It's the classic cycle. You eat good all week. You work hard all week. You feel really proud of yourself and feel like you've made good progress.
But then Friday, Saturday and Sunday come and you feel like unwinding with a nice meal out with family/friends and feel guilty because you think you've undone all your hard work during the week.
But does eating out at the weekends ruin your diet if you've been super good all week? Well the answer is.... it depends! We could go into more, boring, science-y detail, but you probably don't want to know that so let's get to the point.
The main question is, has the extra amount of calories you've eaten and drunk (Yes, drink counts as calories too - hence the terms 'beer belly') cancelled out the reduction in calories you made across the week.
For example, say if your body needs 2000 calories per day and you feed it 1500 Monday to Friday (On average a 500 calorie deficit per day is more or less an okay marker for most people). Then comes Saturday night and you have a massive 3 course meal with 3-5 drinks that all totals up to 2500 calories (It's easier than you think to hit that amount with 3 courses plus drinks) - you've just wiped out the deficit you've built up across the week!
Now, this is completely fine if you're just looking to maintain your weight, but if you want to lose then you have to be a bit more strict. Either you have to cut your calories even more across the week to make up for the big meal you're planning on having on Saturday, or you simply just have less for the meal (One course and 1-2 drinks for example).
Like most things in life - everything in moderation!
