I hope you had a great weekend. 

I’ve just been doing check-ins with some clients and had a thought that I felt would be valuable with you. I was looking through a couple of tracking documents and taking a look at the average calories across the week, when I realised that most people don’t even think about simply having an average that they look to hit.

Having an average calorie target that you aim to hit can be incredibly liberating for those who like to eat out and have a glass of wine at the weekend, as it gives you the flexibility to do that without pushing up your weekly average. At the end of the day (or week, rather), it’s your average calorie intake that is going to dictate whether or not you lose/gain weight. Sure, there will be variations related to salt intake, hydration, food volume, stress, menstrual cycle status etc., but that’s all just “noise” that doesn’t influence the long term trend.

A lot of people don’t understand the concept of having an average intake and hence they sabotage their results anytime they decide to go out to eat and decide to YOLO it. Here are two different examples:

*Assume a maintenance intake of 2500*

Example 1 

Monday - 2200

Tuesday - 2200

Wednesday - 2200

Thursday - 2200

Friday - 2200

Saturday - 4000 (Normal meals + a daaaaaaycent feed at Mad Egg)

Sunday - 2500 (Meh, felt guilty, decided to eat a little more)

Average calories = 2500

Example 2 

Monday - 2200

Tuesday - 2200

Wednesday - 2200

Thursday - 2200

Friday - 2000 (I’m going out for dinner tomorrow, so I’m eating a little less)

Saturday - 3000 (I reduced the size of my meals earlier in the day + I still had a daaaycent feed at Mad Egg)

Sunday - 2000 (Meh, felt guilty, decided to eat a little more)

Average calories = 2250

The result?

If the goal is fat loss, person 1 is going to be making no progress. Not only that, but they have put in the effort all week, so it’s even worse, because now they feel like their efforts aren’t paying off. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. With just a few small adjustments, person 2 is able to maintain their calorie deficit while going out to eat and living life.

This is something we try to teach to all of our clients, regardless of whether or not they actively track calories. Regulating your intake rationally like an adult is very important for long term weight management. However, this can get messy, especially with those who have a history of disordered eating or regularly binge - what you don’t want is to use this as a method to facilitate binge eating, as a lot of people do tend to use it for that purpose.

So yeah, this week, why not allow yourself some flexibility in your daily targets (if you need to) and recognise that it’s the weekly average that really matters!

Finally, we are currently taking on clients for online coaching. If you are someone who would like to improve your overall health & fitness by building a strong, resilient body, then feel free to get in touch by responding to this email or getting in touch with us in future at Info@TriageMethod.com.

Have a great week.

Kind Regards,

Gary & Paddy

Triage Method