Sunday, January 29, 2012

Overeating on the Weekend: What it Means For Our Health

I want to talk about something today that I seriously struggle with: Eating too much on the weekend.

From Friday night to Sunday night, even when I am on a diet, I have a really hard time controlling what I eat and drink. My problem is that because I work all day during the week, I normally have my meals planned, and they are normally fairly healthy. On the weekend, I eat anything set in front of me, and normally do more social activities (which normally involve food/drinks). It is likely that I will have two-three beers or glasses of wine at night instead of my usual zero-one. And it is likely that I will wake up and make a huge breakfast, and then continue to snack until I have pushed off my lunch to much later.

I’m sure that other people struggle with this too, and so I wanted to see if there were any studies I could find on how much this was really affecting my weight and my health.
2011-05-07 Bachelorette Party (3)
Recent temptations at a Bachelorette Party for one of my friends.
That cheese was so good! Oh, and the wine...
According to study results released last year, we gain about .26 of a pound on the weekend (Saturday and Sunday) and we lose about .22 of a pound during the week (Monday through Friday) over time. The results are due to lifestyle changes during the weekend, and explain in part why people have trouble losing weight or maintaining weight loss, according to the study, which was conducted by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine.

Other study results that are a bit older, from 2003, show that we consume about 115 more calories per day on the weekend (Friday through Sunday). At that rate, in one year, if we didn’t lose or gain any weight on week days, we would eat 17,940 extra calories – the equivalent of 5 pounds. And the majority of those calories come from fat and alcohol. Yumm….

So, as we approach Superbowl Sunday, I am offering this link to a story from a nutrition blogger who recently nagged at his readers for making unhealthy decisions on the weekend. I’m not going to nag at you because I’m one of you, so I will let him tell us all how it is.

Do you normally eat and drink more on the weekends? Do you work out more or less?
Any tips for how I can avoid shoving my face once Friday rolls around?

4 comments:

  1. WOW! Interesting studies. Thanks for sharing love xo

    Well, I am weird this way..... may eating habits and exercise habits DO NOT change what so ever on any given day. It's really weird. Since I am in school, i use my two weekend days for workout days, so i make it to the gym each day and my days always consist of eating 6 meals/day. I guess I just figured out what works for me. Maybe since I have doing this for such a long time i don't crave other things? and since i don't drink, i assume that helps...

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    1. That is REALLY good though. I wish I could be more like that. Thanks for letting me know you liked this!

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  2. Happy Monday! Hope you had a great weekend. :)

    I honestly dont overeat on the weekends... I never feel tempted to either.. I eat 6 small, well balanced meals throughout the week (including sweet treats) and try to workout everday. I've learned a lot about balance and not depriving myself and its really helped me a lot.
    I try to eat healthy as often as I can (during the week and on the weekend). I remember when I was a kid I would overeat on so many things JUST because they were there. Not because I was soo hungry, but just because they were infront of me. (I was never overweight or anything..) I know now, that overeating just makes me feel sick and tired and that eating more than I can handle just because its there isnt worth it. You know what I mean?

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    1. Hi! Sorry, I just saw your comment. Seriously, I am impressed with your healthy lifestyle. I feel like it is a lot harder for me to avoid temptations than it should be :/. But maybe I will get better at it. Congrats to you, though! Have a good weekend.

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