When you’re on a diet, is it better not to allow yourself any respite, to remain on the dietician’s timetable or, from time to time, to indulge yourself? We talked about this topic with Dr. Francesca Albani, a dietitian from Humanitas.
Rewarding halfway through the work can be a good idea
Please allow yourself a little indulgence. Breaking the diet with a few meals that evade the rules given by the specialist can also have a beneficial effect on the goal of losing weight. Following a diet with a limited calorie intake is in fact a psychological sacrifice, as well as a physical one. If we are therefore respecting the diet in the best way, giving ourselves some gratification every now and then with some of the so-called “comfort foods” can give a greater impulse towards achieving the final goal.
The exception that must not make the rule
It’s one thing to indulge yourself from time to time, allowing yourself a few extra calories by eating an ice cream or tasting a piece of chocolate despite your diet. Another thing is to eat without taking calories into account for one or more days a week just because it is difficult to keep our diet under control. Eating a high calorie meal not only takes us away from our goal but also makes it harder for us to lose weight, and it can ruin a whole week of sacrifices made to stay in the dictated calorie regime. Therefore, the moral is that indulgence cannot be the abolition of all limits and must be reasoned. If it is done extraordinarily well, but if it happens regularly then the diet will probably be affected.
The opinion of the dietitian
“First of all, following a dietary plan means choosing to improve one’s state of health and quality of life – explained the specialist – Keeping this motivation close means choosing consciously and not imposing it. Being able to make a break from the rule from time to time, however, allows you to feel less controlled and this is especially beneficial on an emotional level. It increases the “sense of freedom” and often improves compliance with the diet. Moreover, putting oneself in a position to better focus on one’s own tastes, focusing on the occasional, opting for a product that is qualitatively valid. Therefore, a homemade ice cream in the park will occasionally be better than an ice cream made after dinner every evening; it will be more appreciated and you will learn to have a different perception of taste. All this makes the dietary process more acceptable, also from a social point of view”.
