I am a calorie counter. Meaning, I follow a flexible diet. I eat whatever I want as long as I get my protein in, which is basically a gram per pound of body weight.
What you eat over the course of one day is not nearly as important as what you eat over the course of a week. We all know you can put in five great days of dieting only to completely ruin it by going overboard for a weekend.
Next weekend my father-in-law will be in town. He lives in Arizona now and always has a full slate of places he wants to eat when he comes back east. I usually take a pass while he and Jess go out, but I'm going to join in this year.
One night will be the world-famous Pepe's Pizza and the other will be a nice steak house. For the latter I know I could just eat a steak and stay well within my macros, but I'm going to go all out and order sides, apps, bread, and maybe even dessert.
From the sound of it, I would be cheating on my diet, but I won't be. Saturday is already a high day for me where I eat just shy of an extra 1,000 calories. For Friday's pizza, I'll start saving up an extra 200 calories a day for the next five days giving me an additional 1,000. So for each day, I'll have roughly 4,000 calories to play with.
Since I have a general idea of what I'll be eating, I'll plug it into the app I use earlier on in the day. From there I'll work backward to try and get my protein in and see what else I'll be able to eat. Sometimes I'll plan for a complete blowout and have nothing other than a few protein shakes sprinkled throughout the day.
To some people, the idea of tracking every calorie, especially on a cheat day seems obsessive, but it works for me. Without restrictions, I can and will overeat beyond comprehension. I didn't get to 330 lbs by showing restraint.
