If you crush yourself to a point of debilitating soreness every time you go to the gym, you’ll not go very often.

If you need 3 days to recover from every training session you’ll be able to train at 100% capacity (for simplicity let's say that's 100 total reps per workout) 2 days per week or 8 days per month.

Alternatively, if you train to 80% capacity (for simplicity let's say that's 80 total reps per workout) and now only need 1 day off between sessions because you aren’t painfully sore, then that is 4 days per week and 16 days per month.

Option 1: 100 reps (%) x 8 = 800 total reps per month.

OptIon 2: 80 reps (%) x 16 = 1,280 total reps per month.

Which one of these equations do you think yields the most positive outcome?

Crude math aside, this example holds up again and again when the general population's exercise habits are studied. There may be some days where pushing to 100% is necessary for people with specific performance goals, but if you, like me and most other people just want to live a long time and feel good in a tank top, then equation 2 is your bread and butter.

Here's the real kicker. This scenario is accurately extrapolated to dieting too.

If you create a 1000 calorie deficit 2 days per week and then get so hungry and mentally fatigued that you eat at maintenance the next 5 days, that's a 2000 calorie deficit per week.

If you create a 500 calorie deficit daily, never get so hungry that you need to eat back more, or become so fatigued that your decision-making is impaired, you’ll end up with a 3,500 calorie deficit per week.

Option 1: 1000 cals x 2 days = 2000 cals per week (which equates to around 0.5lbs of body fat).

Option 1: 500 cals x 7 days = 3500 cals per week (which equates to around 1lbs of body fat).

Though going HAM might feel good at the time (instant gratification and perception of control are powerful motivators), we inevitably set ourselves up for failure in the medium/long term.

We can talk more about moderation and where we are creating our deficits within our diets (prioritization and sacrificing the most efficient and effective choices for us rather than blanket rules and unnecessary suffering), but this is likely a very good mindset to start with for most people.

Thanks!