Weekdays vs Weekends

Weekdays vs Weekends 😇

This is an extremely common pattern I see in my clients, and myself. Weekdays are often “ok” calorie wise or even good, and then weekends it goes a bit off track.

You may think that if you stick to your fat-loss calorie target for most of the time (5 days a week) that it’s ok to just relax at the weekend. Now sometimes this can work, but it rather depends how much you relax lol! In this example I’ve assumed a daily calorie goal of 1,800 cals for fat loss, or 12,600 calories per week. So Monday to Friday you hit those calories, or perhaps are even a little under (8,555 cals during the week in this example). Then on Saturday and Sunday you “relax” and have a few “treats”, because it’s the weekend right? You’ve been good all week so it’s fine… In this example I’ve included two weekend breakfasts, a pizza one night, a couple of glasses of wine, some crisps in front of a movie, sunday evening ice cream and chocolate etc. That’s 5,241 calories and doesn’t even include a full weekend of eating and drinking (especially if you start on Friday evening.. or even Thursday). Just those treats on top of the weekday calories take you to 13,796 calories for the week. So you’re already over by nearly 1,200 cals.

That extra 1,200 cals (or more) is why you won’t be losing fat. It’s very easy for that to happen. The things I’ve described for weekend treats aren’t crazy or particularly over indulgent. I’m sure we’ve all had weekends like that right? Now I’m definitely not suggesting you don’t enjoy some of these foods from time to time, but if you really want to lose fat then its worth getting away from the idea of weekends being focused on food and drink “treats”. Have the things you enjoy but in moderation and within your overall weekly calorie target.

Ways to do this include, reducing your weekday calories a little to give you a buffer for the weekend (be cautious with this though as if you take them too low you will find you tend to binge at the weekend which is counter productive so only aim to save 100-150 cals per day max). Also try going for smaller options of the weekend treats, a small bar of chocolate, a single portion bag of crisps, low cal ice cream etc. Pick one meal you want to let your hair down with rather than the entire weekend and keep tracking over the weekend so you can see where the extra cals are creeping in.

OR decide that life’s too short and you don’t want to restrict your calories over the weekend but then accept that you won’t be able to lose fat (which is absolutely fine too! You don’t need to lose fat – no one does).

🤗

Xx