Hey everyone, it’s Ross here from Live Young Fitness and Nutrition. In this video we’re going to talk about a problem I seem to be discussing a lot and have done in the nine years I’ve been a health and fitness coach. And that is the subject of my weekends are the problems. It’s just amazing how many people I speak to that will just say, “Monday to Friday I’m great,” or even, “Monday to Thursday I’m great and then the weekends it all just kind of goes a bit pear shaped.”
What I’m going to do is offer you some advice on this. There are three steps, three things to think about on how to tackle this problem if it arises. And like I said, it’s a very common one. First thing’s first, this isn’t one of the points by the way, but is to be aware of it. We can’t change anything if we keep lying to ourselves, so be aware of your weekends if you really see them as a problem in terms of we’re mainly talking food and drink here, aren’t we, let’s be fair.
Step 1, to help you get around this is we’re big believers that you should track your calories. Now if you’re already doing this, I’m going to give you a little tip in how to incorporate the weekend. First of all if you’re not tracking your calories, head over to our website, www.liveyoungbootcamp.co.uk/calorie-calculator. Pop your details into the calorie counter, hit the submit button, and it will give you some results. And just have a look at the line that says Calories to Lose Weight, which will help you lose weight at one to two pounds a week, which is a healthy weight target to be losing without being too heavy on ourselves. Write that figure down, and then multiply it by seven. And what you have is an outlook of your week. Multiply it by seven, look at your calories across the week rather than looking at it daily.
What you can then do is start to say to yourself, I don’t know, let’s just say it puts you at 1,500 calories. What’s that? Three, six, nine … that’s what, about 10,500 calories a week roughly? Let’s just say you know already because you’ve got this problem as you call it, you eat more on the weekends. It’s not unusual. It’s a more relaxed time, starting from Friday night we have a few drinks, we possibly have a takeaway. That rolls into Saturday. We’re not at work, we want to kick back. We deserve it, we’ve been working hard all week, we want to have some kind of treats as such. Factor them into your weekly calories.
So, you’re going to have to obviously track a couple of your weekends. Let’s just say rather than fighting it, you just say, “Look, I know across the weekend I’m going to have three or four glasses of wine.” You need to go away and work out the calories in the wine. “I’m going to have a takeaway,” so just do a rough guide, we always say takeaways are between about 900 and 1,000 calories. And you deduct that from your weekly calories. Then you’ve got a choice, you can divide the rest of the calories by seven, so you’ve got an equal amount to use each day. But, to be honest, like we’ve said, most people are better Monday to Thursday or Monday to Friday. So, eat a little bit less Monday to Friday, and then you’ve got more calories to use on the weekend.
Calories matter. Whether you want to track them religiously or not, they matter. You have to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight or at least maintain weight. Rather than being good for five days and then blowing out for two or three days and completely running your work, what this does psychologically is it keeps you on that hamster wheel of, “Oh my god, I can’t lose weight.”
So, factor your calories across the whole week. Take anything off that you want to have in there, and whatever’s left, play around with those figures to stay within a calorie deficit each day. Hopefully that all makes sense.
Step 2, plan your food for the week. Now, the week isn’t Monday to Friday, it’s Monday to Sunday when we look at planning food, so include your weekends in your meal plans, guys. Again, you’re in control of your food, just make sure it goes within your calories. So if you like a different breakfast on the weekend because you’ve got more time, have a different breakfast. Just be responsible with it.
So, use the calorie function, download an App called My Fitness Pal, pop your calories into there that you’ve calculated from our website, and track your calories for the week. And include your weekends. Start your meal plans from the weekend and work backwards rather than the other way, and you’ll start seeing better results. Those two days, Saturday and Sunday, count. They count. Stop ignoring them and stop burying your head in the sand. So, reverse your meal plan, but include it in your meal plan. If you’re not tracking food at the moment, if you’re not planning your food, start it guys. Even if you just do 50 to 60% of a rough meal plan, it will help you keep on track.
Step 3, is coming back to this we all like to be a little bit naughty, we like to have this naughty side in us. And dieting culture over the years has created this restrictive Monday to Thursday and then binge Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And we just need to be aware that we’re doing it. If your diet is that restrictive during the week that you have to go all out for three days and eat the world, then you need to change those four days. Guess how you do that? The advice we’ve given you in step one and step two. Stop looking at food as good and bad, include it in your calories, start tracking it, start being aware of it, start getting on top of it. Include your weekends in that value, include some foods in there that you like, include some alcohol in there I you want to. And start enjoying the journey. Stop being restrictive with your food if that’s the scenario you’re getting.
Any questions obviously reach out. Hopefully these three tips will give you some help and see you for where you’re at with your weight loss journey if you’re on one.
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