How to Stop Weekend Weight Gain: 5 Proven Strategies for Women over 35
Host: Sheryl Takayama, Qualified Nutritionist & Weight Loss Coach
Introduction
Just imagine it's Friday afternoon. You've had a great week. You're feeling confident. The scales are down, and you are nailing it. And then Monday morning rolls around. The scales have bounced up and you have undone five days of effort.
This is a scenario that is all too common in weight loss, and it has the power to destroy your momentum very quickly. So today I'm going to show you exactly how to master the weekends so they become the secret weapon in your weight loss journey instead of your biggest obstacle.
Welcome to the Why Wait podcast. I'm your host, Cheryl Takayama, qualified nutritionist, emotional eater and weight loss coach who walks the talk. I've maintained my 30 kilo weight loss for the past 23 years following a low carb plan, and now I coach other women online so they can do the same.
It's my mission to help women get off this crazy diet wagon and find a way of eating and a way of thinking that works, so you too can lose your weight for life. Join me each week for lots of practical advice, tips and motivation so you can start now.
Why Weekends Are Your Weight Loss Nemesis
Nailing the weekend is one of the best things that you can do in your weight loss journey, and it's so important because the weekends are rolling around every week, right? It's something that's happening consistently, and I've seen with clients time and time again that they've done really well in the week. But then by Monday the scales have bounced up and it's taking them 3, 4, sometimes five days before they have gotten rid of what happened on the weekend.
This is a pattern that can be, quite frankly, soul destroying. And I've found, especially for women over 35, this is what changes. In our 20s, we might have a bit of a big weekend. We might go out, there might be a few little extras in there. And yes, the scales might have bounced up a bit by Monday, but all it takes is one day of clean eating, maybe a workout, and then by Wednesday you're right back where you were, and then you're making progress again.
But something I've definitely noticed myself in my weight loss journey as well as with clients, is that as we hit our late 30s and beyond, all of a sudden that weekend weight gain comes up so much faster and it's taking a week to get rid of it again. It is incredibly frustrating.
So being able to do your weekends differently is really a key action that's going to give you much better results and much faster progress in your weight loss. Because it becomes so frustrating to just continually be gaining and losing the same kilo. And most people just won't keep that up forever. It gets too frustrating, and then they quit - which is exactly what we want to avoid.
The Perfect Storm: Why Weekends Are So Challenging
The weekend is such a challenge because we're in a different routine, right? We might not be waking up at the same time. We've got a different schedule. We could be sleeping in a bit, but there's also a lot of social pressure. We might be seeing our friends, we could be going to gatherings and everything seems to always involve eating. So many social occasions are centered around food.
So while at home, you might be able to control your food plan so much better, when it comes to the weekend, we're out there in the world. We might be feeling tired. There might be that psychological thing of saying, "Oh, I've been on plan all week. I just want to have a treat, I deserve this." All of those thoughts could be going on.
And of course, if you're in an environment where you're surrounded by some yummy food and you're just wanting a treat, there isn't going to be no shortage of options that you might end up eating.
I also think there's a bit of decision fatigue if you've been really on point all week, really showing up. If you're feeling tired in the weekend, it could be that, quite simply, your willpower is feeling depleted and it's very easy to get into that thinking of "I'll just start again on Monday. You know what? I'm just going to enjoy myself. I'm just gonna do what I feel like. And then on Monday, I'm going to get straight back on my plan."
Now, if by Monday you're only gaining a couple of hundred grams, that's not a problem. That would be absolutely fine. But in my experience of working with clients, when they go into that headspace, it is not 200 or 300g. It's usually a kilo. Because once that thought creeps in and the food slides, then you'll find there might be alcohol involved, eating out, and it just creates momentum going in the exact wrong way very quickly.
5 Game-Changing Weekend Strategies
So let's talk about the strategies that you can start implementing this very weekend to turn this around so that instead of gaining weight by Monday, you either hold or you might even keep dropping. What a win that would be!
Strategy #1: Decide How You Want to Feel on Monday
The first step is decide how you want to feel on Monday. I cannot emphasize how important that is. It's thinking ahead and just imagining stepping on your scales on Monday morning and saying to yourself, "What do I want to see? What is the emotion behind this? How does it feel to see the same number on the scale or even lower?" And alternatively, how does it feel if you jump on the scale and you've gone up a kilo? Really think that through.
Once you've decided exactly how you want to feel on Monday, work backwards from there. Reverse engineer it and say, "Well, if that's how I want to feel on Monday, what do I need to do on Sunday? What do I need to do on Saturday?" Because you're now starting to make those decisions with that Monday goal in mind. It's very specific. It's not next week or next month. It's literally in two days time. And the more important, of course, that that goal is for you, the more likely you are to achieve it.
I know for me, I got incredibly sick and tired of that routine of getting on the scales on Monday and seeing it jump up. That alone was enough for me to finally say enough's enough. I'm okay if I gain a little bit of weight on a Monday, but I'm sick of this pattern of being up a kilo and not being able to lose it. So sometimes we need to get to that place of anger to really get the motivation to change this. But when you're ready, it's going to be powerful.
Strategy #2: Create Your Plan (Do This on Friday!)
So once you've made your Monday goal, step two is to create your plan. And I suggest you do this on Friday. It might be a Friday afternoon thing. Maybe it's Friday morning, but once you've got your goal you want to sit down and map out your weekend. This is absolutely crucial.
So think ahead to situations that are going to be popping up that involve food. If you're going to be eating out, where are you going to go? And if you know where you're going to go, have a look at the menu. Decide exactly what you're going to eat. That way when you show up, it's so easy to stay on track because you've already made the decisions. And in fact, the best version of you has made the decision, right? That person who's sitting there in a controlled place really focused on the goal. We need her to be making the decisions, not us who's showing up at the restaurant without a plan. Maybe we haven't eaten much that day and we're feeling really hungry. That might not end as well. So make that decision before you go.
If you've been invited to someone's house and you have the ability to take some food, decide exactly what you're going to take. And of course, make sure it's something that's on your plan. If we're invited to people's houses, I always make sure that I'm taking protein, because then I know that the most important part of the meal is going to be covered.
It might be something like chicken nibbles. It could be some sort of meaty curry. I love making curried eggs as a bit of an entree, and people love them. And it's the simplest thing to do. Just hard boiling some eggs, taking out the yolks, mashing it with some mayonnaise, some curry, salt and pepper. Whatever spices you like. Putting them back together. People love them. So when you take protein, you're one step ahead because you know that no matter what other food is there, you are going to have something that you can eat.
Now of course, get out your piece of paper. Create your shopping list so that as you're going shopping, you know exactly what you need and you're completely organized. The other thing you want to do on your plan is make sure you have healthy snacks ready to go at home, so that if you're going out for that quick coffee, you might have a protein bar ready. It's just going to prevent any last minute hiccups, like turning up at a cafe and then ending up eating a muffin.
Make sure you've got your water bottles ready to go. Make sure that you've got some sort of exercise planned into your weekend, so that you're going to be able to stay on track and feel really good. The better the plan that you can make on Friday, the much better chance you have of staying on track and nailing that Monday goal.
Strategy #3: Handle the Hidden Weekend Saboteur (Alcohol)
Okay, step three is probably the one thing that has the greatest power to completely derail all of your plans, which is alcohol: the hidden weekend saboteur. I'm going to be talking about alcohol in a lot more depth in an upcoming episode, but as you've probably experienced yourself, alcohol can very quickly derail your weight loss momentum.
Apart from the fact that it has empty calories because one gram of alcohol has seven calories, which is almost as much as fat, even that's not the greatest problem. It's not so much the extra calories you're getting from the alcohol, because I do know some clients who try and avoid this by not eating when they drink, thinking "I'll just get my calories from alcohol."
But actually the real problem with alcohol is what it does to your metabolism afterwards. So the process of your body metabolizing alcohol can take 24-48 hours, possibly longer if you've had a lot to drink. And while your liver is busy processing all of this alcohol, it's very unlikely that it's going to be burning fat as well. So with alcohol, it's not so much the damage that it does in the moment. It's the fact that it has such an impact on your metabolism for the next 2 or 3 days, and that is huge.
Plus, let's face it, once we've had a couple of drinks, it's a lot easier for our hand to sort of reach over and grab the chips or something else. It definitely lowers your inhibition and it affects sleep. How often is it that you've had a couple of drinks and then you end up with that horrible 2 a.m. wake up? The next day, you're feeling tired, your body's processing alcohol and you feel hungry. And usually, what do we want to eat? Carbs. We've got those cravings. So it's a real triple whammy. And it absolutely just gets momentum going in exactly the wrong direction.
And I've found that this can happen after just one glass. That's why I decided about ten years ago now to stop drinking during the weekends. I'll have a drink for a very special occasion, but it has to be really worth it for me because again, I just got tired of this pattern of having a couple of drinks and then my hand would end up on the food and it was just incredibly frustrating. I got sick of it.
So for me, the fastest way to improve my weekend was just to stop drinking, which actually compared to quitting sugar was really easy. It was much, much harder for me to quit sugar than it was to stop drinking. And I certainly don't suggest to my clients that they have to stop drinking. It really just comes down to this process of looking at the weekend, deciding what your goal is, and then being willing to try taking different actions so you get a different result.
Strategy #4: Keep Your Sleep Schedule Consistent
Step number four is another key one that has such an impact on your metabolism, which is keeping your sleep schedule consistent as much as you can. Because sleep is so important for weight loss, and being in a regular circadian rhythm is incredibly helpful.
So if you put that all out of whack by staying up really late on Friday, Saturday, it might disrupt your circadian rhythm, which again, is just going to knock you out of being in a good pattern of fat burning.
The other thing is that sleep has a big impact on hormones, especially leptin and ghrelin. Now, these are two hormones that play a big role in hunger. Ghrelin makes you hungry. Leptin is a hormone that tells your body that you're full. And if you haven't slept properly, it's believed that that is a key thing that can cause a leptin resistance, which means your body just isn't as able to regulate your appetite.
And haven't you noticed that if you're really tired and you've had a late night, you just feel hungry? By the time it gets to 3:00, your brain's wanting energy and it wants it fast. So staying up late and disrupting your circadian rhythm can have such a big impact on appetite. And of course, that's going to have an impact on your results.
Now, I'm not saying that you have to go to bed exactly the same time as during the week. Of course, in the weekend it's always nice to have a bit of a change in routine, but I always recommend try and keep it within an hour or two of your regular bedtime so that the change isn't too drastic and it's not going to have a huge impact on your result. The more consistent you can be, the better.
And of course, there's always going to be those special occasions when you end up having a big night and it's completely worth it. I'm not talking about those moments. Those moments are going to happen. And that's life, right? That's fun. There's nothing wrong with that. But it's what we do on most weekends that counts, the weekends when we're at home. The more consistent you can stay with your sleep routine, the better.
Strategy #5: Don't Forget Your Water
And lastly, step five is your water. This is something that I find with clients really makes a difference because they're good with water during the week. They're in their routine. They're drinking water regularly. It gets to the weekend and it all just goes out the door. They're not drinking the water. They're out and about. They're forgetting to drink. And as a result of this, it can have a big impact on fluid retention.
Because you see, our bodies are about 70% water. And if we're not drinking enough, your body is going to be more likely to hold on to that stored water so that your fluid levels remain stable. It's so important to be drinking water regularly, and if you're into a good pattern during the week, just make sure you carry that on through the weekend so it doesn't stress your body out. Because remember, being stressed is not great for your fat burning either.
You want to do everything you can to minimize stress so that your body's staying in a good regular cycle, and is going to be more likely to stay in fat burning mode. And that's another thing I really noticed with clients that they're good with water during the week, and then in the weekend they're not drinking as much, and then they have fluid retention when they get on the scales on Monday.
This is particularly important if you are eating out because of course, restaurant food or cafe food is often higher in salt. So you need to make sure you're getting enough water to help balance that. Otherwise, it's very likely that you're going to get to Monday and be a kilo heavier. Even if it's not fat, it's going to be fluid. And yes, that will drop in a couple of days. But it's just, again, not great for your mindset when you're always seeing these surges on the scales, especially when it could be avoided with just a little bit more strategy and more drinking of water.
The "Lose During the Week, Hold on Weekends" Strategy
I find a great strategy that works really well in terms of the weekend, and how we can work it so that we get into a really good rhythm with our weight loss, is the idea of losing during the week and then holding over the weekend.
Now this is what I do in my Academy membership program. What I do is I give everybody a separate fat loss acceleration plan to do at the beginning of the week. So this is something completely different. It's something their body is not used to. So it's going to give them a good shock. And usually when they do that for 2 or 3 days the scales drop really well. And then the goal is to hold.
So rather than always thinking "I have to be losing," what you do is really nail your actions during the week so you're getting a great result, and then you're going to hold that result over the weekend. This is, I always find psychologically really helpful because it takes a little bit of that pressure off, and I find it's a lot easier for clients to maintain, and they're enjoying it because they've sort of taken that pressure off themselves because they've already achieved their result for the week.
So that's something you might like to try. If you want to be able to have a couple of extra calories in the weekend, maybe a couple of extra snacks and maintenance, that'll be fine as long as you're eating the right food, of course. And again, if you've done that really good work during the week, you should be able to do that fine in the weekend and still maintain your result.
Additional Weekend Success Tips
Being as active as you can in the weekend is also going to be really helpful, because all of that extra movement doesn't need to be formal exercise at the gym, just moving around as much as you can. It all counts. Park further away if you're going shopping, do as much walking as you can. If you're talking on the phone to someone, walk at the same time. Take the stairs instead of the elevators. All of those usual things that you might do during the week. Keep up those good habits during the weekend.
You might want to get out, do some gardening, do some housework. Look, it all counts.
The other thing to think about in the weekend is being mindful of if you really want something, make it worth it, rather than eating little extra snacks. If you've just decided, "You know I want to have a yummy dessert," then stay on track the rest of the day and plan that delicious thing that you're really looking forward to. It makes such a difference. When we're having these mindful indulgences, we're going to really enjoy them, and it just helps tick that box to say, "Look, I've had some fun. I've really enjoyed myself, but I've done it in a mindful way so that I am going to stay on track with my goals."
You might decide that every now and then you want to plan a fun weekend because you just want something to look forward to. Maybe you're happy staying on track for all the other weekends on your weight loss journey, but it could be that you want to have that weekend away every couple of months. A fun girls weekend - look, whatever that might be, where actually you're not going to follow your food plan perfectly. You are going to have a few drinks.
I think that's a great strategy because you've got something to look forward to. You're going to do the work beforehand, so you're still going to be getting a fantastic result. And look, one weekend of fun, even if the scales do go up a bit, there's most certainly not going to derail your progress if you've been on track every other weekend. So if that resonates with you, book something in and earn that great weekend.
The Big Picture
Look, I know that the weekend is such an important time for many of us, but remember, you don't have to be strict forever. It's just when you are on a weight loss journey because it makes such a difference. And the more discipline you can bring into your weekend, the faster you're going to get to your goal, the faster you're going to be in maintenance, where the rules change so much and there's definitely a lot more flexibility.
But in weight loss, the more on point that you can be with these key actions - the five strategies I've told you about today - the faster you are going to get to maintenance and the better you're going to be able to keep momentum going. Because let's face it, we like to see the scales going down. And when we've stopped those weekly gains of gaining a kilo back after the weekend, the scales just go down so much faster. And it really is so motivating.
Take Action This Weekend!
Now, at the end of every episode, I love giving you an action that you can take right now to get started. So what I want you to do is get out your calendar and look at the upcoming weekend. What are going to be your potential problem areas? Make your plan now. What time are you going to go to bed? How are you going to make sure you get enough water? If you are going to be eating out, can you look at the menu right now and decide exactly what you're going to eat?
Look, if you can do the work now in advance of the weekend. Oh my goodness, you are gonna sail through. And I absolutely know that the you on Monday morning is going to be so glad that you've stepped up and taken action now.
And I promise you that when you were going through the weekends in the future and you are wearing the clothes that right now you're just dreaming about - the clothes that possibly don't fit, but when you get to your goal weight, they're going to feel amazing - you are going to have fantastic weekends, and of course, you're going to be so glad that you put in the work now to really step up and nail your goal.
Connect & Resources
That's all for today. Thanks so much for listening, and if you've enjoyed this episode, please share it with your friends. Please subscribe! Every single action is so helpful, and I'm just so grateful to have you here so I can support you in your weight loss journey.
Thanks so much for listening. And if you want support on your weight loss journey, I would love to help. You'll see the links in the show notes for my socials, as well as my fab freebie, a five day low carb meal plan, and five delicious dinner recipes. You'll also see the link for my four week Foundations of Fat Loss program. This is the program I've designed specifically for the fat burning needs of women over 35.
Remember: The only thing that's going to stop you reaching your goal is if you quit. Never, ever give up.
