Ever started a diet, get a week in and fall off the wagon? You then get ‘back on the wagon’ but fall off again when Friday hits.

Yes you and the majority of women, jumping from diet to diet in a bid to lose a few lbs.

The thing is though, diets set you up to fail. They make you cut everything out of your life that you enjoy - carbs, bread, chocolate, fats, alcohol - the list goes on. Not only that but they drop your calories unnecessarily low to a level that just isn’t achievable, leaving your feeling frustrated, miserable and bloody hungry!

We all know we need food to function. Food provides us with energy so there’s no surprise that you’re ready to face plant a burger when the weekend hits because your body is craving fuel.

And so the cycle begins.

You starve yourself Monday to Friday. You overeat Saturday and Sunday, eating all the foods that you have banned from your life. You then feel guilty when Monday hits and get back to starving yourself. The vicious cycle continues.

If you were to add up your total calories from the week and weekend and take an average, you would see that actually daily you are eating FAR more than what your diet suggests.

Not only is this the fastest way to achieve to an awful relationship with food, but you are guaranteed NO results from this method.

Starvation style diets also have a knock on affect on your energy levels, which lowers mood and motivation. Desire to train will be low due to poor energy and training performance will suffer with insufficient fuel. If we want to progress with out strength and fitness, we need to be fuelling the body. Low energy leads to less movement and expenditure which will make it harder to lose weight.

See where I’m going here?

So what SHOULD you do?

Find a happy medium - eat higher calories consistently throughout the week and weekend to avoid the weekend binges. If you’re not starving the body, the urge to overeat won’t be there.

Stop cutting out the foods you enjoy. Instead reduce portion sizes of these things and factor in a bit of what you fancy everyday. If you’re not depriving yourself of everything you enjoy, you won’t face plant a pizza, a share bag of chocolate, 3 bottles of wine and a takeaway on a Saturday.

Gradually reduce calories over a 12 week period. Reducing your daily calories by maybe 50-100 every 2 weeks will ensure that progress is consistent and nutrition remains manageable.

Client Ellie Mae healthier, happier, leaner, better relationship with food and her body.