Trouble keeping diet on the weekend? Please help, any advice appreciated!

I would just try to stop viewing the weekends as different. I think going on and off counting calories is too hard. I think for this to be successful, you have to stick with it every day for a while (at least a couple of months) to start seeing real progress. I also lose motivation when I go over my calorie budget and tend to see that day as a loss and eat a lot more. I am trying to avoid that by having as few days as possible where I go over. I need to not eat out a lot and not eat at other people's houses to accomplish this. I have yet to figure out my long term solution.

Perhaps you can check out intermittent diets like 5:2 where you eat practically nothing (slight exaggeration) for 2 days a week and go nuts (again, slight exaggeration) for the other 5.
I have no personal experience with it but I have seen people succeed on it. Funny enough, I have more trouble sticking to my diet on weekdays. On weekends I have all the time to plan and will power to resist; on weekdays all my time and willpower are depleted by work. I'm also more active during weekends - try run 10miles and you wouldn't feel like eating for hours

freshmanfifteennn wrote: »

I'm really good about keeping up a diet during the week, but generally Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I'm either unable to stay under my calorie budget or I lose motivation (usually once I've gone over my budget).
So this past week I had a solid deficit for four days and then ate enough the next three so that my net deficit for the week was only about 500 (so basically nothing). I have a couple questions.

1) Did the weight I lost (if any) during those four days get put back on in the next three when I ate more?
Weight loss isn't really linear, you would not put weight back on if you were still in an overall deficit for the week, but what you might see is a temporary water weight gain from eating more carb heavy/sodium heavy food
2) Is there any scenario where I could diet for four or five days a week (extra on a couple days so I would still burn 3500 calories in that period) and not diet on the weekends and still lose weight?
You could try intermittent fasting either 5:2 or 16:8, it may work for you, it may not, basically the idea of 5:2 is that you eat at maintenance or just below for 5 days and eat around 500 calories for 2 days, but you could maybe tweak the numbers to suit. 16:8 (16 hours fasting/8 hour window for eating) works for me on weekends I skip breakfast and have brunch around 12/1pm which leaves me a good chunk of calories for food and drinks if I am going out
3) If that can't work, does anyone have any tips on how to stay motivated during the weekends? My biggest problem is the drinking, my friends and I usually go out both Friday and Saturday and the hangovers usually result in some bad cravings too.
Ultimately I would suggest cutting down on the drink a bit, you could try alternating drinks with soft drinks or switching to lower calorie drinks, but this still won't help with the cravings.
4) Lastly, is it worth just starting the diet over at this point or should I push through?
Try not to think of it as a diet - diets are temporary, think of it as a lifestyle change, make small sustainable changes that will help you to stay on track, if what you're doing isn't working just make changes until it does.
Thanks so much!

I am fasting intermittently each week, following the 5:2 ratio. I eat 500 calories on two weekdays per week (usually Monday and Wednesday) and then for the rest of the week I stick closely to the calorie deficit that MFP has given me for my goal weight loss. This means that at weekends I have a bit of wriggle room for that glass or two of wine and/or a higher calorie meal without worrying about going over my weekly calories.

I'm no expert but if you view your calorie intake as a weekly target, rather than a daily target, it allows you to be more flexible.

It isn't for everyone, but it works for me!

This was always my problem too, I think most people might say its a struggle. The weekend can undo all our hard work during the week.

My aim even at maintenance is to eat at deficit during the week so it all balances out. I still have to keep an eye on my weekend eating, my aim is never to exceed 2200 then, so to maintain I have to eat at 1700-1800 during the week. (total weekly maintenance cals are 13500). It was same when I was losing, I ate 1500-1600 during the week so I could 'splurge' at the weekends.

You either increase your calorie deficit by say 100 or a bit more per week day so you can continue eating how you do on the weekend...Or you be firmer with yourself at the weekend. Extra activity will help too, you could create the deficit with more exercise if that works.

It depends how much you want to lose weight. 500 calories of weekly deficit means weight loss will be really, really slow - i.e only 1lb lost every 7 weeks.

Find what works for you that is sustainable.

Saturday is the day I generally would go off the rails. (Well, Friday night and Saturday. I'm Jewish and our Sabbath is a bit like a small Thanksgiving dinner every week. Not in food served, but in volume.) So, my strategy has been

1. Pre-log everything on Friday afternoon
2. Figuring out the nutrient-dense foods that I (psychologically think I) 'need' to have in order to not feel deprived and restricted. In my case, that's roughly 4 oz of challah for Friday night and Saturday lunch, two pieces of potato kugel and a frosted shortbread after services at my synagogue buffet, and I have dessert for lunch—something homemade, tasty, and under 200 calories per portion. This week it was oranges in brandy and marmalade (95 calories to the 1/2-cup serving). Other weeks, it's been homemade sorbet, chocolate truffles, meringues...
3. I get in at least two hours of walking on Friday and Saturday. Sometimes more.
4. Sunday morning is my weekly weigh-in

It's been working great so far!

Pre plan your meals, budget for occasional drinks. Get rid of anything in the house that might be trigger foods for you, including alcohol. Allow yourself to indulge sometimes but in moderation, sip that whiskey don't gulp it. Get a single serving of that snack you crave, don't stock up any at home. Get a piggy bank and put the money that you would spend on going over your caloric budget in there. At the end of a month or two go treat yourself with the money but not with food. Do not reward yourself with food and alcohol, this is *very* hard to retrain yourself out of, at least it was for me. Distract yourself with other activities, go join a class something fun out of your comfort zone, scuba, hiking, photography, shooting, salsa, painting, something you can be engaged in that doesn't revolve around consumption of food or alcohol. Learn to take pre-approved snacks with you so you are less tempted to hit the vending carts. And lastly, say to yourself over and over until you get it... "this is not a diet, this is a permanent lifestyle change, I am not depriving myself, I am eating correctly for the first time in my life" (or some mantra that is appropriate to you).

No need to start over.

1&2) I haven't found any success with deprivation, cumulative calorie deficits, cheat days, etc. It just leads to binge eating or overeating.
3) Sometimes I'll go for a big hike on the weekend if I have been drinking with friends a lot or I know I will be. I never regret it...even with a hangover. It's beautiful and fun, and I feel good about my choice.

Basically, I'll increase the exercise in a fun way. An extra day of rock climbing, a dance class, walking to the grocery store or coffee shop instead of driving... whatever makes me happy.

Low calorie drinking is helpful too. Rum and diet Coke vs. beer/wine/sugary cocktails, for example.

Everything is a trade-off. I think about it like, I can have drinks tonight if I don't have cheese or a bun with my veggie burger or I can have an extra drink if I workout today. A girl's still gotta have her fun! I've also found I have a lot of fun when I'm not drinking too...but I also don't want to feel like I'm depriving myself.