Research

Energy balance

Weekend lifestyle patterns, specifically higher dietary intake and lower physical activity, cause weight gain or cessation of weight loss, thereby hindering long-term weight management efforts.

To lose weight effectively, you must maintain your weekday dietary and activity habits on weekends. The study shows that even small daily caloric surpluses on Saturdays and Sundays can completely halt weight loss or cause weight gain, negating the deficit created during the rest of the week. Treat weekends as part of the intervention, not a break from it.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Alterations in lifestyle behaviors on weekends contribute to weight gain or cessation of weight loss on weekends. These results provide one explanation for the relatively slow rates of weight loss observed in many studies, and the difficulty with maintaining significant weight loss.
Susan B. Racette et al. · Obesity · 2008

Why this rating

Randomized controlled trial with daily weight measurements and objective energy expenditure/intake validation via DLW, though self-reported food diaries have known limitations.

Source

Influence of Weekend Lifestyle Patterns on Body Weight

Susan B. Racette et al. · Obesity · 2008

DOI 10.1038/oby.2008.320

rct · n=48Cited 112×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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