How To Lose Fat On Weekends

Are you struggling with your weight loss program?  The most common problem for folks on a fat loss program is the weekend.  They don't know how to stick to the program on the weekends and sabotage their results.  Here are some simple steps to keep losing fat on the weekend.

by Ed Scow, NSCA-CPT (aka The Fit Dad) - Fitness and Nutrition Expert to the true superheroes - busy Moms and Dads! and Author of Fat Loss To Go

The weekends are a killer for most people on any sort of exercise plan, especially if fat loss is the main goal.

I'm willing to bet that you don't work on weekends, so that throws you out of your routine.   You probably have activities, either for your kids or yourself, that you need to run around to and errands to run, or chores to do around the house, and you get out of bed a little later (unless you have kids or a whiny dog, like me).

All this throws you out of the routine you've made for yourself during the week.

You're not getting up at the same time, not preparing the same healthy breakfast, or you're eating it a little too late in the morning and probably splurging a little bit because, hey, it's the weekend.   You're entitled to a little relaxing and splurging on the weekends, aren't you?

That's true to some degree.   I know that I relax my eating habits a little on the weekend.   Not too much, though.   If you splurge or relax too much you're going to put your goals at a standstill (at best) or not make any progress at all.

Weekends can actually kill your fat loss goals. 

So here's what I do, and what you should do too, in order to keep yourself on the right track and still relax a little on the weekends.

1.   Do yourfat loss workout first thing in the morning.   As soon as you wake up, do your fat loss workout.  This may require getting up 10 minutes earlier than you're used to so you can make sure you get some peace and quiet, but this is a must if you really want to stick to your goals.  A lot of my workouts only take 10 minutes to complete, so if you get up just 10 minutes earlier, you could have a killer fat fighting workout already done in the time it takes most people to get warmed up.

         a.   If you tell yourself you'll do it later in the morning or even in the afternoon, you're not going to do it.   Something will come up.   A friend will call and want to go out to dinner.   Your family may plan an evening out.   Or you'll just get sidetracked.   Not only will you make sure you get your workout out of the way, but you'll boost your metabolism for the rest of the day, meaning you'll burn more fat than if you otherwise skipped the workout, and it'll wake you up.

2.   Stick to your same healthy breakfast as during the week.   If you have a smoothie for breakfast during the week and you feel great after having it, then do that on the weekends too.   You know how much I value breakfast when it comes to fighting fat and just living a healthy lifestyle, so why would the weekend be any reason not to have it?   I'm a creature of habit, which means I find something I like and stick to it.   So I have the same exact smoothie on the weekends as I do during the week.   The smoothie includes blueberries, raspberries, organic skim milk, pomegranate juice, ground flax seed, wheat germ, and vanilla protein powder.   Try it sometime, it's great.

3.   Don't go overboard with the "cheat" meals.   Whenever people tell me they're having trouble losing fat and I ask how their eating habits are during the week and how that compares with the weekend, the weekend is always the culprit for the failed fat loss.   You go out to lunch and/or dinner everyday and drink alcohol.   Going out to lunch and dinner is fine, I encourage it, but there are ways to do it and stick to your healthy, fat fighting diet. 

         a.   Don't order an appetizer.   Don't drink alcohol, and if you do, make sure you're eating a low-calorie, low-fat meal.   Don't eat fast.   Nobody is going to come snatch your plate from you, so why do you need to eat that fast?   Put your fork down in between bites and take a drink of water.   This ensures you eat slower and digest your food properly.

4.   Make sure you get your rest.   Weekends are supposed to be a time for you to rest and recoup, but far too many people go way too hard on the weekends trying to accomplish way too much.   Your body needs to rest and recuperate at some point and I'm willing to bet you don't get enough sleep during the week.   Doing too much and stressing yourself out is only going to make it that much harder to lose fat.   Plus it'll make you lose your hair, gain more belly fat and just be a pain in the butt to be around.

There you go.   That's the easiest I can put it for fighting fat on the weekends. 

If you want to lose fat, and are struggling, do those 4 things this weekend and see how you feel come Monday morning. 

If you do at least 3 of those 4, I guarantee you that you'll feel better, you won't be so bloated from the poor eating and alcohol and will be well on your way to losing all the fat you want.