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Hello and welcome to another episode of the Leo Alves podcast and in today's podcast episode I'm going to speak to you about our weekends ruining your fat loss progress.
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Just because I do feel like this is a c uh a common enough subject, I remember the first time I really encountered someone
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Introduction: Are weekends ruining your fat loss?
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just being completely, I guess you could say, bamboozled at this uh or or completely stumped.
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I remember when I was working on a gym on the gym floor
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And I was doing a lot of one-to-one personal training.
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But as I was, you know, running this gym, doing one-to-one personal training, I remember doing health MOTs with people, that's what it was called.
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Basically I would take
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their blood pressure, their cholesterol levels, you know, get a feel for their lifestyle.
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Um basically.
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And then you know depending on their fitness goals and the questions they had, I'd give them feedback on what they could improve, how they would you know approach
things differently.
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And I remember one guy being completely confused at the time.
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As to why he just wouldn't shed body fat.
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And then as the discussion went on, he basically said that he tracks religiously Monday to Friday
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Very in routine, 100% in the calorie deficit.
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And then I was like, okay, so how do your weekends look?
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And he just basically said on weekends I kind of just like relax.
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I let myself
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you know, ease up, do what I want because you know I've been quote unquote good all week and there was the issue.
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Um obviously we discussed that in more depth, but basically it's just
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one hundred percent possible for weekends to compl to uh one hundred percent undo the you know the the work you put in Monday to Friday
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Um because if you really think about as well, like if we include Fridays in this equation as well, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I think it makes like forty something
percent of your month
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I haven't done the maths on that in a while, so the figures have slipped my mind.
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But I think on average it's it's about 40 something percent of your month, and that's a lot.
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Like that is absolutely more than enough
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to undo the progress that you would have potentially made from throughout the week.
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Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
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Friday night comes, you eat whatever you want Saturday, do the same Sunday, you know, you think you've already
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Maybe say you probably telling yourself you messed up on Friday and a Saturday, so you know might as well continue doing what you've been doing on Sunday and then
tomorrow you'll just get back on plan.
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Like that's another type of mindset.
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So yeah, it's just absolutely enough time.
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And um
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That's uh that was the first time I really just came across that mindset and since then I have come across it more consistently.
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Um just you know obviously just getting more years and more reps underneath my belt, just talking to many people.
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Um
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Some of which became one-to-one online fitness members as well.
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And uh and yeah, you just end up learning more and just seeing recurring themes as to what's quite common
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But otherwise still get stuck straight in.
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I guess this wasn't straight in as I I did go on a bit of a ramble uh uh uh before this podcast episode started, but
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To get stuck into the 10 questions I have in front of me that are related to this subject, question one, can two bad days really undo five good days of dieting?
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Can two bad days really undo five good days?
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And yeah
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Um as I've already kind of said in the opening question, it can if you think about it, let's put it like this.
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Like you've got, and I'm gonna get a calorie uh a calculator up out in front of me.
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So
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Let's say your calorie goal to be in a deficit is 1900 calories daily on average.
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Let's say
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Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, you man oh okay, and this question is specifically two days.
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So let's say you've done Monday to Friday, you've got 1900 calories on average
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By the weekend, if it comes around, I probably don't need my calculator for this actually.
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Let's say you suddenly shoot on
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Up to like three thousand calories, three thousand five hundred, which is a lot easier to eat than I think a lot of people realize.
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You know, full sugary soda, su uh a food that's very high in fat
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Um and then a dessert, like uh so the food could be like a burger with full fat mayonnaise and then like maybe a a large portion of fries and then a large drink that's a full
sugary soda
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And then maybe you go for dessert after, which, I don't know, could be like a popular dessert place where it's going to be like an ice cream on a waffle, easily three
thousand five hundred calories there, especially if you take into account you might still have breakfast and lunch on top of that
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Or breakfast and dinner, depending when in the day you had it.
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Um you know, you put three thousand five hundred calories two days back to back, what is that seven thousand calories?
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That's like and then add that what is that during the week?
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So if we've got 1900 calories, actually I am going to get my calculator up
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9,500 plus 7,000 on the weekend, divide that by 7.
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By the end of it, you've averaged about a rounded 2400 calories a day.
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That's enough to take you out your calorie deficit
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So yeah, 100% it's enough.
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Two two days of um of just I guess telling yourself fuck it is absolutely enough to undo five days worth of work.
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It can sound like
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You know, the thing is some people might hear this and just think, damn, what is the point then if it's just going to take so much work?
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Like, there are ways to work around it 100%.
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It's just, it is going to take some like
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mental like genuine like some some mental like some thought it is going to take mental effort it's got it's going to take it like otherwise everyone would be doing it
let's face it like anything that's
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You know, anything that's worth doing, like is it maybe something you've been struggling with for a while?
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Like it is going to take some mental effort.
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And uh there are absolutely ways to work around it, etc.
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Like I and I'll get into all of that as the podcast goes on, but
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Question number two, why does my weight shoot up after the weekend?
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Why does your weight increase after the weekend?
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So there could be various reasons for this.
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I think a very common one is because
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Like I kinda was just saying now after the weekend because you're eating more food by the time mine that Monday comes around, you just have more food content inside of you
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And that food has to weigh something.
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So you haven't necessarily instantly gained more body fat.
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You just weigh more because you have more food content inside of you.
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Like when you eat food, it takes a while to digest.
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It doesn't vanish instantly.
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So by the time the morning comes around, especially if you're having it like later on in the Sunday, that food's still going to be inside of you.
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So that's something to think about.
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But also it could just be due to the fact that you're eating foods typically on the weekend that
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You don't typically eat, like maybe they're higher in sodium, for example.
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And sodium, it it can cause more water retention as well in the body
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And uh that temporary, you know, extra water retention is going to weigh something as well.
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Um there could be various other reasons that might have nothing to do with the weekend too, and it was just a bit of
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incidents like your time of the month.
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Did you do like a strength training session over the weekend, which can uh sometimes temporarily cause an increase in scale weight as well?
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And time of the month by that, you know, hormones that can you know definitely make your body weight fluctuate
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Um, do you need to poo?
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To put it bluntly.
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Do you need to use the toilet?
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Yeah, like that's got to weigh something as well.
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Uh so there could be various reasons for it, but I think specifically related to the weekend is what I
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um kind of covered at the beginning of that answer.
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Is a Monday scale increase actually body fat?
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Question number three, is the extra weight after a meal out actually body fat?
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No, because you kind of just answered
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the questionnaire.
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The extra weight after a mill out is going to be the mill.
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That mill has to weigh something.
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It's not just going to vanish into thin air.
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Um and I do think a lot of people freak out when they just see like a temporary spike in the scale.
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Especially many people who maybe have a uh maybe a poor relationship with the scale.
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um because they don't think about it like logically.
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Um and even though maybe they understand that, I think sometimes just seeing a higher body weight on the scale just still makes them feel some type of way.
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Like it still makes them feel anxious
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Um but yeah, it's literally just food.
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Like I that's why I don't weigh myself after I eat.
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Like what am I trying to achieve from that?
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I know it's going to be inaccurate
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I know, for example, let's say I've had half a pizza or a whole pizza.
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That pizza is going to add more scale weight.
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Because it it has to weigh something.
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The scale doesn't just weigh body fat, it weighs everything that is
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putting force on that platform that's on that w on that scale weight.
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On that scale I should say.
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So
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Yeah, I don't weigh myself after I eat just because I know it's not going to be accurate.
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What am I going to achieve from that?
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Unless I'm like just genuinely curious to see, you know, oh, how much can it change the scale
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Um but yeah, it's just it it yeah, it uh you are going to is the extra weight after meal like actually body fat?
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No.
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It's not actually body fat.
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Um it's just that meal that you ate.
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Um question number four, should I eat fewer calories during the week to save more for the weekend?
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Should you save calories for the weekend?
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This can work brilliantly for some people.
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It's called calorie cycling, and this can really backfire for others.
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I have some one-to-one online fitness members.
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um who do that right now calorie cycling because it works really well for them um where it's like okay let's say your calorie goal again it's let's say it's two thousand
calories a day
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What is that?
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So times by seven and I'm gonna give you a an example of what calorie cycling looks like and what I've kind of done with my one-to-one online fitness client Matt.
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Um so times by seven you get f uh
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1400.
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No, you get 1400.
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Sorry.
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I don't know why I said 1400.
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So you get fourteen hundred, and then
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You can kind of split that up however you want.
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Let's say during the week you don't really eat as much because
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You just don't have as an appetite.
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You're at work, you're busy, you're working your nine to five, you've got so many things going on.
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Um you don't really have enough time to just really stop and think about food, so you just find you naturally eat less.
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Maybe you might make your calorie goal one thousand six hundred during the week.
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Just because even though your calorie deficit goal is 2,000 calories daily, like you can find you just eat 1600 calories from Monday to Friday and it's fine.
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It works for you
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So that's 8,000 calories Monday to Friday.
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The goal was for your goal was 1400.
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So what is uh so from that you've still got six thousand calories left for the weekend.
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Um yeah, six thousand calories left for the weekend.
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So
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Boom, that's 3,000 calories uh on the weekends for Saturday and Sunday.
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So it just leaves you like, oh now I can eat 3000 calories on the weekend, Saturday and Sunday, and still be in a calorie deficit.
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That's wild
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But yeah, that's what's called calorie cycling because ultimately like even like you don't have to be in a calorie deficit every day.
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to lose body fat it's more like what are you doing uh like as uh uh for the average over time like the average over time is most important so you like let's say your weekly
average so that's most important
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And if you're in a calorie deficit, by the end of that week, on average, then it works.
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Um some people just find it fits in their routine because they just find they eat more on weekends.
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Um they have more free time.
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They go out with their friends more.
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They just need that extra space for those extra calories and that can work really well.
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Um again
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McCly Matt, he's seen great success with that.
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Other people, they just find it almost turns it into like a bit a bit of a binge and restrict cycle for them.
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Um and so it's not probably good for them because then they're like
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It just encourages a bit of a binge and restrict mindset.
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So you just have to figure out what type of person you are and then you know what you think can work best for you.
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Maybe try both if you've never uh done calorie cycling before and see how you feel about it.
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You know, it that that 1600 calorie during the weekends and then three thousand calories on the um that one thousand six hundred calor
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calorie example during the weekdays and then the three thousand calories on weekends, it was just a random example.
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Like you figure out what your calorie deficit goal is.
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And then like see how you want to split up your maybe Monday to Thursday or Monday to Friday and then your Friday to Sunday or your Saturday and Sunday.
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You can you can just make it personal to you.
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That's why I feel like calorie cycling can work really well as well for many people.
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Um question number five, is it better to have one relaxed meal or an entire relaxed day?
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One relaxed meal or an entire relaxed day?
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I personally prefer to just have like an untracked meal.
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Some people like to call this a cheat meal and some people like to say a cheat day.
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I don't really like that because I do feel like
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um the words we use can be quite powerful more than we realize and uh and I think like just uh like cheating is inherently negative
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a lot of the time and I think when we use a negative connotation to descri like a negative a negative word to describe like our food
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I already think like that's a bit of a poor mindset to have.
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I don't really like that.
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Um for some, you know, can it work great for some people?
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Yeah.
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Like, but I think for most people I I don't really want to call it that because I we I immediately think like
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Oh like you're having a cheat meal, like you're cheating on your diet, like this is a like this is uh not a good thing that you're doing.
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I like to say to a lot of my one-to-one online fitness members, have one untracked meal a week
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Well you don't track it.
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Maybe you leave some about 1000 calories free for the day for it and then you can just have whatever you want.
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Within reason.
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Obviously don't turn it turn it into like a free course event
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But like yeah, save a thousand calories for it and just enjoy an untracked meal.
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And I and that can work brilliantly for some people as well.
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I did that for many years and it worked great for me.
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Um so I would say have a a a one untracked meal
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I think sometimes if we turn it into a whole untracked day, I think there's just potential for that to really turn into a bit of a binge like
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Day and I'm not a fan of that.
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I've never recommended it to anyone.
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I'm not gonna say that that's what would happen to everyone, but I just think that's more of a slippery slope if I was to just kind of think about
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it logically.
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Um I w you know, saying that could you have like an untracked day potentially if you must.
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Like sometimes life just throws curveballs at us and we're going to be off our routine and maybe we're going travelling or
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Or something unexpected has happened to in a day where you genuinely just couldn't accurately track your food at all.
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Like you could maybe guess, but you have to guess so much that there's almost no point tracking it.
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So
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Yeah, I guess in that case you had an on track today, but you know, still use um still use common sense, put it that way.
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Like still use a good amount of initiative.
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Like think about this sensibly.
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So
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Yeah, I would probably not kind of describe everything like that.
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Um question number six.
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Does alcohol make fat loss harder even when calories are controlled?
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Does alcohol make fat loss harder?
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Um yes, it's going to make fat loss harder even when calories are controlled, just because I feel like with alcohol often, and I remember Alan Aragon speaking about
this many years ago, and that's where I really it really
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stuck with me.
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And I didn't, you know, it's not just him speaking about this that made me realize this.
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Like there's many things going into it.
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Like alcohol is genuinely not good for your body.
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Now, I'm not gonna pretend like many people don't enjoy a drink.
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It can be fine, it can add food to social events, you know, it's a social lubricant, like it it has positives, but
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We're gonna have to be realistic as well.
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Let's face it, it it's not good for you.
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In no way how you like no matter how you spin it.
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Like I know I know there's those things as well where it's like one glass a day of wine is good for you.
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No, it's not good for you
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Okay, sometimes that's fine.
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Sometimes people are willing to take that trade-off, and that's okay.
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I'm not I I don't care, okay, if you're wanting to have like a glass every so often.
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Um
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But what I do care about is sticking with the facts and the facts are that alcohol, you know, it is going to make fat loss generally harder when calories are controlled.
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Why?
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A few reasons
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First of all, you know, it's going to be calories.
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It's extra calories that you're getting from a liquid.
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A liquid is not going to fill you up.
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Liquids don't fill you up
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They're not going to be as filling as solid foods.
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Foods with fiber, foods with protein.
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So you're already like knocking off I'm gonna throw random numbers out there.
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I don't know.
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200 calories for the day
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You're starting with 200 calories less from something that just doesn't fill you up in any way.
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So it's like you're starting with your a g like you're starting with like already like let's almost say a 200 calorie penalty.
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Um there's no nutritional value to it
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You know, there's like I said, there's no pri protein, there's no fiber, there's no healthy fats.
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Um so there is that as well.
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That's going to make it more challenging.
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Also, you know, if you drink, depending on how much you're drinking, something that Alan Aragon will informally call your fuck it factor goes up.
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You are
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When when you've had more drinks and maybe you're around certain people you're just gonna be like ah fuck it it's alright let's you know let's get some fried chicken why
not?
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You know, I've been I've been dieting for a while now, why not?
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Let's have some fried chicken.
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Let's get a burger.
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Let's get a you know, like just your decision making becomes a lot more relaxed
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So yeah, there's just going to be a few things that do you have you do have to take into account that is going to make fat loss more challenging when
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You're drinking alcohol.
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How to manage restaurant meals without perfect tracking
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Um question number seven, how can I manage meals out without tracking everything perfectly?
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I think there's a few things that we can bear in mind.
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I think
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Number one, it's kind of what I said earlier, like maybe like leave a certain amount of calories free for that meal out.
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I think that can work quite well for some people.
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For others I think it backfires a bit though where they leave like a thousand calories free and then they go into that meal out really hungry so they overeat more.
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I think you have to find out what type of person you are
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Um I think one way to counter that is like when you have the meal out, okay, leave a thousand calories free, but like have a protein shake beforehand because protein is
really filling.
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Um so if you have like a protein shop beforehand
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Number one, like you're already doing something good.
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You're increasing your protein goal for the day.
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Like that's already a good thing.
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And number two, you're you're making it less likely like you're just going to overeat when you go out, which you know
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if you have specific health and fitness goals, that's only going to help.
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Um also a lot of chain restaurants nowadays they have like their calorie menu online.
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the the the nutritional value online for it.
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So you can even go in there and you can even in advance if you know where you're going, just look at the menu online.
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Look at the nutritional value for it.
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A lot of um
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It is for the bigger chains.
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I think like obviously family owned businesses aren't going to have this like family-owned restaurants, like mum and pop sh uh pop restaurants, as I think they call
them in the US.
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But like the bigger chains, yeah, they're going to have it.
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You can check how many calories the mill has protein, carbs, fats.
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It is just an estimate.
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Uh, but it's best but it's better than having absolutely no idea.
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What I like to do is like estimate and then maybe slightly round up
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And that's what I would say is probably quite good.
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And then you can like bear it in mind like that as well.
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Should you skip breakfast before a night out?
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Question number eight.
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Should I skip breakfast before a big meal or night out?
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You could, but again, I've seen this backfire for some people.
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Again, it's always you know what?
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These things are always going to depend on the perfect person.
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Okay, try skipping breakfast.
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Before a big meal or night out, that could work.
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But if skipping breakfast means that you overeat more later in the day and then you start binging more because you've been hungry or because you had no breakfast, maybe
it kinda defeated the purpose.
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Maybe you ended up eating more than you otherwise would have throughout the day if you just had a breakfast as well.
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So it could it can depend on the person
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Just maybe try both, see what you feel works for you best.
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Um another option is just maybe have a smaller breakfast.
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That's probably what I like to do more, just have a smaller breakfast
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prioritise protein, prioritise fibre, instead of if I was going to have maybe a sandwich, I'm probably not gonna have a sandwich on that day just so I'm not having like
that extra bread.
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But what I will prioritize is maybe I'll have a protein shake and an apple.
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So I'm getting that protein, I'm getting that apple.
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Um just something like that.
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I'm thinking out loud, but these are all things that you could consider, maybe a smaller breakfast.
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Or maybe again, like I said, try
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No breakfast, try skipping it.
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Maybe try still having breakfast.
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Maybe you you eat you end up naturally eating less later because you're just not as hungry throughout the day.
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There's a lot of ways to um
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What do they say?
20:24
There's a lot of ways to skin a potato, skin an apple?
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I am butchering the saying right now, but there are a lot of basic there's a basically a lot of ways that can work.
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Um question it's just going to depend on the person.
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Why are you hungrier at weekends?
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Question number nine, why am I usually hungrier at weekends?
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I think I kind of touched upon this earlier.
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It's often because we can okay, weekdays
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You're busy, you've got work, you're seeing like many people because you're at that nine to five you might be in the office, you're seeing various people, you know, you
you got a lot going on, so naturally you're busier because
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you're busier, you're seeing and interacting with so many people, you know, you've got emails to reply to, meetings to attend, presentations to make.
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You're just you just don't have as much time to think about food
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You know, you're you're walking back and forth, you just you don't have time to think about food.
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You've got so much going on.
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Weekends come around, you suddenly have more time.
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You're not walking as much
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You might still see people, but not as many, because you're not in this like massive building anymore or like just at work where you see so many people.
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Um
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Yeah, like I said, you might have a bit more free time.
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Routine is a little bit more all over the place on weekends.
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You're not in that nine to f that you're not in that routine that the nine to five forces you from Monday to Friday.
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And with all of those combination uh all of those factors on weekends, you have more time to think about food now.
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Or um
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And yeah, and and with that, naturally you're going to be a little bit hungrier, chances.
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Chances are you're going to be a bit hungrier.
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So that's just something to think about as well.
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Um question number 10.
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What should you do after an overeating weekend?
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What should I do after eating much more than planned?
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Honestly, this answer might surprise you.
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And some people might say differently to what I'm about to say.
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But in my opinion, you do nothing.
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You get back to doing exactly uh assuming that this isn't a a consistent occurrence and this isn't something that keeps happening
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If this is just a one-off, get back to doing what you were doing.
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Oftentimes the issue is never this eating much more than planned.
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Oftentimes the issue becomes how you react to that.
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Just get back to doing what you were before.
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Don't swear it.
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Now, if this is a a common reoccurrence, I would say it's worth thinking about why this is potentially happening
22:41
Are you not eating enough protein?
22:45
Is too small?
22:46
There could be a few things there.
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Um I know I also said at the beginning of this answer that some people might say differently
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Some people might say like, oh, the next day or the next meal eat less.
22:57
But I also think that can be a slippery slope for some people because then for some people they eat less, which leaves them hungrier later, which causes them to overeat
later.
23:05
So in my opinion
23:07
I just would get back to doing exactly as you were before.
23:11
And I think honestly, I think for most people not all, I think for some people, just you know, eating less on the next morning or the next day can work well, but I think most
people honestly they just need to get back to
23:21
What they were doing before.
23:22
Don't overcomplicate this shit.
23:24
I think just yeah, just get back to what you were doing and you're gonna be fine.
23:28
It's not the end of the world.
23:30
Otherwise, that is it for today's podcast episode.
23:30
Final thoughts: Can Two Bad Days Undo Five Good Days of Dieting?
23:32
If you are interested in becoming a one
23:34
to one online fitness member as well.
23:36
And working with me, just like I am with Matt.
23:39
For example, as I as I was you know speaking about him earlier in this podcast episode, there is the link to find out more information about one-to-one online fitness
coaching in the show notes of this podcast episode.
23:49
So just check it out there.
23:50
The information is all on there.
23:51
You know how one-to-one online fitness coaching works, the pricing, communication, what you can expect, etc.
23:58
etc.
23:59
So
23:59
Um yeah, just click that link in the show notes of this podcast episode otherwise take care and uh I'll see you next week.
24:05
Bye-bye
