficult to do this, but it is possible, as long as you consult with a nutritionist.
Cheat without guilt, but in moderation
Psychology will not let us lie: it is easier to follow a diet that allows you to be free on weekends, than a super strict one. Thus, diets like Weekends My Way of the Nutrisystem system, have a high degree of success. This system lasts 28 days and includes three meals a day, snacks and shakes for twenty days, but on weekends you can eat out or cook, with certain rules: include a certain amount of protein and healthy carbohydrates.
On the other hand there is the 80/20 plan (or 90/10 if you want to be a little more strict). In this, you choose a day of the weekend to eat un little more, or, a meal to indulge yourself to the fullest, but eat healthy the rest of the weekend.
Intermittent fasting, for its part, requires you to fast on certain days and eat whatever you want on your rest days. Normally, on fast days you consume a third or a quarter of the calories you would normally consume, but on your rest days (most people choose Saturdays and Sundays) you are totally free. The most common is the plan of 5 days of fasting and 2 of freedom, or four of fasting and three of freedom.
Be careful
Remember that when losing weight you must be very aware of your body. While cheating every now and then is reasonable, if you feel like you have to do it all the time, you may not be eating a diet that’s right for you.
On the other hand, there is the possibility that you decide to starve yourself to give yourself free rein on the weekend. That is not right either. It can cause diet fatigue and you will not hold out.
If you want to opt for one of these plans, it is recommended that you go first to a nutritionist who adjusts these concepts to your body and specific needs.