I Eat Away My Progress on the Weekends

You are being too restrictive with yourself during the week if you are binging on the weekends IMO. Or it could be you have the mindset (like a lot of people struggle with) that you are good all week so you "deserve" to enjoy the weekend. The problem there is sometimes it's hard to stop and you go all out and gain. Then you get stuck in that vicious cycle of gaining and losing the same 3-5 lbs of water weight.

I know you say you want to lose that last bit of weight, but until you get your head in the game 24/7 it won't happen. Maybe try changing up what you eat during the week so you don't feel the need to gorge on weekends, allow for a treat each day. Of course, it's not that hard to shake your head to the left and then to the right when someone offers you food or beer. *shrug*

Best of luck to you!! :flowerforyou:

bump for when I have the same issue

Get new friends, they must be swaying you to go out and drink and eat. Do what I've seen above, keep your schedule you have during the week on the weekend (well minus the working - instead go outside now that it's nice and walk or do activities during the day). You will be so tired, you will want to go to bed instead of going out drinking. I guess you have to decide what's more important to you right now. Partying or losing weight. You can still go out, just don't drink (which for alot of people ya end up at some greasy spoon after a night of drinking! LOL!) Understand this is coming from someone that never got into drinking. I was the designated driver (and the designated person who if you passed out had fun with sharpies on your face!!! BWAHAHAHA)

Yeah get new friends.... lol

My calories are always liquid. Typically soda's when hubby and I go out to eat on the weekends. He is retired and home all week so we always have a date night on the weekend and that's where my eating habits go downhill. Then the weekend if full of errands, housework and eating this or that along the way. I need the structure too of the weekdays when I pack my breakfast and lunch and dinner is planned for ease when I get home. I now make sure I have the appropriate breakfast and lunch, then if we go out to dinner I am ordering what I want and then asking for a box, or splitting a meal with the hubby so I am satisfied, but portions are smaller. I also order a soda and a water and refuse a refill. I am finding a drink a small amount of coke for "the taste" but end upp drinking more water with my meal. No alcohol at all.

Alcohol to me just isn't worth the calories, or feeling crappy the next day so I pretty much always avoid it.

I don't have cheat days when I am losing weight. When I reach my desired goal weight, then I have one day a week where I will treat myself. It helps me to maintain my weight

Amen to this.

...then I drink and compound the problem.

Consider this fact...almost all of the folks who posted about their 'regretable weekends' are also mentioning alcohol. Why do you have to drink alcohol? Is it required to be a part of your social group? Too many folks drink to be 'acceptable' to their friends, then find themselves acting thoughtlessly about other things...important things.

Alcohol has a way of making too many bad things seem acceptable...at the time. A couple of drinks later, and who is in control of what you are doing? Resistance to temptations will go right out the window. Yes, alcohol leads the way to many poor choices.

Try making it through just one weekend, drinking low calorie, NON-ALCOHOLIC beverages instead of 'the usual'; and I'll bet that you learn a lot about your friends, yourself and 'your problem'.

If you can't do this for even one weekend, then you might have a more serious 'problem'.

Thanks for posting this, I am struggling with the same problem. Especially love the "keeping my piehole closed " part. I'm reading through the advice and wil keep trying.

I do the same...the drinking only occasionally, but the going off on the weekends is my problem. I don't know why. It used to be because I worked and it was easy to keep an eating light routine while working, but now I'm not working (unemployment) and so the weekends shouldn't matter. I love food and watching movies on my big screen tv, and like to eat when watching. I know, bad habit, if I get hungry, I try to munch on something healthy- like veggies, lt.nonfat yougurt, or 14 almonds (98 cals). I could use some more ideas for low-cal salty crunchy foods like popcorn. I do air-popped, but I tend not to lose weight when I do the high-glycemic carbs (constipation). I lose 4 lbs during the week, but then by weigh-day (Mon), I haven't lost or even gained 'cause of the weekends. I really don't know why the weekends are harder since I'm not in a work routine anymore either... And then once in a blue moon, I'll drink too much. I do stick to vodka/club/lemon, so it's not too bad (don't gain), but it keeps me from losing. I guess I haven't helped you much, because I don't have the answer. Just to keep tracking, keeping cals low (mines 1200/day), try and eat healthy for the majority of the time, DON'T skip a meal/let yourself get hungry(ALWAYS keep 100 cal snacks with you- I keep raw almonds in the car), and make sure you drink your 8 glassed of water daily. I lost 50 lbs in '09/'10 and kept it off for a couple of years. I just love food, so I'm starting again. I'm 5'3" and just started (5/20/13) at 199 and 16 days later I've only lost 4 lbs. because of the weekend-thing. I don't know the solution. The only differece is last time I was working- but not on the weekends. Oh, and I met someone and am happy and content, and it's easy to be comfortable when someone's telling you all the time that you're beautiful no matter what you weigh. Well, let me know your thoughts on this, maybe we can help each other!

Thanks for posting this! I struggle with this too...and it's good to see tips and suggestions.

I think the key is structure.

M-F tend to be very structured for many people. Work schedules, school schedules, meal times = structure, structure, structure. And where there is structure, there tends to be control.

On the weekends, structure flies out the window, and so does control.

Find a way to put some structure or consistency into your weekends and you may find control coming back to you.

One thing that has helped me is to log what I am going to be eating or drinking before I actually consume it. When you enter in that big plate of nachos and pitcher of margaritas and see a huge calorie count staring at you and giving you those dreaded red results numbers, you might be more inclined to make a better decision in the first place. Also, if you are going out to a bar/club with friends, enter in your drinks before you go so you have a limit set in your mind "Okay I budgeted for 3 drinks, and after that I am absolutely done"

I do the EXACT same thing!!! Im sure others have suggested this (haven't had time to read through all the replies, using this as a "bump" though!), but what I do is make sure to log everything, even if it puts me waaaay over on calories. Its just to easy to say "well, today is ruined, whats the point of continuing to log?!" but when I make myself put it all in on a Friday or Saturday, I tend to do better on Sunday. Just a thought

Here's what I do....

When I think about being bad, I say "Is THIS what I want? No... I WANT to be fit.. and this donut (cookie, chocolate shake, etc..) will NOT give me what I want. So I distract myself with exercise, cleaning, or playing with my child.

I have the exact same problem:



30 days and I'm down one pound. You can easily see the weekends go by on the chart.

And the thing is, on those weekends I don't think I hardly ever go over the amount of calories it should take to just maintain my weight (280 pounds x 10 = 2800 calories).

To the person who said that we just really aren't logging well during the week and don't have the deficit we think we do, holy crap, if I have to eat even *less* I don't know how I'm going to cope. I'm starving all the time and for nothing, it seems.