Another weekend has passed so it’s time to get back on the grind, back to watching what you are eating and tracking your food and your weight.You may have seen an infographic like the one attached before but this one is tailored specifically to the average Irish person who is looking to lose weight.As you can see Monday – Friday the person trains 3 days of weights and 2 days of cardio (this is probably a bit more than the average). The person eats the same breakfast and lunch each day – I am pretty sure most people do this during the working week.The only difference is Friday you decide to sit in and chill in the evening, have a beer and a pizza watching a movie – to treat yourself after a tough week. But, you trained that day so it is ok.Obviously, this means you will have consumed more calories so this is why there is an increase in calories compared to Mon – Thurs.Saturday morning you have a lazy morning nice and relaxed and make yourself a fry. You need to conserve your energy for your night out that evening so you don’t train. You head out with friends, have a few drinks and head to McDonald’s after for a burger and chips. Pretty standard right?You wake up Sunday feeling rough and craving grease so again you have a fry (you may even pluck up the courage and get yourself a breakfast roll – a true Irish delicacy). You then vegetate on the couch, binge watching Netflix until it’s time to have a somewhat proper meal. After surviving the hangover, you treat yourself to a couple of glasses of wine because, you know, tomorrow is Mondayand you will be back being healthy.In terms of your progress in the gym, what does this mean? All you have done is what I term as “damage control”.If maintenance calories are 2,500 that means Mon-Thur you are – 2,000 calories.Then Friday with the little treat of a pizza and a couple of beers you hit your maintenance calories.But then on Saturday and Sunday, you overeat 1000 calories each day.What was 2,000 calories deficit has now been cancelled out by the weekend you just had. Yes, you had your night out and a few treats and you didn’t gain any weight but your goal is not maintenance. Your goal was to lose weight and you won’t achieve that by following a lifestyle like the one shown. Regardless of how good you are during the week and how hard you train, all that hard work can easily be cancelled out by your weekend.Does this mean you can never meet up with your friends? No! You need to be smarter about it, you need to plan ahead. If you are serious about losing weight this will not be a problem.
