How Do You Lose Weight And Maintain A Social Life?

Q: How do you lose weight and maintain a social life? I ran into a good buddy of mine I haven’t seen in a while and he wants me to go out and get something to eat with him then have a few drinks while we catch up because we don’t hang out as much anymore. I’ve turned into somewhat of a recluse ever since I started losing weight and mostly stay at home when not at work or at the gym so I’m less tempted to cheat on my diet. So yeah, you can see why the bromance just isn’t what it used to be!

A: Oh, so you want me to believe that the reason why you stopped going out and doing shit with your so-called “good buddy” is because you’re trying to lose weight and it has absolutely nothing to do with you not wanting anything to do with him and the whole diet thing was a convenient excuse to end the relationship until you accidently ran into him recently and he successfully guilt-tripped you into doing some shit with him?

You really want me to believe that, huh?!?!

Okay, I’ll pretend to be a sucker and play along…

Food is a part of many social activities, so hanging out with friends can present so much of a challenge that it’s much easier for some people to go the Howard Hughes route when they’re on a diet.¹ That need not be the case, though, because managing to lose weight while still maintaining a social life is possible and there are many ways to do so but the one that provides the most flexibility involves the simple act of planning ahead.

If you’re like most adults and have a partner, kids, full-time job, and side hustle to make extra money because you’re being grossly underpaid by the corporate entity that’s exploiting you, then having the time to link with any of your friends isn’t going to be a regular occurrence nor is it going to be at the spur of the moment. Instead, your get-togethers are more than likely going to be an occasional thing that happens once or twice a week, if not less often, and scheduled a couple of days in advance. So given those particulars, you can remove any possible stress of hanging out with your friends while on your diet by reserving the occasion as your cheat meal for the week.

For weight loss, a calorie deficit is required. While maintaining a consistent deficit is necessary for sustained weight loss, consuming more calories than you should every now and then isn’t enough to halt progress. That is, so long as you don’t have cheat meals on a frequent basis or go overboard with your calorie intake during a cheat meal. On the condition that your cheat meal is kept within reason and your normal diet is resumed immediately afterward, what you eat and drink while out with your friend for two hours on a single day will have absolutely no effect on what you do during the other 166 hours of the week.

For the problem of hanging out with friends while dieting, treating a get-together as a cheat meal isn’t the only solution that planning ahead has to offer. What else you can do with the knowledge of an impending outing is practice intermittent fasting on the given day and coordinate it so the meet-up is within your feeding window. Another option is to employ a calorie cycling approach during the week and have one of your high-calorie days fall on the date you’re scheduled to have happy hour, lunch, game night, or whatever with your friend. Lastly, you can also choose to allocate yourself a budget of calories that fit within your total daily requirement so you have a set limit of how much you’re allowed to eat or drink during the meet-up without going over your needs.

The described alternatives should all allow you to exercise your ability to eat and drink freely while together with your friends so you don’t have to make a lot of decisions related to your diet that can possibly interfere with enjoying your time out.

Now, does anyone else have a fitness or nutrition question of their own that they want to ask?

Glossary: caloric deficit, calories, cheat, cheat meal, diet, fitness, food, gym, nutrition

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Monster Longe

Monster Longe is a personal trainer and online coach in San Diego. He's helped hundreds of people lose weight, build muscle, and become more attractive to their loved one so they don't have as strong of a desire to cheat on them anymore. When not working with clients or making content that's easy to read, understand, and apply to everyday life, he enjoys making fun of Drake and people who like the guy.

How Do You Lose Weight And Maintain A Social Life?

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