The weekend is where a diet comes unstuck.
We let our hair down, we want to enjoy ourselves a bit, go out for a few drinks or eat out.
So it’s easy to see why this is typically where we ruin our diet. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
It is definitely possible to eat what you want on the weekend and still lose weight.
But you need to follow a few rules, you need to understand you won’t get there overnight, but it is definitely possible.
There are a few tricks and tips I want to share with you, that will show you that, if you do it right you can have your cake and eat it too.
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Can you eat what you want and still lose weight?
The short answer is yes.
But you have some work to do before you can, there are a few moving parts in this and a few things you need to understand.
Now I’m not being dishonest or sneaky here, because I do eat what I want, I also train hard and track what I eat.
But I coach people to achieve their health and fitness goals as a profession. I have access to a gym whenever I want it.
I can build my schedule around when I want to train and get my meals in.
I understand that not everyone has this luxury so I want to use a different example, one easier for you to relate to.
My wife has a schedule much like yours.
She has to fit her training in around her work hours and she’s learned what she should be eating by trial and error.
She deliberately stays under her calories during the week so that she has some wiggle room on the weekend.
She also has her rest days from exercise during the week and not on the same days she’s relaxing her diet.
She’s formed these habits gradually, as she has seen from experiences I’ve had with my clients that it takes time to build a habit.
When you try and do everything at once it can become overwhelming and easy to throw in the towel.
There is work you have to do to get to this point.
And you need to understand what food is worth and view it as fuel for the most part.
By tracking our macros we can see can what sort of calories we’re eating and start to budget for the kinds of food we want to eat.
What are macros?
Macros or macronutrients are the 3 main categories of nutrients we eat, they are carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.
Our bodies run best when our diet has a balance of macronutrients right.
This balance depends on several factors including body type, height, weight, age, and activity level.
Firstly we work out how many calories we need, then we divide those calories between the macros nutrients.
Sounds like a lot of work right, well it is.
But the great news is we don’t have to do it ourselves.
There are apps like myfitnesspal that do it for us, we punch in all that information and let the app do the maths.
Then we have to start doing our bit, which is where the habit-building starts.
You log what you eat every day, and the app tells you how many calories and macros you just ate and what you have left for the day.
Once you understand the macros split that works for you, you can start to eat more of the foods you want.
And look, this is a constant work in progress for me, but the more you log what you eat, the more you understand what you’re eating.
I know it sounds very tedious logging everything you eat.
But if you want to eat whatever you want and still lose weight this is how you do it.
That’s why you want to start off just focusing on logging your food, building the habit.
Next, you start to make sure you stay under your calories.
And finally, you start to focus on making your food fit into your macros.
And once you can do that your diet is now just like your budget.
Treat it the same as if you want to go on holiday.
You have to cut back on costs in other areas so you can save.
The same goes for that piece of cake, you cut back carbs in other meals so you can have that slice of cake later on.
We’re going to look at a few myths about food and exercise and see that some foods aren’t as bad as you might have thought.
And in time you will be able to eat what you want and still lose weight.
Weight loss-friendly foods
So, we’re not going to talk about the obvious ones, I want you to see that some of the food we thought we shouldn’t have much of are actually going to help us lose weight.
Eggs
We often focus too much on the fats in the yolk.
I’m not going to deny that eggs are high in fats, but they’re also high in protein.
Fats and protein take longer for your body to digest so when you start your day with fats and proteins you stay full for longer.
Studies have shown that women who swapped out their breakfast bagel with eggs felt fuller and ate less that day.
Salmon
This is here for very similar reasons to eggs, it’s high in protein and high in fats.
Salmon is full of omega-3 fatty acids which are amazing for way more things than just controlling your weight.
Omega-3 can promote brain health, improve eye health, and fight depression and anxiety.
Avocado
Now you’re going to start noticing a bit of them here, avocado is loaded with healthy fats!
And what do fats do?
Keep us full longer.
But avocado is full of water and fiber.
Fiber being something else we’re looking for to keep us full.
Avocado is not as calorie-dense as you would think making it another great choice to get in.
Whole grains like oats, brown rice, and quinoa
Now all these guys are carbs, but carbs aren’t the bad guy.
I don’t want you to think this is a pro keto article.
Carbs are your body’s preferred energy source.
We just need to make better choices.
And these guys are all loaded with fiber and come with a little protein as well.
Greek yogurt
Another high protein option, avoided added flavors though as these are just sugar.
Greek yogurt is a go-to snack of mine, mixed with some frozen berries and nuts, it beats the shit out of ice cream.
It tastes fresher, it’s a cleaner source of protein and it’s going to fill you up for longer.
It’s a perfect snack to get in after your weekend workout.
Can you turn fat into muscle?
No.
Sorry, but whoever started that one sucks big time.
They’ve confused the facts a little and it leads plenty of people astray.
The fact is when you build muscle you burn more fat.
Muscle is heavier than fat, so the more muscle you have the heavier you are and the more calories you burn just by moving around.
So I can see how facts have been twisted over time.
This leads us to why we need to get more protein in our diet.
Protein helps your muscles recover and grow, so this is the first thing I encourage you to get right in your diet.
Understand how much protein your body needs and build your meals around it.
Then it’s all about tweaking your carbs and your fats, giving your body enough carbs for energy.
When you give your body more carbs than it needs, it saves that energy for later, it’s efficient like that.
But how does it store that energy?
As fat…. Now, do you see the problem with carbs?
We eat more than we need.
We can eat whatever we want, as long as it fits into the numbers our body needs.
So, unfortunately, you won’t be able to have everything all in one day.
But once you know what your treats are worth you build your day around them.
Can you target fat loss?
Another no.
You can not target fat loss.
Even though you can build muscle in certain areas, as we see with all the guys skipping leg day and ladies just training booty out there.
Your body is going to burn fat based on your overall fitness, not just working one area or muscle group.
Fat is broken down into glycerol and then enters the bloodstream.
Once in the bloodstream, it can be used as fuel anywhere in the body, not just the muscles being worked.
What we need to understand is, for the most part, we need to view food as fuel.
Your body is a machine and it runs better when it gets the fuel it needs.
If you own a Lamborghini are you going to put cheap fuel and oil in it?
Of course not, you’re going to give it the best to make sure it runs awesome!
So stop treating your body like a civic!
Another problem we have is our fuel tank doesn’t overflow when it hits its limit. It takes that extra fuel and saves it for later.
Our body changes to store that fuel as fat.
Honestly, there is no ‘the best diet’.
If you eat fewer calories than you use, you will lose weight.
Any diet in the world has a macro split, Keto, for example, has a very small percentage of carbs, but there is still a percentage.