Help!! Messing up diet every weekend :(

vegankid1990
vegankid1990 Posts: 18 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone!

Having real trouble losing any weight and I feel like I've been struggling for years.
I find that every single week I can eat really healthy and exercise well etc but then every weekend (I only work mon-fri) it all goes out the window.
My routine is completely out, we eat out a lot and it all seems to spiral out of control.
I know it's my own fault but if anyone has any tips and tricks that could help me that would be great!!
I'm getting really down about it now :(

Thanks xx
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Replies

  • plami_9209
    plami_9209 Posts: 67 Member
    If eating out is your problem, try going to places where you can choose meat and salads ( and I don`t mean mcdonalds salads and fried meat). And order a salad with a bbq steak ( if possible without bbq sauce) or even better chicken steak. Order water instead of a fizzy drink ( even beer is better than a fizzy drink). That way even if you go over your calories at least you won`t be filled with bad fats and sugar. Also it`s getting warmer so why not go for walks in the park or play table tennis or something like that with your family instead of staying in the house all day.
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    The app lets you check your weekly calories.

    You can eat less during the week, and eat more on the weekends, and still be at an overall calorie deficit.

    This is called the TDEE Method. Do a search for more info.

    If you're not losing weight, I recommend being more accurate with logging and weighing your food, and reading this "How To" on weight loss:

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  • vegankid1990
    vegankid1990 Posts: 18 Member
    I'm vegan so all of that is out of the question haha! But yeah I do need to walk more on the weekends, I can be lazy.
    My sweet tooth is usually my downfall, although I rarely have fizzy drinks and juices I can fall in to cake and sweets frenzy sometimes!
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    Scroll up to see my post you missed.
  • ghudson92
    ghudson92 Posts: 2,061 Member
    My boyfriend and I suffer from the weekend sweet tooth, we have begun sharing desserts if we go out and no longer order starters or sides which so far saves about 800 calories per meal. I stick to being designated driver and drink only water. We've also started making meals at home which is much cheaper and much healthier. I think a lot of it is to do with your mind-set, I have to remind myself of all the hard work put in during my work week which seems to help. I hope you find something that works for you :-)
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    You can eat treats and still lose weight. I've lost 79 lbs / 36 kg in the past year and I had alcohol and chocolate pretty much every day. You just need to make room in your calorie limit for the things you love. If you deprive yourself of things, you won't stick to a calorie deficit for long enough to reach your goal.
  • vegankid1990
    vegankid1990 Posts: 18 Member
    Thanks, to be honest I usually forget to log on the weekends or I purposely don't because I know it's gonna go over haha. Maybe that's my downfall :s
    I'm usually very good during the week at weighing and logging. Xx
  • JoshuaMcAllister
    JoshuaMcAllister Posts: 500 Member
    vegankid1990 wrote: »
    Thanks, to be honest I usually forget to log on the weekends or I purposely don't because I know it's gonna go over haha. Maybe that's my downfall :s
    I'm usually very good during the week at weighing and logging. Xx

    You could try changing your settings over the weekend to maintenance calories, giving you slightly more than your current diet calories. This will slow down any weight loss but mentally it could help you with logging accurately and trying to stay within calorie goal over the weekend.
  • vegankid1990
    vegankid1990 Posts: 18 Member
    JoshuaMcAllister wrote: »
    vegankid1990 wrote: »
    Thanks, to be honest I usually forget to log on the weekends or I purposely don't because I know it's gonna go over haha. Maybe that's my downfall :s
    I'm usually very good during the week at weighing and logging. Xx

    You could try changing your settings over the weekend to maintenance calories, giving you slightly more than your current diet calories. This will slow down any weight loss but mentally it could help you with logging accurately and trying to stay within calorie goal over the weekend.

    Thanks, that's a good idea xx
  • ElizabethOakes2
    ElizabethOakes2 Posts: 1,038 Member
    My tips for eating out:
    Ask for a take-out box up front and box half your meal for leftovers later in the week.
    Order a green salad starter, no dressing. By the time your entree arrives, you will feel less hungry and eat less of your entree.
    Drink a glass of water before going out, so that you're well hydrated and don't mistake thirst for hunger.
    No matter what you ate or how much you ate, log it faithfully (as close as you can to what you ate- restaurants are tricky.). If you don't log, you don't know how much you have to compensate for later on in the week.

    I also like to store up some exercise calories during the week so that I have some extra calories 'banked' in case I go over. :)

    The big trick is to figure out how make the things you love fit into your new lifestyle. Don't think of this as a 'diet', but think of it as changing your life for the healthier. It's all about finding balance, and you can do it! :)
  • KatKat1209
    KatKat1209 Posts: 229 Member
    edited April 2016
    and keep logging on weekends - I read that on another post somewhere in the Forum - cause if you see what you lock and locked already you're more likely to not go as overboard as you would without logging (estimating things is okay though just try to get as close as possible...)
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    ElizabethOakes2 wrote: »
    Order a green salad starter, no dressing. By the time your entree arrives, you will feel less hungry and eat less of your entree.

    Why do you even need a starter or an entree?
  • Vickie96
    Vickie96 Posts: 17 Member
    I struggled with this for a few months! My advice would be to always log everything you eat as accurately as you can, even if you go 1000's of calories over, log it. What I did then was try and cut it down week by week instead of feeling like I'm depriving myself, so I had a tendancy to overeat on Saturday and Sunday so the next week I'd try and cut it down to just Saturday, then it was maybe an indulgent meal and a few treats on a Saturday (instead of the whole day). Like you, I used to find eating out on the weekend quite tedious due to the temptation but once I'd managed to cut my weekend overeating down I found myself choosing the healthy option anyway. And you know what if I did have an unhealthy meal then I'd just enjoy and get straight back on track :)
  • chalaivy
    chalaivy Posts: 101 Member
    Orphia wrote: »
    The app lets you check your weekly calories.

    I've seen other people talk about this too. How do you do that? I can't seem to figure it out in my reports section?

  • sanamm22
    sanamm22 Posts: 35 Member
    vegankid1990 wrote: »
    Hi everyone!

    Having real trouble losing any weight and I feel like I've been struggling for years.
    I find that every single week I can eat really healthy and exercise well etc but then every weekend (I only work mon-fri) it all goes out the window.
    My routine is completely out, we eat out a lot and it all seems to spiral out of control.
    I know it's my own fault but if anyone has any tips and tricks that could help me that would be great!!
    I'm getting really down about it now :(

    Thanks xx

    Well Im in the same boat looking for advise.cant give u any tip bc I don kno anything lol
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    Plan what you will eat even on weekends.
    Log everything even if you think you are going over. Log before you eat things.
    Eat out only once if eating out is a problem.
    Eat at maintenance level on the weekend.
    If your weekday diet is very restrictive and it is causing you to go nuts on the weekend change it so you eat more of what you like every day.
  • lml852014
    lml852014 Posts: 243 Member
    I eat at maintenance level on Saturdays, I also bank calories throughout the week for the weekend. I've still been losing consistently at .5 lb a week for the last 3 months so I figure I'm doing something right!
  • katiebean
    katiebean Posts: 110 Member
    chalaivy wrote: »
    Orphia wrote: »
    The app lets you check your weekly calories.

    I've seen other people talk about this too. How do you do that? I can't seem to figure it out in my reports section?

    In the app version if you click on nutrition it gives you your weekly net total, so you can see how many calories you've eaten each day, how above or below your weekly total you are, and how this averages out over the 7 days. I'm not sure but I don't think the website version has this.
  • katiebean
    katiebean Posts: 110 Member
    OP, I always go over on my weekends so I try and eat a bit less during the week. I usually eat about 100 calories less per day so I've got more to work with on Saturday and Sunday. I also find I do more exercise, particularly walking, at the weekend. These help to even out the weekend splurges (but you have to log them! :smile: )
  • murp4069
    murp4069 Posts: 494 Member
    This is something most m of us struggle with at some point. For me, keeping my calories lower and not eating back more than 25-50% of my exercise calories during the week gives me some extra calories to work with on the weekends when I tend to eat out once or twice. I still order what I want - French fries are my favorite - but I eat about half the amount I did a year ago. I don't live my life in a structured way on the weekends and the way I've described has really worked for me consistently for a while now. You just have to find a way to make the weekends work a bit better, and not deprive yourself of things you love. You'll be less likely to succeed long term and deprivation may even lead to binges.
  • enterdanger
    enterdanger Posts: 2,447 Member
    I've been on here for nearly 3 years and I still suck at weekends. Honestly, I just try to eat maintenance most weekends. It means I lose much slower but I haven't found the willpower yet to say "no" to that extra beer when I'm at a calorie limit on a Saturday. I know for me it's totally a willpower thing. I'm all like "Everyone else is doing it." LOL.

    If I know I'm going somewhere social I also try to do an extra long workout. Like this Saturday I went to a beer festival so I added some extra running Saturday morning.
  • butterfli7o
    butterfli7o Posts: 1,319 Member
    edited April 2016
    I'm in the same boat, but I know it's a 100% fixable problem on my part. I'm trying to bank calories during the week and work out extra in the meantime, but ultimately I know I need to limit the wine on the weekend. It sucks!
  • Colorscheme
    Colorscheme Posts: 1,179 Member
    Just be honest. But not logging everything, you're really cheating yourself. At least if you log, you'll know how much damage you did.

    I ate a lot this weekend so I made up for it by doing a little exercising. It was worth it.
  • reevess113
    reevess113 Posts: 29 Member
    I eat at maintenance on the weekends also. And I plan most meals at home rather than going out. Saves money too!
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    Orphia wrote: »
    ElizabethOakes2 wrote: »
    Order a green salad starter, no dressing. By the time your entree arrives, you will feel less hungry and eat less of your entree.

    Why do you even need a starter or an entree?

    This^

    Wouldn't the entrée give you more nutrition than salad....no dressing. I get cutting calories.....but this is cutting nutrition too.

    I eat at maintenance on the weekends too. I also allow myself treats
  • ASKyle
    ASKyle Posts: 1,475 Member
    Bank calories during the week for the weekends (eat 100 less Monday-Friday so you have an extra 500 on the weekend, etc).

    Just log what you're eating and be honest with yourself. I logged an entire pan pizza that I ate Saturday-Sunday. Who cares? Now I can go by my weekly calories and see what I need to do to even it out.
  • Lathandria
    Lathandria Posts: 42 Member
    Honestly the only way to stop overeating on the weekend is to just STOP overeating. I used to do this and sometimes I still struggle with it. (Like this weekend for instance, but it was my birthday so I had planned on it and banked some extra calories last week to help)

    As far as the sweet tooth goes, I buy a lot of the Fiber One brownies or the Special K ones. They are 80 or 90 calories each and they help so much when I have a craving for something sweet! They taste pretty good too!
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    vegankid1990 wrote: »
    I'm vegan so all of that is out of the question haha! But yeah I do need to walk more on the weekends, I can be lazy.
    My sweet tooth is usually my downfall, although I rarely have fizzy drinks and juices I can fall in to cake and sweets frenzy sometimes!

    I know I'm going to eat more on the weekends so I exercise more those days.

    I can have sweet tooth frenzy if I don't get enough protein, which is much easier for me, as an omnivore. Are you diligently working on getting enough protein? My healthy vegan friends make legumes and seitan the base of their diets.

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