8 Ways To Lose Weight on Weekends

From Monday to Friday, we tend to stick to our diet program and workout drill religiously, but come Friday evening – most of us drop all guards down because “Thank God It’s Friday!” It’s a time to chill, relax, and basically have a good time, and that means putting a temporary break on every routine that would lead to weight loss.

Most people following a weight loss diet often schedule “cheat meals” on weekends because that’s when we plan outings with friends, go on date nights, and have brunches and family dinners. However, cheat meals do often get converted into a “cheat day” and cheat weekend, with absolutely no control of calories consumed.

It’s okay if this happens occasionally, but the issue is when this pattern gets repeated weekend after weekend, ruining our progress and getting us off the weight-loss wagon. Uncontrolled eating during weekends can undo the week’s worth of “sticking to the diet” and exercise.

So, to help you guys out, we list down 8 Ways To Lose Weight on Weekends, so that you don’t have to go on a guilt trip after binge eating on Saturday and Sunday.

1. Set the Cheat Meal Rules: A cheat meal should be a part of every weight loss diet because it is essential to reset metabolism, satisfy cravings, prevent binge eating, overcome weight loss plateau, and most importantly, helps to stick to your diet plan better. An ideal cheat meal should neither ruin your weight loss efforts nor leave you with feelings of guilt. People find that cheat meals help them overcome the weight loss plateau. But do keep in mind that a cheat meal is a chance to indulge in your favorite meal, not an opportunity to binge eat, overindulge, overeat, and fall off the weight-loss wagon. Ideally, eat just 300 calories extra in your cheat meal.

Also, please do not practice food deprivation all through the week and save all the calories for the weekend. Our body isn’t a bank account and saving up calories all through the week to binge eat in a cheat meal wouldn’t work because all those extra calories would most probably get stored as fat in the cells, so “saving up calories for the weekend” wouldn’t work.

2. Just a Few Minutes of HIIT Will Burn Loads of Calories on Weekends: HIIT or high-intensity interval training helps the body to burn more fat by incinerating more calories in just a few minutes. Doing just 15-minute of HIIT during the weekend can burn more calories than running on the treadmill for an hour during weekdays. Do check the Rati Beauty app for HIIT routines that would help torch a significant amount of calories.

3. Plan what you would Eat During Weekends: So, you are planning to go for a brunch on Sunday with family and already having sleepless nights that you would ruin your weight loss goals? No problem! Plan ahead and decide ahead on what kind of food you would be eating.

Check the menu of the restaurant online and zero in on healthy food options so that you do not get influenced by what friends and family are ordering and have healthy options already available with you. Nowadays, restaurants have their complete menu on food delivery apps, so it would hardly take 10 minutes of your time to dig out healthy recipes from them.

4. Order a Plate of Salads Before a Meal: It would help you cut down a whole lot of calories if you start the meal with a plate of salad.

5. Keep Healthy Snacks with you While Going out: Frequent snacking and that too on unhealthy options like potato chips, would not only stall your weight loss progress, it can increase your weight as well. Keep healthy snacks in your bag while going out, like a box of nuts or trail mix.

6. Indulge in NEAT activities: NEAT stands for non-exercise activity thermogenesis and it is the amount of energy we use for everything we do in our day-to-day life except for when we are sleeping or exercising. Using the stairs instead of the lift, squatting on the floor to lift something up, walking while talking on the phone, every activity we do while being on our feet comes under NEAT.

All these activities help to burn some amount of calories and these bits of calories spent here and there, add up to a considerable amount when you are trying to lose weight. On the weekends, do move around, do household chores, organize the wardrobe, and continue burning calories without hitting the gym.

7. Try To Squeeze in Outdoor Activities During Weekend: Wanna do something fun during weekends and continue losing weight? Try some outdoor activities like gardening, cycling, walking, outdoor games – they all do keep the fat-burning hormones and enzymes active, and help burn a lot of calories too.

8. Sleep Tight on Saturday and Sunday: Sleeping for 7 hours or more every night is extremely important for losing weight, but how many of us manage to get 7 hours of sleep every day of the week? Use weekends to catch up on sleep and reset metabolism so that you can continue losing weight all through the week.