Wanna Lose Weight? Don’t Be Afraid of “Weekend Cheat Days,” Here’s Why…

 

Have you been known to eat smart on the weekdays…and then fly off the handle a little bit on the weekends?

If so, relax! You may actually be doing something right, according to the results of one recent long-term study.

The study, titled ‘Weight rhythms: Weight Increases During Weekends and Decreases During Weekdays,’ found that people who successfully lose weight and keep it off tend to be those who eat healthier during the course of the regular workweek.

I personally have adopted this same strategy, eating healthier during the week and then “cheating” more often on the weekends. Of course it usually turns out this way because of social eating habits, and enjoying full-course, home cooked meals on Sundays at my parents’ house, of course.

It also seems easier for most people to maintain a healthier regiment during the week while they’re used to being more meticulous, if you will, according to the study, which was conducted by a team of American and Finnish researchers and published in the European Journal of Obesity in February 2014.

The study tracked the daily weight of 80 adults, ages 25-62, retrospectively analyzing 4,657 measurements during 15-330 monitoring days.

There’s no magic solution for weight loss and healthy weight management other than, you know, eating high quality organic and healthy foods, but this study did show some interesting trends.

 

Most People Lose Weight on the Weekdays, Gain it Back Over the Weekends

The team also found that virtually everyone tends to lose weight during the week and then gains it back over the weekend, according to the data from the study.

For those who were able to continue losing weight or maintain a healthy weight, the key seemed to be whether or not they compensated for their weekend over-indulgences.

This is of course just one study or one particular trend, but it seems to echo the smart eating plans of most healthy people I know.

…So relax, and embrace the “cheat day,” it just may do you a lot of good!

In my experience the biggest cause of overeating, and eating unhealthy foods in general, usually has an emotional root, and it’s better to “get it all out” by feasting on your days off than to gradually eat the “bad stuff” during the week. I tend to eat healthier during the week if I’ve had a couple of my favorite foods on the weekends.

The weekends do tend to offer more “temptations,” as the study noted, which I have certainly found to be true. And oftentimes it’s easier and more therapeutic to just give in and then make up for it later, at least in my case.

What do you think? Is it easier to eat healthy on the weekdays or weekends? Let us know in the comments below!

 

Thanks for reading! P.S. Check out our new book ‘Dirt Cheap Weight Loss: 101 Tips for Losing Weight on a Budget’ for Amazon Kindle for more tips on how to lose weight, you can click here to download the 151-page book instantly for just $2.99. 

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About Nick Meyer

Nick Meyer is a journalist who's been published in the Detroit Free Press, Dallas Morning News and several other outlets. He founded AltHealthWORKS in 2012 to showcase extraordinary stories of healing and the power of organic living, stories the mainstream media always seemed to miss. Check out Nick's Amazon best-seller 'Dirt Cheap Organic: 101 Tips For Going Organic on a Budget' by clicking here, as well as its sequel Dirt Cheap Weight Loss.