Do you realize that you can eat as much as you would like, of whatever type of food you choose, and still lose weight? The key is to engage in this behavior only one time per week.  Studies have shown that one "free day" per week will actually assist you in losing more weight than if you maintain a strict diet seven days a week.

How can this be true?  The reason that free day can help you to lose weight is that it helps keep your metabolism running fast.  When you diet, you are eating fewer calories than your body requires.  Let's say that you're an average person.  As an average person you will burn 2000 calories per day.  If you're trying to lose weight, you should restrict your caloric intake to approximately 1200 calories per day.  This way, every day, you burn 800 calories more than you consume.  Your body, however, sees this as a potential problem.  Your body looks to the future and sees that if you continue to run at an 800 calorie per day deficit, eventually you will run out of fuel and die.  The survival instinct for your body is incredibly high and the body will take whatever steps necessary to avoid death.  After a few weeks on a 1200 calorie per day diet, your body will try to slow the metabolism down from the original 2000 calories per day down closer to the 1200 calories (this will result in a dieting plateau).

Obviously, if you are eating 1200 calories per day and your are only burning 1200 calories per day, you are not going to be very successful with your weight loss.  Having a free day, one time per week, gives your body a tremendous boost of calories.  This boost lets the body know that it's not starving after all and that it is not necessary to adjust the metabolism downward.

Another advantage to free day is that when your body receives a large amount of food, over a short course of time, it will not be able to process all the calories. Much of the food will simply pass through the digestive system.

From a psychological perspective, free day is critical.  If you know that one time per week, you can eat whatever food you would like, you are far more likely to be successful on your diet.  If, however, you tell yourself that you can not have any of your favorite foods while dieting, it is human nature that you will fixate on what you cannot have (until you get it) and this will result in dieting failure.

One time per week, do not feel guilty. Eat whatever you would like.  Just make sure that on the other six days of the week you are strictly adhering to your dieting plan.