If your diet can't be maintained throughout the weekend, it's not sustainable
You’ve been eating “good” all week long and now the weekend hits. You are so sick of eating your boring, un-satiating food, and your appetite is UNREAL. You are ready to go ham on some ice cream and pizza because you think “I stuck to my plan all week and now it’s time to treat myself.” You end up eating way more than you expect and then you follow-up with restricting throughout the week and the cycle goes on and on and on.
To give you more perspective let’s look at this mathematically because I’m a nerd and I like numbers:
Mon-Thurs:
1800 calories daily ◀️ stick strictly to diet
Fri-Sun:
3500 cals daily ◀️ go apeshit crazy on the weekends
Average cals for the week:
2500 cals daily
Versus a more consistent approach at higher calories daily:
Sun-Sat:
2200 cals daily
Average cals for the week:
2200 cals
When you allow yourself to eat enough every day, you feel less deprived and you are less likely to go overboard on the weekends because you haven’t starved yourself throughout the week. When your body is being well-fed, it is more likely to stay the course and not cry out for more food because it is getting enough fuel.
More benefits of eating consistently throughout the week:
Eating more food everyday (YES!!)
Feeling satiated
Feeling of freedom to have ice cream or some pizza if you want it and not restricting those foods just on the weekends
Not going through an endless cycle of going overboard, feeling guilty about it, restricting all throughout the week, repeat.
You can make progress without extreme restriction and depriving yourself of foods you love to eat. If the diet you have during the week can’t be maintained throughout the weekend, then it’s not going to be sustainable in the long-term. Progress is made when we find a plan that works best for our needs and that we can sustain after a time with little effort.
Written By: Lauren Steppe, Nutrition Coach