Does anyone else take the weekends off?

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_lyndseybrooke_
_lyndseybrooke_ Posts: 2,561 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Cheat day? No, cheat days.

I've always been really good with food and exercise Monday-Friday, but it's hard to do the same on weekends. I eat around 1500 calories per day and I log my exercise, but I don't eat back the calories. I save those extra calories for the weekend. Lately I haven't been logging on weekends and I'm not losing like I was, but when I log and stay at 1500 net calories for the weekly average, I can eat 3000 calories on Saturday and 2500 on Sunday. And I'm never hungry during the week, so it's not a sacrifice.

Does anyone else do this? Have you had any success with it?

Is there anything wrong with doing it that way? Does the spike in calories at the end of each week harm or help your metabolism?

Replies

  • GnosisGnosis
    GnosisGnosis Posts: 148
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    I personally don't do it, but that's just because I have an "All or nothing" type of personality. I don't think there's anything wrong with it, as long as you're happy with your results.
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
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    Your problem is your exercise logging from what I see. You're logging cleaning and the burns for strength training are high, it doesn't burn much of anything. You can log high burns for exercise by grasping for them and then expect to eat them back on the weekends without screwing your diet.

    Log the weekends and own it. If you don't log it you have no idea what you're really eating and you don't really have 3,000 calories to spare on the weekend.
  • ehorn625
    ehorn625 Posts: 144
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    not intentionally. I too am great mon-fri and hang on for dear life on the weekends but I have been getting better at it.
  • _lyndseybrooke_
    _lyndseybrooke_ Posts: 2,561 Member
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    Your problem is your exercise logging from what I see. You're logging cleaning and the burns for strength training are high, it doesn't burn much of anything. You can log high burns for exercise by grasping for them and then expect to eat them back on the weekends without screwing your diet.

    Log the weekends and own it. If you don't log it you have no idea what you're really eating and you don't really have 3,000 calories to spare on the weekend.

    Who said I had a problem? I've been doing this since the beginning and I've lost all but 4 lbs so far. As I said, I stopped losing because I stopped logging - no mystery there. I'm not asking for advice. This question is just to see if anyone else does this and if there are any health concerns attached to it. I have no reason to change what I'm doing because I have no problem.

    Not that it matters, but I log cleaning only when I do it for over an hour (though I only count 30 min usually) and I'm doing things like lugging my Kirby up and down the stairs, de-furring my furniture, etc. I'm not under the impression that doing dishes burns a whole lot of calories. Also, I only use the "strength training" option two times a week and I just use the calorie expenditure MFP gives me because I log lower burns for other things and I feel like it evens out. I haven't had a problem with it, so I guess it's working.
  • luckydays27
    luckydays27 Posts: 552 Member
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    No I try to stay in my limits everyday but since I eat quite a bit to begin with its not hard. I don't exercise on Sundays but I do track my cals and try to stay under. If course if I go over I don't beat myself up over it either.

    If you are not losing the way you want you need to track all of the cals, even the extras. And get don't log cleaning as a calorie burn. Unless you are marathon cleaning there is no way you are getting your heart rate up to a significant rate to make it worth logging. I use a heart rate monitor to determine my cals burned during fitness as I found the cals burned via MFP to be high.

    Good luck
  • shannongoneau
    shannongoneau Posts: 246 Member
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    I take weekends off from the gym (I work 17 hours on sat and sun plus gym isn't open before or after I'm done work) I still use the stairs at work and walk around as much as possible. I plan my meals for the two days of work (who wants to cook at 5:00am or at 1am when I get home?) and allow myself one cheat item on the weekends (today its a bag of snack size cheetos! :happy: ) because I work downtown and everything is just so accessible.

    In short I plan for my cheat and don't go over on calories on weekends. Hope if you stick with what you're doing it works for you, but while you're going over on calories on the weekend you are going to end up trying to loose the extra calories during the week and if you don't thats where you're going to start running into problems.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    I think it would defeat the purpose and undo my work for the week...
  • ariamythe
    ariamythe Posts: 130 Member
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    I log weekends. But, I try not to be too militant about going a little over on any day. I don't like not tracking weekends because it's SO easy to go WAY over and then I've killed any progress I made during the week.

    I think the bigger issue is not eating back exercise calories. BMR is an important number, and eating well below it -- which you may be doing if you're not eating back exercise -- makes your body think its starving. Then weight loss stops.
  • JamieG8991
    JamieG8991 Posts: 1,203 Member
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    Absolutely!! I am very good about logging during the week, but I definitely take weekends off!! I try to be mindful of everything I eat, but I'm not strict about it at all. I must enjoy myself and every little thing life has to offer!!! :bigsmile:
  • brendacs21
    brendacs21 Posts: 180 Member
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    I used to take the weekends off. I would start friday night and just eat everything i wanted all weekend. For me this would usually result in a 3-5 pounds gain by monday morning. Then it would take me all week to lose it. so basically i was just maintaining. I had no self control period. Lately i have started having a cheat meal instead; one on saturday and one on sunday . Also if we are at a party or there is dessert i have some but just one small piece. If i can i try and sneak in a workout too either saturday or sunday. I dont ever weigh in monday anymore but when i weigh in every friday i have seen weight loss. it has been slow but its steady!
  • helenrosemay
    helenrosemay Posts: 375 Member
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    For me the weekends are the same as weekdays as I'm not working. I volunteer at a charity shop on Sundays, so eat a few more calories then. If I were working, or when I'm maintaining I may be more relaxed at weekends.
  • cottagegal1
    cottagegal1 Posts: 161 Member
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    I have Friday evening off for food and as my trainer says that free evening makes up for days during the week that I do a lot of exercise so I do not eat my calories back those days.....like he says can't have it both ways ... I an in this fir 2 months lost 4 pounds with him but have lst inches gained muscle and feel great!

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