Weekend Eating

marisaleib5086

Hi!

I meal prep Monday through Thursday, and I rarely stray off my strict meal plan. On fridays, Saturdays, and sundays I have the same breakfast and lunch that I normally eat during the week. I usually don’t snack as much because I tend to eat a bigger dinner than the one I usually have prepared in my meal prep container. So is eating a bigger dinner on Friday and Saturday going to hurt my weight? I usually cook and eat fairly healthy meals I consider these my cheat meals but that’s more because the portion size is bigger but I’m not eating unhealthy food. I enjoy having the freedom on the weekends to have a dinner that I don’t track my calories with, but I’m hoping this isn’t hurting my progress.

lynn_glenmont

Since you're not tracking the calories there is no way for anyone else to be able to know whether you're netting enough extra calories from bigger, untracked dinner two nights (or is it three nights -- you imply you do something different outside of breakfast and lunch on Sunday, but then you only say you have bigger dinners on Friday and Saturday) a week to wipe out the daily deficit on the four or five days of the week. You also neglect to tell us what your deficit is on those other days.

Since you don't want to track, you'll have to rely on the scale. How long have you been eating this way, and what has the result been on the scales during that time?

AnnPT77

Unless you track the calories from the bigger meals, the only way you'll know if they're hurting progress is to stick to that routine for a few weeks, and see what the results are on the scale.

Eating healthy food can make you gain weight, if you eat more calories of it than you burn. I got fat then obese eating mostly healthy foods - way too much of them.

I'd suggest eating your bigger meals on the weekends, but tracking them. If you wipe out your calorie deficit for the week, or most of it, those meals will hurt your progress.

NovusDies

I think your question has been answered by two knowledgeable people.

I find it more freeing to track all of my meals. I don't like the doubts you are now experiencing about what might happen next time you visit the scale. By logging accurately I can reasonably predict how much weight I am losing which gives me the freedom not to worry about it. You do what works best for you though. I am just giving you a slightly different perspective.

LivingtheLeanDream

I used to undo all my good progress during the week by overeating on the weekends - as the others have said, track your calories, if you have a good enough calorie deficit during the week and even if you eat up to maintenance at the weekends you will still lose.

Even though I am in maintenance now I eat at deficit during the week so I can actually go slightly above my TDEE/maintenance cals on the weekends, in other words I bank those calories. I did the same thing when I was wanting to lose only my calorie deficit was a bit higher for weekdays.

cmriverside

I track it all. No matter what.

In the early days of weight loss it was one way for me to arrest the over-eating.

Now I just like to see the data.

I still have over-eating days, but I know how it will affect my weight and I feel that accurate data is always my best tool.

callsitlikeiseeit

without accurately logging, you have no idea.

i logged for 5 years. now, i still log but dont eat back many exercise calories. so on days im over, i know for fact im good and the scale tells me the same. BUT i also have 5 years of experience doing it the PROPER way and learning. And, should the scale stop for too long, I also know what to do to remedy that.

i ate a ton yesterday (for me). still showed a loss this morning when i got up.

mariluny

It depends how much calorie you eat. Instead of looking at it daily, in your case you could look at it weekly.


To make it simple here is an example with fake numbers:
Let's say your maintenance amount of calorie is 1800 and your deficit is 1500

From monday to Thursday you have a 300 calories deficit everyday
Friday, Saturday and Sunday you eat more but up to maintenance: 1800 cal/day
For your week you have a deficit of 1200 calories, it's a success and you will lose weight.

Now with the same example you eat your 1500 cal from Monday to Thursday but:
Friday you eat 2200 cals
Saturday: 2400 cals
Sunday: 2000 cals

Now you have consumed an extra 1200 calories during the weekend which is the same amount of deficit calories of your week days. In this instance you would not lose nor gain weight for the week.

kommodevaran

You can't know if you don't track, either your intake short term, or your weight long term, or preferably both.
You can eat anything you want in moderation, no foods are healthy or unhealthy. A diet can be more or less healthy. A healthy relationship with food is taking care to eat a healthy diet, but not fearing foods or obsessing over details. Cheating is usually not associated with a healthy relationship with food.
Tracking gives you the freedom to eat anything you want any time without worrying about nutrition or weight.

sardelsa

If your weekend eating cancels out your overall deficit (even if it's healthy food) then it could hurt your progress if your intention is to lose weight. Either monitor your weight to make sure you are still losing appropriately, or track your weekends if you aren't seeing progress.

jjpptt2

Impossible to say. It's a numbers game...

If you save your money all month, then spurge on a pair of shoes at month's end, will that hurt your savings over the longer term? Depends how much you save vs how much the shoes cost.