7 ways to binge responsibly
Let’s get straight to the point, which is you can’t go batshit crazy during the weekend (indulge in loads of junk food and alcohol) and expect to lose body fat or gain lean muscle.
Yes we know, you’ve been “good” during the week and you need to have a pizza and movie night with your friends, you also need to go to your –insert relative’s name here– house and need to eat the less than healthy food there without them saying you are ‘obsessed’. We totally get it!
Typical nutrition in a fast food meal:
Larger burger, fries and regular coke
Calories 1070
Protein 31g
Fat 46g
Carbs 136g
Sugar 53g
Typical nutrition in a healthy meal:
Grilled chicken breast, rice and vegetables
Calories 370
Protein 36g
Fat 6g
Carbs 41g
Sugar 2g
Look at the two meals above and you can see the difference is like night and day. Both meals have a similar protein content, but the fast food means calories, fats and sugar are very high.
The 7 ways
Okay, so some practical battle-tested tips to avert this situation assuming you have been eating relatively healthy on the weekdays.
- Ideally schedule a hard workout before your planned indulgence (Check our Dumbbell Complex or our 4-day bodybuilding workout). A leg or back workout is ideal. This way a part of the high calories will go to replenish carb stores (glycogen) burned during the workout.
- Drink plenty of water before you eat – a real biggie, you will feel satisfied with less.
- Eat an apple or some filling fruit beforehand. This once again will make you fuller.
- Honestly ask yourself, do you really need the fries and garlic bread too? Just try to stick to couple of slices of pizza or a burger and try your best to avoid the sides and the sugary drinks.
- Stop associating fun with food all the time – Yes, humans are social creatures and fun activities and food go together. This does NOT mean that a day of Karting with friends should be followed by a junk food binge every time. A beach day with friends can be a great way to have fun while getting your cardio in.
- Schedule a tough workout the morning after your binge (Challenge yourself with our 3 movement complex workout). Also a strength gain workout can benefit from the extra calories the day before and/or a cardio session will mitigate some of the damage.
Honestly if you do #1-6, there is no reason why you cannot stick eating healthy while having a few treats a week.
Another tip,
- Check our site, make healthy versions of the food you crave and indulge in these. Check our apple cake and healthy ice cream recipes.
If you truly had a bad weekend and need to get back on track, we will cover that in our next article “How to recover from a weekend binge”.