Bad weekend... how long to recover?
 

I had a spectacularly bad weekend foodwise -

I typically have 1200ish calories per day 6 days a week, up to 1700-1900 on the seventh day... Well, this weekend I had two "seventh days"... Saturday I only had 1650 calories, but 975 of those were chicken fingers and fried potato chips from Zaxby's with a lot of fat... Sunday I was good all day, then whacked it with probably 1200 calories of pizza with I'm sure even more fat (no nutrition info, so having to base it on another pizza place...) - still don't think I went over 1800, I had not eaten much during the day other than some yogurt, veggies for lunch and couple of small low al snacks and such that were pretty filling...

I did exercise for an hour and half-ish both days, pretty vigorous...

Monday I weighed 3 pounds more than Friday. Rationally I know that I didn't eat enough over the weekend to gain three pounds, but I'm curious now about what causes jumps like that after an indulgence - was it the higher fat content in the foods I ate? And, how long does it take to recover from a weekend like that?

I'm fairly annoyed with myself... I gave in to laziness, didn't want to cook Sunday night, and peer pressure from DH who is also dieting and exercising but was in a pretty strong "food is my enemy, I can't eat anything I like,what's the point" place all weekend and really wanted pizza Sunday night... :mad:

I would say salt would be the cuplrit. There is soooo much salt in foods like pizza, so take that into account also, when I have eaten junk food packed with sodium I really whack on the pounds.

I didn't even think about salt... I have felt pretty bloated and icky feeling since Sunday night...

If I eat off plan on Saturday, the scale jumps up and slowly drifts back down over Mon-Wed and is back down by Thursday, as long as I push fluids, exercise, and am saintly with my food intake. I agree that sodium causes the spike on the scale.

For me the weight usually is back off sometime between Wednesday and Friday, as long as I've gotten myself back on track right away. :)

Originally Posted by Apple Cheeks:
For me the weight usually is back off sometime between Wednesday and Friday, as long as I've gotten myself back on track right away. :)

AppleCheeks, love the new avatar - who is the artist?

Wow, its like I'm reading my own thoughts in your post. I had the same kind of weekend and I could kick myself because I had a 5lbs weight gain in two days! WTH! that is not even possible if I had eaten the whole pizza! I literally cried when I weighed in on monday with that huge of a gain in two days. I hope its sodium but I was saintly yesterday, worked out double hard and long, drank a ton of water and I'm still up 5 lbs from friday this morning. literally three weeks of hard work went down the drain with a few slices of pizza.

OK, chickies, here's the deal! ;) (add grain of salt--oops--or not.)

Big weekend means that if you're lucky, your weight will be back down by the end of the following week.

Clearly, if this happens every weekend, one is not getting anywhere.

And, it's not good to starve all week to go nuts on the weekend. That's not a good cycle to be in--and you still won't be getting anywhere.

So--learning how to stick to the plan even on the weekend is critical. Shannon in ATL, you got hijacked... So sorry! You need to plan ahead for those times. What will you eat if you MUST go out? You can think of strategies in advance... Maybe you won't be perfect, but it will be better than just getting swept away. :yes:

Good luck! Stay on plan this week!

Jay

Originally Posted by JulieJ08:
AppleCheeks, love the new avatar - who is the artist?

Thanks. :D


Her name is Alicia Rosam and she's based in Perth, Australia.