There is a saying, ‘you canβt out-train a bad dietβ and in most cases, itβs so true. Why is this? Simple:
Calories in = quick (you can eat a lot in a short amount of time!)
Calories out = slow (you usually have to exercise for a while to work it all off)
A good night out (but not so good for the diet!)
Letβs look at one of the βbottle-necksβ a lot of people struggle with β a night out on the weekend. You may have trained your butt off and eaten well all week β only to blow it all in one night.
Take for example a typical βgood night outβ:
3 glasses wine β 360 calories
Entree or dessert- 400-500 calories+
Main β 600-700 calories+
Two cocktails β 520 calories+
Greasy kebab or an easy burger on the way home (?!) = 1006
Total calories consumed = 3,000+ calories (for an average woman, this should be closer to 2,000 to maintain weight, give or take a bit depending on age, level of physical activity among other things).
Ok, so this is an extreme example, but it happens. We justify it by saying that weβve been to the gym all week, or that weβve danced it off. Well, if you could dance it off, youβd be in the club til at least Tuesday to get rid of that many calories! Well maybe not quite Tuesday, but you would need to do around 10 hours of high intensity dancing.
The weight loss equation
Think about how hard you need to exercise to get rid of excess calories β half an hour of non-stop running burns around 300 calories. 300 calories can easily be eaten in just a few minutes. Have you got time to do 10x half hour runs in your week β on TOP of the cardio you are doing already just to get you back to where you started? Yeah it doesnβt seem fair, but itβs the unfortunate reality.
Of course, having a night out like that truly as a one off β like once every month or two isnβt going to have much affect on your results. But if you are blowing your calories up every week, it may be the bottle-neck that is halting the progress you so desperately want.
It can be a real eye-opener to be very honest as to how much is going in on these βone offβ occasions, and actually ask yourself how often these one offβs are really one offβs.
Has the weekend ruined your diet?
Many people get frustrated and are almost in tears when the scale doesnβt budge and theyβve been going hell for leather at the gym all week. To make matters worse, if you happen to weigh on a Monday or Tuesday after your body has pulled in loads of water from all the terrible food on the weekend, youβve probably ballooned. Not fun.
If you are serious about dropping weight, you need to make a choice and plan how many of these types of indulgences you can get away with and how hard youβre prepared to work to get rid of the excess calories.
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