How Do I Conquer Saturdays

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Hammig74
Hammig74 Posts: 28 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
I have been maintaining for five months and there are so many good habits I’ve created. One area I’ve consistently fallen short is my Saturdays. I eat what I want, but I don’t want to eat 2000+ calories in excess every Saturday. How do I indulge without going off the rails? Planning? Drink more water? Wire my jaws shut? What????
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Replies

  • pierinifitness
    pierinifitness Posts: 2,231 Member
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    Eat slowly, masticating everything you put in your mouth and savor the delight of the flavors and textures. Take pauses between much like you rest between exercise sets. Drink plenty of water along the way. Ask yourself if you’re full and find other things besides another bite of food to cultivate your Saturday joy.
  • LyndaBSS
    LyndaBSS Posts: 6,964 Member
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    Maybe fill out your weekend food diary ahead of time?
  • girlwithcurls2
    girlwithcurls2 Posts: 2,263 Member
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    So many good ideas here. I have the same struggle on weekends. I find that I need to adhere to my weekday eating earlier in the day (I don't eat breakfast, I snack on veggies around 10:30, eat lunch around 1pm, more veggies, allows for a hearty dinner later.) Still, it's hard. I find sunny afternoons so conducive to finishing my work outside, showering, and then settling in with my husband and a bottle of bubbly on the grass... :)
  • gallicinvasion
    gallicinvasion Posts: 1,015 Member
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    I usually relax in the morning with some coffee, go for a walk maybe, push my first meal til later than usual (11 am to 1pm) and eliminate my normal afternoon snack. This means I can use my breakfast and afternoon snack calories to allow for bigger lunch, dinner, dessert, or drinks than I usually have on a regular work-day.
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
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    I eat at a slight deficit during the week so I can eat more on weekends. That doesn't mean I can go all out on the weekends, though; it means I can have a restaurant meal or two, and maybe a treat or two.
  • Rfblanchette
    Rfblanchette Posts: 3 Member
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    Read the book The Anderson Method. He recommends cutting calories during the week so you build up a surplus you can use on the weekends. You cut a few hundred calories a day during the work week and by Saturday you have 1500+ extra calories built up. Then you can indulge a bit on the weekend without worry. You have to manage your weekly calorie count to lose or maintain weight. Going over one day is fine as long as you go under on other days. Rosebarnalice is using the same method of banking calories.

    Anderson is a counselor who lost 140 pounds and has kept it off for 30 years. He knows weight loss and understands human psychology. We all tend to eat more on the weekends. I use his plan along with MyFitnessPal to do the tracking. It has worked well for me and I indulge a bit every weekend without worry. I've lost 32 pounds so far and am 15 pounds from my goal weight and do not feel deprived at all.

    One thing I do when I know I'm going to go way over is some extra exercise on Saturday morning. It's not really necessary but makes me feel better about it. I hate seeing a red calorie count even though I know I'm still okay for the week.

  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,252 Member
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    Analyse the difference between weekdays and Saturdays/Sundays. I'm going to assume the primary difference is scheduling outside your control. If true then an answer is to schedule out your Saturdays.

    I plan out a long run/bike/swim on the weekends for training, but this also eats up time where I can't be eating. I also plan out other activities which aren't about eating. Home maintenance, DIY, hikes with the kids, etc.

    Prebudgeting and prelogging also helps your mindset so that you know what you can and cannot eat.
  • mjglantz
    mjglantz Posts: 487 Member
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    Truthfully I don't really worry about it. I manage my breakfast and lunch on Saturday (and the weekend) and may go over on Saturday night. But when I look at the whole week I'm generally at or under on net calories. And I've been maintaining for over 6 years. I do exercise every day w/cardio and strength a couple times/week and regularly get over 16,000 steps.
  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,287 Member
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    I eat on my fitness plan all week long and during the day on Saturday...then have drinks and dinner out Saturday night and sometimes do the same on Sunday. I did that the entire time I lost me weight and I do it now that I maintain..
  • aziz_n1
    aziz_n1 Posts: 140 Member
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    Not just Saturdays but Sundays too, basically the whole weekend from Friday evening is a real challenge. Good thing is that I don’t drink alcohol and have really cut back on soft fizzy drinks, but my weakness is tasty food, good and bad, especially puddings/desserts. For me the trick is as an earlier reply said, keep the physical activity levels high over the weekend to balance out the calorie intake. Resisting temptation to eat over the weekend is very hard when do much tasty food is on offer everywhere & from everyone. Is it rude to say ‘No thanks’ especially if someone has spent a lot of time making something tasty?
    Keep up the fight though.
  • FinelyFermented
    FinelyFermented Posts: 100 Member
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    I treat the weekend like a fast day and try to eat only with the family. If I have my normal shake, then oatmeal and a light lunch, my calories in go sky high after dinner and a drink or 6.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    I've been maintaining for over 6 years. I eat pretty well during the week...I enjoy myself on weekends, though I don't go off the rails or anything...but that's definitely when we attend social gatherings and whatnot. My maintenance calories are around 3,000...so going over by 2,000, while possible, would be a stretch...like I said, I'm not going crazy or anything, I'm just more relaxed about my diet. Sometimes if I know we'll be attending a big BBQ or something in the evening I'll do IF (sometimes not) and possibly eat a lighter lunch.

    Saturday morning is also my longer ride since I have time...so I'm getting some more calories there.

    Saturdays, and weekends in general have never impacted my weight maintenance. I never got fat in the first place because of Saturday...it was all the other 6 days of the week. But like I said, I'm not really one to just run completely off the rails...that would be a self control thing.

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