There are many “fat loss mistakes” people can make, but I wanted to talk about the BIGGEST one I see people make in their fat loss journey.
Are you ready?
Here it is…
The fear of low-calorie days.
Yeah, scary stuff, huh?
People have this ingrained fear perpetuated by society that cutting calories will stop their metabolism and go into “starvation mode.”
This has been completely disproportionate.
Here’s the thing…
If you want to go out on weekends and have fun with friends or socialize…
And possibly have a few drinks, beers, etc.
So you will have to balance those high calorie days with low calorie days.
How low can you go?
I will take my target body weight and multiply it by 10-11 to get how many calories per day. Let’s say my goal body weight is 170. This means I’ll eat an average of 1700-1900 calories (170 * 10 = 1700, 170 * 11 = 1870, so I round up to 1900).
Some days I will have a 1,000 calorie day.
Yes, only 1000 calories for that day.
I will do this by fasting for a full 24 hours and eating dinner.
It can also be split into two meals if you like.
In fact, that’s how I ate last week.
I ate barely 1000 calories a few days ago…
Why?
Because I expected to consume at least 3,000 to 4,000 calories on Saturday for a sporting event with a group of friends, specifically a UFC fight night.
One of my friends invited me to his theater-style ‘man cave’ where we partook of heavily buttered popcorn, wings, In-N-Out burgers and fries, French fries, and even some booze.
It was a great moment!
So no, it’s not “dangerous” to add a few low calories per week.
In fact, incorporating low calorie days into your diet is the ONLY WAY to consistently achieve the calorie deficit required for fat loss if you have a couple of higher calorie days in a week.
wrapping it up
I just wanted to make it clear that it’s totally okay to eat low calorie once in a while.
Many fitness trainers avoid telling people that they can eat 1,000 calories and even as little as 600-800 calories from time to time.
Why?
Because they don’t want people to take it to the extreme and eat 600-1000 calories every day.
Just to be clear:
600-1000 calories a day is totally OK…ONLY if you don’t average 600-1000 calories every day. Super low calorie days are tools to balance high calorie intake.
I personally like to achieve this with intermittent fasting, as it makes leaning out easy and pleasurable.
Do what works for you.
Until next time.