Many Dieters have noticed a "free day" trend on popular Weight Loss Plans. Just follow a healthy meal plan for six days, then use your seventh day as a vacation or reward. Do you like chocolate? Or deep dish pizza? On that seventh day you can forget your healthy meal plan and binge to your heart's content.

The reasoning behind this trend is to ward off starvation signals the body may get from being on a restrictive diet. If a dieter gives themselves permission to cheat once a week, they're more likely to keep up a healthy meal plan over the long run; as oppose to quitting all together. What dieters don't realize is a free day often sabotages all of their progress made during the week! Successful dieting is really just simple math and that glorious "free day" often throws the equation out of whack.

First lets examine that simple math:

1. First you must find out how many calories you need per day, then setup a healthy meal plan to meet that number. The best way to calculate how many calories you need, according to some diets, is to use this formula: add your resting metabolic rate (RMR) + your physical activity rate for daily caloric needs. To calculate your Resting Metabolic rate (RMR): multiply your desired weight in pounds by 8 and then add 200. If you are a female whose goal weight is 140 Ibs, the equation should appear like this. 140X8=1120 + 200=1320. This is the amount of calories you can eat without doing anything and not gain weight. This is a estimate and not an exact number. Caloric requirements can vary depending on your height, sex and other factors.

2. The next step is subtracting enough excess calories from your diet to equal the desired amount of pounds you would like to lose. For example if 3500 calories equal a pound and you'd like to loose 1 pound per week; you must either decease the food in your healthy meal plan by 500 calories (3500/7 days) or burn if off through exercise. Since a diet of 820 calories (1320-500) is way too restrictive, burning off the calories through exercise is a more practical route.

Now that you have a rough estimate of your caloric requirements and a healthy meal plan set, throw in that glorious "free day" to reward your hard work! What would a free day look like to you? For most people given free reign to binge, it would look something like the following.... Breakfast? Bring on the buttermilk pancakes with syrup and butter! Sides? Can't have pancakes without bacon and eggs. Don't forget a tall glass of fattening milk.

Lunch? Let's head out to McDonald's for a Big Mac, super sized fries and drink. What the heck order an apple pie, they usually have a special, two for $1. Dinner? Order your favorite pizza! Throw in a side of Spaghetti and pitcher of Soda to make a family meal! Keep in mind we haven't added snacks between meals! Looking at the given scenario, it's easy to see how a hypothetical "free day" can easily total up to 4000 calories or more!

Let's pretend the woman in our earlier example added this free day to her healthy meal plan! She wanted to shed 3500 calories per week, however the excess calories from her free day (4000-820=3180) cancels out almost 95% of all her hard work! Instead of losing a pound a week, she'd lose only 320 calories; which equals a pound every 11 weeks!

Some Weight Loss experts believe dieters are better off without adding a "free day" to their healthy meal plan. If you are craving foods that are not in your diet, just have a small portion and offset the excess calories with extra exercise. The magic word to staying on any diet is balance and moderation.