I sometimes hear from people who want to try a more flexible form of NutriSystem. Many want to take meals or days off and they wonder if they will still lose weight. I heard from someone who wanted to take off every Friday through Sunday, but she worried if she would still see the results that she wanted. She asked, in part: "if I took three days off every week on NutriSystem, would I still lose weight? I want to take off every Friday and every weekend so that I can enjoy meals with my family. But would I still see results if I did this?"
While it's impossible for me to see into the future or to definitively answer this question without knowing what this person was going to be eating on her three days off, I do have some thoughts on this, which I will share now.
NutriSystem Does Have A Program That Still Offer Weight Loss (If Followed Correctly) With 2 Days Off: The person who wrote to me didn't realize this, but NutriSystem already has a plan for people who want to take some time off each week. It's called the flex plan. Most people take advantage of this on weekends, but you can theoretically take any two days. I've heard of pretty good results with this plan as long as you stay within the guidelines on your off days. In other words, you can't just eat whatever you want in any quantity that you want. You can't and shouldn't just eat junk food. Because if you do, then you could jeopardize the work that you have done all week.
When you are on this diet, you lose weight in two ways. First, you are eating more protein and less carbohydrates so your body burns more fat. But you are also taking in fewer calories than you are burning. However, if you take in many more calories than you are burning on your three off days, then, you are compromising those five other days. Let's look at it another way. With the women's plan, you take in around 1200 calories per day. (This is an estimate depending on which meals and snacks you chose.) This is a pretty decent daily calorie deficit for most women. How many calories you burn each day depends on your activity level. However, if you are reasonably active, you should be taking in a good deal less than you are burning if you're around 1200 calories per day. The question of weight loss with taking three days off depends on if you take in enough excess calories on those three days to counteract the calorie deficit you have already created.
It appears that taking 2 days off is definitely possible as many are doing just that on the flex program. But your success with taking 3 days off would likely depend on what you consumed during those 3 days and your activity level also. I have vacationed while dieting and have still lost weight because I stayed pretty active and still made reasonable food choices. Of course, I lost less weight during that week than I would have if I had been in compliance for all seven days. But it's my opinion that you can still lose some weight taking 3 days off if you are careful with your choices and remain active. It likely wouldn't be as much weight as you would lose during seven days of compliance, but many consider taking some time off to be a fair trade for losing a little bit less weight, especially if they don't have aggressive goals and only want to lose reasonable or gradual amounts of weight.
Want more tips on being successful on or starting NutriSystem while saving money? Ava's NutriSystem Information Website features articles meant to help you evaluate and have success with this diet. There's also a link to a free eBook and the latest coupons to help you get started. You can visit her at http://ava-alderman-weight-loss-articles.com/
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