How you can eat all the Turkey and still achieve your goals!
Thanksgiving has some guarantees: too much food, football and debates over conflicting political views. What does not have to be a guarantee, is the death of your diet and weight loss aspirations.
Losing fat (not just weight) requires we are in a KCAL deficit, which when surrounded by copious amounts of food, drink and desert is a difficult task for even the most disciplined type. So how can you manage the holiday festivities feeling good and still heading towards the desired self?
By using an approach referred to as KCAL cycling or KCAL fluctuation.
Using this fat loss tactic you can manage your diet, stay on track and enter the weekend still on route to be your best self.
So how do you fluctuate KCALS?
Lets use Sarah as an example: 48 yrs old, mother of 3, killing it at Athletic Ascension workouts 3 x week with a sustainable weight loss goal of 0.5- 1lb per week.
Using this KCAL calculator we know Sarah has a KCAL budget of 2200 per day or a weekly budget of 15,400.
If Sarah simply starts the week of eating 1800 KCALS per day of lean protein, healthy greens, complex carbs and other highly nutritious foods, that gives her a 1200 KCAL buffer for the day of turkey, meaning Sarah can eat up to 3400 KCALS on the day and still be on track to hit her weekly loss goals.
In addition to this, simply having a light (or skip) breakfast the morning off and you can then add another 300-500 KCALS to the buffer and do the same Friday!
Example
Monday: 1800 kcals
Tuesday: 1800 kcals
Wednesday: 1800 kcals
Thursday: 3600 kcals
Friday: 2000 kcals
Saturday: 2200 kcals
Sunday: 2200 kcals
Total: 15400 KCALS = 0.5 -1lbs of Fat loss and not having "dieted" during thanksgiving.
Dont get lost in the numbers!
If this seems complicated dont worry. It may be 1-2 steps ahead of where you currently are.
The point here is that one day of eating what you want will not ruin weeks of hard work. Weight loss is a simple equation that due to human nature can be a very difficult task to accomplish.
Make it as easy as possible for you to be successful, and if you do have a day where the human side of you disregards your intention for weight loss, simply forgive yourself, learn from it and continue on.
Weight loss and body composition change is hard, and the truly successful clients dont succeed because they find a secret or suck down teas or shakes, they succeed because they stay positive and consistent over a long period of time.
If you need help with any of this, any client that signs up with Athletic Ascension gets a 1 year subscription to our online Coaching which includes workout programs, nutritional coaching and behavior change modules.
Find out how we can help you here!
Happy thanks giving!!!
Patrick