High Cals on Off Days/ Low Cals on Training Days? Bad?

[cherilee]

Hi all!

I train Monday - Friday because my gym is near my workplace, and I live waaaaaaay out of town so I usually don't do much more than a little cardio on the weekends.

During the week my eating is strict (easy because I bring all my food with me to work). Calories on weekdays average about 1800.

On the weekends however is when I allow myself a couple of cheats and some alcohol. My calories on Sat & Sun are in the 2200-2300 range.

My question is, how detrimental is it to have my high calorie days on non training days? As long as it all balances out calorie wise for the week, am I setting myself back or is it all good? If I eat an eatra 300 cals on Sat but on Monday I compensate by dropping 300 cals from my intake, will my Monday workout suffer?

I'm making good progress but wonder if I could be hindering myself from doing even better?

Would welcome any feedback. Thanks!

[Amanda76]

If you can make progress being so lacksidaisial about your intake, just keep at it. No need to tighten up your habits until you have to. At the moment, you're not eating much below maintenance on workdays...that's good for preserving muscle while leaning up. Your weekends could be slowing you down so far as fat-loss goes, but again, if you're happy with the progress you're making, cool. Cutting back on weekend cheats is a really easy fix when you stall out.

So long as you're happy with your progress, I suggest scheduling a hard day, like legs or back, after your weekend (keep your cals at 1,800). I've found that what I eat the day before impacts my workouts the day after. Getting some unexpected extra carbs the day before leg day often results in a badass workout for me (constantly eating lots of crap results in my body not performing as well over time, though).

[cherilee]

If you can make progress being so lacksidaisial about your intake, just keep at it. No need to tighten up your habits until you have to. At the moment, you're not eating much below maintenance on workdays...that's good for preserving muscle while leaning up. Your weekends could be slowing you down so far as fat-loss goes, but again, if you're happy with the progress you're making, cool. Cutting back on weekend cheats is a really easy fix when you stall out.

So long as you're happy with your progress, I suggest scheduling a hard day, like legs or back, after your weekend (keep your cals at 1,800). I've found that what I eat the day before impacts my workouts the day after. Getting some unexpected extra carbs the day before leg day often results in a badass workout for me (constantly eating lots of crap results in my body not performing as well over time, though).

Hi Amanda,

I appreciate the feedback - thank you! Though I've worked out for years, I never had my diet in check until maybe about a year ago. And I used to wonder why I never lost the fat! I'm slowly cleaning up the diet and am seeing results. Mon-Fri I am SO strict and I'm patting myself on the back because I wasn't always so. Sat and Sun I still eat healthy food but I know, more than I need. It's so hard to be a "foodie" but still keep those calories in check

I'm going to work on cleaning up the weekends.