[rt_reading_time label=”Reading Time:” postfix=”minutes” postfix_singular=”minute”]
You may know I moved house last year.
Now we have four kids we needed a bit more space.
Expensive business moving house, isn’t it?
Obvious stuff like the stamp duty, moving costs, etc.
But then there’s always more extra stuff that needs sorting than you think.
So we’ve run up a bit of extra credit card debt over the last few months.
We’ve got to the point where it’s levelled off.
But, I’m sure you know if you are or ever have been in debt, repaying it’s hard, isn’t it?
You have to go from being in a spending surplus…………
Not just down to a balance to stop it getting worse………….
But then in a deficit to start clawing back.
Hard when you have a fair number of costs you just can’t stop.
It’s the same with weight loss.
Balancing Weekend Calories
Whether it’s longer term weight gain caused by years of being in a calorie surplus………
That needs to be followed a reasonable length of being in a deficit to claw it back.
Or, on a shorter term basis, the weekends derailing the week. How do you go about balancing weekend calories?
We don’t believe in living like monks.
For the average person (ourselves included) the weekend will rarely be as good as the week from a food and drink perspective.
We get that.
But if the surplus of the weekend is too much to ‘pay back’ in the week, then we’ll just roll further and further into ‘debt’.
It’s pretty easy to go, say 1,500 calories into surplus in a day.
Few big meals, with puddings and a load of alcohol and / or sugary drinks?
Two days of that and you’re 3,000 calories over.
You could average that out by going into a 600 calorie deficit over the next five days, of course (and that’s just to stand still, you’d need more to be in a net deficit for the week).
But that’s a difference of 2,100 cals between a weekend day and a week day.
Noticeable!
Hard to do!
Can we still have a great weekend, but only go into a 500 cal surplus?
1,000 cals repayable over 5 days equals 200 per day.
A difference of 700 between weekend day and weekday.
Much more doable, yeah?
A few tactical swaps can make that happen.
Swapping pints of beer for spirits.
Not going too nuts on meals out (big difference between a main and small pudding versus a starter, main, couple of sides and a big pudding).
Cutting portion sizes on the other meals over the weekend.
Maybe even skipping a meal (most FitPros will advise against this as it will “ruin your metabolism” whatever that means. What’s the point though, in having an extra meal if you’re not hungry and you’re only a few hours from a binge? Doesn’t mean we’re advising binging, but if you’re going to do it, then an extra meal on top isn’t the answer).
Hell, there’s no reason why we can’t make the weekend ‘net nill’ (neither a surplus nor a deficit).
And then the week can be all forward progress.
In general though – minimise the ‘debt’ of the weekend and it will be much easier to pay off 🙂
Much love,
Jon ‘Free Direct’ Hall and Matt ‘Consolidation’ Nicholson
P.S. Last chance, for you or a friend – the find-out-more meeting for May starters at RISE in Macclesfield is tonight. Don’t leave it another month. Check it out if you like the sound of an approach that isn’t about living like a monk. Details and booking at the briefing meeting page.
RISE Macclesfield – myrise.co.uk
Serious transformations. Fun times!
Enter your details at myrise.co.uk for more information about what we do.
Or check out our monthly find-out-more meeting if you want to learn more about our free ’20lbs weight loss in 8 weeks’ and ‘Beach Body’ challenges –> myrise.co.uk/briefing-meeting
