Weekend Sabotage

LillysMomma09

The struggle is real.
Monday through Friday at work is very scheduled and routine which makes good choices very easy to plan out and make.
Weekends come with freedom and an open itinerary and which makes BAD choices very easy to make.
I will loose my scheduled 2 pounds through the week and gain them back on the weekend therefore staying the same for a month or more at time until I can find a weekend with no fun plans where I can stay focused. I've been loosing the same 2-3 pounds since the end of August..

Does anyone else struggle with this?

Spliner1969

Here's the deal. I use my weekends differently. During the week M-F I have to work hard at finding time to exercise. On the weekends I have extra time so I sleep in a bit (not terribly much) get up and drink some coffee, wake up slowly, and then go exercise and take my time at it and do extra. That way on the weekends I have extra calories I've earned and I can eat more, because we all know weekends are when we like to eat, drink, have fun. Try thinking of your weekends as opportunities to get in some much needed exercise/extra sets/walks/runs/whatever. Then enjoy the food that you earned.

My rest day is always Monday, because Monday's suck, and I would rather sleep in a bit on Monday than any other day of the week. Never will I rest on the weekend unless I am on vacation.

LillysMomma09

Do you workout during the week as well and just double on the weekends?

JeromeBarry1

Weekends were hard for me until I had a few bad ones and commenced figuring how to do it. Here's what I found. I adjust the calorie intake for breakfast and lunch. Instead of my weekday big breakfast and small lunch, I have a weekend smaller breakfast and bigger lunch. Additionally, I can trim back on my major meals and insert additional snacks on the weekend. This gives me wiggle room for surprise restaurant trips.

Spook_Skywalker

I just try to mimic my M-F eating schedule on Sat. & Sun. So, 7am Breakfast, 10am snack, 1pm lunch, etc. And eat the same things I would take for my work day.

Although, every Saturday my wife and I go to the gym from 9am to 11am and then go directly out for a cheat meal afterwards; I look forward to this all week. The only limitation I set is keeping it under 1,200 calories for that one cheat meal.

This is just what works for me, thought I'd share.

LillysMomma09

Thanks Everyone. I appreciate the input. I gotta figure out something soon.. These same 2-3 pounds suck..

Kellyfitness128

This girl! Ugh, something about the weekend vibe and as you said- freedom- makes me lose all control and I'm just like, woooo, time to relax and go out with friends and do whatever the heck I want! A few things I'd suggest that help for me though is continuing with exercise on the weekends. I'll sleep in a little, wake up slowly, then get a workout in. Then I try and plan out a schedule for what I'm going to do that day and approximately what times I'm going to eat, which keeps me busy and structured with food. Another suggestion is to eat at maintenance on the weekends. If you're losing 2 pounds in the 5 weekdays, then you're good! I find that if I eat at a deficit too many days in a row I become ravenous which leads to overeating. One way to prevent this is to up my calories to maintenance a couple days out of the week and not feel guilty about it.
Hope this helps! You got this!

Firefly0606

Do you need a little bit more structure on the weekends? Not 100% rigid, but structure some meals well so that you have some flex room for other meals. You won't feel like you're missing out on any flexible weekend fun, but you also keep it sensible so that you can finally farewell those 2-3 lbs that seem to want to hang around...

Say your cal goal is 1500 per day. If you are heading out on a Saturday night, you could try fasting through breakfast, eat 500 cal meal at lunch and effectively 'save' what you would normally have eaten at breakfast and snacks for after 5pm. That gives you 1000 cal for the night. And even if you blow it and go over that 1000 cal, you have possibly eaten somewhere in the vicinity of maintenance anyway.

Apply the same for any meal or event. Structure in a few cheat meals that last 3-4 hours, not cheat weekends that last 48 hours.

arditarose

Yes. My diet is set up so that I can eat at least maintenance calories on the weekend, or when I'm maintaining I can eat a SURPLUS of calories over the weekend. This makes Mon-Fri a little tough but it's worth it for me. I work on a weekly average.

wowser5

LillysMomma09 wrote: »

Thanks Everyone. I appreciate the input. I gotta figure out something soon.. These same 2-3 pounds suck..

I do the same thing too! I like to drink beer, and I can count those calories but after the night is over I over indulge and it sets me back!

bethannien

I've actually been toying with skipping meals on the weekend to address this because I have the same issues. My husband is home and we're both so exhausted and we indulge in one of the few ways we can afford.

Today, I knew I was going out for sushi for dinner so I was pretty strategic about when and what I ate. I actually did pretty well (went over by less than 200 calories and it's my birthday so I really don't feel terrible about it).

So maybe eat lighter meals for the ones you're not going out and keep the splurge within reason?

LillysMomma09

Awesome tips everyone! I'm going to up me to maintenance on Saturdays and Sundays and continue to bike. Thank you everyone!

niblue

Weekends are normally ok for me as I tend to exercise for longer durations so have more leeway with the eating and drinking.

WinoGelato

How much weight are you trying to lose OP? 2 lbs/week is a pretty aggressive goal, some people (like myself) find more success with aiming for a smaller deficit and slower rate of loss in order to be able to better balance calories throughout the week. I am in maintenance now, but even when I was losing, I tend to try to bank some calories for weekend indulgences as that is naturally when we tend to eat at restaurants, have special events, etc. As long as I was in a deficit for the whole week I would lose as planned. Additionally, I try to fit in longer workouts or something different on the weekends (we hike almost every Sunday) which keeps me focused on making good food choices as well.

LillysMomma09

WinoGelato wrote: »

How much weight are you trying to lose OP? 2 lbs/week is a pretty aggressive goal, some people (like myself) find more success with aiming for a smaller deficit and slower rate of loss in order to be able to better balance calories throughout the week. I am in maintenance now, but even when I was losing, I tend to try to bank some calories for weekend indulgences as that is naturally when we tend to eat at restaurants, have special events, etc. As long as I was in a deficit for the whole week I would lose as planned. Additionally, I try to fit in longer workouts or something different on the weekends (we hike almost every Sunday) which keeps me focused on making good food choices as well.

I'm down 37 right and would like to loose another 15 or so. I've tried doing 1 pound per week and didn't seem to loose anything. Just kind of stayed the same even with pretty regular exercise.
I usually finish out my days with 300-400 calories left over but still gain on the weekends. This weekend there is nothing fun going on so hopefully I'll be able to stay on track and loose these stupid 2-3 pounds for good!

LillysMomma09

I just realized I used the wrong word.. lose.. not loose. yay.. go me

WinoGelato

LillysMomma09 wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

How much weight are you trying to lose OP? 2 lbs/week is a pretty aggressive goal, some people (like myself) find more success with aiming for a smaller deficit and slower rate of loss in order to be able to better balance calories throughout the week. I am in maintenance now, but even when I was losing, I tend to try to bank some calories for weekend indulgences as that is naturally when we tend to eat at restaurants, have special events, etc. As long as I was in a deficit for the whole week I would lose as planned. Additionally, I try to fit in longer workouts or something different on the weekends (we hike almost every Sunday) which keeps me focused on making good food choices as well.

I'm down 37 right and would like to loose another 15 or so. I've tried doing 1 pound per week and didn't seem to loose anything. Just kind of stayed the same even with pretty regular exercise.
I usually finish out my days with 300-400 calories left over but still gain on the weekends. This weekend there is nothing fun going on so hopefully I'll be able to stay on track and loose these stupid 2-3 pounds for good!

How accurate is your logging? Are you using a food scale?

goldthistime

The last four weeks looked about the same for me: gain 2lbs on the weekend then spend the next 5 getting rid of them. I'm NOT set to lose 2lbs a week (only 0.5) and I suspect that's all I was really gaining, the rest was water. This weekend I made a strong effort not to gain so I should finally see some movement on the scales this week. Like you, I don't have much more to lose, so I don't mind that there are these mini plateaus in between. Personally I think they are more likely to make me successful in the long run. Hoping for slow success for you too.

jennifer_417

There are a couple of different ways to approach this.
The first one is to plan out your weekends, as rigorously as your week is planned. Within this framework, you can even prelog your food.
The second is to "bank" calories for the weekend. Some people people choose to eat 100 or 200 calories less per day during the week in order to be able to eat more on the weekends.

LillysMomma09

WinoGelato wrote: »

LillysMomma09 wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

How much weight are you trying to lose OP? 2 lbs/week is a pretty aggressive goal, some people (like myself) find more success with aiming for a smaller deficit and slower rate of loss in order to be able to better balance calories throughout the week. I am in maintenance now, but even when I was losing, I tend to try to bank some calories for weekend indulgences as that is naturally when we tend to eat at restaurants, have special events, etc. As long as I was in a deficit for the whole week I would lose as planned. Additionally, I try to fit in longer workouts or something different on the weekends (we hike almost every Sunday) which keeps me focused on making good food choices as well.

I'm down 37 right and would like to loose another 15 or so. I've tried doing 1 pound per week and didn't seem to loose anything. Just kind of stayed the same even with pretty regular exercise.
I usually finish out my days with 300-400 calories left over but still gain on the weekends. This weekend there is nothing fun going on so hopefully I'll be able to stay on track and loose these stupid 2-3 pounds for good!

How accurate is your logging? Are you using a food scale?

I do my best without weighing. I will count my cheezits and scoop out my soup with a measuring cup, things like that but I don't weigh.

LillysMomma09

goldthistime wrote: »

The last four weeks looked about the same for me: gain 2lbs on the weekend then spend the next 5 getting rid of them. I'm NOT set to lose 2lbs a week (only 0.5) and I suspect that's all I was really gaining, the rest was water. This weekend I made a strong effort not to gain so I should finally see some movement on the scales this week. Like you, I don't have much more to lose, so I don't mind that there are these mini plateaus in between. Personally I think they are more likely to make me successful in the long run. Hoping for slow success for you too.

here's to success for you to dear!