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Are Your Weekends Making You Fat?

March 08 2009

A study was done to see if people gained weight or stopped losing weight due to their eating and exercise habits during weekends.Let’s see what they found out.

What was the Study Design ?

There were three groups as shown below, and the duration of the study was a year.

Weekend study Design

How Was Physical Activity & Food Intake Measured?

Food Intake were self reported by the participants and physical activity was measured using accelerometers.

Self reported measures of food intake and exercise are notorious for handing out some serious false data. But the researchers in this study validated these measures by comparing it with the measurements from Doubly Labeled Water method. The DLW is the most accurate measurement of energy intake and expenditure.

What Were The Results?

The study results were really interesting to say the least:

Calories Eaten Graph

  • Participants on an average ate the most during weekends (Fr-Sat-Sun) as shown in the figure.
  • Physical activity levels was consistent on weekdays and weekends or more on weekends. 
  • Participants in the calorie restriction group stopped losing weight on weekends; participants gained weight in the exercise group during weekends.
  • Higher contributions of calories were from fat on weekends than carbs and protein. 
Conclusion
  • Try to keep your diet consistent on your weekends and weekdays to prevent weight gain or maintain the lost weight. Though few calories (and tiny weight gains), they all add up in the long run.
  • Keep an eye, especially, on your fat intake during weekends. 

Reference

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Jim @ Total Body Fitness | Sun March 15, 2009  

Can I have your permission to share this with my short female clients who struggle to lose 10 lbs because they do not understand how a piece of pie, burger and a brownie over the weekend can keep them from reaching their spring goals of wearing that bikini.

Anoop | Sun March 15, 2009  

Hi Jim,

Sure. Why do you think I made this site for? (:-

I need to make an “Email to a friend” link.

Most people have no clue about the real importance of diet. They just know diet is important.Once they see the numbers and how it affects fat loss and fat gain, it opens their eyes so to speak. I thought the study was very well done and showed a problem which is very relevant to everyone trying to lose or maintain weight

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