Why you shouldn't worry about your fitness if you go off track and indulge

Don't stress if you occasionally enjoy a doughnut or three

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If you’re trying to get fitter, stronger, leaner and healthier, it’s all too easy to beat yourself up when you accidentally fall off the wagon.

Sometimes your willpower just isn’t strong enough to order a salad instead of a burger, sometimes you just don’t have the motivation to go to the gym on a Thursday evening instead of the pub, and sometimes the birthday cake is just too damn delicious you can’t not have three slices.

But that’s OK, and, in the scheme of things, it really won’t make too much difference, as one personal trainer has explained.

It’s all about thinking long-term and developing consistency across the whole. What’s more, if you try and make your diet too extreme, cutting out all the foods you really enjoy, and exercising every day, you won’t be able to maintain that lifestyle.

Here's what actually does make you gain fat:

“CONSISTENTLY eating too much, too many meals out, and too many takeaways over TIME,” PT Anna Rhodes wrote on Instagram.

“Maybe there’s been lots of life stuff going on, work events, moving house, whatever it is, but there’s no doubt that eating lots of chef made or processed food eventually leads to an excess of calories that you might not normally have.

“CONSISTENTLY drinking too much. Alcohol has calories in. It also makes you make less smart food choices, especially if you're hungover and your body is craving sugars to combat tiredness.

“CONSISTENTLY not moving enough. If you’ve spent the last few months sitting at a desk, on a train or in a car, or on a sofa, then no s*** you’ve been expending less energy. Combine that with the prior two and yes you may have gained some extra lbs.”

Rhodes says she regularly sees people getting upset because the scales say they’ve gained “weight,” when in reality the number going up is often down to other reasons such as eating a big meal late at night, consuming too much salt, stress, tiredness, constipation, water retention and hormones.

She adds: “So what DOESN’T cause weight gain:

• “A few days off training
• “A few days of eating more
• “A few days not moving that much.”

“Learning that a few days off track doesn’t derail your progress is one of the best learning curves you can make in any fitness journey! So don’t lose your s*** and keep it together Susan. S’all good.”