Coping on Days Off...

RLBansonNoond1990
RLBansonNoond1990 Posts: 29 Member
in Getting Started
So during my work days I'm able to stick to my healthy eating and I'm able to stick to my step goal - I know this is because of the routine I have.

But as soon as I hit a day off; it all goes to pot. I don't have the motivation to exercise, and I really struggle with binge eating; and it's always worse when I'm on my day off.

Does anyone else feel the same? Does anyone have any advice? I want to have some structure to my days off - but I always feel so tired because my husband starts work at 2am, so my sleep is always disturbed, and my days off are the only time I can get some decent sleep - but that then throws me off.

I just feel like I'm stuck in this vicious cycle of doing well for 5 days and then messing it all up when I hit the weekend, which then just makes me feel really rubbish!

Any friends or advice would be much appreciated! :smile:

Replies

  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,129 Member
    What do you consider healthy eating? Maybe you are being too restrictive on your normal days and when you get to your day off it's encouraging you to want to binge on all the things you think you can't have.

    I plan my meals out on a meal planning sheet, it helps me particularly with my days off because I have a lot of social events planned in regularly, if I know they are coming up then I can plan around them, otherwise it's just a normal day.

    What I do find helps me on weekends is doing a form of intermittent fasting (because this suits me, might be different for you) instead of having breakfast, lunch, dinner like I do on a work day I have a fairly protein-heavy brunch around 12/1 in the afternoon and either dinner out or a takeaway on the Saturday and whatever I am meal prepping on the Sunday night, forgoing a separate breakfast and lunch gives me more calories to play with for drinks and more indulgent food.

  • RLBansonNoond1990
    RLBansonNoond1990 Posts: 29 Member
    I'm eating about 1,700 kcal a day - but I used to eat anywhere up to 4,000 kcal a day. So I'm eating a healthy amount (going on what MFP suggested), but it's less than I used to eat which means I'm always hungry and craving the rubbish I used to eat. I guess eventually my body will adjust to the amount I'm eating now and it'll get easier to deal with the hunger?

    I might try your idea for my days off! So intermittent fasting is basically having you calories condensed into 1 or 2 meals? I'll go and research it properly!

    Thank you for your advice :smile:
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,129 Member
    Yes pretty much, the version I do at the weekend is 16:8 meaning I eat within an 8 hour window (12-8 or 1-9) and you can eat whatever frequency suits during that period.

    Are you eating your exercise calories back?
  • RLBansonNoond1990
    RLBansonNoond1990 Posts: 29 Member
    Ah ok, thanks for explaining!

    I don't think I'm eating them back? (Very new to this). I'm pre-planning my days food to be under 1,800 (around 1,700 usually); but I'm not eating more if I exercise - I'm just sticking to the 1,800.

    Thank you again for your advice/help :smile:
  • pogiguy05
    pogiguy05 Posts: 1,583 Member
    Hello and I know how rough it is to not have a steady sleep cycle. I've been self employed since 2003 and for as long as I remember if I get 8 hours sleep straight is rare. Usually I sleep around 4-5 hours at night then during the day I might be able to get a nap of a couple hours. I have a feeling it has effected my weight loss results, but there is nothing I can do to change that for now.

    MFP has my daily calorie goal at 1880 calories and since Oct 1st I had been going to the gym most days. However, the last week or so I have not been able to get there. It is tough on the days I do not get to the gym cause I dont get any eat back calories to kind of help out my day. I have not yet felt hungry during this change, but I'm not sure why.

    I dont actually have what you call weekends off so i cannot tell you there. Can you get them meal prep containers somehow and plan out your meals on days off. this might help keep you on track. For me I have just made the commitment to myself to get this weight off. Family knows if they want to go eat out they are going without me. As I tell them you cannot take a crack addict to a crack house. :p

  • RLBansonNoond1990
    RLBansonNoond1990 Posts: 29 Member
    pogiguy05 wrote: »
    Hello and I know how rough it is to not have a steady sleep cycle. I've been self employed since 2003 and for as long as I remember if I get 8 hours sleep straight is rare. Usually I sleep around 4-5 hours at night then during the day I might be able to get a nap of a couple hours. I have a feeling it has effected my weight loss results, but there is nothing I can do to change that for now.

    MFP has my daily calorie goal at 1880 calories and since Oct 1st I had been going to the gym most days. However, the last week or so I have not been able to get there. It is tough on the days I do not get to the gym cause I dont get any eat back calories to kind of help out my day. I have not yet felt hungry during this change, but I'm not sure why.

    I dont actually have what you call weekends off so i cannot tell you there. Can you get them meal prep containers somehow and plan out your meals on days off. this might help keep you on track. For me I have just made the commitment to myself to get this weight off. Family knows if they want to go eat out they are going without me. As I tell them you cannot take a crack addict to a crack house. :p

    Thanks for the reply :smile:

    I'm going to try and plan my meals in advance for those days, and TRY to have the motivation to actually do some exercise (sadly I don't have gym membership or the money to afford one haha).

    I'm lucky my mum is big into healthy eating - after losing 8 stone; going from a size 20 to a size 10! So she's always good when it comes to eating out or if I go to her house to eat!
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,129 Member
    edited December 2017
    RLBansonNoond1990 wrote: »
    Ah ok, thanks for explaining!

    I don't think I'm eating them back? (Very new to this). I'm pre-planning my days food to be under 1,800 (around 1,700 usually); but I'm not eating more if I exercise - I'm just sticking to the 1,800.

    Thank you again for your advice/help :smile:

    The way MFP is set-up you should be eating your calories back, depending on how accurate the method of calculating the burns is, you may want to start with eating a portion back and reviewing your weight loss after a few weeks.

    si9radqfczwc.jpg

    PS: I quit the gym last November and lost 40lbs since then so a gym membership is definitely not a necessary requirement to lose weight.
  • RLBansonNoond1990
    RLBansonNoond1990 Posts: 29 Member
    tinkerbellang83 wrote: »
    RLBansonNoond1990 wrote: »
    Ah ok, thanks for explaining!

    I don't think I'm eating them back? (Very new to this). I'm pre-planning my days food to be under 1,800 (around 1,700 usually); but I'm not eating more if I exercise - I'm just sticking to the 1,800.

    Thank you again for your advice/help :smile:

    The way MFP is set-up you should be eating your calories back, depending on how accurate the method of calculating the burns is, you may want to start with eating a portion back and reviewing your weight loss after a few weeks.

    si9radqfczwc.jpg

    PS: I quit the gym last November and lost 40lbs since then so a gym membership is definitely not a necessary requirement to lose weight.

    Thank you so much for that diagram! That helps a lot - so basically I should be eating 1,800; but if I exercise and burn calories, I can eat a bit more so that overall it's still 1,800 consumed?

    I really appreciate you taking the time to help me with this!

    Yeah - I know I don't need a gym membership! I do have a treadmill at home, and I've got 3 dogs I can take for walks! At the moment I'm just working on getting my steps up to 10,000 a day! I have a joint condition that I've made worse with my bad habits - so exercise will help it eventually, once I'm more used to being more active - if that makes sense?
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,129 Member
    edited December 2017
    Got it in one, you should be aiming for 1800 net, your deficit is already included, so if you burned 300 calories through intentional exercise then you would be at 1500 net and eating them back will put you back to 1800.

    If you are using MFP's database for exercise burns 50% of the calories burned can be a good starting point - if after 4-6 weeks you find you are losing more on average than you have it set to then eat more, if you find you are losing less eat less of them.
  • RLBansonNoond1990
    RLBansonNoond1990 Posts: 29 Member
    Thank you! I am trying to add in my activity! Currently it's a bit of a struggle because I use the Samsung Gear 3 and S Health and they don't communicate over steps!

    However S Health gives me how many calories I burnt through activity (and how many passively) so I've been putting the active calories onto MFP.

    It's a bit confusing but I have managed to get sort it!

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