Move It & Lose It with Prof Trim

Why weekends can be the worst enemy of weight loss
For many people (men in particular), the week’s eating, exercise and lifestyle pattern is quite different to that on the weekend. Attitudes and behaviour tend to be a little more relaxed towards the end of the week with socialising and less constraint on over-indulgence. So does this matter in the grand scheme of things for weight loss?

According to a group of researchers from Washington University School of Medicine, it does. In a study published in Obesity they compared weight loss on a calorie restricted diet with that on a one year long exercise program with 48 healthy adults over one year. When they found less than expected weight losses in both groups, they couldn’t understand why, as weight measured during the week seemed to be going in the right direction.

On closer examination, the researchers found that while weight decreased from Monday to Friday, it actually stayed stable on Saturday and Sunday to compensate for this in the calorie restricted (CR) group, and increased in the exercise group. It was shown that this was because the CR group increased their food intake on weekends, while the exercise group did less exercise on Sundays than any other day.

It should be a warning to those taking on a different persona from Friday to Sunday.

Dr Garry Egger aka Prof Trim

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