I lost a ton of weight following a similar low carb plan that included planned 'off' days. I also put back on all the weight I'd lost and then some. I'm sure there are some who can do that version of LC and be relatively successful. But I think most who try it will not succeed. I know I never did. The idea sounds good on paper and we want to believe that if we feed our craving, we will satisfy it. But that is not how it works. If you feed your craving, it will grow stronger. Eventually, the cravings will overpower you. Your diet will fail and the weight will come back on.

A planned day off is cheat, no matter how you slice it. A quote I read somewhere on this board said that "if you return to eating the foods that made you fat, you will be fat again." That may be a tough pill to swallow, but I'm afraid it is true for most of us. When I did the version of LC with "cheat days" built in - I dove right into all of my carby favorites and I had an increasingly difficult time finding the willpower to get back on plan. Sometimes the diet would fall apart within weeks -- sometimes I could go for months and make good progress with the weight loss. But it was always a struggle. Eventually, I'd have one diet vacation too many and just could not find my way back.

After more than 2 decades of LC diet failure, I finally learned my lesson. Certain foods give me problems. I had to accept that can't eat those foods. Not just for a while -- I needed to stop having them forever. By not indulging the cravings -- those cravings faded away eventually. Without cravings, this WOE has become pretty darn easy and enjoyable. I lose weight and I feel great. And provided that I never get the 'stupids' at some point in the future and go back to eating junk, this weight will stay off and I will live a long and healthy life. If I go back to eating the foods that made me fat, then back up the weight loss roller-coaster I will go. Where I stop, nobody knows.

The people who don't cheat, succeed. The ones that do spin their wheels year after year losing and regaining the same pounds over and over again. I was a pro at it.