The calorie buffer trap is one that many people fall into, and it really doesn’t need to be that way. What is the calorie buffer trap you ask? Well, let me explain with the story of how people are usually first exposed to the thought process of creating a calorie buffer, and then ultimately fall into the trap.

 

The Story Of The Calorie Buffer Trap

The story usually goes something like this. You want to go to that awesome-looking party on Saturday, but you are dieting and trying to lose fat and you know there is going to be lots of food available there and when alcohol is involved, you just can’t stop yourself with the food. Or maybe that new guy/girl you are starting to date suggested you go to that new restaurant in town, that also happens to be ridiculously calorie dense. Not generally a huge issue for most general population people, but the problem is, you are dieting. So you don’t have the calories available to indulge in these indiscretions.

But wait!

You remember that guy/girl on Instagram that you follow, they said something the other day about how they deal with higher calorie events.

A quick scroll through Instagram, and you find the post.

You read it in depth, taking in all the valuable information you can.

The process seems straightforward enough, all you have to do is:

Plan out the day’s calories ahead of time (this is so you have a very rough idea of how many calories you are likely to go over you current calorie target).

Then you either reduce your calorie intake throughout the week to account for this increase (let’s say the Saturday night feast brings you to 700 calories over your daily calorie goal, so they suggest you eat 100 calories less daily in the 7 days before the event, thus your weekly calorie total is still the same) or you increase the amount of cardio you do to the level of calories you will likely overeat with.

Enjoy your event, and stay on track.

This sounds like heaven. You decide you will increase your daily cardio because you are already eating lower calories than you would like to be eating, so you don’t want to go any lower. You do the extra cardio after each of your gym sessions, and although it puts you under a bit of time pressure, you find it easy enough to get the work done. By the third or fourth day of this, you do feel a little bit more drained and hungrier than usual, but you remind yourself that you have a goal and it won’t be like this forever, plus you are going to be able to to enjoy this event as a result of all the effort! Sacrifices have to be made! You slog on through. The day of the event comes around, and although you are feeling a bit more lethargic than usual, it’s fine because once you get into the swing of the event you start to enjoy yourself and forget about feeling drained.

The calories taste good, and they almost instantaneously energise your deprived body. But you catch yourself losing focus with the conversations and thinking more about the food on the table. You shake it off at first, but it hangs over you like a spectre, taunting you. You languish over reaching for one more bite. “It can’t hurt. It’s just one bite”.

You cave in to that incessant gnaw in your stomach. That extra bite of food feels heavenly as it passes your lips. You quickly compose yourself. “Ok, went a little bit overboard there on the calories but I am back on track now”.

But then another voice appears. At first, it is quiet, and easily ignored. But it builds slowly. Louder. Louder. Louder. Until you simply can’t ignore it. You buckle beneath the will of this malevolent monster. You listen to its message, and do exactly what it says:

“You are already over your calories now, you might as well keep going”.

The message is so simple, and you know it isn’t the right thing to do, but it draws you in. It envelops you, and you fall to the dark side.

You come to the next morning, feeling rough. You rub your eyes, and flashes of last night begin to fold your brain.

“Oh no, what have I done…”

You make your way to the mirror. Do you even dare to look? Have you completely destroyed the work you have done over the last few weeks? You have been so good, all those salads you ate, the treats you avoided, and for god sake have you been drinking all that apple cider vinegar for nothing now? You can’t bear it. Your eyes refuse to open. You force them. At first, your vision is blurry, but it slowly focuses. You see the damage immediately. There is this film of water/fat clinging to where the outline of your six-pack once was. You had worked so hard to get that pesky six-pack to reveal itself, and now it is gone back into hibernation.

You feel ashamed and disgusted with yourself.

You make your way to the scales. “Maybe it is just the mirror. Yeah, that’s it. It’s the mirror and your eyes playing tricks on you”. You step on the scales. It wasn’t the mirror, or your eyes. You realise the gravity of what you have done. You have wasted the last few weeks of dieting because of a fleeting and momentary weakness. You listened to that voice, even though you knew it was wrong. You couldn’t help yourself.

You slump back onto your bed, wishing it would swallow you whole and end this nightmare right there and then. You hold your head in your hands, as waves of emotions crash over you, threatening to crush you at every breath. But then it hits you. You feel a feeling of optimism well up inside of you.

You think to yourself, surely if it is just the weekly calories that matter I can just account for the calories I went over last night. It’s so simple. You are so glad you stumbled across one of those IIFYM accounts on Instagram. You have learned so much because of the information provided by all these coaches. You feel privileged to be a part of a society of people that actually understand science. You work out roughly how many calories you overate last night, and you add 200-300 calories to that, just to be safe. You decide how best to tackle this surplus of calories. You decide it is best to do some cardio today (you normally have a rest day on Sunday’s but you gotta do what you gotta do), and reduce your calories moving into next week by 100 each day, and add 100 calories of cardio. You understand that you can create a calorie buffer before an event, but you can also just compensate after the event too. After all, it is just the calorie average that matters. That has you fully back on track in a week. A week setback, no big deal.

You get to work. Your cardio session goes well, and those extra calories from the night before have left you feeling quite energetic. You already feel better after your 40 minutes on the cross-trainer. Some of the abdominal water retention has dropped off too with all the sweating and you are starting to feel and look like yourself again.

Monday goes by without a hitch. You get your cardio done post-workout in the morning, and you eat 100 calories less. You feel a little bit hungrier around 3pm, but you remedy that with a Pepsi Max. Too easy you think to yourself. Tuesday is much the same. Wednesday comes, and you wake up a little later than you would have liked, and can’t get that 100 calories of cardio done, so you decide to switch a few things around in the diet and eat 100 calories less. You are now down 200 calories from where you were already feeling like your diet wasn’t satisfying enough. 3pm rolls around, and you have the Pepsi Max again, but it doesn’t quite hit the spot. You try to ignore that gnawing hunger. No, you are strong. You won’t fail again.

Then Susan cracks open the box of chocolates. You stay strong. The aroma of the chocolate floods your nostrils. Your olfactory glands start the cephalic phase of digestion, and the hunger hits you hard. You start salivating. “NO! I won’t crack again!” You scream internally. But the almost magnetic draw of the chocolates is too much. You feel yourself slipping. With two handfuls of chocolates and a smile on your face, you stuff the chocolates into your mouth. You nearly eat a wrapper you are so hungry.

Once the chocolatey dopamine rush wears off, you grab your phone and scramble to open MyFitnessPal. You count the wrappers. 15. Oh god. You key it into the app. Oh god no. You have well and truly messed up. You want to cry. But then, you remember, it’s the total weekly, and even total monthly calories that matter most. So you do the maths, and you adjust your calories and cardio accordingly. You now have to eat 200 less calories per day, and do 200 calories of cardio.

By Sunday you have fallen off the diet twice more.

A month down the line you are up 2kg, despite eating 800 calories “most days”. You can’t figure out what is going on, because you are following the advice of those IIFYM fitness influencers. You chalk it down to just not having the right genetics.

The Reality Of The Calorie Buffer

Does this story sound familiar? Have you been down a similar path? Do you know people who have been down a similar path?

This is the calorie buffer trap.

It is, unfortunately, all too common. And you can see how easy it is to fall into the mentality that you can just make up for calories by stealing from Peter to pay Paul. A few extra calories here, and a few less there, and as long as it all adds up in the end, it is all good, right?

Well from a thermodynamics standpoint, yep, calories are calories, and you aren’t somehow breaking the laws of physics with your body. All other things being equal, calories are king. However, you must remember that all other things aren’t equal. You feel hunger, you feel stress, you encounter REAL LIFE. It isn’t as simple as looking at it from a calorie perspective. So if you think you can just make up for dietary indiscretions by adding in extra cardio, or dropping calories further, you aren’t seeing the bigger picture. Doing cardio can make you feel hungrier, obviously eating less does too. If you are already at the bottom range of where you would like calories to be, you are setting yourself up for a fall.

So while yes you can create a caloric buffer to account for some extra calories you will likely indulge in at an event, I generally try to limit this to 500 calories of a buffer in the week. And the most important thing to do after the event, whether you mess up or not, is to FORGET ABOUT IT. Literally, pretend it didn’t happen. If you went over calories, awesome, the next day is a completely blank slate. There is no retrospectively punishing yourself with cardio. You are to get straight back into the plan of action originally outlined.

When I say forget about it, I also don’t mean completely ignore it. No, I mean forget about any emotions you have surrounding it. You are only to look back on the event to reminisce about how much you enjoyed it, or how you would deal with the situation better the next time. Other than that, it is forgiven and forgotten. Yes, you will have likely slowed down your fat loss endeavours, but the vast majority of people will shoot themselves in the foot long term if they try to continually reduce calories or increase cardio to try and combat the binge episodes they are having.

Now we aren’t saying you can never create a caloric buffer, but we are saying be aware you are playing with fire. The chances are you will get burned. 

So while you can add a few hundred calories worth of cardio or drop out a few hundred calories from the diet, if it allows you to enjoy that event. Realise, this simply is not a long-term strategy. It should be used very sparingly, and with the knowledge that by engaging in this behaviour, you are encouraging disordered eating habits. This is especially true of those that start viewing cardio as punishment for overeating. If you feel compelled to do cardio on your “day off” because you haven’t been adherent to your diet, take a long hard look at your strategies. You shouldn’t be punishing yourself with added cardio. The only time you should be bringing cardio in, is if you have a long-term plan of action. It shouldn’t be reactive, it should be proactive. It is a very hard thing to do, but taking a step back and viewing the big picture, really helps you to analyse your plan. I always frame it in terms of asking myself, would I advise someone else to do what you are going to do to myself? Would I like to advise my children to do what I am going to do to myself? If not, then why do you think you are different?

If you are unsure of how to set up a diet correctly, then we recommend reading our article on setting up the diet. For some of you, you may need more specific help with your unique needs, and this is where something like online coaching can really help. If you are interested in learning how to coach someone to better nutrition, then it would make sense to look into becoming a nutrition coach and getting certified.