Weekend sabotage

RealWorldStrengthLLC

I love lifting/cycling, and eating for a goal. I literally have absolutely no problem running a 1000cal deficit Monday morming through Friday evening. I train almost every day unless I'm absolutely taxed, and on those days still I do some sort of active recovery.

That said, I'm also a single guy who lives with other single guys near downtown in a major metropolitan city. I'm an extremely social person and Friday night through Sunday I usually end up out at some bar drinking beer or a house party or something. It's not completely sabotaging my cutting goals but it is slowing my progress significantly.

Not really looking for solutions or anything I just kinda wanted to throw it out there. It seems really hard to cut properly AND maintain an extremely active social life in the downtown scene.

Can anyone else relate to this issue?

kimny72

How much weight do you have to lose? Your desired deficit is very aggressive, so it's possible slowing down your progress isn't such a bad thing. If you are training for something in particular, eating at the largest possible deficit could at least theoretically hold that training back.

I was more than happy to lose slower and still enjoy the things I wanted to. I always did pretty much eat at a deficit 5 days a week and at maintenance the other two, whether I intended to or not

RealWorldStrengthLLC

Last week I was floating between 232 and 238. My goal is sub 220...I want to compete strongman at 100kg class. But I also realize that means I probably need to go somewhere between 200 and 210 so that when I start eating at maintenance again permanently I have 10ish pounds of water weight room. I can literally fluctuate 11lbs of water over the course of a day or two.

RealWorldStrengthLLC

Also I realize that 1000cal deficit is aggressive but a) I'm over 200lbs so it's not that crazy and b) I train HEAVY and work an active job in the elements. My maintenance calories are somewhere in the 3800-4500 range depending on the work day.

kimny72

Got it, I don't know literally anything about competing strongman so I'll trust you know what you're doing

If you did want to try to eliminate some of the issue, could you ask one of your friends to limit you to a certain amount of drinks, in an effort to help you get competition ready? Or maybe stick to two nights rather than three? Obviously we all have to find that balance where we are doing as much as we are willing to, but if you find your desire or need to get to a certain weight in a certain time frame becomes stronger than your need to be extremely social, that might be a way to approach it.

Good luck!

elisa123gal

Yup... I'm an empty nester..with a home in Downton and one on the outskirts of our city.. When I'm downtown.. it is all about rooftop cocktails and the latest greatest place to eat. I actually call my other house the "Fat Farm"..haha..when I'm there I can eat right and exercise- no problem.
So, what I do is not drink during the week..eat right and workout.. then.. I ...head to downtown on Friday or Saturday for a meal or two out on the weekends..and I drink too. I did lose my weight doing that.

(but I'm not a young guy who may drink a whole lot more and I wouldn't want to live downtown.. id get fat for sure)

RealWorldStrengthLLC

Yeah, I think it's just a matter of limiting it to one or 2 days, not 3. What also doesn't help is that my intoxicated brain will rationalize that 5 pieces of pizza will help me pull a PR deadlift (or whatever) the next day...and unfortunately, it usually works too so it doesn't exactly deter me the next time.

RealWorldStrengthLLC

elisa123gal wrote: »

Yup... I'm an empty nester..with a home in Downton and one on the outskirts of our city.. When I'm downtown.. it is all about rooftop cocktails and the latest greatest place to eat. I actually call my other house the "Fat Farm"..haha..when I'm there I can eat right and exercise- no problem.
So, what I do is not drink during the week..eat right and workout.. then.. I ...head to downtown on Friday or Saturday for a meal or two out on the weekends..and I drink too. I did lose my weight doing that.

(but I'm not a young guy who may drink a whole lot more and I wouldn't want to live downtown.. id get fat for sure)

Yeah I'm a youngish guy who's fairly big and carry a decent amount of muscle...when I say I'm going DRINKING I don't exactly mean 2 beers. I screwed around with a breathalyzer a few weeks back and it told me I was at .04 after like 7 beers.

sardelsa

You might have to choose your battles a bit... having a huge deficit plus high calorie weekends is tough and ya it will slow progress. Either you can decrease your deficit, but since you have a competition coming up you might have to either go out every other weekend, cut down on the calories consumed when you are out or do one day of socializing instead of 3.

I calorie cycle and save up calories for the weekend, so two high days... that allows me one night out and a family meal...however I only have two fairly low calorie days during the week as to not affect my workout performance on weekdays.

ChicagoGirl310

I can relate. During the week is pretty easy for me to stay on course, eat well and exercise. However, my husband & I are pretty social and it’s tough to find anything our friends want to do on the weekends that doesn’t involve eating and drinking. I find that if I go into a night with a plan - (ie: sticking to 1 cocktail before dinner, 1 or 2 glasses of wine with dinner, and plenty of water throughout the night) I’m ok. Seems like when there is no plan and I loose track of what I’m drinking, I pay for it with terrible food choices and mindless eating for the rest of the weekend. I also try to sign up for a Sunday morning exercise class to give me a reason to stick to my plan.

RealWorldStrengthLLC

I think the people who say I need to limit it to 1 day instead of 3 are on to something...still going out with limits or plans is kinda hard for me I always just want to go with the flow. I don't wanna be that guy who says "2 beers only I'm counting macros" I had to do that from 300lbs to 230 and I put on a good face but it sucked hard and I barely had a social life those 8 months.

The competition I want to do is in December so if I avg 1 lb a week til then plus the couple days at really low carb to shed water before weigh in I'll definitely make weight.

My wallet will thank me if I cut back on going out too so theres that. I think I just need to get away from my house and out of the city so going out isn't a viable option and I'm not tempted to say yes when my roommates invite me.