How to Prevent a Binge: The 80/20 Rule

Even after reaching my target body weight through eating well and exercising often, I still have cravings for foods I know I shouldn't eat - and this is after I've seen first hand just how important watching my diet is! I especially tend to eat poorly when I visit family and friends - afterall, who could say no when someone places a huge piece of warm apple pie topped with vanilla ice cream in front of you? Here's the truth of the matter: no matter what your weight or how far along you are in your weight loss program, it's actually okay to occasionally eat foods that are high in fat and even sugar, so long as you're doing it in moderation.

The Problem

Unfortunately, there's one problem that we need to address before I completely turn you loose and tell you it's okay to cheat a little bit. When you deprave yourself of junk food for a long period of time, you actually get very good at no longer craving it. However, once you start to bite into that brownie that you've denied yourself for so long, it can be extremely difficult to tear yourself away and only eat one brownie instead of the entire pan. From personal experience, I've also noticed that once I eat that one piece of junk food, I tend to go for other foods that are high in fat and sugar a lot more than I usually would. Why does this happen? It's the basic idea behind a binge: once we start, it's extremely hard to stop.

About the 80/20 Rule

So what can you do? Preventing binges is where the 80/20 rule comes in. According to this rule, you should try to eat great 80% of the time, but you can live a little and eat what you want the other 20% of the time. I can't stress enough how important it is to still implement portion control when you're enjoying your 20% part of the equation, but I'm sure you'll find portion control to be a lot easier when you are deliberately and systematically planning when you are going to eat junk food. My recommendation: before you start eating, determine how much you're going to eat, put the rest away and take that amount of food somewhere other than the kitchen to eat it. Don't just keep reaching into a bag of chips or cookies - you'll quickly lose track of how much you've had and then you've defeated the purpose of the 80/20 rule.

Why it Works

There are several benefits to this rule. First, as I've mentioned, when you're systematically eating small amounts of junk food, you'll be less likely to binge because your body won't have been deprived for a long period of time and you'll be more used to eating in moderation. Also, occasionally eating high calorie meals can actually cause your metabolism to run a little faster (this is especially true if you're on a strict low calorie diet that may cause your metabolism to slow down). Finally, the 80/20 rule makes it a lot easier to stick to your diet because you don't have to completely give up the foods you love, you just learn to eat them in moderation.