Are you the type of person to follow your meal plan Monday to Friday, but as soon as the weekend arrives, its a free for all?
Having a "Be reyt, I failed and will start again Monday" attitude overtime will not only cause your progress to slow, but could also put you in a much worse position than where you started. Not only your body composition, but also your relationship with food.
Constantly failing at something can lead most people to just giving up and reverting back to their old habits and routines.
So how could we manipulate your weekly diet to allow more leniency for this kind of routine?
Enter, 'The Weekend Warrior' Strategy
This young stud goes hard in the gym Monday to Friday, and even puts in the effort with preparing meals, counting calories and has football practice every Wednesday on top of all that, but then Saturday night comes around...
Beers at the pub with mates, a rough 90-minutes playing football Sunday morning and a Sunday roast back at the parent's in the afternoon to nurse the hangover.
Monday - Friday = 2,500kcal per day
Saturday = 4,000kcal
Sunday = 3,000kcal
Total Weekly Calories = 19,500kcal (+2,000kcal over target of 2,500kcal per day)
Without getting into alcohol and binge eating, let's just look at calories and how this scenario could be made better inline with this individuals goal...
Monday - Friday = 2,100kcal
Saturday = 4,000kcal
Sunday = 3,000kcal
Total Weekly Calories = 17,500kcal (averaging 2,500kcal per day)
Do The Maths And Use Common Sense
Simply distribute the calories from a weekly overall target to cater for higher calorie days/occasions.
Of course, this is better executed when planned ahead as you could either cut yourself short of calories during the week, or over indulge on the weekend thinking you have more available than you actually do.
This isn't only for weekends, but in the long-term it can be a much more sustainable method than simply having a daily target.
Experiment and find what works best for you, if you have any questions then please don't hesitate for further advice!