CAN I SAVE CALORIES FOR THE WEEKEND WHEN TRYING TO LOSE FAT? .........

I have a mixed answer for this one! … it does come up a lot with my clients so ill explain what I advise them to do …. 

If its a one off event / you don’t go out very often and you save up some cals for that one week to try and reduce the chances of taking yourself out of a deficit then I’d day yep try it , id still advise they don’t restrict too much as if its a rare occasion then just go and bloody enjoy it and eat and drink what you like for 1 night - 1 night really won’t do any damage overall!! I would then advise that they do not get on the scales in panic the day after because they will 100% show heavier due to food volume/ water retention etc - id say just up your water intake next few days , if you can get more movement in - longer walks etc then do that but otherwise go and have fun, enjoy it and just back to normal routines afterwards. 

BUT - If someone was trying to lose fat yet they had social events on every weekend thats where its tricky because if you then try to save extra calories every single week for the weekend then that will then ….

1- affect your training sessions during the week as you won’t be as fuelled 

2- therefore you will lack energy and feel shit Monday to Friday - which could also lead to binge eating 

3- you won’t then progress with your training or enjoy it because you aren’t fuelled or recovering  - which is often when people will then throw the towel in and then try to start again every Monday! 

Fat loss / being in a deficit should be a temporary phase - maximum 12 weeks at a time / it shouldn’t be a long term thing where you feel like you are just trying to lose weight all the time and constantly calorie counting - I find this helps clients remain in their deficit by reminding them that this is temporary , they won’t be tracking forever …. My goal for clients is always once they hit their fat loss goal is to then move them out of that in healthy sustainable way that they can then either stick to maintenance cals long term or move onto going into a slight surplus whatever their goals might be … and neither of those need to involve weighing yourself weekly or tracking cals day in day out….. tracking is brilliant for helping you to learn about whats in food and after a while you gain the knowledge and you won’t need to track you will learn what portion sizes to have , what proteins in what and how much you need to eat each day ( there or thereabouts!) 

So I hope that helps - short answer yes saving calories can work occasionally but I wouldn’t advise doing it every week. 

Abbie xxx