Can I have a social Life in a fat loss phase?
Maintaining a social life while in a deficit — even a short-term one — can feel challenging. This phase of your journey doesn’t have to mean isolation or skipping every single event with family and friends just to stay on track with your progress. The key is to control what you can, make strategic choices, and reframe how you approach social occasions. Here are four proven tricks to make it work.
Note: Fat loss is a phase. If you’ve been “dieting” or in a calorie deficit for more than 4 months, it’s time to stop. Just like a building phase, fat loss a legitimate step on the path to your health and physique goals, but it’s not where we live. (We live at maintenance and we love it here.) The best way to approach fat loss is to get in, get out, and move on. If you’d like guidance on how to do that and start seeing the changes you’ve been working so hard for, book your free consult with us today.
1. Take Control of the Food Environment: Cook at Home
One of the best ways to stay on track is to volunteer to cook whenever possible. Instead of a restaurant for girls night, be the one who grocery shops. Be the one who cooks. Be the one who’s in charge of how much oil is or is not used in the food.
It’s not anyone else’s responsibility to avoid cooking with butter just because you’re in a fat loss phase. Just take control. People love a decision-maker! You know how to make meals taste good without adding cals that don’t fit your goals. Pro tip: Go for meals that involve everyone compiling their own plate based on a bunch of ingredients you love. Rather than a one-dish wonder (ex: lasanga), think taco night, poke bowls, and grilling.
2. Cut Out the Alcohol (Especially When Eating Out)
Alcohol reduces inhibitions and makes it much harder to stay on track. One drink turns into a few, and suddenly you’re eating all kinds of stuff you really didn’t really want to eat. It’s also a waste of 100, 500, or even 800 calories depending on the margarita you order—those are carbs you really need for food right now.
If you’re in a deficit and going to an event where you can’t control the food as much, cut the alcohol instead—it’s the easiest thing to drop without missing out on the experience. You’ll be in good company: your pregnant friends and sober girlies will be hanging by the appetizers filling up on good food instead. Join them.
3. Plan Social Events for Earlier in the Day
Breakfast and lunch outings are easier to navigate than dinner. Nighttime always feels like the right time to let the wheels come off. You’re much more likely to maintain that sense of control during a breakfast and a lunch and stick to balanced meals without the “screw it, I deserve this” mentality that often kicks in at night.
Seeing friends earlier in the day also makes it easier to avoid drinking. Nobody really makes a thing of it if you order black coffee, scrambled eggs, and toast when you go out to breakfast. At dinner, people might have questions if you don’t order a drink. (Not that you owe anyone anything related to what you are or aren’t drinking then, either!)
Be the friend who picks a cute cafe or lunch spot. People love a decision-marker!
4. Plan a Workout Immediately After Socializing
Having a workout scheduled right after meeting friends can help keep you accountable to your goals. Plan your workout afterwards. Again, it will feel less like the right time to let the wheels come off.
If you know you have a session coming up, you’re less likely to overeat or drink because you won’t want to feel sluggish going into your workout.
5. Pick the Restaurant (and Check the Menu First)
If you can’t cook at home, be the one who makes the plan. Look at the menu ahead of time and see if it meets your goal. There’s a super social way to do this: “Hey guys, I made the plan! I made the reservation!” I say again — people love a decision-maker.
There are some places that I know, okay, this is pub food and my friends like it. But also, they have a b****in’ turkey club. And it does exactly what I need it to do for my macros. And I will suggest going to that place all the time. This way, you still seem super chill, but you know there’s a meal you can eat without worrying about it ruining your deficit.
6. Keep Nights for Yourself (Be Social at Other Times)
Instead of feeling pressured to go out for dinner and drinks, protect your evenings. Keep night times for you. Make that sort of a sacred thing and don’t give that up. Be social at other times of the day.
By shifting socializing to breakfasts, lunches, and daytime activities, you maintain better control over your food choices while still having a full social life.
7. Reframe What You “Deserve”
One of the most important mindset shifts is rethinking how we use the phrase “I deserve.” We say, “I deserve this dessert,” or “I deserve to skip my workout,” or “I deserve a drink.” But we almost never use it in the deeper, long-term sense:
I deserve to wake up tomorrow and feel good.
I deserve to wake up proud of myself.
I deserve to look back in two months (when this phase is over) and feel incredible about what I accomplished.
Right now, you’re doing the thing you said you wanted to do. You’re feeling the results. Gently challenge that instinct to reach for immediate gratification and instead ask: what do I actually deserve? You deserve more than a moment of indulgence. You deserve to be the version of yourself that you’re working so hard to become. And you deserve friends, family, and social engagements that make you feel good.
To recap:
You don’t need to choose between a social life and staying in a deficit—you just need to be intentional. Stick to your zone of control, plan ahead, shift socializing to earlier in the day, and reframe what you truly deserve. You're doing too well to let this go now. Keep doing what you’re doing, and you’re going to nail it.
