For me, I do a lot better with a certain amount of calorie cycling. I spend the weekdays at about 80% of my RDI, then the weekends are about 100-120% of RDI. This gives me a pretty regular 1 pound a week loss. My theory is that it resets the metabolism to have some high-calorie days. (I don't think of it as "cheat" days. It's not a cheat if you do it on purpose.)