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Don't Let Your Weekend Make You Fat

mensfitness.com — Saturday and Sunday backsliding can erase your fitness gains made during the week. Here are tips to help you feel fit come Monday morning.

Who dugg this? Made popular Oct 16, 2009

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  • popzero, on 10/15/2009, -0/+29But... but... Saturday and Sunday are my bacon days!
  • kartman2001, on 10/15/2009, -0/+23I let everyday make me fat.
  • wassim2k, on 10/16/2009, -2/+14Eating a little junk one day during the week won't make any difference.
  • kidblast, on 10/16/2009, -0/+12I bust my ass Monday - Friday so that I can eat what I want on the weekend. Since I've made the lifestyle change to eat a bit more responsibly, I usually don't go overboard on my cheat days anyway.
  • RachelJTM, on 10/15/2009, -0/+11this always happens to me...
  • Rudegar, on 10/16/2009, -0/+9"I'm a good cook, so eating something I make usually turns out to be a disappointment."

    trademark of all good cooks I guess :P
  • Kronos6948, on 10/16/2009, -0/+9Exactly...I lost 30 lbs over the span of 6 months and kept it off that way. I'm gonna work on losing another 30. If you don't provide yourself with a little something, the cravings are gonna kill you.
  • topcat5, on 10/16/2009, -0/+8I started doing my drinking at work, so no need to drink on weekends. Best shape I have ever been in.
  • lead2thehead, on 10/16/2009, -2/+8How long have you been waiting for a food article so you could plug your ***** website?
  • chicaneuk, on 10/16/2009, -1/+6I've taken up (road) cycling recently and am finding it an excellent antidote to the weekend slobbishness which can occur.. come tomorrow, planning to cycle about 30 miles with a buddy of mine... by the time the evening comes round, I'll have earned that Domino's pizza :)

    Additionally, I make sure I only get up an hour later than I normally would on Saturday and Sunday - (so 8am instead of 7am) which feels like enough of a lie-in - that helps keep my body clock in check and my ability to get to sleep on Sunday night at a reasonable time is not affected.
  • extratired, on 10/16/2009, -0/+5It will make a difference, for the better. Junk food can and should act as a reward for strictly following a diet during the rest of the week. It gives something positive to look forward to and it breaks monotony, helping people to stay on their diet for longer periods of time.
  • qwer777, on 10/16/2009, -0/+5EVERY day is my bacon day!
  • inactive, on 10/16/2009, -1/+5Damn, that hot dog looks good.
  • tgc1, on 10/16/2009, -1/+5Okay captain buzz kill.
  • J0hnnyBlaze, on 10/16/2009, -0/+4especially Sunday.
  • Iwantawii, on 10/16/2009, -1/+5Buried for running..
  • SloS13, on 10/16/2009, -0/+4What great tips. I never would have thought of eating better foods and exercising on the weekend!!
  • GilThielander, on 10/16/2009, -0/+4Bacon is perfectly healthy.
  • kernel16, on 10/16/2009, -0/+3Men's articles are looking more and more like women's articles.
  • Rudegar, on 10/16/2009, -1/+4I eat and drink what I like and smoke myself thin :P
  • smackydoodle, on 10/16/2009, -1/+3cancer will do that to ya...

    /s... well, it does do that, but, nevermind, I'm going to get buried regardless
  • Rudegar, on 10/16/2009, -0/+2aaarrrrrggggg!!! hmmmpppfff how inappropriate I don't have cancer
    ... yet :P
  • inkubusfan, on 10/16/2009, -0/+2dugg for Syntha-6 booty shot ad....

    DAYUM!!!
  • lead2thehead, on 10/16/2009, -1/+3*****. You're not telling people that "you know what you're talking about". You are selling a diet plan. That's not your blog. It's an advertisement... aka SPAM. What you're doing is no different than people who spam the message boards with Viagra ads. And YES, genius, spamming message boards is frowned upon. Welcome to the internet. My advice to you is to go back to stapling your "Lose Weight Now" flyers to stop signs, like you were doing before.
  • JimmyDThing, on 10/16/2009, -1/+2I do agree that you can fall into a trap of way too many calories when you go out to eat. But I don't really see an issue with 1 day a week where you eat more than you should... IF you're already working out during the week, it doesn't really matter.

    What are you working out to get to if you're missing out on everything? Treat yourself, you'll go nuts if you don't.

    In the end, what I'm saying is... if you DIDN'T do anything all week, then yeah.. you should probably follow all these rules and more. But if you consistently work out every week, then there's really no issue enjoying your weekend. I guess if you're just getting started working out, then yeah... you should avoid the weekends for a while. But if it's just part of you're routine and you've been doing it forever, then don't worry too much about a few extra calories on the weekends.
  • EnnuiStudent, on 10/16/2009, -0/+1I'm just saying --- a little bit more thoughtfulness and accountability is what people need. I never said to weigh yourself daily. I'm mentioning just simply being aware so you can control caloric intake better.

    To so many people, "enjoy the weekend" could just mean eating out at Chili's or some restaurant where you consume an easy 2000. For dinner. If you ate out for lunch, that's an easy 1000. Get a few snacks in between? 500 each. After all, 6 meals a day is good for you, isn't it? And I'm not even counting breakfast yet.

    When enjoying yourself in this country --- socializing and eating out -- it's incredibly easy to double or triple your caloric maintenance (calories to maintain weight). Not surprisingly, it's harder and harder to go to a restaurant where you can order an entree that's under 1000 calories..
  • fitnessbuff1, on 10/20/2009, -0/+1It's true, eating a healthy breakfast definitely boosts your metabolism in the morning. Read my blog to find out more information about why you shouldn't be skipping breakfast...

    http://fitnessbuff1.wordpress.com/
  • JimmyDThing, on 10/16/2009, -0/+1When you start weighing yourself daily and obsessing about your weight, you will become underweight. I guarantee it.

    I didn't say have a 5000-7000 calorie day, I said enjoy your weekend. Having a burger on the weekend after a week of eating healthy and going to the gym is not a bad thing.

    I'm speaking from my experience. The truth is if you ever think you're overweight, you'll never be happy with whatever goal you reach. At least that was my experience. I had to come to terms with things and part of that was treating myself on the weekends instead of creating stress in my life every single time I had to go to a party on the weekend or go to a restaurant.
  • JimmyDThing, on 10/16/2009, -2/+3If you follow rules like these religiously, you'll end up too thin and still unhappy. I know, I did it.
    I don't weigh myself strictly because I become too obsessed with it.. so I really don't like that tip.


    Here's my solution... if you work out during the week, enjoy your weekend. If you missed a day and its bothering you, work out one day of the weekend... or don't, you're still fit if you're working out regularly.
  • EnnuiStudent, on 10/16/2009, -0/+1And why is this hard to believe?

    If you diet reasonably and exercise for 5 days, and then eat junk for 2 days (or even eating out just), you can very easily reverse the progress you made in terms of weight loss. As for cardiovascular ability and other markers of fitness, those may be fine and continue to progress, but purely from a weight-perspective, it's perfectly possible to put back some, if not more from eating badly for 2 days. The amount is simply quantitative and can be presumed with "calories in, calories out".

    Excess calories aren't just whisked away to another universe because you decided to "let loose" every once in a while.
  • lead2thehead, on 10/16/2009, -1/+2Excellent comeback. It had all of the cleverness and wit that one would expect from a 53 year old.
  • arthursk, on 10/16/2009, -1/+2makes me wish i had a bike... i live in the country and there are so many awesome places I could go....
  • EnnuiStudent, on 10/16/2009, -0/+1Even if you work out every day of the week, if your common goal is geared towards fat loss (weight loss), then 1-2 days can very much leave you with no weight loss.

    A moderate diet is one that is aimed at making you lose 1-1.5 pounds a week. That is about 3500-5250 calories a week. This is aimed at cutting 500-750 calories a day. Some diets aim higher, towards 2 lbs a week, but cutting your caloric consumption by 1000 calories a day to get 2 lbs a week is a pretty severe restriction by anyone's measure.

    If you "don't worry about it" on the weekend, you can easily undo the deficit created by the 5 weekdays. 5 dieting/workout weekdays could put you in a deficit of 2500-3750 calories. Go to outback and get the aussie fries and that deficit has vanished. A bit of an extreme example, but my point is that you can very easily erase that deficit of 2500-3750 calories over the next 2 days unless you're aware. It's so easy, that you even need guidelines on how people take their psychological breaks.


    Now you're just saying extremely vague things from what I can see on "just enjoy it". Well, to a dieting individual, such passive words would be like inviting them to a buffet on saturday unless you're specfic. While psychological breaks in the form of "cheat meals" are helpful, they should be done and held accountable to just like any other.
  • inactive, on 10/16/2009, -0/+1Buried for mensfitness locking up my browser
  • carolesmarks, on 10/16/2009, -1/+1That's funny, I guess you're right about that. You must expereince the same thing.
  • brickwall99, on 10/16/2009, -3/+3False.
    You can't undo in 2 days what you did in 5 days.
    For example: If you jog during the week and sit on your ass on the weekend and eat lots of sweets you aren't going to reverse what you did during the week.
    Imagine if you didn't do ANYTHING during the week, and then still sat on your ass on the weekend and ate sweets.
    However, I wouldn't advise doing that if you are trying to maintain your results and reach your goal.
  • EnnuiStudent, on 10/16/2009, -2/+2Oh please.

    What Americans need now, more than ever, is some accountability for what they eat. Not a free pass to potentially eating 5000-7000 calories a day in the weekend (some actually consume 3000-4500 in a single meal). I can guarantee that most of those calories won't magically go "poof" and disappear without affecting your body.

    You won't become "too thin" by following these rules. You become too thin by underconsuming your needed caloric requirement to maintain weight. Strangely, there's other ways to regulate that other than following daft and arbitrary rules from a tabloid-fitness magazine.
  • lucianomello, on 10/25/2009, -0/+0Eat like Brazilian and thin Americans
  • meninostongue, on 10/16/2009, -8/+5I'm running a half marathon on Sunday, so I think I've got it covered this weekend.
  • carolesmarks, on 10/16/2009, -5/+1I guess letting y'all know that I might know a little about what I'm talking about is a bad thing here. I supported the article and dugg it. There's thousands of food articles. This one happened to be factual and entertaining. And I'm not some idiot writing inane bashing comments.
  • carolesmarks, on 10/16/2009, -20/+2Wow, I vaguely remember those days....

    This article is full of great advice for the younger crowd - you know, people still dating and partying...

    I've always ordered foods I don't make at home when I go out. I'm a good cook, so eating something I make usually turns out to be a disappointment. Bread and potatoes are usually pretty boring anyway. Eat the good stuff! But, I'm a food snob.

    Carole
    RebelWithaFork.com

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